From owner-freebsd-hackers  Thu Jul 15 15:54:26 1999
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From: Sheldon Hearn <sheldonh@uunet.co.za>
To: Tim Vanderhoek <vanderh@ecf.utoronto.ca>
Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org
Subject: Re: OpenBSD's strlcpy(3) and strlcat(3) 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 15 Jul 1999 18:34:42 -0400."
             <19990715183442.A53661@mad> 
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 1999 00:53:13 +0200
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On Thu, 15 Jul 1999 18:34:42 -0400, Tim Vanderhoek wrote:

> if (fooncat(string, append, sizeof(string)) != strlen(append))
>    ...
> 
> which is rather evil, given that the second strlen(append) would be
> completely gratuitous if it weren't for the interface you're
> suggesting.

Tim, you're doing that "I'm right, but too concise to be understood"
thing again. What are you saying here? :-)

If all you're saying is that you want an API that doesn't require a test
against the known length of src (append in your example), then you won't
like strl*. :-)

You'd probably prefer the functions to return the number of bytes which
they did not manage to {copy,append}, yes? Lazy bastard [1]. :-)

While this might be something we add, it shouldn't be called
strl{cpy,cat}. And the original question was whether or not we'd add the
strl{cpy,cat} functions to libc. If we do, I seriously hope I'll be
given the opportunity to submit a replacement manpage, since theirs
sucks.

Ciao,
Sheldon.

[1] It's usually the lazy guy who demands the best API, provided his
    demands are tempered by the pedantic guy.


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