>
>> the data is still truncated and partial.. and you keep running with it.
>
> which is not that big deal. I agree, that this is not 100% handy.
> but suppose there is a process with very long name. long enough to cause
> overrun and powertop abort(). and that process is part of a runtime and
> it must be alive, etc... and that automatically leaves only one option --
> either that process or powertop. and never together.
>

for cases where you know you can truncate correctly, making a "truncate_string_to(str, n, trailing_pattern)" helper that you
call explicitly is likely a better answer than hiding it inside a sprintf-like makro.
(and you then truncate the source string/content)

but maybe I'm just getting old and grumpy ;-)


also asprintf() for cases where you don't know how long it will be is not a bad idea