Re: CVS commit: src/usr.sbin/rtadvd

[David Holland <dholland-sourcechanges%netbsd.org@localhost>]

On Fri, Jul 03, 2015 at 08:12:42PM +0100, Roy Marples wrote:
 > >> Modified Files:
 > >> 	src/usr.sbin/rtadvd: advcap.c if.c rrenum.c rtadvd.c
 > >> 
 > >> Log Message:
 > >> Use %m in syslog(3) instead of %s strerror(3).
 > > 
 > > Was this really necessary? Last I remember we considered %m a legacy
 > > mistake and preferred to avoid it.
 > 
 > It made the program smaller, which is a good thing.
 > There is no mention of syslog %m being considered a legacy mistake
 > in the man page. Maybe you have a link to any discussion of this?

I'm not sure I'm going to be able to find it readily. Searching for %m
doesn't work real well, even with grep.

however, here's what it's about. %m is a wart: since it's not part of
printf, it means you can't use printf to implement syslog(3), at least
not without adding a bunch of gross hacks. Or alternatively (like the
gnu folks do) you can quietly add %m support to printf, which is
pretty gross as well.

There is no real reason %m is necessary and we were at least
discussing deprecating it; I don't think anything formal came of that
but still it's probably better not to add new uses of it.

anyone else remember? Christos?

-- 
David A. Holland
dholland%netbsd.org@localhost