From: "Alejandro Colomar (man-pages)" <alx.manpages@gmail.com>
To: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Cc: mtk.manpages@gmail.com, linux-man@vger.kernel.org,
libc-alpha@sourceware.org,
Heinrich Schuchardt <xypron.glpk@gmx.de>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 00/17] man3: SYNOPSIS: Use 'restrict' in prototypes
Date: Sat, 13 Mar 2021 11:41:49 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <f7284c58-993e-4dac-82af-7a2383a13dd7@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <YEw7i0CCDyvm/KAu@google.com>
Hi Jonathan,
On 3/13/21 5:11 AM, Jonathan Nieder wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Alejandro Colomar wrote:
>
>> This fixes the remaining pages. With this, all pages have been fixed to use
>> 'restrict'.
>
> Probably the context for this came earlier, but I didn't see it in the
> commit message, I figure I should ask:
The origin is here:
<https://lore.kernel.org/linux-man/5a8997be-479b-d813-ce7a-558a8e6633e9@gmx.de/T/>
And a later (short) discussion about it is here:
<https://lore.kernel.org/linux-man/20210203194354.158439-1-alx.manpages@gmail.com/T/>
>
> What is the benefit of getting this right for a human reader? Does
> knowing which pointer arguments can't alias help them in tracking down
> some bugs, for example? Or is it going to help them in some other
> way?
Yes, I think it will help fixing bugs, or more likely preventing them.
Think for example the case of memcpy(3) (by that time 'restrict' didn't
exist), where people would incorrectly use it as if it were memmove(3)
ignoring that it could be dangerous (see the NOTES section in memcpy(3)).
Cheers,
Alex
--
Alejandro Colomar
Linux man-pages comaintainer; https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/
http://www.alejandro-colomar.es/
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2021-03-13 10:41 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 21+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2021-03-11 22:33 Alejandro Colomar
2021-03-11 22:33 ` [PATCH 01/17] scanf.3: SYNOPSIS: Use 'restrict' in prototypes; ffix too Alejandro Colomar
2021-03-11 22:33 ` [PATCH 02/17] tsearch.3: SYNOPSIS: Use 'restrict' in prototypes Alejandro Colomar
2021-03-11 22:33 ` [PATCH 03/17] unlocked_stdio.3: " Alejandro Colomar
2021-03-11 22:33 ` [PATCH 04/17] wcpcpy.3: " Alejandro Colomar
2021-03-11 22:33 ` [PATCH 05/17] wcpncpy.3: " Alejandro Colomar
2021-03-11 22:33 ` [PATCH 06/17] wcrtomb.3: " Alejandro Colomar
2021-03-11 22:33 ` [PATCH 07/17] wcscat.3: " Alejandro Colomar
2021-03-11 22:33 ` [PATCH 08/17] wcscpy.3: " Alejandro Colomar
2021-03-11 22:33 ` [PATCH 09/17] wcsncat.3: " Alejandro Colomar
2021-03-11 22:33 ` [PATCH 10/17] wcsncpy.3: " Alejandro Colomar
2021-03-11 22:33 ` [PATCH 11/17] wcsnrtombs.3: " Alejandro Colomar
2021-03-11 22:33 ` [PATCH 12/17] wcsrtombs.3: " Alejandro Colomar
2021-03-11 22:33 ` [PATCH 13/17] wcstoimax.3: " Alejandro Colomar
2021-03-11 22:33 ` [PATCH 14/17] wcstok.3: " Alejandro Colomar
2021-03-11 22:33 ` [PATCH 15/17] wcstombs.3: " Alejandro Colomar
2021-03-11 22:33 ` [PATCH 16/17] wmemcpy.3: " Alejandro Colomar
2021-03-11 22:33 ` [PATCH 17/17] wordexp.3: " Alejandro Colomar
2021-03-13 4:11 ` [PATCH 00/17] man3: " Jonathan Nieder
2021-03-13 10:41 ` Alejandro Colomar (man-pages) [this message]
2021-03-14 20:56 ` Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)
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