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From: minow@decvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Help needed with <fgets> and strings -- bad suggestion
Message-ID: <33@decvax.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 29-Mar-87 20:31:11 EST
Article-I.D.: decvax.33
Posted: Sun Mar 29 20:31:11 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 31-Mar-87 01:52:49 EST
References: <5902@brl-adm.ARPA> <725@instable.UUCP>
Reply-To: minow@decvax.UUCP (Martin Minow)
Distribution: world
Organization: Digital Eq. Corp. - Merrimack NH.
Lines: 17


In article <725@instable.UUCP> amos%nsta@nsc.com (Amos Shapir) comments
on the return value for fgets() -- noting that fgets() returns a pointer
to the start of the buffer:

  >This is done so you can do things like strcmp("END", fgets(...))

This is not a good idea -- if you try this at the end of the file
(or if an error occurs), strcmp() may crash when it tries to derefence
the NULL return.

It is seldom a good idea to try to save a microsecond (or a few
bytes of memory) when the alternative is a latent bug just waiting
to happen.

Martin Minow
decvax!minow