Re: NULL passed as an argument to memcmp() in parse_func.c

From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: Piotr Stefaniak <postgres(at)piotr-stefaniak(dot)me>
Cc: PostgreSQL Hackers <pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: NULL passed as an argument to memcmp() in parse_func.c
Date: 2015-06-22 19:17:34
Message-ID: 8816.1435000654@sss.pgh.pa.us
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Piotr Stefaniak <postgres(at)piotr-stefaniak(dot)me> writes:
> On 06/22/2015 08:55 PM, Tom Lane wrote:
>> If I recall that code correctly, the assumption was that if the third
>> argument is zero then memcmp() must not fetch any bytes (not should not,
>> but MUST not) and therefore it doesn't matter if we pass a NULL.

> It's not about fetching any bytes, it's about passing an invalid pointer
> (a null pointer in this case) which gives a compiler the opportunity to
> apply an optimization. For example, glibc has memcpy marked as
> __nonnull(1,2).

If they do, that's a glibc bug, per the above observation.

regards, tom lane

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