Re: [PATCH] scanf.3: Do not mention the ERANGE error

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

 



Hi Ian & Zack,

On 12/8/22 13:34, Ian Abbott wrote:
The `scanf()` function does not intentionally set `errno` to `ERANGE`.
That is just a side effect of the code that it uses to perform
conversions.  It also does not work as reliably as indicated in the
'man' page when the target integer type is narrower than `long`.
Typically (at least in glibc) for target integer types narrower than
`long`, the number has to exceed the range of `long` (for signed
conversions) or `unsigned long` (for unsigned conversions) for `errno`
to be set to `ERANGE`.

Documenting `ERANGE` in the ERRORS section kind of implies that
`scanf()` should return `EOF` when an integer overflow is encountered,
which it doesn't (and doing so would violate the C standard).

Just remove any mention of the `ERANGE` error to avoid confusion.

Fixes: 646af540e467 ("Add an ERRORS section documenting at least some of the errors that may occur for scanf().")
Cc: Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@xxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Ian Abbott <abbotti@xxxxxxxxx>

I applied the patch; thanks! And also applied another one explicitly marking all those numeric conversion specifiers as deprecated:

<https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/docs/man-pages/man-pages.git/commit/?id=a15d34326c581eab107bf05782cc60d8ebdcad69>

Cheers,

Alex

---
  man3/scanf.3 | 7 -------
  1 file changed, 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/man3/scanf.3 b/man3/scanf.3
index ba470a5c1..c5ff59f45 100644
--- a/man3/scanf.3
+++ b/man3/scanf.3
@@ -576,10 +576,6 @@ is NULL.
  .TP
  .B ENOMEM
  Out of memory.
-.TP
-.B ERANGE
-The result of an integer conversion would exceed the size
-that can be stored in the corresponding integer type.
  .SH ATTRIBUTES
  For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
  .BR attributes (7).
@@ -609,9 +605,6 @@ The functions
  and
  .BR sscanf ()
  conform to C89 and C99 and POSIX.1-2001.
-These standards do not specify the
-.B ERANGE
-error.
  .PP
  The
  .B q

--
<http://www.alejandro-colomar.es/>

Attachment: OpenPGP_signature
Description: OpenPGP digital signature


[Index of Archives]     [Kernel Documentation]     [Netdev]     [Linux Ethernet Bridging]     [Linux Wireless]     [Kernel Newbies]     [Security]     [Linux for Hams]     [Netfilter]     [Bugtraq]     [Yosemite News]     [MIPS Linux]     [ARM Linux]     [Linux RAID]     [Linux Admin]     [Samba]

  Powered by Linux