Re: [patch] cat's main never return
On Sat, Aug 29, 2015 at 05:02:33PM -0600, Theo de Raadt wrote: It really does not matter. Coder's choice. The result is the same. You could hunt them all down, change them all, save a few code bytes, but don't you dare introduce any bugs... The main function is called by crt0 like exit(main(argc, argv, envp)); Which means that return 0; and exit(0); in main lead to the same result. But there is a subtle difference. If main calls exit, its own stack protector will never be validated, which means that a previous overflow of main's stack is not spotted. return on the other hand would trigger the machine code to check. I would prefer a proper return. Who knows if we spot an issue? But on the other hand, take Theo's statement into consideration: but don't you dare introduce any bugs... Tobias
Re: [patch] cat's main never return
On Sun, Aug 30, 2015 at 12:10:03AM +0200, Fritjof Bornebusch wrote: If exit(3) is always called, than why not changing the return value to *void*? Because ISO C says that in non-freestanding environment, main should retutrn int. Joerg
Re: [patch] cat's main never return
just saw that cat's *main* function does never return even though there is a return value, exit(3) is called instead. Is there any reason why or is it just historically, cause it's a bit confusing? If exit(3) is always called, than why not changing the return value to *void*? Other calls in *src/bin/* share the same behavior. It really does not matter. Coder's choice. The result is the same. You could hunt them all down, change them all, save a few code bytes, but don't you dare introduce any bugs...
