modification of strings

[Karl Heuer]

In article <466 at oglvee.UUCP> norm at oglvee.UUCP (Norman Joseph) writes:
>[The previous example overflows,] but what if the code looked like this:
>                char *blah = "meow\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0";
>                strcpy( blah, "grr, snarl, hiss" );
>assuming that you could write to the space into which `blah' pointed?

You'd better also assume that string literals are not shared.  Even so, you
may be in for a surprise when you execute this code fragment the second time,
and find that blah[0]=='g' immediately after the initialization to
(apparently) "meow".

This kludge is confusing and unportable.  Don't use it.

Karl W. Z. Heuer (ima!haddock!karl or karl at haddock.isc.com), The Walking Lint