Re: POSIX requires checking all *printf return values?!?

[Jim Meyering]

Pádraig Brady <address@hidden> wrote:
> Jim Meyering wrote:
>> I'm beginning to wonder if this is an error in the C library after all.
>> Surely POSIX doesn't intend to require that all programs test every
>> *printf return value.  That would be silly.  If so, what's the point
>> of the stream error indicator?
>
> You make a fair point.
> Perhaps the stream error indicator is just to indicate
> errors external to the program?
>
> I noticed a different work around in busybox
> which only works for single threaded progs
> (which should be fine for coreutils).
> http://www.busybox.net/downloads/patches/svn-14627.patch

Thanks.

It might be better in the long run (if ever vendor *printf start working
how one would expect), to provide replacement printf and fprintf functions
that *do* set the stream indicator for those case.  But for now, I've pushed
the new xprintf module, with a few tiny additional changes, and will
probably change printf.c to use it.