Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!bu.edu!mirror!ima!haddock!karl
From: karl@haddock.ima.isc.com (Karl Heuer)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: shared memory
Message-ID: <18184@haddock.ima.isc.com>
Date: 25 Sep 90 03:47:33 GMT
References: <1990Sep21.183326.13116@DRD.Com> <13991@hydra.gatech.EDU> <1990Sep24.135530.405@DRD.Com>
Reply-To: karl@kelp.ima.isc.com (Karl Heuer)
Distribution: na
Organization: Interactive Systems, Cambridge, MA 02138-5302
Lines: 11

In article <1990Sep24.135530.405@DRD.Com> mark@DRD.Com (Mark Lawrence) writes:
>[In response to a complaint about code using `strerror()']
>The following thanks to Chris Torek:
>const char     *strerror(int err) { ... }

The prototype is wrong: strerror() returns an unqualified `char *' according
to the ANS.  The characters are *not* constant: out-of-range error values are
stored in a buffer that gets overwritten by subsequent calls.  (Acceptable
behavior, but incompatible with the declaration.)

Karl W. Z. Heuer (karl@kelp.ima.isc.com or ima!kelp!karl), The Walking Lint