kragen 2 days ago

Isn't &[u8] what you should be using for command-line arguments and filenames and whatnot? In that case you'd want its name to be short, like &[u8], rather than long like &[bytes] or &[raw_uncut_byte] or something.

  • adastra22 2 days ago

    OsStr/OsString is what you would use in those circumstances. Path/PathBuf specifically for filenames or paths, which I think uses OsStr/OsString internally. I've never looked at OsStr's internals but I wouldn't be surprised if it is a wrapper around &[u8].

    Note that &[u8] would allow things like null bytes, and maybe other edge cases.

    • kragen 2 days ago

      You can't get null bytes from a command-line argument. And going by https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44991638 it's common to not use OsString when accepting command-line arguments, because std::env::args yields Strings, which means that probably most Rust programs that accept filenames on the command line have this bug.

      • adastra22 2 days ago

        Rust String can contain null bytes! Rust uses explicit string lengths. Agree though that most OS wouldn't be able to pass null bytes in arguments though.

        • kragen 2 days ago

          Right, but it can't contain invalid UTF-8, which is valid in both command-line parameters and in filenames on Linux, FreeBSD, and other normal Unixes. See my link above for a demonstration of how this causes bugs in Rust programs.