Re: [PATCH v2] ident: check /etc/mailname if email is unknown

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Oct 3, 2011, 19:15 UTC
Message-ID: <7vpqidga3q.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <20105.40257.351258.425389@chiark.greenend.org.uk>

Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk> writes:

Show 10 quoted lines

>> > +	if (!mailname) {
>> > +		if (errno != ENOENT)
>> > +			warning("cannot open /etc/mailname: %s",
>> > +				strerror(errno));
>> 
>> This warns on EACCES. Is that OK? (Just asking, I have no opinion.)
>
> I think that's correct.  Personally I'm a bit of an error handling
> fascist and I would have it crash on EACCES but that's probably a bit
> harsh.

It is not just harsh but is outright wrong if the platform is not Debian and the platform happens to use the file for other purposes that does not require normal users to be able to read the file.

It _might_ make sense to do

        #ifndef DEBIAN
        #define add_mailname_host(x,y) (-1)
        #else
        static int add_mailname_host(char *buf, size_t len)
        {
                ...
        }
        #endif