[Python-Dev] PyOS_snprintf() / PyOS_vsnprintf()

[M.-A. Lemburg]

Tim Peters wrote:
> 
> [MAL]
> > How about always enabling our version in the alpha cycle and then
> > reverting back to the native one in the betas ?
> 
> If we have to ship our own code for it anyway, why ever revert to the native
> one?  Historically, all that gives us is boundless opportunities to catalog
> and #ifdef our way around gratuitous discrepancies among platform C
> libraries.
> 
> since-we-switched-to-our-own-getopt-everywhere-we-no-longer-get-
>     getopt-bug-reports-anywhere-ly y'rs  - tim

Well, the emulation is not as robust and fast as the native 
implementation is, plus it cannot recover from a buffer overrun;
such an overrun is likely to cause a core dump due to sprintf()
writing into the heap -- still better than allowing a cracker to 
hack your system by exploiting a stack overrun, but not as good as a
true snprintf() implementation will do.

If we do get complaints about snprintf() failures on systems which
do have a native API, then we can still switch to the emulation
for all platforms.

-- 
Marc-Andre Lemburg
CEO eGenix.com Software GmbH
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