Debian Bug report logs - #296183
manpages-dev: nice(2) seems to be wrong

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Guido Trotter <ultrotter@debian.org>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: manpages-dev: nice(2) seems to be wrong

Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2005 13:37:43 -0800

Package: manpages-dev
Version: 1.70-1
Severity: normal

Hi,

it seems that the nice(2) manpage is wrong, as it says:

On success, zero is returned.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is
set appropriately.

and later, in the notes:

Note that the routine is documented in SUSv2 and POSIX 1003.1‐2003 to
return the new nice value, while the Linux syscall and  (g)libc (earlier
than  glibc  2.2.4)  routines return 0 on success.  The new nice value
can be found using getpriority(2).  Note that an implementation in which
nice returns the new nice value can legitimately return -1.  To reliably
detect an error, set errno to 0 before the call, and check  its  value
when nice returns -1.


But since sarge ships glibc 2.3.2 and the actual implementation of
nice() is to return the new nice value it would be nice to say that
immediately in the "return values" and leave the behaviour of the older
version in the notes section...

Thanks,

Guido

Message #10 received at 296183@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: "Michael Kerrisk" <mtk-manpages@gmx.net>

To: Martin Schulze <joey@infodrom.org>

Cc: 296183@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: 296183: manpages-dev: nice(2) seems to be wrong

Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 17:05:22 +0200 (MEST)

Hello Martin,

I agree with Guido.  I have modified this for man-pages-2.04.

Please close this repory.

New man page text is:

   RETURN VALUE
       On success, the new nice value is returned  (but
       see NOTES below).  On error, -1 is returned, and
       errno is set appropriately.

   NOTES
       SUSv2  and POSIX 1003.1-2003 specify that nice()
       should return the new nice value.  However,  the
       Linux  syscall  and  the nice() library function
       provided in older  versions  of  glibc  (earlier
       than  glibc 2.2.4) return 0 on success.  In this
       case, the new nice value can be found using get‐
       priority(2).

       Since  glibc  2.2.4,  nice() is implemented as a
       library function that  calls  getpriority(2)  to
       obtain  the new nice value, and this is returned
       to the caller as  the  function  result  of  the
       nice()  call.   With this implementation, a suc‐
       cessful call can can legitimately return -1.  To
       reliably  detect an error, set errno to 0 before
       the  call,  and  check  its  value  when  nice()
       returns -1.

Cheers,

Michael

-- 
Michael Kerrisk
maintainer of Linux man pages Sections 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 

Want to help with man page maintenance?  Grab the latest
tarball at ftp://ftp.win.tue.nl/pub/linux-local/manpages/
and grep the source files for 'FIXME'.

Please submit non-trivial man page suggestions as 
"diff -u" patches.

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Message #17 received at 296183-close@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Martin Schulze <joey@infodrom.org>

To: 296183-close@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Bug#296183: fixed in manpages 2.04-1

Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2005 22:17:17 -0800

Source: manpages
Source-Version: 2.04-1

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
manpages, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive:

manpages-dev_2.04-1_all.deb
  to pool/main/m/manpages/manpages-dev_2.04-1_all.deb
manpages_2.04-1.diff.gz
  to pool/main/m/manpages/manpages_2.04-1.diff.gz
manpages_2.04-1.dsc
  to pool/main/m/manpages/manpages_2.04-1.dsc
manpages_2.04-1_all.deb
  to pool/main/m/manpages/manpages_2.04-1_all.deb
manpages_2.04.orig.tar.gz
  to pool/main/m/manpages/manpages_2.04.orig.tar.gz



A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 296183@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Martin Schulze <joey@infodrom.org> (supplier of updated manpages package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@debian.org)


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Format: 1.7
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 06:55:01 +0100
Source: manpages
Binary: manpages manpages-dev
Architecture: source all
Version: 2.04-1
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: low
Maintainer: Martin Schulze <joey@debian.org>
Changed-By: Martin Schulze <joey@infodrom.org>
Description: 
 manpages   - Manual pages about using a GNU/Linux system
 manpages-dev - Manual pages about using GNU/Linux for development
Closes: 194842 239424 263109 290880 296183 308359 309578 311680 311800 313607
Changes: 
 manpages (2.04-1) unstable; urgency=low
 .
   * New upstream version
     - Includes updates nice(5) page (Closes: Bug#296183)
     - Fix description of return value in getopt(3) (Closes: Bug#308359)
     - Corrected example in hsearch(3) (Closes: Bug#313607)
     - Added reference to log1p(3) (Closes: Bug#309578)
     - Fix return value for makecontext(3) (Closes: Bug#311800)
     - Fix example in rand(3) (Closes: Bug#194842)
     - Corrections to realpath(3) (Closes: Bug#239424)
     - Corrected header in rcmd(3) (Closes: Bug#311680)
     - Corrected %p type in scanf(3) (Closes: Bug#263109)
     - Corrected info for standard filedes in stdin(3) (Close: Bug#295859)
     - Added missing header to strerror(3) (Closes: Bug#290880)
Files: 
 cb010283c01f88d5984f94ff6fdce46a 584 doc - manpages_2.04-1.dsc
 86619809c53b5d8c6c6c82cb0aa8c4c8 1029542 doc - manpages_2.04.orig.tar.gz
 e31dc334b17d1b981142855dbd46a1a1 45665 doc - manpages_2.04-1.diff.gz
 633a73a4097ca44b14a12b79fa1f0207 398780 doc important manpages_2.04-1_all.deb
 988ac1a7816ccf2b4ed04b0642930179 1089660 doc standard manpages-dev_2.04-1_all.deb

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