Janneke Nieuwenhuizen <jann...@gnu.org> writes: > Sam Hartman writes: > >> TL;DR: Is it time for the rest of Debian to stop conforming to HURD's >> lack of maximums for path and hostname? > > The GNU Coding standards say: Avoid arbitrary limits > (<https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Semantics.html>.
I agree, but it is going further than that: POSIX doesn't require PATH_MAX and I believe the semantics of PATH_MAX is not what some code assume that the symbol has. See below for specified semantics. I believe use of PATH_MAX as a char[] array length specifier is usually an indicator of a bug or a security vulenrability waiting to happen. It is not a idiom we should strive towards. /Simon https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9799919799/basedefs/limits.h.html Pathname Variable Values The values in the following list may be constants within an implementation or may vary from one pathname to another. For example, file systems or directories may have different characteristics. A definition of one of the symbolic constants in the following list shall be omitted from the <limits.h> header on specific implementations where the corresponding value is equal to or greater than the stated minimum, but where the value can vary depending on the file to which it is applied. The actual value supported for a specific pathname shall be provided by the pathconf() function. {PATH_MAX} Maximum number of bytes the implementation stores as a pathname in a user-supplied buffer of unspecified size, including the terminating null character. Minimum number the implementation shall accept as the maximum number of bytes in a pathname. Minimum Acceptable Value: {_POSIX_PATH_MAX} {_POSIX_PATH_MAX} Minimum number the implementation shall accept as the maximum number of bytes in a pathname. Value: 256 {_XOPEN_PATH_MAX} [XSI] [Option Start] Minimum number the implementation shall accept as the maximum number of bytes in a pathname. Value: 1024 [Option End]
signature.asc
Description: PGP signature
