Re: SIZE_MAX description in manual

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder at gmail dot com>]

Hi Duarte,

Duarte Fusco wrote:

> the macro SIZE_MAX is defined in stdint.h, but I can't find its description in the manual.
> I have searched http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_mono/libc.html
> Is it missing, or is it not supposed to be there?

It probably makes sense to add it to section A.5.2, "Range of an
Integer Type".  The libc manual doesn't get as much love as it
deserves for a number of reasons.  For example:

 - The corresponding standards (C99, POSIX.1-2008) are well written
   and available online[1].  The standards tend to be the most
   reliable source of information for the interfaces they cover.

   If you find yourself wanting to ask a question about or propose a
   change in POSIX or its documentation, the people to ask are at [1].

 - The libc manual uses texinfo format, but it is often more
   convenient to retrieve a concise description of a single family of
   functions using the "man" utility.  Manpages for glibc functions
   are maintained separately[3].

   Alas, it seems that those manpages do not document the constants
   and types in stdint.h, though.

Proposing a change in the glibc manual works like this:

	git clone git://sourceware.org/git/glibc.git
	cd glibc
	mkdir build; cd build
	../configure --prefix=$HOME/opt/libc
	editor ../manual/foo.texi
	make pdf

	cd ..
	git diff

Hope that helps,
Jonathan

[1] e.g. see http://unix.org/2008edition/
[2] http://www.opengroup.org/austin/
[3] http://kernel.org/doc/man-pages/