stdout if desired, and emits an error message if the subprocess
failed.
+@node Target Platforms
+@section Target Platforms
+
+Gnulib supports a number of platforms that we call the ``reasonable
+portability targets''. This class consists of widespread operating systems,
+for three years after their last availability, or --- for proprietary
+operating systems --- as long as the vendor provides commercial support for
+it. Already existing Gnulib code for older operating systems is usually
+left in place for longer than these three years. So it comes that programs
+that use Gnulib run pretty well also on these older operating systems.
+
+Some operating systems are not very widespread, but are Free Software and
+are actively developed. Such platforms are also supported by Gnulib, if
+that OS's developers community keeps in touch with the Gnulib developers,
+by providing bug reports, analyses, or patches. For such platforms, Gnulib
+supports only the versions of the last year or the last few months,
+depending on the maturity of said OS project, the number of its users, and
+how often these users upgrade.
+
+Niche operating systems are generally unsupported by Gnulib, unless some
+of their developers or users contribute support to Gnulib.
+
+The degree of support Gnulib guarantees for a platform depends on the
+amount of testing it gets from volunteers. Platforms on which Gnulib
+is frequently tested are the best supported. Then come platforms with
+occasional testing, then platforms which are rarely tested. Usually,
+we fix bugs when they are reported. Except that some rarely tested
+platforms are also low priority; bug fixes for these platforms can
+take longer.
+
+As of 2011, the list of supported platforms is the following:
+
+@itemize
+@item
+glibc systems. With glibc 2.8 or newer, they are frequently tested. With
+glibc 2.3 or newer, they are occasionally tested.
+@item
+MacOS X. In versions 10.5 and 10.6, it's frequently tested. In version
+10.4, it's rarely tested.
+@item
+FreeBSD 6.0 or newer is occasionally tested. FreeBSD 5.x is rarely tested.
+@item
+NetBSD 5.0 or newer is occasionally tested. NetBSD 3.0 or newer is rarely
+tested.
+@item
+OpenBSD 4.0 or newer is occasionally tested. OpenBSD 3.8 or newer is rarely
+tested.
+@item
+AIX 6.1 or newer is occasionally tested. AIX 5.1 or newer is rarely tested.
+@item
+HP-UX 11.11 or newer is occasionally tested. HP-UX 11.00 is rarely tested.
+HP-UX 10.20 is rarely tested and low priority.
+@item
+IRIX 6.5 is occasionally tested. IRIX 5.3 is rarely tested and low priority.
+@item
+OSF/1 5.1 is occasionally tested. OSF/1 4.0 is rarely tested and low
+priority.
+@item
+Solaris 8 and newer are occasionally tested. Solaris 7 is rarely tested.
+Solaris 2.6 and older are rarely tested and low priority.
+@item
+Cygwin 1.7.x is frequently tested. Cygwin 1.5.x is occasionally tested.
+@item
+mingw is frequently tested. But note that some modules are currently
+unsupported on mingw: @code{mgetgroups}, @code{getugroups}, @code{idcache},
+@code{userspec}, @code{openpty}, @code{login_tty}, @code{forkpty},
+@code{pt_chown}, @code{grantpt}, @code{pty}, @code{savewd},
+@code{mkancesdirs}, @code{mkdir-p}, @code{euidaccess}, @code{faccessat}.
+The versions of Windows that are supported are Windows XP and newer.
+@item
+Native Windows, with MSVC as compiler, is not tested and low priority.
+@item
+mingw in 64-bit mode is not tested and low priority so far.
+@item
+Interix 6.1 is rarely tested, and requires the @code{suacomp} library
+(@url{http://sourceforge.net/projects/suacomp/}) in version 0.6.8 or newer.
+Interix 3.5 is not tested.
+@item
+Haiku is rarely tested, BeOS is not tested and low priority.
+@item
+uClibc on Linux is rarely tested.
+@item
+QNX is not tested and low priority.
+@end itemize
+
+Gnulib supports these operating systems only in an unvirtualized environment.
+When you run an OS inside a virtual machine, you have to be aware that the
+virtual machine can bring in bugs of its own. For example, floating-point
+operations on Solaris can behave slightly differently in QEMU than on real
+hardware. And Haiku's @command{bash} program misbehaves in VirtualBox 3,
+whereas it behaves fine in VirtualBox 4.
+
+Similarly, running native Windows binaries on GNU/Linux under WINE is
+rarely tested and low priority: WINE has a set of behaviours and bugs that
+is slightly different from native Windows.
+
+The following platforms are not supported by Gnulib. The cost of
+supporting them would exceed the benefit because they are rarely used, or
+poorly documented, or have been supplanted by other platforms, or diverge
+too much from POSIX, or some combination of these and other factors.
+Please don't bother sending us patches for them.
+
+@itemize
+@item
+Windows 95/98/ME.
+@item
+DJGPP and EMX (the 32-bit operating systems running in DOS).
+@item
+MSDOS (the 16-bit operating system).
+@item
+Windows Mobile, Symbian OS, iOS.
+@end itemize
+
@node Modules
@section Modules
For header files, such as @code{stdbool.h} or @code{stdint.h}, we provide
the substitute only if the system doesn't provide a correct one. The
template of this replacement is distributed in a slightly different name,
-with an added underscore, so that on systems which do provide a correct
+with @samp{.in} inserted before the @samp{.h} extension, so that on
+systems which do provide a correct
header file the system's one is used.
@subsection Enhancements of ISO C or POSIX functions
@code{gnulib-tool}.
@end enumerate
-This is achieved by the @samp{--local-dir} option of @code{gnulib-tool}.
-
+This is achieved by the @samp{--local-dir} option of @code{gnulib-tool}
+(@pxref{Extending Gnulib}).
projects / gnulib.git / blobdiff