fix two problems in the Dir module:#2674
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readdir_r does not work well on systems where {NAME_MAX} can vary. The main
reason to use it is for thread-safety. However, POSIX 1003.1-2024 Issue 8
makes readdir_r obsolete and clarifies that readdir must be thread-safe except
when concurrent calls are made to the same directory stream. So all
applications should prefer it now. The original rationale for Nix using
readdir_r[^1], in addition to thread safety, was that the Rust standard library
used it. But that is no longer the case. So Nix should switch to plain
readdir.
The second problem is that on some operating systems, libc::dirent is an
open-ended structure where the last field (d_name) has a size of 1 byte,
but additional data follow the end of the structure. Nix currently
relies on copying the libc::dirent structure, which can't possibly work
on those platforms. Fix that bug by copying the d_name field to an
owned CString.
[^1]: f9ebcb7 , from 2018
Fixes nix-rust#2673
Fixes nix-rust#1783
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readdir_r does not work well on systems where {NAME_MAX} can vary. The main reason to use it is for thread-safety. However, POSIX 1003.1-2024 Issue 8 makes readdir_r obsolete and clarifies that readdir must be thread-safe except when concurrent calls are made to the same directory stream. So all applications should prefer it now. The original rationale for Nix using readdir_r1, in addition to thread safety, was that the Rust standard library used it. But that is no longer the case. So Nix should switch to plain readdir.
The second problem is that on some operating systems, libc::dirent is an
open-ended structure where the last field (d_name) has a size of 1 byte,
but additional data follow the end of the structure. Nix currently
relies on copying the libc::dirent structure, which can't possibly work
on those platforms. Fix that bug by copying the d_name field to an
owned CString.
What does this PR do
Checklist:
CONTRIBUTING.mdFootnotes
f9ebcb7 , from 2018 ↩