When a method is invoked that returns a result of type string, sequence, or array, DSOM will allocate memory in the client's address space for the result. Ownership of this memory becomes the responsibility of the client program. When the client program has finished using it, the client should free the memory using the ORBfree function, rather than using free or SOMFree (This is because the memory has been allocated by DSOM using special memory management techniques; therefore, the client should ask DSOM to also free the memory.)
When invoking a method using DSOM, the client program is responsible for providing storage for all in arguments and for all inout/out arguments, with the following exceptions: DSOM will allocate storage for a string or for the _buffer field of a sequence when used as an out argument, and will allocate storage for the_value field of an any when used as an inout or out argument. This storage becomes the responsibility of the client program and should later be freed using ORBfree. For a string or sequence used as an inout argument, the out result is constrained to be no larger than the size of the in argument allocated by the client.