Re: [PATCH] man/: SYNOPSIS: Remove GNU forward-declarations of parameters for lengths of array parameters

[Alejandro Colomar <alx+linux-man@kernel.org>]

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> Date: 2026-10-22 21:54:09+0200
> From: Alejandro Colomar <alx+linux-man@kernel.org>
>
> > Date: 2026-10-22 18:29:31+0100
> > From: Christopher Bazley <chris.bazley.wg14@gmail.com>
> >
[...]
> > but the fact that there are no useful ISO C
> > semantics for parameters of pointer type declared using array syntax
> > weakens my concern. (If the parameters actually had variably-modified types
> > then the change would be far worse, from my point of view, because the
> > parameter types would no longer be expressed correctly.)
> 
> We don't care about what ISO C says.  GNU C clearly assigns semantics to
> array parameters, and that means we have to be careful about them here.
> If this can result in sanitizers breaking code, it is something to be
> careful about.  Moreover, I hope ISO C eventually catches up.

Moreover, there's GCC discussing at the moment a patch of mine to have
_Countof(parameter) work, which would be an even larger risk: it would
produce different values in code, and not just sanitizers aborting some
program.


Have a lovely day!
Alex

-- 
<https://www.alejandro-colomar.es>

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