Re: [RFC][BZ #16009] Memory handling in strxfrm_l()

[Leonhard Holz <leonhard dot holz at web dot de>]

Am 24.11.2014 19:40, schrieb Paul Eggert:
> On 11/24/2014 01:26 AM, Leonhard Holz wrote:
> > strxfrm is a function for pre-computing things that need to be fast
> > somewhere else
>
> That may be true in theory, but in practice strxfrm is pretty much
> useless everywhere.  When I tried to use it in GNU sort, I gave up in
> frustration, as strxfrm was soooo sllooooow that it was much better to
> simply use strcoll and be smart about it.  I don't know of any practical
> application that uses glibc strxfrm in a real way, and my advice for
> optimizating strxfrm is to not bother, and to focus one's efforts on
> making strcoll go faster.
>
> Unless perhaps you're thinking of rewriting strxfrm from scratch, in
> which case we can talk about what's needed.

Indeed it's not that easy to imagine a use case for strxfrm as storing 
the result of comparison (e.g. as an ordered database index) is probably 
always better than doubling or tripling the needed space just to make 
comparison faster. Particularly if you consider that different strings 
are likely to differ after a few bytes independent of there overall length.

Anyhow the security issue in strxfrm has to be fixed. ;)