Re: gnu utilities for MVS and CMS

[Eric Blake]

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[please keep the list in the loop; also, adding bug-gnulib, since the
files you are complaining about come from there]

According to Paul Edwards on 1/31/2009 11:01 PM:
>> All of the @ characters are designed to be replaced by running the
>> Makefile produced by the ./configure script.  Are you able to run that
>> script?  If not, can you at least post the resulting config.log to show
>> how far it got?
> 
> I can't run configure.  The target is the mainframe, not the
> compiler I have on my PC.

The ./configure script works for cross-compilation cases, if you use the
right --build and --host flags.

> 
> I have asked before whether configure could have an option
> to generate for a theoretical C89 compiler rather than
> inspecting the current system, and was told no.

In a cross-compilation scenario, the configure script examines the
characteristics of the cross-compiler, not the current system, making
pessimistic guesses (which you can override if necessary via cache
variables) for the few tests that can only be resolved by running an
executable.

> 
> It would be nice if there were such an option and that the
> config files were all generated for such a compiler, by
> default, so all the user needs to do is provide a conforming
> C compiler, not an entire Unix-like environment.
> 
>>> It would be nice if M4 compiled by default on a C89 compiler and
>>> if the extensions are there for cosmetic or any other purpose,
>>> that's fine, but the user needs to enable the use of those
>>> extensions.
>>
>> It _does_ compile with a C89 compiler, once you have a successful
>> configure run.  At least, that is the intent of all the replacement
>> headers.
> 
> There's a replacement for fcntl.h?

For every file named lib/*.in.h, yes, gnulib provides a replacement header
which tries to provide a more modern environment built around the limited
capabilities of the machine that it is being ported to.

> 
> BTW, a couple of the files have non-ASCII characters, which cause
> translation warnings, but probably harmless.  I looked at one of them
> and it was someone's name, and even on my ASCII machine, the
> name was gibberish.
> 
> BFN.  Paul.
> 
> fnm is fpucw.h
> warning - converting x'C3' to space
> warning - converting x'A8' to space
> fnm is gl_list.h
> warning - converting x'C2' to space

Yes, some gnulib files use UTF8 characters in comments.  Since it is only
in the comments, and not in the source itself, these characters should be
ignored by the preprocessor.  The fact that your preprocessor warns about
them is annoying, but warning-free compilation for old compilers is not a
prerequisite for our development.

- --
Don't work too hard, make some time for fun as well!

Eric Blake             address@hidden
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