Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!bbn!ginosko!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.games.bugs
Subject: Re: What setbuf() is and why you should use it
Keywords: curses fflush setbuf stdio
Message-ID: <2245@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 17 Jul 89 17:49:24 GMT
References: <283@wet.UUCP>
Reply-To: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 29

>The fix is very simple: put
>	setbuf(stdout, malloc(BUFSIZ));
>
>early in main(),

In which case, if you run out of e.g. swap space (or address space,
unless you've got tons of it and haven't consumed it all due to some
other bug), you may drop core.  The fix is very simple; either do

	register char *bufp;

	...

	if ((bufp = malloc(BUFSIZ)) == NULL) {
		complain and exit;
	}
	setbuf(stdout, bufp);

or just do:

	static char stdoutbuf[BUFSIZ];

	...

	setbuf(stdout, stdoutbuf);

in "main()".  (I say "static" because if you return from "main()", it's
like exiting, and standard output will be flushed; better safe than
sorry.)  "malloc" is overkill in this situation....