[Bug libc/1190] New: fgetc()/fread() behaviour is not POSIX compliant

["funtoos at yahoo dot com" <sourceware-bugzilla at sources dot redhat dot com>]

A simple setup consisting of two programs. process A writes to fpA pointing to
file /a/b/c and process B reads from fpB pointing to file /a/b/c. Process B does
a select on fileno(fpB) for read readiness and does a fread() for 200 bytes.
This leads to 256 bytes read and EOF. Process A writes more data to fpA. Process
B again does a select(), followed by the fread(). (The select() calls don't wait
for timeout=250 msecs that they are supposed to wait because eof is still set
and select() rightly assumes that the fd is ready for read.) The second fread()
succeeds when the data actually becomes available as written by process A. The
second fread() should fail as per POSIX standard because the eof is still not
cleared by the app and an fgetc() (used by fread()), returns eof if eof is set
on the stream. This leads bad coding practices in linux and non-portable
programs. The above is a live example of how non-portable the NX free client
(called nxrun) became when app developer assumed that he could keep reading
without resetting the eof on the stream. Not only the program hangs on solaris,
but it sits in a tight loop because select() returns immediately on eof and the
wait of 250 ms is rendered redundant, on both linux and solaris. If fgetc() and
hence fread() had refused to read if stream has eof set like they are supposed
as per POSIX, the programmer would have caught his mistake on linux and not led
to hang on solaris and tight loop on linux.

Please refer the following for correct POSIX behaviour of fgetc()/fread():

http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/fgetc.html
http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/fread.html

-- 
           Summary: fgetc()/fread() behaviour is not POSIX compliant
           Product: glibc
           Version: unspecified
            Status: NEW
          Severity: critical
          Priority: P2
         Component: libc
        AssignedTo: gotom at debian dot or dot jp
        ReportedBy: funtoos at yahoo dot com
                CC: glibc-bugs at sources dot redhat dot com
 GCC build triplet: i686-pc-linux-gnu
  GCC host triplet: i686-pc-linux-gnu
GCC target triplet: i686-pc-linux-gnu


http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1190

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