header file order issue on tar-1.19/lib/inttypes.h

[John E. Malmberg]

Hello,

I am attempting to build tar-1.19 on VMS.

I am getting an error assert from inttypes.h:

"This file assumes that 'int' has exactly 32 bits.  Please report your 
platform and compiler to <bug-gnulib(at)gnu.org>.

From the analysis of the macro values used to generate the error 
assert, I have discovered that INT32_MAX and INT32_MIN have not been yet 
defined.

It looks like the issue is related to the order that the header files 
get included and the guard macros used.

Step 1:

lib/stdint.h sets up guard macros to prevent it from being recursively 
called.

lib/stdint.h then sets _GL_JUST_INCLUDE_SYSTEM_INTTYPE_H and does a 
#include <inttypes.h>, which really just includes the system inttypes.h.

After that it undefs _GL_JUST_INCLUDE_SYSTEM_INTTYPE_H.

It then includes <sys/bitypes.h>, the system supplied version.

sys/bitypes.h on VMS then includes <inttypes.h> intending to pull in the 
system one, but actually gets the replacement because of the -I setting.

Now lib/inttypes.h, with out the inhibit macros, and with out the 
INT32_MAX and INT32_MIN macros defined.

The quick patch that I can do is to move where the #undef of the 
_GL_JUST_INCLUDE_SYSTEM_DIRECTORY_H is.

The long term fix to avoid this would be to not use the same names for 
the replacement header files as the system header files, because system 
header files can and do call each other, and will not know about any guards.

As bitypes.h is not part of x/open, I can not find any official rules as 
to what header files it is also allowed to expose.

Regards,
-John
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