+Strings in C can get a little thorny. Here's some guidelines for dealing with
+strings in Busybox. (There is surely more that could be added to this
+section.)
+
+
+String Files
+~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Put all help/usage messages in usage.c. Put other strings in messages.c.
+Putting these strings into their own file is a calculated decision designed to
+confine spelling errors to a single place and aid internationalization
+efforts, if needed. (Side Note: we might want to use a single file - maybe
+called 'strings.c' - instead of two, food for thought).
+
+
+Testing String Equivalence
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+There's a right way and a wrong way to test for string equivalence with
+strcmp():
+
+ The wrong way:
+
+ if (!strcmp(string, "foo")) {
+ ...
+
+ The right way:
+
+ if (strcmp(string, "foo") == 0){
+ ...
+
+The use of the "equals" (==) operator in the latter example makes it much more
+obvious that you are testing for equivalence. The former example with the
+"not" (!) operator makes it look like you are testing for an error. In a more
+perfect world, we would have a streq() function in the string library, but
+that ain't the world we're living in.
+
+
+Avoid Dangerous String Functions
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Unfortunately, the way C handles strings makes them prone to overruns when
+certain library functions are (mis)used. The following table offers a summary
+of some of the more notorious troublemakers:
+
+function overflows preferred
+-------------------------------------------------
+strcpy dest string safe_strncpy
+strncpy may fail to 0-terminate dst safe_strncpy
+strcat dest string strncat
+gets string it gets fgets
+getwd buf string getcwd
+[v]sprintf str buffer [v]snprintf
+realpath path buffer use with pathconf
+[vf]scanf its arguments just avoid it
+
+
+The above is by no means a complete list. Be careful out there.
+
+
+
+Avoid Big Static Buffers
+------------------------
+
+First, some background to put this discussion in context: static buffers look
+like this in code:
+
+ /* in a .c file outside any functions */
+ static char buffer[BUFSIZ]; /* happily used by any function in this file,
+ but ick! big! */
+
+The problem with these is that any time any busybox app is run, you pay a
+memory penalty for this buffer, even if the applet that uses said buffer is
+not run. This can be fixed, thusly:
+
+ static char *buffer;
+ ...
+ other_func()
+ {
+ strcpy(buffer, lotsa_chars); /* happily uses global *buffer */
+ ...
+ foo_main()
+ {
+ buffer = xmalloc(sizeof(char)*BUFSIZ);
+ ...
+
+However, this approach trades bss segment for text segment. Rather than
+mallocing the buffers (and thus growing the text size), buffers can be
+declared on the stack in the *_main() function and made available globally by
+assigning them to a global pointer thusly:
+
+ static char *pbuffer;
+ ...
+ other_func()
+ {
+ strcpy(pbuffer, lotsa_chars); /* happily uses global *pbuffer */
+ ...
+ foo_main()
+ {
+ char *buffer[BUFSIZ]; /* declared locally, on stack */
+ pbuffer = buffer; /* but available globally */
+ ...
+
+This last approach has some advantages (low code size, space not used until
+it's needed), but can be a problem in some low resource machines that have
+very limited stack space (e.g., uCLinux).
+
+A macro is declared in busybox.h that implements compile-time selection
+between xmalloc() and stack creation, so you can code the line in question as
+
+ RESERVE_CONFIG_BUFFER(buffer, BUFSIZ);
+
+and the right thing will happen, based on your configuration.
+
+Another relatively new trick of similar nature is explained
+in keep_data_small.txt.
+
+
+
+Miscellaneous Coding Guidelines
+-------------------------------
+
+The following are important items that don't fit into any of the above
+sections.