Re: simple question: are const gchar* arguments hold as copies internally?

[Tristan Van Berkom <tvb gnome org>]

Felix Kater wrote:
> Hi,
>
> these two functions take const gchar pointers:
>
> void gtk_label_set_text([...] const gchar *str);
> void g_key_file_set_value([...] const gchar *group_name, [...])
>
> Does that mean that the arguments are *not* hold as copies internally
> so that I have to care for the allocated memory -- or can I savely pass
> a temporary character string as an argument to the functions which make
> a copy of the strings internally and also release their memory when
> necessary automatically?

Generally,
    if a function takes `const gchar *' as an argument it just means
that the said function garauntees that your string will not be modified
by that function (whereas a `gchar *' argument is generally a return
location for a single char).

Here are some examples in GTK+ that do use static strings:

http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/2.0/gobject/gobject-Standard-Parameter-and-Value-Types.html#g-value-set-static-string
http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/2.0/glib/glib-Quarks.html#g-quark-from-static-string

Usualy this behaviour is quite explicit :)

Cheers,
                                   -Tristan