Just curious, not a C developer by any means, but why wouldn't you use a function here instead of a goto? I'm confused how goto would reduce error/improve readability in that example.
Simply: a goto never returns while a function call returns to where it was called from.
So specifically in the example above, if you called failure-handling functions instead of using goto's then when the function returned you would continue execution on the next line after the function call. In the example above, that's clearly not what you want.
Now you could add some else's after the function calls to prevent execution from continuing. i.e. to get to the appropriate step in the free_* sequence at the bottom, but that starts to look messy. So I have to admit (not being a goto-lover), the above example reads very nicely.
It conforms to the "gotos might be okay if they only jump forward" rule of thumb I've heard.
Again, not criticizing, genuinely want to know.