noalias, again

Jerry Schwarz jss at hector.UUCP
Tue Mar 29 06:00:57 AEST 1988


In article <7506 at brl-smoke.ARPA> gwyn at brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>) writes:
>
>On the other hand, strcpy() between NON-OVERLAPPING portions of an
>array is supposed to be valid, so if the noalias wording doesn't
>agree with that, we'll have to fix it.

"Noalias" in the prototype of strcpy does not (and cannot) say one
way or another what is intended.  It simply says that whatever is
manipulated through one pointer shouldn't be manipulated through the
other. Only by an auxilliary description that describes the semantics
of strcpy can we be sure what is allowed.  In particular, I assume
the committee will endorse the rule that any non-overlapping areas
are ok, but overlapping areas aren't.

I remain completely opposed to "noalias".

Jerry Schwarz



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