what is going on here ??? - (nf)

Henry Spencer henry at utzoo.UUCP
Tue Jun 25 03:26:52 AEST 1985


> The last element of a struct nlist array as handed to nlist() should
> be {0} (i.e., a null pointer in the name field), not {""} (which
> is a null string in the name field, which will make nlist() do
> crazy things).

We have here a problem that dates back to the vague and obscure wording
of the V7 nlist(3) manual page.  V7 really *does* want an empty string for
that initializer, because the array element is "char[8]", not "char *".
Later Unixes and non-Unixes have done things differently; some of them
may not have realized this, because the manual page is so vague.

Fortuitously, "{0}" is legal and correct under either interpretation,
and hence should be preferred.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry



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