strdup(NULL) supposed to create SIGSEGV?

[Greg Black]

On 2008-04-23, Simun Mikecin wrote:

> According to Open Group strdup should return NULL and set errno. Look at:
> http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/strdup.html

If you're going to quote documents to support your ideas, it's probably
better to read them first.

That document gives only lack of memory as a reason for failure.

It does not state clearly, but clearly requires, correct behaviour from
the caller who is required to provide a string argument.  NULL is not a
string, so the behaviour of the function is undefined.

Basic C programming requires people not to step into the wilderness of
undefined behaviour.

> There is no valid argument for doing segfault instead of above behavior.

If you can find an alternative that is not actually wrong, then by all
means share it.  To me, it seems like a good choice.  Clearly, I am not
alone.

Greg