+dnl CF_ENABLE_STRING_HACKS version: 1 updated: 2012/02/25 06:33:21
+dnl ----------------------
+dnl On a few platforms, the compiler and/or loader nags with untruthful
+dnl comments stating that "most" uses of strcat/strcpy/sprintf are incorrect,
+dnl and implying that most uses of the recommended alternatives are correct.
+dnl
+dnl Factually speaking, no one has actually counted the number of uses of these
+dnl functions versus the total of incorrect uses. Samples of a few thousand
+dnl instances are meaningless compared to the hundreds of millions of lines of
+dnl existing C code.
+dnl
+dnl strlcat/strlcpy are (as of 2012) non-standard, and are available on some
+dnl platforms, in implementations of varying quality. Likewise, snprintf is
+dnl standard - but evolved through phases, and older implementations are likely
+dnl to yield surprising results, as documented in manpages on various systems.
+AC_DEFUN([CF_ENABLE_STRING_HACKS],
+[
+AC_MSG_CHECKING(if you want to work around bogus compiler/loader warnings)
+AC_ARG_ENABLE(string-hacks,
+ [ --enable-string-hacks work around bogus compiler/loader warnings],
+ [with_string_hacks=$enableval],
+ [with_string_hacks=no])
+AC_MSG_RESULT($with_string_hacks)
+
+if test "x$with_string_hacks" = "xyes"; then
+ AC_DEFINE(USE_STRING_HACKS)
+ AC_MSG_WARN(enabling string-hacks to work around bogus compiler/loader warnings)
+ AC_CHECK_FUNCS( strlcat strlcpy snprintf )
+fi
+])dnl
+dnl ---------------------------------------------------------------------------