Everything in-kernel is going to be OK because we set the version string
like so:
char version[] = UTS_RELEASE;
where UTS_RELEASE is set from the variables in your Makefile. Thus, the
string is set to the exact size of your version on compile. If you find
anywhere _inside the kernel_ that breaks with long strings, it is
probably a bug.
Userspace is a different story. In general, most programs probably do
not have dynamic off-the-heap storage for the version string size.
Added such a feature may be advantageous in some cases, but in many it
is overkill and not worth the dynamic memory management.
I would consider the case where a large string crashes a user space
program a bug. While the program may choose to set some limit, it
should certainly check its buffers. I would also consider an abnormally
small legal string size a bug, but I honestly don't see your version
size fitting that description. :)
Anyhow, if you want to change it in a given app, its a simple size that
needs to be changed and then recompile.
Robert Love
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