Report-an-Apple-Bug Friday! 71
This bug is Description of ASL_OPT_NO_DELAY is unclear. It was filed on 2008-01-18 at 17:34 PST.
Summary:
asl(3) tells you what ASL_OPT_NO_DELAY (an option to asl_open) does, but not why you would want it.
Steps to Reproduce:
- man 3 asl
Expected Results:
The description of ASL_OPT_NO_DELAY tells me the default behavior and how ASL_OPT_NO_DELAY changes that behavior.
Actual Results:
The description of ASL_OPT_NO_DELAY says only that it “connects to the server immediately”, with no explanation of the alternative, nor of why I would want to connect to the server now rather than later.
Regression:
None. The manpage in 10.4.10.x86 is equally unhelpful.
Notes:
Looking at the source, I found the difference. Without ASL_OPT_NO_DELAY, ASL opens its connection to syslogd when I call asl_send; with it, ASL opens the connection immediately in asl_open.
So, that’s the first problem with the manpage: it does not explain what happens when I don’t use ASL_OPT_NO_DELAY—i.e., that ASL will connect in asl_send.
The second problem is that that it does not explain why I would care whether it connects in asl_open or asl_send. This, I still don’t know.