diff --git a/lib/CGroup.zig b/lib/CGroup.zig
deleted file mode 100644
index d0c9e70..0000000
--- a/lib/CGroup.zig
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,7 +0,0 @@
-const CGroup = @This();
-
-gid: u32,
-name: [:0]const u8,
-// Should be a sentinel-terminated array.
-// https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/7517
-members: []align(1) const ?[*:0]const u8,
diff --git a/lib/Corpus.zig b/lib/Corpus.zig
index ec81dbf..3c84dc2 100644
--- a/lib/Corpus.zig
+++ b/lib/Corpus.zig
@@ -46,12 +46,12 @@ pub fn init(
     var getgr_bufsize: usize = 0;
     for (groupsConst) |*group, i| {
         groups_arr[i] = try group.clone(allocator);
-        getgr_bufsize = math.max(getgr_bufsize, groups_arr[i].strlenZ());
+        getgr_bufsize = math.max(getgr_bufsize, group.strlenZ());
     }
     var getpw_bufsize: usize = 0;
     for (usersConst) |*user, i| {
         users_arr[i] = try user.clone(allocator);
-        getpw_bufsize = math.max(getpw_bufsize, users_arr[i].strlenZ());
+        getpw_bufsize = math.max(getpw_bufsize, user.strlenZ());
     }
 
     sort.sort(User, users_arr, {}, cmpUser);
diff --git a/lib/DB.zig b/lib/DB.zig
index 895df9d..36f09e3 100644
--- a/lib/DB.zig
+++ b/lib/DB.zig
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ const pad = @import("padding.zig");
 const compress = @import("compress.zig");
 const PackedUser = @import("PackedUser.zig");
 const User = @import("User.zig");
-const CGroup = @import("CGroup.zig");
+const CGroup = @import("cgroup.zig").CGroup;
 const Group = @import("Group.zig");
 const PackedGroup = @import("PackedGroup.zig");
 const GroupStored = PackedGroup.GroupStored;
@@ -267,13 +267,8 @@ fn getGroup(
     };
 }
 
-// getgrtnam returns a Group entry by name. The Group must be
-// deinit'ed by caller.
-fn getgrnam(
-    self: *const DB,
-    name: []const u8,
-    buf: *[]u8,
-) error{OutOfMemory}!?CGroup {
+// get a CGroup entry by name.
+fn getgrnam(self: *const DB, name: []const u8, buf: *[]u8) error{OutOfMemory}!?CGroup {
     const idx = bdz.search(self.bdz_groupname, name);
     const offset = self.idx_groupname2group[idx];
     const group = PackedGroup.fromBytes(self.groups[offset << 3 ..]).group;
@@ -591,26 +586,43 @@ test "read/write via iovec" {
 }
 
 test "high-level API" {
-    const allocator = testing.allocator;
-    var corpus = try Corpus.testCorpus(allocator);
+    var corpus = try Corpus.testCorpus(testing.allocator);
     defer corpus.deinit();
+    var db = try DB.fromCorpus(testing.allocator, &corpus);
+    defer db.deinit(testing.allocator);
+    var buf = try testing.allocator.alloc(u8, db.header.getgr_bufsize);
+    defer testing.allocator.free(buf);
 
-    var db = try DB.fromCorpus(allocator, &corpus);
-    defer db.deinit(allocator);
-
-    // TODO: should accept a buffer instead of an allocator instead.
-    var buf = try allocator.alloc(u8, db.header.getgr_bufsize);
-    defer allocator.free(buf);
     const all = try db.getgrnam("all", &buf);
     try testing.expect(all != null);
     try testing.expectEqual(all.?.gid, 9999);
-    try testing.expectEqualStrings(all.?.name, "all");
+    try testing.expectEqualStrings(mem.sliceTo(all.?.name, 0), "all");
     const members = all.?.members;
     try testing.expectEqualStrings(mem.sliceTo(members[0].?, 0), "Name" ** 8);
     try testing.expectEqualStrings(mem.sliceTo(members[1].?, 0), "root");
     try testing.expectEqualStrings(mem.sliceTo(members[2].?, 0), "svc-bar");
     try testing.expectEqualStrings(mem.sliceTo(members[3].?, 0), "vidmantas");
     try testing.expectEqual(members[4], null);
+
+    const cgroup = all.?.ptr();
+    try testing.expectEqual(cgroup.gid, all.?.gid);
+    try testing.expectEqual(cgroup.name[0], 'a');
+    try testing.expectEqual(cgroup.name[1], 'l');
+    try testing.expectEqual(cgroup.name[2], 'l');
+    try testing.expectEqual(cgroup.name[3], 0);
+}
+
+test "getgr_bufsize" {
+    var corpus = try Corpus.testCorpus(testing.allocator);
+    defer corpus.deinit();
+    var db = try DB.fromCorpus(testing.allocator, &corpus);
+    defer db.deinit(testing.allocator);
+    var buf = try testing.allocator.alloc(u8, db.header.getgr_bufsize);
+    defer testing.allocator.free(buf);
+
+    _ = try db.getgrnam("all", &buf);
+    buf.len -= 1;
+    try testing.expectError(error.OutOfMemory, db.getgrnam("all", &buf));
 }
 
 test "additionalGids" {
diff --git a/lib/Group.zig b/lib/Group.zig
index f8b1b6d..e43ac8f 100644
--- a/lib/Group.zig
+++ b/lib/Group.zig
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 const std = @import("std");
+const ptr_size = @import("cgroup.zig").ptr_size;
 
 const mem = std.mem;
+const meta = std.meta;
 const Allocator = mem.Allocator;
 const Group = @This();
 
@@ -56,9 +58,12 @@ pub fn deinit(self: *Group, allocator: Allocator) void {
 
 // buffer size in bytes if all strings were zero-terminated.
 pub fn strlenZ(self: *const Group) usize {
-    return self._buf.len +
-        self.members.len + // each membername sentinel
-        1; // name sentinel
+    var count: usize = 0;
+    for (self.members) |member|
+        count += member.len + 1;
+    count += ptr_size * (self.members.len + 1);
+    count += self.name.len + 1;
+    return count;
 }
 
 const testing = std.testing;
diff --git a/lib/cgroup.zig b/lib/cgroup.zig
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..be29dd9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/cgroup.zig
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+const meta = @import("std").meta;
+
+// All string fields are 0-terminated, but that's not part of the type.
+// members field is null-terminated, but that's also not part of the type.
+// Making it part of the type crashes zig compiler in pre-0.10.
+// https://github.com/ziglang/zig/issues/7517
+
+pub const CGroup = struct {
+    gid: u32,
+    // should be [*:0]const u8
+    name: []const u8,
+    // Should be [*:null]align(1) const ?[*:0]const u8
+    members: []align(1) const ?[*:0]const u8,
+
+    pub fn ptr(self: *const CGroup) CGroupPtr {
+        return CGroupPtr{
+            .gid = self.gid,
+            .name = self.name.ptr,
+            .members = @intToPtr([*]const u8, @ptrToInt(self.members.ptr)),
+        };
+    }
+};
+
+// size of the pointer to a single member.
+pub const ptr_size = @sizeOf(meta.Child(meta.fieldInfo(CGroup, .members).field_type));
+
+// a workaround of not having sentinel-terminated `name` and `members`.
+pub const CGroupPtr = extern struct {
+    gid: u32,
+    name: [*]const u8,
+    members: [*]const u8,
+};
diff --git a/lib/header.zig b/lib/header.zig
index 08812f1..96ea7a4 100644
--- a/lib/header.zig
+++ b/lib/header.zig
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ const std = @import("std");
 const mem = std.mem;
 const math = std.math;
 const native_endian = @import("builtin").target.cpu.arch.endian();
+const ptr_size = @import("cgroup.zig").ptr_size;
 
 const max_shells = @import("shell.zig").max_shells;
 const magic = [4]u8{ 0xf0, 0x9f, 0xa4, 0xb7 };
@@ -33,7 +34,7 @@ pub const Header = packed struct {
     magic: [4]u8 = magic,
     version: u8 = version,
     endian: Endian = Endian.native(),
-    ptr_size: u4 = @sizeOf(?[*:0]const u8),
+    ptr_size: u4 = ptr_size,
     nblocks_shell_blob: u8,
     num_shells: u8,
     num_groups: u32,
@@ -65,7 +66,7 @@ pub const Header = packed struct {
         // when ptr size is larger than on the host that constructed it the DB,
         // getgr_bufsize/getpw_bufsize may return insufficient values, causing
         // OutOfMemory for getgr* and getpw* calls.
-        if (self.ptr_size < @sizeOf(?[*:0]const u8))
+        if (self.ptr_size < ptr_size)
             return error.InvalidPointerSize;
 
         return self;