From:	Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
Newsgroups:	comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject:	Re: `void main' in Gnu packages---?!
Date:	Sat, 15 Jan 2000 10:16:36 +0200
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Jeff Williams wrote:
> 
> [time-1.7.tar.gz] compiled right out of the box (well, almost), but when 
> I ran the executable I got a brutal reminder that DOS can't fork().

One should never trust the compiler to make sure a Unix-born program will
work when compiled with DJGPP.  You should at least grep the sources for
telltale Unix-isms like fork, pipe, etc.  I generally find that, to have a
good reliable port, there's no other way than to read the entire source of
the program and look for code that won't work on DOS/Windows.  (As a bonus,
you get to understand how the program works.)

Note that libc.info which comes with v2.03 includes a special chapter that
describes those library functions which either always fail or do nothing (or
almost nothing) in the DJGPP implementation.  This chapter is specifically
meant to be read by people who port packages from Unix.

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