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Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watnot!watmath!dalcs!dalegass
From: dalegass@dalcs.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.bugs.4bsd
Subject: Bad Pointer Declaration in 'scandir'
Message-ID: <2479@dalcs.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 22-Mar-87 20:33:52 EST
Article-I.D.: dalcs.2479
Posted: Sun Mar 22 20:33:52 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 23-Mar-87 07:21:03 EST
Organization: Dept. of Math., Stats & C.S., Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S., Canada
Lines: 31
Keywords: scandir,C,pointers,man
Xref: utgpu comp.lang.c:1300 comp.bugs.4bsd:236

I believe there is a incorrect pointer declaration in the unix 'scandir'
function (or manual page, at least).  This has caused me some headaches;
the following definition claims to be a pointer to an array of pointers
to the strcuture 'direct':

struct direct *(*namelist[]);

According to my understanding, this should be interpreted as an array
of pointers to pointers to the direct structure, which would give dangerous
results under certain circumstances.  I believe what they want is:

struct direct *(*namelist)[];

The old declaration may work since the memory is allocated, although with
the extra level of 'indirection' defined, there may be subtle problems.

Hopefully this is only in the 'man' page, and the scandir function itself
is all right.

Is this a real problem, or a fault in my knowledge of C pointers?


***************************************************************************
Dale Gass, Dalhousie U., Halifax, N.S., Canada

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