[New-bugs-announce] [issue9647] os.confstr() does not handle value changing length between calls

[David Watson]

New submission from David Watson <baikie at users.sourceforge.net>:

This came up in relation to issue #9579; there is some discussion
of it there.  Basically, if os.confstr() has to call confstr()
twice because the buffer wasn't big enough the first time, the
existing code assumes the string is the same length that the OS
reported in the first call instead of using the length from the
second call and resizing the buffer if necessary.  This means the
returned value will be truncated or contain trailing garbage if
the string changed its length betweeen calls.

I don't know of an actual environment where configuration strings
can change at runtime, but it's not forbidden by POSIX as far as
I can see (the strings are described as "variables", after all,
and sysconf() values such as CHILD_MAX can change at runtime).
Implementations can also provide additional confstr() variables
not specified by POSIX.

The patch confstr-long-result.diff at issue #9579 would fix this
(for 3.x), but Victor Stinner has expressed concern that a buggy
confstr() could create a near-infinite loop with that patch
applied.

----------
components: Extension Modules
messages: 114396
nosy: baikie
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: os.confstr() does not handle value changing length between calls
type: behavior
versions: Python 2.6, Python 2.7, Python 3.1, Python 3.2

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue9647>
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