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Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy()

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From Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org>
Newsgroups comp.lang.c
Subject Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy()
Date Thu, 07 Mar 2019 18:32:57 -0800
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William Ahern <william@25thandClement.com> writes:
> William Ahern <william@25thandclement.com> wrote:
[...]
>> And then there's the matter that snprintf takes an int parameter for the
>> buffer size as well as returning an int, raising the spectre of unexpected
>> and undefined conversions and overflows. Indeed, the two issues
>> combined--integer conversions and managing error conditions--makes the above
>> example snprintf usage poorly written code, IMO.
>
> Correction: it only returns an int; it takes size_t. However, there's the
> issue of the treatment of a buffer size value greater than INT_MAX.

I think that's a matter of historical precedence, and likely not that
much of a problem in practice.

The *printf() functions have been defined to return int since before
size_t even existed.  size_t would make more sense, since the value is a
size in bytes.

But on a modern system with 16-bit int you aren't likely to need
character arrays longer than 32767 bytes (in fact it's not likely to be
a hosted implementation), and 2**31 bytes should be enough for anybody.

Yes, the irony in that last claim is deliberate, but you won't often see
buffers that big treated as strings.

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org  <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
Will write code for food.
void Void(void) { Void(); } /* The recursive call of the void */

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Safer and more convenient strcpy() Howard Chu <highlandsun@gmail.com> - 2019-03-06 03:45 -0800
  Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2019-03-06 03:58 -0800
    Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() Howard Chu <highlandsun@gmail.com> - 2019-03-06 04:31 -0800
      Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() "I Set My Girlfriend's Pantyhose on Fire" <cdalten@gmail.com> - 2019-03-06 05:18 -0800
        Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() Howard Chu <highlandsun@gmail.com> - 2019-03-06 13:03 -0800
          Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() William Ahern <william@25thandClement.com> - 2019-03-06 16:51 -0800
            Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() Howard Chu <highlandsun@gmail.com> - 2019-03-07 07:40 -0800
              Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2019-03-07 16:12 +0000
                Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2019-03-07 08:28 -0800
                Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2019-03-07 16:51 +0000
                Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() Howard Chu <highlandsun@gmail.com> - 2019-03-07 09:31 -0800
                Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2019-03-07 11:17 -0800
                Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2019-03-07 22:35 +0000
                Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() Howard Chu <highlandsun@gmail.com> - 2019-03-07 15:32 -0800
                Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2019-03-08 14:29 +0000
                Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() Howard Chu <highlandsun@gmail.com> - 2019-03-08 07:09 -0800
                Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2019-03-08 15:39 +0000
                Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2019-03-08 07:56 -0800
                Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2019-03-09 08:12 +0000
                Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() William Ahern <william@25thandClement.com> - 2019-03-07 15:51 -0800
                Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() William Ahern <william@25thandClement.com> - 2019-03-07 16:38 -0800
                Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2019-03-07 18:32 -0800
                Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() William Ahern <william@25thandClement.com> - 2019-03-07 20:00 -0800
                Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() Howard Chu <highlandsun@gmail.com> - 2019-03-08 04:15 -0800
            Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() "I Set My Girlfriend's Pantyhose on Fire" <cdalten@gmail.com> - 2019-03-07 12:15 -0800
      Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2019-03-06 09:12 -0800
  Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() mark.bluemel@gmail.com - 2019-03-06 08:27 -0800
  Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2019-03-06 09:22 -0800
  Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() Rosario19 <Ros@invalid.invalid> - 2019-03-07 09:10 +0100
    Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() Rosario19 <Ros@invalid.invalid> - 2019-03-07 09:12 +0100
      Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() mark.bluemel@gmail.com - 2019-03-07 00:55 -0800
  Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() William Ahern <william@25thandClement.com> - 2019-03-07 16:09 -0800
    Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() Howard Chu <highlandsun@gmail.com> - 2019-03-08 04:04 -0800
    Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() eric.sanchis@iut-rodez.fr - 2019-04-15 04:40 -0700
      Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() nobody@example.org (Scott) - 2019-04-16 03:33 +0000
        Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() eric.sanchis@iut-rodez.fr - 2019-04-16 05:35 -0700
          Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() nobody@example.org (Scott) - 2019-04-17 01:19 +0000
            Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() eric.sanchis@iut-rodez.fr - 2019-04-17 05:35 -0700
              Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() nobody@example.org (Scott) - 2019-04-17 16:59 +0000
                Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() eric.sanchis@iut-rodez.fr - 2019-04-17 23:40 -0700
  Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() Philipp Klaus Krause <pkk@spth.de> - 2019-03-20 11:10 +0100
    Re: Safer and more convenient strcpy() Philipp Klaus Krause <pkk@spth.de> - 2019-03-20 11:13 +0100

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