On Mon, 12 Jul 2021 at 20:44, Stefan Kanthak <stefan.kanthak@xxxxxxxx> wrote: > > "Jakub Wilk" wrote: > > >* Stefan Kanthak <stefan.kanthak@xxxxxxxx>, 2021-07-12, 11:37: > >>JFTR: to avoid any possible confusion of "null byte" alias NUL with the > >>"null pointer" alias NULL (C macro) or nullptr (C++), "null byte" > >>should be replaced with "NUL byte"! > > > > "NUL byte" looks like a typo for "NULL byte", so if anything, it makes > > the potential for confusion greater. Exactly my concern. > > Anyway, "null byte" is the preferred term in the man-pages style guide; > > see the "NULL, NUL, null pointer, and null character" subsection in > > man-pages(7). Also, "null byte" is the term used in the C standard. > Despite the statement > > | Avoid also the terms "zero byte" and "null character". > > the heading of said subsection itself but says "null character" instead > of the preferred "null byte"! That's fixed now. > JFTR: the search function on <https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/index.html> > gives 21 matches for "zero byte", 46 matches for "null character", Sure, but that presumably is because of pages in other projects. (man7.org renders pages from 100+ projects.) > and 146 matches for "null byte", i.e. the preferred term is not used > in 1 of 3 cases. > > And despite the statement > > | The preferred term for the pointer is "null pointer" or simply > | "NULL"; avoid writing "NULL pointer". > > plus a changelog entry (for version 3.56) > > | Various pages > | Michael Kerrisk > | Global fix of "NULL pointer" > | Change "NULL pointer" to "NULL" or null pointer". > | POSIX uses the term "null pointer", not "NULL pointer". > > 43 pages still contain "NULL pointer", while 197 pages say "null pointer". > > There's plenty room for improvement! I agree, but I think the issue is mostly fixed in man-pages. Thanks, Michael -- Michael Kerrisk Linux man-pages maintainer; http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/ Linux/UNIX System Programming Training: http://man7.org/training/
