[Freeciv-Dev] Re: [PATCH] Names in rulesets. (PR#559)

[David Pfitzner <dwp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 12 Sep 2000, gs234@xxxxxxxxx (Gaute B. Strokkenes) wrote:
> David Pfitzner <dwp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> > One thing I don't like about this is that it uses the constant
> > MAX_LEN_NAME unrelated to name.  That is, it only works for
> > MAX_LEN_NAME strings, but would be rather easy to accidently use 
> > for different-size strings as well.
> 
> Not really.  Firstly, it's static, so it's only available in
> ruleset.c.  Secondly, the name 'check_name' is intended to be mnemonic
> (name -> NAME.)  Thirdly, the error message doesn't make sense if the
> limit is something other than MAX_LEN_NAME.

Well, consider the suggestion made in relation to the nation name
grammar patch, for having some fields be MAX_LEN_NAME_LONG.  By
"hardwiring" MAX_LEN_NAME, your patch does not deal nicely with this
sort of possibility.  We might not end up using MAX_LEN_NAME_LONG, but
the point remains that you are making the inflexible assumption that
all "name" strings will be MAX_LEN_NAME, which might not be
permanently valid.

> > #define sz_check_name(name) check_name((name), sizeof(name))
> 
> I'm not sure how useful that would be.  If you've already copied it
> into a fixed-size buffer, it had better be big enough.

Uh, right.  I think what I really want is a version of mystrlcpy/
sz_strlcpy (and maybe friends) which prints a log message on
truncation.  (Though I know not all of the truncations involved
in your patch use strcpy.)

-- David