aboutsummaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorKonstantin Belousov <kib@FreeBSD.org>2022-12-13 14:07:32 +0000
committerKonstantin Belousov <kib@FreeBSD.org>2022-12-20 00:53:47 +0000
commit384a885111ada8b21f51542f48559c4cbce44f7b (patch)
tree1d9b62bb272f016d269608250e574f4e79355fb4
parent3dc237d9f8f7db7531f0f9afab271e02665971a7 (diff)
downloadsrc-384a885111ada8b21f51542f48559c4cbce44f7b.tar.gz
src-384a885111ada8b21f51542f48559c4cbce44f7b.zip
sizeof(7): miscellaneous edits
(cherry picked from commit 9e0d976d95fa4468ac423bc872bda0e93fa4bc18)
-rw-r--r--share/man/man7/sizeof.740
1 files changed, 31 insertions, 9 deletions
diff --git a/share/man/man7/sizeof.7 b/share/man/man7/sizeof.7
index 4abc08490d65..b3c3af1acb52 100644
--- a/share/man/man7/sizeof.7
+++ b/share/man/man7/sizeof.7
@@ -34,17 +34,38 @@ operator
.br
.Nm Vt expression
.Sh DESCRIPTION
-The size of primitive data types in C may differ
+The
+.Nm
+operator yields the size of its operand.
+The
+.Nm
+operator cannot be applied to incomplete types and expressions
+with incomplete types (e.g.
+.Vt void ,
+or forward-defined
+.Vt struct foo ),
+and function types.
+.Pp
+The size of primitive (non-derived) data types in C may differ
across hardware platforms and implementations.
+They are defined by corresponding Application Binary Interface (ABI)
+specifications, see
+.Xr arch 7
+for details about ABI used by
+.Fx .
It may be necessary or useful for a program to be able
-to determine the storage size of a data type or object.
+to determine the storage size of a data type or object
+to account for the platform specifics.
.Pp
The unary
.Nm
operator yields the storage size of an expression or
data type in
-.Em char sized units .
-As a result, 'sizeof(char)' is always guaranteed to be 1.
+.Em char sized units
+(C language bytes).
+As a result,
+.Ql sizeof(char)
+is always guaranteed to be 1.
(The number of bits per
.Vt char
is given by the
@@ -72,8 +93,7 @@ on an ILP32 vs. an LP64 system:
.Pp
When applied to a simple variable or data type,
.Nm
-returns the storage size of the data type of the
-object:
+returns the storage size of the data type of the object:
.Bl -column -offset indent \
".Li sizeof(struct flex)" ".Sy Result (ILP32)" ".Sy Result (LP64)"
.It Sy Object or type \
@@ -128,7 +148,7 @@ platforms, as they are based on character units.
.Pp
When applied to a struct or union,
.Nm
-returns the total number of units in the object,
+returns the total number of bytes in the object,
including any internal or trailing padding used to
align the object in memory.
This result may thus be larger than if the storage
@@ -251,8 +271,10 @@ if ((buf = malloc(BUFSIZ)) == NULL) {
.Ed
.Pp
In that case, the operator will return the storage
-size of the pointer ('sizeof(char *)'), not the
-allocated memory!
+size of the pointer (
+.Ql sizeof(char *)
+), not the
+allocated memory.
.Pp
.Nm
determines the