https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=94169
--- Comment #4 from Martin Sebor <msebor at gcc dot gnu.org> --- Yes. The recent proposal to change their signature to return const char* was rejected in WG14 thanks to source compatibility concerns: http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n2526.htm http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n2565.pdf I'm thinking of extending attribute access to annotate function return types similarly to function arguments. Another useful attribute is one that says: the function returns a pointer passed to it by argument N, plus some offset (with the offset being optional, and also specified by an argument).
