Re: printf %s with NULL pointer (was Re: BUG #17098: Assert failed on composing an error message when adding a type to an extension being dropped)

Peter Eisentraut <peter(dot)eisentraut(at)enterprisedb(dot)com> writes:
> On 14.07.21 18:26, Tom Lane wrote:
>> https://git.musl-libc.org/cgit/musl/tree/src/stdio/vfprintf.c#n593
>> case 's':
>> a = arg.p ? arg.p : "(null)";

> Similar here:
> https://github.com/ensc/dietlibc/blob/master/lib/__v_printf.c#L188

I also took a look at μClibc, as well as glibc itself, and learned some
additional facts. glibc's behavior is not just 'print "(null)" instead'.
It is 'print "(null)" if the field width allows at least six characters,
otherwise print nothing'. μClibc is bug-compatible with this, but other
implementations seem to generally just substitute "(null)" for the input
string and run with that. I'm inclined to side with the latter camp.
I'd rather see something like "(nu" than empty because the latter looks
too much like it might be correct output; so I think glibc is expending
extra code to produce a less-good result.

> I think unless we get counterexamples, this is all good.

Barring objections, I'll press ahead with changing snprintf.c to do this.

regards, tom lane