Re: [PATCH v2 1/2] nfs-utils: mountd: Use a dynamic buffer for storing lists of gid's

[Jim Rees <rees@umich.edu>]

Finney, Sean wrote:

  > I would re-word this.  The list isn't static, the list pointer is.  I don't
  > think you need to mention that, it's just confusing.  "Use malloc/realloc to
  > grow the list on an as-needed basis."
  
  Okay.  I was trying to just put a hint that there was a persistant
  buffer that would hang around through multiple invocations, though
  perhaps that's a little too much 'implementation details'.  Totally fine
  with modifying the description either way :)

If it were me, I would alloc and free the list each time rather than keeping
it around.  It's not like malloc is super expensive.  But that's a matter of
taste.

  > BUGS
  >        In  glibc  versions  before  2.3.3, the implementation of this function
  >        contains a buffer-overrun bug: it returns the complete list  of  groups
  >        for  user  in  the array groups, even when the number of groups exceeds
  >        *ngroups.
  
  Yuck.  The function is also not in POSIX or any other standards, so
  maybe it's worth discussing at a later point whether getgroups(2) would
  be a better interface to use, even if it means an extra step or two.

There's no sense in making nfs-utils portable to non-linux, so depending on
glibc is probably ok.  2.3.3 was released in December 2003 so I would argue
we don't care about the buffer-overrun bug.

  Anyway, I will re-spin this patch with the two changes that you've
  suggested and submit it tomorrow.   Care to take a look at patch
  2/2?  :)

It looked fine to me.