0001374: Value of file-position indicator after ungetwc()

ID	Project	Category	View Status	Date Submitted	Last Update

0001374	1003.1(2016/18)/Issue7+TC2	System Interfaces	public	2020-07-15 09:30	2024-06-11 09:08

Reporter	geoffclare	Assigned To
Priority	normal	Severity	Objection	Type	Error
Status	Closed	Resolution	Accepted

Name	Geoff Clare
Organization	The Open Group
User Reference
Section	ungetwc()
Page Number	2195
Line Number	70178
Interp Status	---
Final Accepted Text


Summary	0001374: Value of file-position indicator after ungetwc()
Description	The ungetwc() page says "The file-position indicator is decremented (by one or more) by each successful call to ungetwc(); if its value was 0 before a call, its value is unspecified after the call." (Bug 0000701 changes "indicator is decremented" to "indicator for the stream shall be decremented".) This implies that if the position is at 1 byte and ungetwc() pushes back a wide character that converts to 2 bytes, then the position is required to be set to -1. The current text derives from XPG4 and does not match C99 (and is not CX shaded). The C99 text is the same as the original (1995) MSE spec. It says "the value of its file position indicator after a successful call to the ungetwc function is unspecified until all pushed-back wide characters are read or discarded". It appears that when the MSE was incorporated into SUSv2 this discrepancy went unnoticed and the defective XPG4 text has been retained until now.
Desired Action	After applying bug 701, change: The file-position indicator for the stream shall be decremented (by one or more) by each successful call to ungetwc(); if its value was 0 before a call, its value is unspecified after the call. The value of the file-position indicator after all pushed-back characters have been read shall be the same as it was before the characters were pushed back. to: The value of the file-position indicator for the stream after a successful call to ungetwc() is unspecified until all pushed-back wide characters are read or discarded; its value after all pushed-back wide characters have been read shall be the same as it was before the wide characters were pushed back.
Tags	tc3-2008

shware_systems 2020-07-15 14:22 reporter bugnote:0004897	I think both XPG4 and the C standard are in error. The behavior is nominally unspecified only when the effective file position is less than the number of chars to be pushed back. Otherwise the position will be greater than or equal to zero. The ungetc() description reflects this generalization for its particular case where the char count is 1; 0 as position on entry is the only problematic value for most physical media. Note both descriptions are only valid for the limiting case where the bit width for a byte of physical media equals the CHAR_BITS value. Additional complications neither standard addresses exist when this isn't the case. As exemplified by the <termios.h> header this isn't the general case for serial ports accessed via FILE * records, where the bit width may be from 5 to 8. For the C standard, where CHAR_BITS may be up to 15, this applies also when physical media uses 8 bit bytes, the expected behavior is left undefined, not even unspecified.

Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
2020-07-15 09:30	geoffclare	New Issue
2020-07-15 09:30	geoffclare	Name	=> Geoff Clare
2020-07-15 09:30	geoffclare	Organization	=> The Open Group
2020-07-15 09:30	geoffclare	Section	=> ungetwc()
2020-07-15 09:30	geoffclare	Page Number	=> 2195
2020-07-15 09:30	geoffclare	Line Number	=> 70178
2020-07-15 09:30	geoffclare	Interp Status	=> ---
2020-07-15 09:30	geoffclare	Relationship added	related to 0000701
2020-07-15 14:22	shware_systems	Note Added: 0004897
2020-12-17 16:23	Don Cragun	Status	New => Resolved
2020-12-17 16:23	Don Cragun	Resolution	Open => Accepted
2020-12-17 16:23	Don Cragun	Tag Attached: tc3-2008
2021-01-13 16:01	geoffclare	Status	Resolved => Applied
2024-06-11 09:08	agadmin	Status	Applied => Closed

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