From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Message-ID: <6b1434ce54eef6452e6ae212a0faebe5@mightycheese.com>
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: Re: [9fans] fd2path(2)
From: "rob pike, esq." <rob@mightycheese.com>
In-Reply-To: <20030505160003.GA27502@wilbur.25thandClement.com>
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Date: Mon,  5 May 2003 09:18:55 -0700
Topicbox-Message-UUID: 9e2574da-eacb-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025

> why not make the return value of fd2path() similar to SUSv3's snprintf()?
> that is, return the length of the logical string. i've read a few archived
> posts on this. one was to make the return value the remainder of the logical
> length and the buffer length. another pointed out that inferno just returned
> a malloc'd string on its own.

Perhaps it's a better interface, making it like read.  I don't
remember thinking about it, which probably means I just gave it the
default syscall return.  I do remember thinking about the NUL on the
end, which probably means I didn't think it was the same as read.

On the other hand, a quick grep shows most program just use the string
outright and strlen() is really cheap.  I suspect that between the two
of us we've spent more time talking about it than using strlen() on an
fd2path call will require in our lifetimes.

-rob