I believe that technically, the public API hasn't been changed. The API doesn't specify whether the returned pointer should be free()d, and is broken by sometimes returning a pointer that needs to be free()d and sometimes one that mustn't, so one must never free() the pointer. Some distributions decided to fix that by making th_get_pathname() always return a free()able pointer, but portable programs can't rely on until _all_ distributions do the same.
Using a static buffer of course makes the function non reentrant, but I figured that's not typically a problem, and that therefore it would be better if other distros chose the same solution, but if that won't happen (I haven't even got around to bringing it up on the libtar mailing list yet), I'll reconsider. It's really unfortunate that there's no active upstream to set this straight as well as fix the other API misdesigns and bugs. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is a direct subscriber. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/41804 Title: Major memory leak -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
