Package: manpages-dev
Version: 3.42-1
Severity: minor
The sprintf(3) man page says about sprintf():
sprintf(), snprintf(), vsprintf() and vsnprintf() write to the
character string str.
but it does not say that a terminating null byte is written (this
is said only for snprintf() and vsnprintf() later). Of course,
since the above sentence uses the term "character string", one
could guess that a terminating null byte is written, but actually
this is an incorrect deduction. As I interpret the above sentence,
I would think that sprintf() writes a character string (i.e. a
sequence of non-null characters terminated by a null character),
but this is not how this function behaves: it can write several
null characters (thus, not just a character string). Here's an
example:
#include <stdio.h>
int main (void)
{
char s[200];
int c = 0;
sprintf (s, "%c%100s", c, "foo");
return 0;
}
Characters are written after the initial \0 (so that if s[200] is
replaced by s[1], one has an undefined behavior).
The C99 standard is much more clear than the man page. It says:
The sprintf function is equivalent to fprintf, except that the
output is written into an array (specified by the argument s)
rather than to a stream. A null character is written at the end
of the characters written; it is not counted as part of the
returned value. If copying takes place between objects that
overlap, the behavior is undefined.
The man page could say:
sprintf(), snprintf(), vsprintf() and vsnprintf() write a
sequence of characters to the array str; a null character
is written [or added] at the end of this sequence.
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Versions of packages manpages-dev depends on:
ii manpages 3.42-1
manpages-dev recommends no packages.
Versions of packages manpages-dev suggests:
ii man-db [man-browser] 2.6.2-1
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