Hi, i just noticed that the stpcpy(3) manual contains a speculation that appears to be untrue on closer investigation: That function did not originate in MS DOS, but in Lattice C on AmigaDOS. Here is a patch against the git master HEAD to fix that, and add some more historical information. To provide some background and allow you to more easily verify the correctness of the patch, i'm appending my mail to <misc@xxxxxxxxxxx>, where i'm giving some more details about the history and pointing to some primary sources. That mail also contains the (similar, but shorter) patch i just committed to the OpenBSD manual page. Yours, Ingo diff --git a/man3/stpcpy.3 b/man3/stpcpy.3 index 4718a96..1952df1 100644 --- a/man3/stpcpy.3 +++ b/man3/stpcpy.3 @@ -76,9 +76,10 @@ function is thread-safe. .SH CONFORMING TO This function was added to POSIX.1-2008. Before that, it was not part of -the C or POSIX.1 standards, nor customary on UNIX systems, but was not a -GNU invention either. -Perhaps it came from MS-DOS. +the C or POSIX.1 standards, nor customary on UNIX systems. +It first appeared in the Lattice C AmigaDOS compiler (1986 or earlier), +then in the GNU fileutils and GNU textutils in 1989, +and in the GNU C library until 1992. It is also present on the BSDs. .SH BUGS This function may overrun the buffer diff --git a/man3/stpncpy.3 b/man3/stpncpy.3 index 60042e6..5bc084d 100644 --- a/man3/stpncpy.3 +++ b/man3/stpncpy.3 @@ -96,6 +96,7 @@ function is thread-safe. .SH CONFORMING TO This function was added to POSIX.1-2008. Before that, it was a GNU extension. +It first appeared in version 1.07 of the GNU C library in 1993. .SH SEE ALSO .BR strncpy (3), .BR wcpncpy (3) P.S. I'd like to apologize that our linker is using strong language to express its opinion regarding these functions; back in 2012, the developer implementing them wasn't exactly amused that they finally made it into POSIX... ;-) ----- Forwarded message from Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@xxxxxxx> ----- From: Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@xxxxxxx> Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2014 23:29:19 +0100 Cc: misc@xxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: while trying to compile gettext 0.18.3.2 I see questionable messages Hi Lorenzo, Lorenzo Beretta wrote on Sun, Feb 23, 2014 at 05:29:54PM +0100: > dc@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote on Sun, Feb 23, 2014 at 08:54:34AM -0500: >> ../gnulib-lib/.libs/libgettextlib.so: warning: >> stpcpy() is dangerous GNU crap; don't use it > Yet stpcpy(3) on linux says: > CONFORMING TO > This function was added to POSIX.1-2008. Before that, it was > not part of the C or POSIX.1 standards, nor customary on UNIX > systems, but was not a GNU invention either. Perhaps it came > from MS-DOS. It is also present on the BSDs. I checked the following without finding any references to stpcpy: - AT&T UNIX v3 to v7 including PWB and 32v - System III AT&T Unix - all versions of CSRG BSD from 1BSD to 4.4BSD-Lite2 including SCCS The earliest occurrence of stpcpy() i was able to find was in the Lattice C AmigaDOS Compiler Version 3 Programmers Reference Guide (1986-09-12)(Lattice Inc.), which explicitly classifies the function as "TYPE: LATTICE", see https://archive.org/details/Lattice_C_AmigaDOS_Compiler_Version_3_Programmers_Reference_Guide_1986-09-12_Lattice_Inc. So the claim by Terry Lambert that it originated in Borland Turbo C is definitely untrue. The first release of Borland Turbo C happened in May 1987. I can confirm it was in Borland Turbo C 2.0 in 1989, though. The 386BSD 0.1 release contains GNU textutils-1.3 and GNU fileutils-3.2 which both contain a file lib/stpcpy.c with a 1989 FSF Copyright. This is confirmed by looking at the initial commits of the git history of the GNU coreutils package. The function stpcpy() was contained in the initial git import of glibc on Feb 18, 1995. The file string.texi says "@comment Unknown origin" at this point in time. The file sysdeps/generic/stpcpy.c says "Copyright (C) 1992 Free Software Foundation, Inc." at this point in time. The ChangeLog reports a bugfix to the function on Jan 7, 1992 by Roland McGrath. In the BSDs, here is when it appeared: - FreeBSD: Oct 3, 2002 by obrien@, written himself - DragonFly: Apr 7, 2009 ported by pavalos@ from FreeBSD - NetBSD: May 1, 2009 ported by perry@ from FreeBSD - OpenBSD: Jan 17, 2012 by kettenis@, reluctantly written himself The function stpncpy first appears in glibc with a 1993 FSF Copyright; according to the ChangeLog, it was introduced on Oct 29, 1993 by Roland McGrath, and according to the NEWS file, it was first released with Version 1.07. So, to summarize, the Linux manual is rather misleading. Even though stpcpy() indeed wasn't a GNU invention, it was first introduced into the UNIX world by extensive use in the GNU coreutils (then called fileutils and textutils) in 1989, only very few years after its original appearance. The glibc was the first UNIX-like C library to include it only three years later, nearly a decade before FreeBSD, about 15 years before POSIX, and more than two decades before OpenBSD reluctantly followed, forced by POSIX. That said, stpcpy() is dangerous DOS crap; don't use it would be slightly more accurate, but given who pushed it during the early years, stpcpy() is dangerous GNU crap; don't use it isn't that far off the mark, either. Anyway, we should update our manual, see below. Yours, Ingo Index: stpcpy.3 =================================================================== RCS file: /cvs/src/lib/libc/string/stpcpy.3,v retrieving revision 1.5 diff -u -p -r1.5 stpcpy.3 --- stpcpy.3 25 Sep 2013 21:50:18 -0000 1.5 +++ stpcpy.3 23 Feb 2014 22:06:06 -0000 @@ -174,9 +174,11 @@ and functions conform to .St -p1003.1-2008 . .Sh HISTORY -The +The function .Fn stpcpy -and +first appeared in the Lattice C AmigaDOS compiler (1986 or earlier). +The function .Fn stpncpy -functions first appeared in +first appeared in the GNU C library version 1.07 (1993). +Both functions have been available since .Ox 5.1 . ----- End forwarded message ----- -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-man" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
