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Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 15:25:02 -0400
Message-Id: <200010131925.PAA21459@envy.delorie.com>
From: DJ Delorie <dj AT delorie DOT com>
To: cygwin AT sources DOT redhat DOT com
Subject: RFC: linux compatibility


One of the ongoing discussions about cygwin is which "unix" to be
compatible with.  There are a number of specifications (ansi, posix,
x/open etc) and reference platforms (solaris, linux, etc) to choose
from.

Given that Cygnus (official sponsors of Cygwin) has recently been
acquired by Red Hat (leading Linux company), I would like to propose
that the target compatibility reference be Linux.  Note I didn't say
"Red Hat Linux" although that's the only Linux *I* have ;-)

Being compatible with Linux has a number of options:

* We can avoid lengthy discussions about what to be compatible with.

* Applications that run on Linux can more easily be ported to Cygwin.

* The Red Hat Cygwin group is much more likely to get official support :)

This, of course, doesn't mean we're giving up any of the
cygwin-specific stuff (mount tables, crlf handling, etc).  A specific
example of something that would change is the handling of the
time/timezone API, which is currently SYSV-style whereas Linux is
BSD-style.

At this point I'd like to ask for feedback about this idea.  Please
don't turn it into a holy war - facts are good, guesses are bad.

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