389712 - PL_GetNextOpt can return an invalid argv pointer

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(NSPR :: NSPR, defect)

Description

[Neil Williams]

Under certain conditions PL_GetNextOpt returns argv[argc] as an option value. See bug #346354 for details. This happens when the last option on the command line requires a value. A reasonable fix would be to explicitly return a NULL value rather making this case an error.

Comment 1

[Nelson Bolyard (seldom reads bugmail)]

Wan-Teh and I have discussed this at length in bug 346354.  He's 
provided evidence that argv[argc] is NULL, at least in some definitions.
http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/000095399/functions/exec.html

I guess the question is: 
are there any systems that do not conform to that definition?

Comment 2

[Wan-Teh Chang]

Neil, this is not a bug.  The argv array has argc+1 elements,
with the last element, argv[argc], being a NULL pointer.  So
it is fine to use argv[argc] and assume that it is NULL.  I
believe this convention comes from Unix and was adopted by
the C Standard.