id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	priority	milestone	component	version	severity	resolution	keywords	cc
666	psMetadataConfigFormat does not handle arbitrary length input	eugene	David.Robbins@…	"psMetadataConfigFormat uses fixed length strings for the individual lines (so-so
proble) and the total output string (big problem).  this crashed writing the
header read in by a psFitsReadHeader (not surprising: the output string was
limited to 16000 chars, and the sample header I tried was 35000 chars...)

In exploring this bug, I took a close look at psMetadataConfigFormat, and it is
a bit of a mess:

- would not need fixed length strings if it used psStringAppend instead of snprintf

- does not make good use of local temporary variables for readabilty (eg, lots
of repeated entries like ((psTime*)(item->data.V))->... instead of writing
psTime *time = item->data.V once and referring to time)

- In the vector output section, the values are written until a zero-value entry
is reached, as if the vectors were zero-value terminated!

- the nested psMetadataConfigFormat call needs to handle a possible NULL return
value and return NULL (implied error in the lower level)

- errors are causing memory leaks

- the first block of code is fairly bizarre.  I paste it here without further
comment:

        type = item->type;
        if ( type == PS_DATA_STRING) {
            type = PS_DATA_STRING;
        }
        if ( type == PS_DATA_VECTOR) {
            type = PS_DATA_VECTOR;
        }
        if ( type == PS_DATA_TIME) {
            type = PS_DATA_TIME;
        }
        if ( item->type == PS_DATA_METADATA) {
            type = PS_DATA_METADATA;
        }
        if (item == NULL) {
            type = PS_DATA_UNKNOWN;
        }

I have cleaned up this code and I will add it as an attachment"	defect	closed	high		types	0.9.0	normal	fixed