Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: How big is the argv[] array?
Message-ID: <1988Oct4.174959.17742@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1239500004@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: Tue, 4 Oct 88 17:49:59 GMT

In article <1239500004@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu> hood@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>How big is the argv[] array?  Or to ask it another way, how safe is it to
>go past the argc-1'th element in the argv[] array?
>
>Isn't it true that the array of pointers (or pointer to pointers, depending
>on your point of view) "argv" actually contains argc+1 elements, and not
>argc elements?

That is correct.  argv[argc] is guaranteed to exist and be NULL, and thus
argv has argc+1 elements (argc arguments plus the NULL).  Trying to access
argv[argc+1] or higher, however, is not safe.
-- 
The meek can have the Earth;    |    Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
the rest of us have other plans.|uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu