Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcae!hubcap!gatech!ncar!mailrus!iuvax!bsu-cs!dhesi
From: dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: retiring gets(3)
Message-ID: <4768@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Date: 15 Nov 88 16:12:23 GMT
References: <1988Nov14.220842.3980@utstat.uucp>
Reply-To: dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi)
Organization: CS Dept, Ball St U, Muncie, Indiana
Lines: 16

In article <1988Nov14.220842.3980@utstat.uucp> geoff@utstat.uucp (Geoff
Collyer) writes:
>gets is
>probably unique among C library functions because it cannot be used
>safely, no matter how hard you wish or how hard you work.

Well, now, suppose we (a) write lines of known length to a file that is
not writable by anybody else, (b) open that file for input and make it
our standard input and (c) use gets with a buffer that is known to be
big enough to hold any line in that file.

Thus gets is probably unique among C library functions because it can
be used safely if you try hard enough, but it should not be used
anyway, because most practical uses of it are not safe.
-- 
Rahul Dhesi         UUCP:  <backbones>!{iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!dhesi