Re: linux-ipsec: apps/utils/libs that parse IP/netbits

> > > - The diagnostics could easily be made a little more useful. If the
> > > results were of type const char *, success could be indicated by NULL
> > > and failure by a message...
>
> Hmmm, how does the memory get released? Do we copy it immediately

Much the simplest thing is to say that it's a string literal and hence need not receive any special attention from the caller. This does limit how precise the error message can be, but the point is just to be a little more specific than "something went wrong".

> I'm not crazy about this whole idea as it is somewhat counter-intuitive...

I think with Hugh's suggestion -- always put the result in a variable named something like "error" or "oops" -- it works out okay. I've been trying it out internally, and it seems to be workable and reasonably readable. The more specific error reporting has already been useful.

                                                          Henry Spencer
                                                       henry@spsystems.net
                                                     (henry@zoo.toronto.edu)