* strcpy compared to POSIX strcpy
@ 2020-06-29 13:41 Jonny Grant
2020-06-29 20:30 ` Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)
0 siblings, 1 reply; 3+ messages in thread
From: Jonny Grant @ 2020-06-29 13:41 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Michael Kerrisk; +Cc: linux-man
Hi Michael,
Returning to an old topic, noticed strcpy man page is different from the POSIX spec with regards to "terminating NUL character" or "null-terminated" shouldn't man pages should follow POSIX style writing "NUL"?
https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/strcpy.3.html
https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/strcpy.3p.html
https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/strcpy.html
Another function even has nul in the name
https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/strchrnul.3.html
Regards, Jonny
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
* Re: strcpy compared to POSIX strcpy
2020-06-29 13:41 strcpy compared to POSIX strcpy Jonny Grant
@ 2020-06-29 20:30 ` Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)
2020-06-30 10:59 ` Jonny Grant
0 siblings, 1 reply; 3+ messages in thread
From: Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) @ 2020-06-29 20:30 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Jonny Grant; +Cc: linux-man
Hi Jonny
On Mon, 29 Jun 2020 at 15:41, Jonny Grant <jg@jguk.org> wrote:
>
> Hi Michael,
>
> Returning to an old topic, noticed strcpy man page is different from the POSIX spec with regards to "terminating NUL character" or "null-terminated" shouldn't man pages should follow POSIX style writing "NUL"?
>
> https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/strcpy.3.html
>
> https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/strcpy.3p.html
>
> https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/strcpy.html
>
> Another function even has nul in the name
> https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/strchrnul.3.html
It's not so simple. In POSIX/SUS, you will find variously:
terminating NUL character
terminating NUL
terminating null character
terminating null byte
There's even one instance of "terminating NULL character" (in
<net/if.h>; I estimate it's a bug).
In the C standard (C11), "terminating null character" seems to be used
exclusively, but as I understand the C standard [char == byte] by
definition.
I've tried to consistently use "terminating null byte" across all
pages in man-pages. See also the discussion in man-pages(7).
Cheers,
Michael
--
Michael Kerrisk
Linux man-pages maintainer; http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/
Linux/UNIX System Programming Training: http://man7.org/training/
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
* Re: strcpy compared to POSIX strcpy
2020-06-29 20:30 ` Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)
@ 2020-06-30 10:59 ` Jonny Grant
0 siblings, 0 replies; 3+ messages in thread
From: Jonny Grant @ 2020-06-30 10:59 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: mtk.manpages; +Cc: linux-man
On 29/06/2020 21:30, Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) wrote:
> Hi Jonny
>
> On Mon, 29 Jun 2020 at 15:41, Jonny Grant <jg@jguk.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Michael,
>>
>> Returning to an old topic, noticed strcpy man page is different from the POSIX spec with regards to "terminating NUL character" or "null-terminated" shouldn't man pages should follow POSIX style writing "NUL"?
>>
>> https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/strcpy.3.html
>>
>> https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/strcpy.3p.html
>>
>> https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/strcpy.html
>>
>> Another function even has nul in the name
>> https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/strchrnul.3.html
>
> It's not so simple. In POSIX/SUS, you will find variously:
>
> terminating NUL character
> terminating NUL
> terminating null character
> terminating null byte
>
> There's even one instance of "terminating NULL character" (in
> <net/if.h>; I estimate it's a bug).
>
> In the C standard (C11), "terminating null character" seems to be used
> exclusively, but as I understand the C standard [char == byte] by
> definition.
>
> I've tried to consistently use "terminating null byte" across all
> pages in man-pages. See also the discussion in man-pages(7).
Hi Michael,
It is good you have made things consistent. It sounds like you can't make the POSIX man pages the same, as that comes from the POSIX spec right?
BTW, net/if.h looks okay on my Ubuntu LTS, line 36 does have:
char *if_name; /* null terminated name: "eth0", ... */
Cheers, Jonny
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
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