Bug#1898: getwd(3) contains falsehood

[Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>]

Package: manpages
Version: 1.8-1

getwd(3) claims:

       getwd,  which  is only prototyped if __USE_BSD is defined,
       will malloc(3) an array big enough to  hold  the  absolute
       pathname of the current working directory.

However, the libc Info page says:

 - Function: char * getwd (char *BUFFER)
     This is similar to `getcwd', but has no way to specify the size of
     the buffer.  The GNU library provides `getwd' only for backwards
     compatibility with BSD.

     The BUFFER argument should be a pointer to an array at least
     `PATH_MAX' bytes long (*note Limits for Files::.).  In the GNU
     system there is no limit to the size of a file name, so this is not
     necessarily enough space to contain the directory name.  That is
     why this function is deprecated.

Experience seems to suggest that the libc Info page is right and the
manpage is wrong, at least if you pass a non-null argument to getwd.

The manpage should be changed to say that getwd is deprecated.

Ian.