From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=DKIM_ADSP_CUSTOM_MED, DKIM_INVALID,DKIM_SIGNED,FREEMAIL_FROM,MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 16010 invoked from network); 16 Dec 2022 22:32:03 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (50.116.15.146) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 16 Dec 2022 22:32:03 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8BFE74246C; Sat, 17 Dec 2022 08:31:42 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mail-wr1-f43.google.com (mail-wr1-f43.google.com [209.85.221.43]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 0312742440 for ; Sat, 17 Dec 2022 08:31:37 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mail-wr1-f43.google.com with SMTP id i7so3846799wrv.8 for ; Fri, 16 Dec 2022 14:31:36 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20210112; h=content-transfer-encoding:in-reply-to:references:cc:to:from :content-language:subject:user-agent:mime-version:date:message-id :sender:from:to:cc:subject:date:message-id:reply-to; bh=2wYOg90r5SDFbjigIkC1pLrICAd/IA//ta3//ZiXwFc=; b=XzH27KR4hJC8kp0TcbgCSGeYwj9Wn/9yQhrcUd1iaitx6P/kOsfSzfpRhPdFOF9fVv D6C12wetYVyY/LiWptVDPah9J/G+4gKod2VHDK64a3TJ3tOaPinEIw0LYXu5NmTtETqM gEv/9xeLNVgJ/kc3kbfLutSgWcf3FDf03ym0t0f5dQ1Y3i2iMc8b99XHkkMv+I6PEQlM 1oHmq9nqXNEzEU9Ymbmu39cF2Xqx9fDB64bV1hafhW8fSMHb6UP2VzpR6UI3xajBcW/U /SVkXm4JV36nUA46VjHpA9hgbA9QjFjNUPzHREoySjuc70QJfOXm58OW/chimSwlVf1T xnkw== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20210112; h=content-transfer-encoding:in-reply-to:references:cc:to:from :content-language:subject:user-agent:mime-version:date:message-id :sender:x-gm-message-state:from:to:cc:subject:date:message-id :reply-to; bh=2wYOg90r5SDFbjigIkC1pLrICAd/IA//ta3//ZiXwFc=; b=VbvMSfxgpFhMK9FA70mztbQlNChaDmxYZuNq6mcoCB2y1U7YKxAskModukiuYBnjAN O6gGVWnyIkhkvMkR5GvNYv7WagbmHpOIYf8AHKUTCHBTmhlZdhPaFgnkwKOOR1JGvpxG QUT4NWXHEhAinYQppsXjy7OI6rMm4KfRl+dU6x7tLB+1v4VQY/MxNNR6OsRt+2sfKzXP BsFh2w9cKj9n5u7D9iUWnsxYIbxeTpjjhHDPuGSM21sGrOUud7KPrhHg2d7rOSdw0b6X cDZe7IwjHgxqLW1ZkbFfJoOWAquxZDsTjIFM2bVdmeRT27iVts1hna9QnG7aBhgOEXDF hAUg== X-Gm-Message-State: ANoB5pmzzQiucRKgR1ypaXk+DGWtf5o22wqlj5FCixNxp2kmnq4bnk7P TMok1sCo4YW173ur1cJq2TQ= X-Google-Smtp-Source: AA0mqf66NyZj1Kenwig2armwQGTNpsdqLi2Fw3XJ1i7zVVKELj/joOfZC7do6VXWz6FqHOykdtq1PQ== X-Received: by 2002:a05:6000:a01:b0:248:443:2d81 with SMTP id co1-20020a0560000a0100b0024804432d81mr20738790wrb.59.1671229835443; Fri, 16 Dec 2022 14:30:35 -0800 (PST) Received: from [192.168.0.160] ([170.253.36.171]) by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id i13-20020adfefcd000000b0024216d2e386sm3416161wrp.16.2022.12.16.14.30.34 (version=TLS1_3 cipher=TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 bits=128/128); Fri, 16 Dec 2022 14:30:35 -0800 (PST) Sender: Alejandro Colomar Message-ID: <1ef751f4-16d0-69a1-367b-d201f815e88c@gmail.com> Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2022 23:30:34 +0100 MIME-Version: 1.0 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:102.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/102.5.1 Content-Language: en-US From: Alejandro Colomar To: Douglas McIlroy References: <6009124d-750d-365e-a424-ec7bb25922b9@gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <6009124d-750d-365e-a424-ec7bb25922b9@gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID-Hash: 6ECHXZRPE4XZ6T3MQ43ZIDXSW4CV4674 X-Message-ID-Hash: 6ECHXZRPE4XZ6T3MQ43ZIDXSW4CV4674 X-MailFrom: alx.manpages@gmail.com X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; header-match-tuhs.tuhs.org-0; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header CC: TUHS main list X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [TUHS] Terms for string, and similar character constructs (was: origin of null-terminated strings) List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: [Resend from my subscribed address, as the list is subscribers-only, it seems] In C, most syscalls and libc functions use strings, that is, zero or more non-NUL characters followed by a NUL. However, there are a few cases where other incompatible character constructs are used. A few examples: - utmpx(5): Some of its fields use fixed-width char arrays which contain a sequence of non-NUL characters, and padding of NULs to fill the rest (although some systems only require a NUL to delimit the padding, which can then contain garbage). - Some programs use just a pointer and a length to determine sequences of characters. No NULs involved. - abstract sockets: On Linux, abstract Unix socket names are stored in a fixed-width array, and all bytes are meaningful (up to the specified size), even if they are NULs. Only special that that the first byte is NUL. Since those are only rare cases, those constructs don't seem to have a name; some programmers call them strings (quite confusingly). Has there been any de-facto standard (or informal naming) to call those things, and differentiate them? Thanks, Alex --