* wcschr(3): add special case for NUL, as in strchr(3) @ 2021-07-12 9:37 Stefan Kanthak 2021-07-12 16:09 ` Jakub Wilk 0 siblings, 1 reply; 4+ messages in thread From: Stefan Kanthak @ 2021-07-12 9:37 UTC (permalink / raw) To: mtk.manpages, alx.manpages; +Cc: linux-man Hi, in the section return value, strchr(3) and strrchr(3) explicitly state the behaviour for NUL: <https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/strstr.3.html#RETURN_VALUE> <https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/strrchr.3.html#RETURN_VALUE> | The terminating null byte is considered part of the string, so | that if c is specified as '\0', these functions return a pointer | to the terminator. JFTR: to avoid any possible confusion of "null byte" alias NUL with the "null pointer" alias NULL (C macro) or nullptr (C++), "null byte" should be replaced with "NUL byte"! The same explicit statement is but missing from both <https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/wcschr.3.html#RETURN_VALUE> and <https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/wcsrchr.3.html#RETURN_VALUE> and should be added there. regards Stefan ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread
* Re: wcschr(3): add special case for NUL, as in strchr(3) 2021-07-12 9:37 wcschr(3): add special case for NUL, as in strchr(3) Stefan Kanthak @ 2021-07-12 16:09 ` Jakub Wilk 2021-07-12 18:41 ` Stefan Kanthak 0 siblings, 1 reply; 4+ messages in thread From: Jakub Wilk @ 2021-07-12 16:09 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Stefan Kanthak; +Cc: mtk.manpages, alx.manpages, linux-man * Stefan Kanthak <stefan.kanthak@nexgo.de>, 2021-07-12, 11:37: >JFTR: to avoid any possible confusion of "null byte" alias NUL with the >"null pointer" alias NULL (C macro) or nullptr (C++), "null byte" >should be replaced with "NUL byte"! "NUL byte" looks like a typo for "NULL byte", so if anything, it makes the potential for confusion greater. Anyway, "null byte" is the preferred term in the man-pages style guide; see the "NULL, NUL, null pointer, and null character" subsection in man-pages(7). -- Jakub Wilk ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread
* Re: wcschr(3): add special case for NUL, as in strchr(3) 2021-07-12 16:09 ` Jakub Wilk @ 2021-07-12 18:41 ` Stefan Kanthak 2021-08-10 6:40 ` Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) 0 siblings, 1 reply; 4+ messages in thread From: Stefan Kanthak @ 2021-07-12 18:41 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Jakub Wilk; +Cc: mtk.manpages, alx.manpages, linux-man "Jakub Wilk" wrote: >* Stefan Kanthak <stefan.kanthak@nexgo.de>, 2021-07-12, 11:37: >>JFTR: to avoid any possible confusion of "null byte" alias NUL with the >>"null pointer" alias NULL (C macro) or nullptr (C++), "null byte" >>should be replaced with "NUL byte"! > > "NUL byte" looks like a typo for "NULL byte", so if anything, it makes > the potential for confusion greater. > > Anyway, "null byte" is the preferred term in the man-pages style guide; > see the "NULL, NUL, null pointer, and null character" subsection in > man-pages(7). Despite the statement | Avoid also the terms "zero byte" and "null character". the heading of said subsection itself but says "null character" instead of the preferred "null byte"! JFTR: the search function on <https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/index.html> gives 21 matches for "zero byte", 46 matches for "null character", and 146 matches for "null byte", i.e. the preferred term is not used in 1 of 3 cases. And despite the statement | The preferred term for the pointer is "null pointer" or simply | "NULL"; avoid writing "NULL pointer". plus a changelog entry (for version 3.56) | Various pages | Michael Kerrisk | Global fix of "NULL pointer" | Change "NULL pointer" to "NULL" or null pointer". | POSIX uses the term "null pointer", not "NULL pointer". 43 pages still contain "NULL pointer", while 197 pages say "null pointer". There's plenty room for improvement! Stefan ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread
* Re: wcschr(3): add special case for NUL, as in strchr(3) 2021-07-12 18:41 ` Stefan Kanthak @ 2021-08-10 6:40 ` Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) 0 siblings, 0 replies; 4+ messages in thread From: Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) @ 2021-08-10 6:40 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Stefan Kanthak; +Cc: Jakub Wilk, Alejandro Colomar (man-pages), linux-man On Mon, 12 Jul 2021 at 20:44, Stefan Kanthak <stefan.kanthak@nexgo.de> wrote: > > "Jakub Wilk" wrote: > > >* Stefan Kanthak <stefan.kanthak@nexgo.de>, 2021-07-12, 11:37: > >>JFTR: to avoid any possible confusion of "null byte" alias NUL with the > >>"null pointer" alias NULL (C macro) or nullptr (C++), "null byte" > >>should be replaced with "NUL byte"! > > > > "NUL byte" looks like a typo for "NULL byte", so if anything, it makes > > the potential for confusion greater. Exactly my concern. > > Anyway, "null byte" is the preferred term in the man-pages style guide; > > see the "NULL, NUL, null pointer, and null character" subsection in > > man-pages(7). Also, "null byte" is the term used in the C standard. > Despite the statement > > | Avoid also the terms "zero byte" and "null character". > > the heading of said subsection itself but says "null character" instead > of the preferred "null byte"! That's fixed now. > JFTR: the search function on <https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/index.html> > gives 21 matches for "zero byte", 46 matches for "null character", Sure, but that presumably is because of pages in other projects. (man7.org renders pages from 100+ projects.) > and 146 matches for "null byte", i.e. the preferred term is not used > in 1 of 3 cases. > > And despite the statement > > | The preferred term for the pointer is "null pointer" or simply > | "NULL"; avoid writing "NULL pointer". > > plus a changelog entry (for version 3.56) > > | Various pages > | Michael Kerrisk > | Global fix of "NULL pointer" > | Change "NULL pointer" to "NULL" or null pointer". > | POSIX uses the term "null pointer", not "NULL pointer". > > 43 pages still contain "NULL pointer", while 197 pages say "null pointer". > > There's plenty room for improvement! I agree, but I think the issue is mostly fixed in man-pages. Thanks, 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] 4+ messages in thread
end of thread, other threads:[~2021-08-10 6:40 UTC | newest] Thread overview: 4+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed) -- links below jump to the message on this page -- 2021-07-12 9:37 wcschr(3): add special case for NUL, as in strchr(3) Stefan Kanthak 2021-07-12 16:09 ` Jakub Wilk 2021-07-12 18:41 ` Stefan Kanthak 2021-08-10 6:40 ` Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)
This is an external index of several public inboxes, see mirroring instructions on how to clone and mirror all data and code used by this external index.