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Re: [PATCH] Set behavior of sprintf-like functions with overlapping source and destination
On Thu, 27 Dec 2018, Florian Weimer wrote:
> The key difference between (1) and (2) is that rebuilding existing
> software for (1) either works as before, or you get at a compiler
> error and have to apply a simple fix. For (2), on the other hand, the
> bug is still there, and recompilation reintroduces it.
Recompilation reintroduces it *if the software doesn't have tests that
expose the issue*. If the software has sufficient tests, (2) reduces to
(1) - recompilation produces a (test) error. (And software is more likely
to have tests run when it is recompiled than when glibc is updated without
the software being recompiled - there are of course the differences here
between GNU/Linux distributions as to whether packaged software without
any changes gets rebuilt in bulk for each distribution release.)
--
Joseph S. Myers
joseph@codesourcery.com