Hello Justin. [I restored the 'bugs' address on this mail, which I think you must have trimed in your reply?]
> On Wed, Jul 06, 2005 at 06:00:30PM +0200, Michael Kerrisk wrote: > > > > tags 317037 fixed-upstream > > > > tags 317037 pending > > > > thanks > > > > > > > > > I quote from the RETURN VALUE section of sscanf(3): > > > > > > > > > > The value EOF is returned if an input failure occurs before any > > > > > conversion such as an end-of-file occurs. > > > > > > > > > > This seems to imply that "end-of-file" is a "conversion", which I > > > > > think must be unintentional. I suggest the following replacement > > > > > text (which is probably what is intended): > > > > > > > > > > The value EOF is returned if an input failure (such as > > > > > end-of-file) > > > > > occurs before any conversion is assigned. > > > > > > > > Justin, > > > > > > > > Thanks. > > > > > > > > I agree. The text is confusing. I opted for a more extensive > > > > description: > > > > > > > > The value EOF is returned if the end of input > > > > is reached before the first successful conver- > > > > sion or matching failure. EOF is also > > > > returned if a read error occurs, in which case > > > > the error indicator for the stream (see fer- > > > > ror(3)) is set, and errno is set indicate the > > > > error. > > > What is a matching failure, anyway? > > > > Is it not clear when you read the entire page? > The phrase "matching failure" is used precisely once. And, in the > text above, it is still confusing: > > The value EOF is returned if the end of input > is reached before the first successful conver- > sion or matching failure. EOF is also > ^^ > occurs? Not strictly necessary, but I added it anyway. > If a matching failure occurs, isn't 0 returned? > > These functions return the number of input items assigned, > which can be fewer than provided for, or even zero, in the > event of a matching fail- ure. Zero indicates that, while > there was input available, no conver- sions were assigned; > typically this is due to an invalid input charac- ter, such as > an alphabetic character for a `%d' conversion. I have changed the text of this man page fairly substantially. Hopefully it addresses your convcerns, at least partly. Take a look at man-pages-2.06 when it comes out (soon). 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'. GMX DSL = Maximale Leistung zum minimalen Preis! 2000 MB nur 2,99, Flatrate ab 4,99 Euro/Monat: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/dsl -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
