Re: Buffer Overflow

From: Goran Larsson (hoh@invalid.invalid)
Date: 04/06/03 

From: hoh@invalid.invalid (Goran Larsson)
Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2003 16:12:30 GMT

In article <3E8FF73A.D60E31BB@mail1.stofanet.dk>,
Bjorn Reese <breese@mail1.stofanet.dk> wrote:

> int a = 0; /* Make sure that the value is initialized */
> a = 42; /* Assign the real content to the value */

> If there is a possibility that you will access the variable between the
> two assignments, then it is a good practice to initialize it to zero (or
> some other value).

No. That is bad practice. If there is a possibility that you access an
uninitialized variable then you should figure out why that is. Just
blindly initializing the variable is just a case of cargo cult
programming. Leave the variable uninitialized and use the compiler
(with the needed flags) find the places where the variable is read
before written -- and fix the logic of the program. 

-- 
Göran Larsson     http://www.mitt-eget.com/