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Re: groff: conflict with prototype arg name in getopt.h
- To: Ulrich Drepper <drepper at cygnus dot com>
- Subject: Re: groff: conflict with prototype arg name in getopt.h
- From: Roland McGrath <roland at gnu dot org>
- Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 15:16:15 -0400 (EDT)
- Cc: Werner LEMBERG <wl at gnu dot org>, "Bruce Lilly <blilly at erols dot com>Andreas Jaeger" <aj at suse dot de>, libc-alpha at sources dot redhat dot com
getopt is one of the few things in the GNU C library that is also used in
nearly every GNU package, on all the myriad platforms supported by various
packages. (In fact, the getopt code predates the GNU C library.) In this
context, there is no hard and fast specification that applies--what applies
is the standard of portability for essential GNU tools.
Because getopt is now maintained as part of the GNU C library, problems
with it are brought to the libc maintainers, who in other respects are not
normally concerned with that sort of portability. But as the maintainers
of getopt, we need to be sensitive to the portability needs of other GNU
packages. The same rules should apply now to getopt as did in the old days
when it lived in /gd/gnu/lib.
Fortunately, there is really no need for a general debate on the whole
issue right now. The changes needed to be portable are just a mild
uglification of the header file. To my eyes, that is much less ugly than
the piles of #if crapola we already have uglifying getopt.h for no reason
except precisely this kind of portability.