From: Patrick McFarland <pmcfarland@downeast.net>
To: Olivier Galibert <galibert@pobox.com>
Subject: Re: Do not misuse Coverity please
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 21:01:27 -0500
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On Wednesday 30 March 2005 01:55 pm, Olivier Galibert wrote:
> Actually it is.  Dereferencing a null pointer is either undefined or
> implementation-dependant in the standard (don't remember which), and
> as such the compiler can do whatever it wants, be it starting nethack

Can this be configured to start slashem instead? ;)

> or not doing the dereference in the first place.

What scares me is, "Is there any code in the kernel that does this, or=20
something similarly stupid?". I regard the linux kernel as mostly sane, and=
=20
I'd rather not have that illusion of safety broken* any time soon. Sure, it=
s=20
great for an app to randomly segfault, but having the kernel oops randomly =
is=20
not much fun.

To quote a sig I once saw on usenet: "Why Linux is better than Windows, Rea=
son=20
#325: No needing to reboot every 15 seconds; or every 3 seconds during full=
=20
moons."


* I am by no means an expert on kernel programing

=2D-=20
Patrick "Diablo-D3" McFarland || pmcfarland@downeast.net
"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, w=
e'd=20
all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening=
 to
repetitive electronic music." -- Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989

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