x/sys/unix: Utsname is using [65]int8 for all its struct members #20753
Description
Please answer these questions before submitting your issue. Thanks!
What version of Go are you using (go version)?
go version go1.7.4 linux/amd64
What operating system and processor architecture are you using (go env)?
OARCH="amd64"
GOBIN=""
GOEXE=""
GOHOSTARCH="amd64"
GOHOSTOS="linux"
GOOS="linux"
GOPATH="/home/mvo/devel/go"
GORACE=""
GOROOT="/usr/lib/go-1.7"
GOTOOLDIR="/usr/lib/go-1.7/pkg/tool/linux_amd64"
CC="gcc"
GOGCCFLAGS="-fPIC -m64 -pthread -fmessage-length=0 -fdebug-prefix-map=/tmp/go-build701945664=/tmp/go-build -gno-record-gcc-switches"
CXX="g++"
CGO_ENABLED="1"
What did you do?
I want to get information from unix.Uname() - this works fine, however the fact that Utsname has all members as int8 is making working with the result a bit cumbersome. It would be simpler if this would be a [65]byte instead because than the bytes package can be used on it. Unless I miss something the only ways to convert this are:
package main
import (
"bytes"
"golang.org/x/sys/unix"
"unsafe"
)
func main() {
var utsname unix.Utsname
unix.Uname(&utsname)
// convert using unsafe.Pointer()
p := (*[len(utsname.Machine)]byte)(unsafe.Pointer(&utsname.Machine))
println(string(p[:]))
// iterate and convert
buf := make([]byte, 0, len(utsname.Machine))
for _, i := range utsname.Machine {
buf = append(buf, byte(i))
}
println(string(buf))
}
What did you expect to see?
Ideally a simple println(string(utsname.Machine[:])) would be enough to convert it to a string without the need for the unsafe.Pointer() casting.
I am happy to work on a PR if there is a chance for this to get accepted.