Re: [Boost-users] boost::asio::buffer bug with string literal

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] boost::asio::buffer bug with string literal
From: Martijn Otto (boost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2017-11-29 11:59:42

I don't think std::string should be a problem in this case, if you want
to construct a buffer from an std::string, you wouldn't be using this
overload anyway, since it's a pointer to a char, not an array of
characters.

It would only be a problem for someone who has a proper array of chars
that is not null-terminated. This is not exactly unimaginable, but it's
certainly unlikely and nothing is preventing anyone from using unsigned
char here.

On wo, 2017-11-29 at 07:47 +0100, Richard Hodges via Boost-users wrote:
> 
> 
> On 29 November 2017 at 02:58, Gavin Lambert via Boost-users <boost-us
> ers_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> > On 29/11/2017 01:57, Richard Hodges wrote:
> > > It gives me the shivers. Binary data could easily have a zero in
> > > the last byte.
> > > 
> > Â 
> > In theory those should be distinguishable -- char is a distinct
> > type from unsigned char (even if char is unsigned by default), and
> > *hopefully* anyone poking binary data at the wire is doing so as an
> > unsigned char or uint8_t.
> In reality, in my world (e.g. protocol buffers), std::string is a
> more useful type for binary data buffers that
> std::vector<std::uint8_t>. I know it's a different type, but still,
> it's chars modelling bytes. This is not an uncommon idea.
> 
> The fact that you can't construct a std::vector from data without a
> copy means that std::vector<byte> is less suitable for buffering data
> than one might imagine.
> Â 
> > 
> > In practice, there might be some trouble with people abusing
> > std::string as if it were std::vector<uint8_t> by pointer casting.
> > 
> > 
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> > Boost-users_at_[hidden]
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> > 
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