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Re: [patch] Get coreutils 6.1 to build on a ANSI 89 compiler


From: Jim Meyering
Subject: Re: [patch] Get coreutils 6.1 to build on a ANSI 89 compiler
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 10:37:09 +0200

mwoehlke <address@hidden> wrote:
> Paul Eggert wrote:
>> mwoehlke <address@hidden> writes:
>>> people seem to want to only support GNU software
>>> on the latest stable release of Linux
>> That may be true for other packages but it's not true of coreutils.
>> Coreutils is built fairly regularly on older systems, even systems
>> like Solaris 2.6 (released 1997) that are no longer supported by their
>> original suppliers.
>
> I know, it just seems like a number of the conversations here about
> potentially-high-impact changes have been carried on as if Linux 2.6 was
> the only supported platform.

The key word there is "seems".
You have misunderstood.

> For instance, the recent conversation about openat, etc, mentioned
> corner cases that might cause a Linux system to not have /proc.

You can't really mean the above.  That would be silly.
The corner cases in question involve code that would never
"cause a Linux system to not have /proc."

> What I
> don't recall seeing is ANY concern for systems that don't even *have* /proc.

If a surgeon were removing your tonsils, would you be worried
about ending up paraplegic because s/he didn't state publicly
that it's important to avoid cutting off your legs?

If you have doubts about the portability of the coreutils, then try
to build it.  You might be surprised.  If you find any fault, please
report it.

> Now I know that in this case we're talking about something where the
> emulation layer is reported to work well, but again, it's the
> *appearance* of not caring about other platforms that worries me. Since
> I don't have the ability to read the official developer's thoughts, I

You don't need to read anyone's thoughts when you can read the
code and/or simply try to build it anywhere you want.

> have to rely on what I see here, and when all I see is concern about
> Linux without concern for other platforms where I would expect to see
> some (even if only, "oh, yeah, and the emu layer will handle other
> OS's"), I get a little worried. :-)




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