> On 4 Dec 2022, at 20:42, Alejandro Colomar via Libc-alpha <libc-alpha@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Hi Helge, glibc developers, > > On 12/4/22 10:07, Helge Kreutzmann wrote: >> Without further ado, the following was found: >> Issue: Is the "L" in the bracket (for the NULL character) correct? >> "The B<wcsncpy>() function is the wide-character equivalent of the" >> "B<strncpy>(3) function. It copies at most I<n> wide characters from the" >> "wide-character string pointed to by I<src>, including the terminating null" >> "wide character (L\\(aq\\e0\\(aq), to the array pointed to by I<dest>." >> "Exactly I<n> wide characters are written at I<dest>. If the length" >> "I<wcslen(src)> is smaller than I<n>, the remaining wide characters in the" >> "array pointed to by I<dest> are filled with null wide characters. If the" >> "length I<wcslen(src)> is greater than or equal to I<n>, the string pointed" >> "to by I<dest> will not be terminated by a null wide character." > > As an unrelated note. I've had this running in my mind for some time... your various bug reports for strncpy(3) and similar wide character functions have triggered those thougts. > > I'm going to mark strncpy(3) and similar functions as deprecated, even if no libc or standard has done so. There's wide agreement (at least in some communities) that strncpy(3) _is evil_. There's simply no use for it. > Please don't do this unilaterally. Apple did this unilaterally for sprintf which has caused problems, as well. It's going to cause confusion as people will inevitably ask where/who deprecated it and there won't be a solid answer. And if we can't get a libc to agree to deprecate it as well, then doing it in the man pages is wrong. Even if I understand the spirit of the idea. Best, sam
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Message signed with OpenPGP
