Index: trunk/psLib/src/sys/psString.c
===================================================================
--- trunk/psLib/src/sys/psString.c	(revision 15523)
+++ trunk/psLib/src/sys/psString.c	(revision 19070)
@@ -13,6 +13,6 @@
  *  @author David Robbins, MHPCC
  *
- *  @version $Revision: 1.60 $ $Name: not supported by cvs2svn $
- *  @date $Date: 2007-11-09 00:47:41 $
+ *  @version $Revision: 1.61 $ $Name: not supported by cvs2svn $
+ *  @date $Date: 2008-08-15 00:45:18 $
  *
  *  Copyright 2004-2005 Maui High Performance Computing Center, University of Hawaii
@@ -158,6 +158,8 @@
     // find the size of the string to append
     // C99 guarentees vsnprintf() to work as expected with size = 0
+    // BUT: the output cannot be a NULL string
     va_copy(apCopy, ap);
-    tailLength = vsnprintf(*dest, 0, format, apCopy);
+    char tmp = 0;
+    tailLength = vsnprintf(&tmp, 0, format, apCopy);
     va_end(apCopy);
 
@@ -240,5 +242,6 @@
     // C99 guarentees vsnprintf() to work as expected with size = 0
     va_copy(apCopy, ap);
-    headLength = vsnprintf(*dest, 0, format, apCopy);
+    char tmp = 0;
+    headLength = vsnprintf(&tmp, 0, format, apCopy);
     va_end(apCopy);