[PATCH 0/2] alx-0097r1 - <memory.h>, the legitimate header for memcpy(3) et al.

Alejandro Colomar <[email protected]> Fri, 31 Jul 2026 23:18:54 +0200

Newsgroups	org.kernel.vger.linux-man
Message-ID	<[email protected]>

Hi!

Here's a patch set for documenting mem*(3) and strn*(3) functions as
provided in <memory.h>.  This should put a stop to the misunderstanding
and misuse of these functions as handling strings; they handle bytes and
nonstrings (and in some cases, strings can be used as nonstrings or as
byte arrays, but very carefully).

This header is quite portable: {Free,Net,Open}BSD, glibc, and musl, at
least and since forever.

The C Committee is discussing standardization of <memory.h>, so let's
give it a bump.


Have a lovely night!
Alex


Alejandro Colomar (2):
  man/man3/{mem,strn}*(): SYNOPSIS, STANDARDS: Document these as
    provided by <memory.h>
  man/man*/{string.3,memory.h.3head}: Move functions to a new page
    memory.h(3head)

 man/man3/memccpy.3      |  5 ++-
 man/man3/memchr.3       |  5 ++-
 man/man3/memcmp.3       |  5 ++-
 man/man3/memcpy.3       |  5 ++-
 man/man3/memfrob.3      |  2 +-
 man/man3/memmem.3       |  2 +-
 man/man3/memmove.3      |  5 ++-
 man/man3/mempcpy.3      |  2 +-
 man/man3/memrchr.3      |  2 +-
 man/man3/memset.3       |  5 ++-
 man/man3/stpncpy.3      |  8 +++-
 man/man3/strcasecmp.3   |  6 +++
 man/man3/strcmp.3       |  6 +++
 man/man3/strdup.3       |  5 +++
 man/man3/strdupa.3      |  4 ++
 man/man3/string.3       | 95 +++--------------------------------------
 man/man3/strncat.3      |  5 ++-
 man/man3/strnlen.3      |  5 ++-
 man/man3head/memory.h.3 | 57 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
 19 files changed, 126 insertions(+), 103 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 man/man3head/memory.h.3

Range-diff:
-:  ------------ > 1:  784288e70418 man/man3/{mem,strn}*(): SYNOPSIS, STANDARDS: Document these as provided by <memory.h>
-:  ------------ > 2:  668ab8c64821 man/man*/{string.3,memory.h.3head}: Move functions to a new page memory.h(3head)

base-commit: 8152eb52d9a92f02c14e843545acec7ee1946479
-- 
2.53.0

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