gettext API question - null pointer issue again

gettext API question - null pointer issue again

[Rich Felker]

Could you answer a question about the gettext API that's come up again
in the context of musl's implementation? The gettext manual documents
that for the message key argument to these functions:

    "If the argument is NULL the result is undefined."

https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/html_node/Interface-to-gettext.html

And it looks like you've treated passing a null argument as a bug in
the past:

https://www.mail-archive.com/bug-gnulib@gnu.org/msg36249.html

It's come up again with GIMP doing it:

https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages/issues/12042

Should we continue to treat this as an application bug and ask the app
maintainers to fix it when it's found? That's my leaning but I want to
make sure we're still on the same page.

Rich

Re: gettext API question - null pointer issue again

[Bruno Haible]

[CCing bug-gettext]
Rich Felker wrote in <https://www.openwall.com/lists/musl/2019/06/27/1>:
> Could you answer a question about the gettext API that's come up again
> in the context of musl's implementation? The gettext manual documents
> that for the message key argument to these functions:
> 
>     "If the argument is NULL the result is undefined."
> 
> https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/html_node/Interface-to-gettext.html

Likewise the LI18NUX 2000 specification (p. 39) says
  "The msgid argument is a null-terminated string."

And likewise the LSB 3.0
https://refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/LSB_3.0.0/LSB-PDA/LSB-PDA/baselib-dgettext.html

And likewise the Solaris implementation's documentation says:
    "The msgid argument is a null-terminated string."
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E88353_01/html/E37843/gettext-3c.html#REFMAN3Agettext-3c

> And it looks like you've treated passing a null argument as a bug in
> the past:
> 
> https://www.mail-archive.com/bug-gnulib-mXXj517/zsQ@public.gmane.org/msg36249.html
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2019-01/msg00046.html

Yes.

> It's come up again with GIMP doing it:
> 
> https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages/issues/12042
> 
> Should we continue to treat this as an application bug and ask the app
> maintainers to fix it when it's found?

Yes.

Bruno