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From:
Todd C. Miller <millert@openbsd.org>
Subject:
termcap(5): remove some lies
To:
tech@openbsd.org
Date:
Tue, 23 Jan 2024 12:09:51 -0700

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Our termcap(3) is ncurses which doesn't suffer from these limitations.
However, we should still document them for portability's sake.  The
comment about vi(1) refers to the old vi, not the nvi that OpenBSD
ships with.

OK?

 - todd

Index: share/termtypes/termcap.5
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/src/share/termtypes/termcap.5,v
retrieving revision 1.31
diff -u -p -u -r1.31 termcap.5
--- share/termtypes/termcap.5	31 Mar 2022 17:27:23 -0000	1.31
+++ share/termtypes/termcap.5	23 Jan 2024 19:06:56 -0000
@@ -1827,12 +1827,9 @@ entry.
 Most programs now use the kernel information primarily; the information
 in this file is used only if the kernel does not have any information.
 .Pp
-.Xr vi 1
-allows only 256 characters for string capabilities, and the routines
-in
-.Xr termcap 3
-do not check for overflow of this buffer.
-The total length of a single entry (excluding only escaped newlines)
-may not exceed 1024.
+Historically, the total length of a single entry (excluding only
+escaped newlines) was limited to 1023 bytes, not including the NUL
+terminator.
+Larger entries may lead to a buffer overflow on some systems.
 .Pp
 Not all programs support all entries.