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From: ron%brl-vgr@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re:  Dereferencing NULL
Message-ID: <14175@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 30-Nov-83 15:16:11 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.14175
Posted: Wed Nov 30 15:16:11 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 4-Dec-83 03:36:17 EST
Lines: 10

From:      Ron Natalie <ron@brl-vgr>

Actually, on a VAX running BSD dereferencing NULL had best give you
zero.  A large amount of the code depends on it (I'm not saying this
is a good idea, it's just the way it is).  For example, the only reason
you can use a zero as an argument to IOCTL where it is expecting either
a zero or a pointer to some number is not because it ever checks for
null pointers but because it happens to work because *0 == 0.

-Ron