Re: lfind(3) $3 type should be const

[Gabriel Ravier <gabravier@gmail.com>]

On 11/14/24 3:38 PM, Alejandro Colomar wrote:
> Hi!
>
> lfind(3) does not modify its third argument, *nmemb.
>
> It's already suspicious that it takes a pointer, but I guess it's due to
> historic reasons, and that's already set in stone.
>
> However, I don't see why we should not make it 'const'.  The function
> doesn't use it as an output pointer.  Should I sent a patch for
> constifying it?


I believe the reason is that it aims to mirror lsearch, and to be able 
to be used with it interchangeably as a function with the same type - 
doesn't `const` make the pointer types distinct and incompatible ?

I'd imagine it's not even used much at all elsewhere given how simple it 
is and how cumbersome it is to use compared to an directly inlined 
implementation. That is, I think making it non-const might just happen 
to break a majority of uses of it.

The only way to plausibly rectify this, I think, would be to make the 
compatibility implicit in the standard for any similar function (in the 
same way one might like to make it standard to e.g. pass a pointer to a 
pointer to const char to strtol).


>
> Have a lovely day!
> Alex
>