get_home_dir returns const char* instead of std::string

2 files changed, 7 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/lib/Utils/xfuncs.cpp b/lib/Utils/xfuncs.cpp
index 53c10f9a..89273675 100644
--- a/lib/Utils/xfuncs.cpp
+++ b/lib/Utils/xfuncs.cpp
@@ -276,11 +276,11 @@ void xstat(const char *name, struct stat *stat_buf)
         perror_msg_and_die("can't stat '%s'", name);
 }
 
-std::string get_home_dir(uid_t uid)
+const char *get_home_dir(uid_t uid)
 {
     struct passwd* pw = getpwuid(uid);
     // TODO: handle errno
-    return pw ? pw->pw_dir : "";
+    return pw ? pw->pw_dir : NULL;
 }
 
 // Die if we can't open a file and return a fd
diff --git a/lib/Utils/xfuncs.h b/lib/Utils/xfuncs.h
index aa672af2..93baa175 100644
--- a/lib/Utils/xfuncs.h
+++ b/lib/Utils/xfuncs.h
@@ -79,6 +79,11 @@ extern bool string_to_bool(const char *s);
 extern void xsetreuid(uid_t ruid, uid_t euid);
 extern void xsetregid(gid_t rgid, gid_t egid);
 
+/* Do not pass the returned pointer to free().
+   Do not modify the contents of the returned string.
+   NULL is returned in the case of failure. */
+extern const char *get_home_dir(uid_t uid);
+
 #ifdef __cplusplus
 }
 #endif
@@ -86,7 +91,6 @@ extern void xsetregid(gid_t rgid, gid_t egid);
 #ifdef __cplusplus
 std::string ssprintf(const char *format, ...);
 std::string concat_path_file(const char *path, const char *filename);
-std::string get_home_dir(uid_t uid);
 #endif
 
 #endif