Bug 175760

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Description of problem:
The readv(2) man page states this about error values:

       EINVAL The sum of the iov_len values overflows an  ssize_t  value.  Or,
              the vector count count is zero or greater than IOV_MAX.

However a test program shows passing an iovec of 0 will return 0 for both readv() and writev().

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
kernel-2.6.14-1.1637_FC4

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Compile this program as iov.c:

#include <sys/uio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

main()
{
        int fd, ret;
        struct iovec iov;
        char buf[128];

        if ((fd = open("iov.c", O_RDWR)) < 0) {
                perror("failed to open iov.c");
                exit(1);
        }

        iov.iov_base = buf;
        iov.iov_len = 128;

        if ((ret = readv(fd, &iov, 0)) < 0)
                perror("readv");
        else
                printf("readv returned %d\n", ret);

        if ((ret = writev(fd, &iov, 0)) < 0)
                perror("writev");
        else
                printf("writev returned %d\n", ret);

        close(fd);
        exit(0);
}

2. Run a.out

  

Actual Results:  readv returned 0
writev returned 0


Expected Results:  Both calls should have returned -1 with errno set to EINVAL.

Additional info:

This may be either a man page error or a bug in the kernel; a decision needs to be made by the kernel developers as to whether the call or the man page is in error.