storage, rather than modifying their input arguments. While not
reentrant, this is explcitly allowed by IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (which
allows either behavior, stating that it is implementation-dependent).
The new semantics are considered less hostile/more useful by most programs
which use basename(3) and/or dirname(3) (several programs in the NetBSD
tree reimplement basename()/dirname() themselves to avoid modification
of the input argument).
This new implementation truncates results to PATH_MAX. The Std does
not address this in the static storage case. However since PATH_MAX
is the maximum pathname length in the Std, this should not be a problem
in practice. Nontheless, it is noted in the BUGS section.
See the basename(3)/dirname(3) regression tests in src/regress/lib/libc.
Inspired by discussion with Niels Provos, related to PR 18647.
kleink