Daniel, > On Tue, Oct 04, 2005 at 11:37:30AM +0200, Michael Kerrisk wrote: > > > strerror(3) claims that strerror_r returns an integer that is zero > > > for > > > success and non-zero for failure; in fact, it returns a char * and > > > the code > > > appears to say that there is no way to distinguish success and > > > failure; if the buffer is too small the string is just truncated. > > > > Daniel, > > > > I am _not_ looking at the Debian sources, but at recent glibc > > vanilla sources. According to those (sysdeps/generic/xpg-strerror.c), > > the (vanilla) manual pages that I maintain are correct, *if* one > > defines _XOPEN_SOURCE as 600, as the manual page specifies: > > > > #define _XOPEN_SOURCE 600 > > #include <string.h> > > > > int strerror_r(int errnum, char *buf, size_t n); > > No reference to _XOPEN_SOURCE appears in the manpage I'm looking at.
It came in with man-pages-2.04 (Jun 2005). Debian man-pages are lagging a bit behind me at the moment. > SYNOPSIS > #include <string.h> > > char *strerror(int errnum); > int strerror_r(int errnum, char *buf, size_t n); > > > > The (vanilla) manual page also has the following text uner > > CONFORMING TO: > > > > An incompatible function, with prototype > > > > char *strerror_r(int errnum, char *buf, size_t n); > > > > is a GNU extension used by glibc (since 2.0), and must be > > regarded as obsolete in view of SUSv3. The GNU version > > may, but need not, use the user-supplied buffer. If it > > does, the result may be truncated in case the supplied > > buffer is too small. The result is always NUL-terminated. > > > > Does the Debian page not have all of this information? > > I missed that. IMO, though, since this is evidently the > default form of strerror on Debian (all GNU?) systems, it should > be listed at the top of the manpage, not tucked away in a postscript. I regard that as debatable. Arguably, it is the standard API that should be primarily documented, and the Linux/glibc deviation provided as a supplementary note. At least that is the way I lean on this issue. The main problem, which was the missing _XOPEN_SOURCE in the prototype is at least now fixed. Cheers, Michael -- Michael Kerrisk maintainer of Linux man pages Sections 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 Want to help with man page maintenance? Grab the latest tarball at ftp://ftp.win.tue.nl/pub/linux-local/manpages/ and grep the source files for 'FIXME'. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
