[PATCH] README.Coding: initialize pointers

[Ralph Boehme]

Hi!

What about actually adding the requirement of initializing pointers to
NULL to README.Coding ?

-Ralph

-- 
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-------------- next part --------------
From b6581eb6ce2769d1933df48a2274a99f53a25ca4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Ralph Boehme <slow at samba.org>
Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2015 12:01:22 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] README.Coding: initialize pointers

Pointers must be initialized to NULL.

Signed-off-by: Ralph Boehme <slow at samba.org>
---
 README.Coding | 21 ++++++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 20 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/README.Coding b/README.Coding
index 52dca49..d6fd9b1 100644
--- a/README.Coding
+++ b/README.Coding
@@ -320,6 +320,25 @@ Samba tries to avoid "typedef struct { .. } x_t;" so we do always try to use
 "struct x { .. };". We know there are still such typedefs in the code,
 but for new code, please don't do that anymore.
 
+Initialize pointers
+-------------------
+
+All pointer variables MUST be initialized to NULL. History has
+demonstrated that uninitialized pointer variables have lead to various
+bugs and security issues.
+
+Good Example:
+
+	char *pointer = NULL;
+
+	pointer = some_func();
+
+Bad Example:
+
+	char *pointer;
+
+	pointer = some_func();
+
 Make use of helper variables
 ----------------------------
 
@@ -329,7 +348,7 @@ it's also easier to use the "step" command within gdb.
 
 Good Example:
 
-	char *name;
+	char *name = NULL;
 
 	name = get_some_name();
 	if (name == NULL) {
-- 
2.1.0