Re: const qualifier for list APIs

Ashutosh Bapat <ashutosh(dot)bapat(dot)oss(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> Functions like lappend_*() in list.c do not modify the second
> argument. So it can be qualified as const. Any reason why we don't do
> that? Is it because the target pointer ptr_value is not const
> qualified?

It would be a lie in many (most?) cases, wherever somebody later pulls the
pointer out of the list without applying "const" to it. So I can't see
that adding "const" there would be an improvement.

> So the coding practice though questionable, is
> safe and avoids unnecessary pallocs. But SonarQube does complain about
> it.

Maybe an explicit cast to (void *) would shut it up.

regards, tom lane