Mail Archives: djgpp/2011/11/13/13:17:06
> From: Ivan Shmakov <oneingray AT gmail DOT com>
> Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2011 00:46:01 +0700
>
> > Alas, many GNU packages abandoned every portability guideline in the
> > book long ago. Most of the maintainers behave as if GNU/Linux is the
> > only system in the world worth catering to.
>
> > Just the last week, I needed to craft my own version of `mktemp'
> > because the Texinfo test suite used it. `mktemp' is part of GNU
> > Coreutils,
>
> Though it was added somewhat recently:
>
> - --cut: coreutils-8.5/NEWS --
> * Noteworthy changes in release 6.9.90 (2007-12-01) [beta]
>
> ** New programs
>
> …
>
> mktemp: create a temporary file or directory (or names)
> - --cut: coreutils-8.5/NEWS --
That's my point: you need GNU Coreutils to be able to run a test suite
of an entirely unrelated package.
> > And that's just an example, of which I saw too many in the recent
> > years.
>
> Well, supporting a single system preasumably requires less
> effort than supporting many. On the other hand, I doubt that
> there's a free software package whose maintainers will oppose
> any volunteers' effort to improve portability.
>
> If seen this way, it appears that it's the lack of such
> volunteers that makes software non-portable.
How hard is it to create a temporary file/directory in a shell script?
Why does that need a volunteer?
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