Re: plans for file related modules on Windows

[Ben Pfaff]

On Tue, May 09, 2017 at 10:34:04PM +0200, Bruno Haible wrote:
> It's clear that different gnulib users need different levels of native Windows
> support. Some will want to avoid 'struct stat', some will want to use the 
> ino_t
> values in struct stat.
> 
> Here's my current plan: Introduce a set of orthogonal, transversal modules.
> ("transversal" in the sense that such a module does not provide a function,
> but rather provides guarantees for other modules.)
> 
> - windows-year2038 : define time_t as 64-bit (might involve renaming module 
> time to time-h)
> - windows-symlinks : add symlink support to stat, lstat, readlink etc.
> - windows-stat-timespec : add 100ns resolution to file times
> - windows-stat-inodes : redefine dev_t, ino_t
> - windows-uid : redefine uid_t [1]
> - windows-gid : redefine gid_t [1]
> - windows-utf8-filenames : implies override of all file-related functions
> - largefile : support for files > 2 GB (already partially implemented in 2012)
> 
> An override of 'struct stat' will be necessary for windows-year2038,
> windows-stat-timespec, windows-stat-inodes, windows-uid, windows-gid, 
> largefile.
> 
> What do you think about it?
> 
> Which of these modules would you like to see implemented first?

I did not realize that Windows could even support a proper
implementation of the struct stat st_dev and st_ino.  I'd find this
useful in multiple programs, although in some of them I might really
just use the code you write as an educational resource.