Most of you who are familiar with SysV message queue must be aware of the formatting the message to following weird structure. The weirdest part is none other than the char mtext[1]. What is this unusual stuff? It is nothing but plays the role of expandable structure.
struct msgbuf {
long mtype; /* message type, must be > 0 */
char mtext[1]; /* message data */
};
For example:
If you wish to send a message of 40 bytes, then one needs to create a structure with following size.
sizeof(long)+40;
Of-course, first element should be of type 'long' which represents message type.
Now, why is this weird mtext[1]. It could have been mtext[0]? Simple, SysV IPCs were introduced way long back. There was no C standard of having zero length arrays in structure. That is the sole reason behind mtext[1]. I used to scratch my head for a very long time and it has been eventually settled [hope even louses are out]. If any other reason, please leave comment in the box.
struct msgbuf {
long mtype; /* message type, must be > 0 */
char mtext[1]; /* message data */
};
For example:
If you wish to send a message of 40 bytes, then one needs to create a structure with following size.
sizeof(long)+40;
Of-course, first element should be of type 'long' which represents message type.
Now, why is this weird mtext[1]. It could have been mtext[0]? Simple, SysV IPCs were introduced way long back. There was no C standard of having zero length arrays in structure. That is the sole reason behind mtext[1]. I used to scratch my head for a very long time and it has been eventually settled [hope even louses are out]. If any other reason, please leave comment in the box.
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