JTC1/SC22/WG14 N704

			    Document Number: WG14 N704/X3J11 97-067


			       C9X Revision Proposal
			       =====================

       Title: ____strdup___________________________________________
       Author: _____________Larry Jones____________________________
       Author Affiliation: _SDRC___________________________________
       Postal Address: _____2000 Eastman Dr, Milford, OH 45150_____
       E-mail Address: _____larry.jones@sdrc.com___________________
       Telephone Number: ___513-576-2070___________________________
       Fax Number: _________513-576-2843___________________________
       Sponsor: ____________Larry Jones____________________________
       Date: _______________23 May 1997____________________________
       Proposal Category:
	  __ Editorial change/non-normative contribution
	  __ Correction
	  X_ New feature
	  __ Addition to obsolescent feature list
	  __ Addition to Future Directions
	  __ Other (please specify)
       Area of Standard Affected:
	  __ Environment
	  __ Language
	  __ Preprocessor
	  X_ Library
	     __ Macro/typedef/tag name
	     X_ Function
	     __ Header
	  __ Other (please specify)  ______________________________
       Prior Art: AT&T SVID2, X/Open CAE, GNU libc, 4.4BSD, others_
       Target Audience: C Programmers______________________________
       ____________________________________________________________
       ____________________________________________________________
       Related Documents (if any): ________________________________
       ____________________________________________________________
       ____________________________________________________________
       Proposal Attached: X_ Yes __ No, but what's your interest?

       Abstract:

	The strdup function is provided by most Unix systems (it
	is required by the Unix System V Interface Definition)
	and by many other implementations.  Although the
	function is not difficult for a user to implement, it is
	also not difficult to do so incorrectly.  Providing such
	a function as part of the standard library would
	eliminate a lot of duplicate effort on the part of
	programmers and greatly increase their convenience at
	very little cost to implementors.

       Proposal:

	In subclause 7.14.6 Miscellaneous functions (String
	handling <string.h>), add a new subclause as follows:

		7.14.6.X The strdup function

		Synopsis

			#include <string.h>
			char *strdup(const char *s);

		Description

		The strdup function creates a new string which is
		a duplicate of the string pointed to by s.  Space
		for the new string is obtained by calling malloc.

		Returns

		The strdup function returns a pointer to the new
		string or a null pointer if the space can not be
		allocated.

	Add the corresponding entry to Annex D Library summary.