X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org
From: ericblake AT comcast DOT net (Eric Blake)
To: Simone Crestani <ilpippo AT caltanet DOT it>, cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: Errors compiling cdrtools under cygwin 1.5.19
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2006 18:25:13 +0000
Message-Id: <012420061825.2204.43D671090006A0AD0000089C22092299270A050E040D0C079D0A@comcast.net>
Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm
List-Subscribe: <mailto:cygwin-subscribe AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Archive: <http://sourceware.org/ml/cygwin/>
List-Post: <mailto:cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Help: <mailto:cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com>, <http://sourceware.org/ml/#faqs>
Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com
Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com

> 
> This is what he answered:

Joerg is known to be stubborn.  You should try reading all
his comments on the bug-tar list, where he claims that his
implementation star is hands-down superior to GNU tar.  Just
take it with a grain of salt.

> 
>     Try to convince cygwin to remove their non-conforming interface
>     definition.
> 
>     The getline() iterface I use goes back to 1982 and has been used in
>     a commercial
>     UNIX clone for a long time.

I would remind Joerg that the Austin group is considering standardizing
the GNU getline() interface; and if that is ever standardized, the
older interface will be officially obsoleted.  Meanwhile, getline() is
a non-standard interface; and until either version (the 1982, or
the GNU version) is standardized, cygwin is sticking with the
Linux definition, and that programs that want to be portable
to multiple platforms must be prepared to deal with whatever
definition of getline exists.

> 
> I don't know if cygwin's interface can easily be changed, but 
> considering that Jörg doesn't seem to be willing to modify his code, 
> what do you think that could be done to solve this problem?
> I hope that a solution can be found, because cdrdao and cdrtools are 
> really great software...

The only thing cygwin could do here is to make sure that
the definition of getline is not visible if _POSIX_SOURCE is
defined, since it is an extension to POSIX.  From what I
know about Joerg, he is pretty insistent that his programs
stick to standards, so if he uses _POSIX_SOURCE to protect
himself from inheriting getline from system headers, then it
is cygwin's fault that we do not yet isolate non-standard
interfaces properly.

--
Eric Blake
volunteer cygwin tar maintainer

--
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/