Re: query on system.h include order check

[Jim Meyering]

On Mon, May 18, 2015 at 4:34 AM, Pádraig Brady <address@hidden> wrote:
> The commit message here doesn't explain why this was done:
> http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=commitdiff;h=SH-UTILS-2_0_12-112-g13221a5
>
> Why not just include <sys/types.h> in system.h?
>
> Would this be better served these days with a syntax-check?
>
> Note I introduced a typo in the last change to this macro in 2011
> which effectively avoided this check entirely
> (notice the triple underscore in
> http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=coreutils.git;a=commitdiff;h=v8.9-10-ge1aaf89)
> So should we just remove this check?

Hi Pádraig,
Sorry about the delay: this came in while I was mostly offline and I
nearly missed it.
The roots of "include <sys/types.h> before system.h" are so far back that I have
only a vague recollection that we couldn't simply include that header
in system.h,
probably due to portability problems that have been irrelevant for many years.

I agree that it seems better not to impose such a rule without a good reason,
and hence that it'd be good to remove the syntax-check rule.

Thanks,
Jim