Another goal of Gnulib is to provide application code that can be shared
between several applications. Some people wonder: "What? glibc doesn't
have a function to copy a file?" Indeed, the scope of a system's libc is
-to implement the relevant standards (ISO C99, POSIX:2001) and to provide
+to implement the relevant standards (ISO C, POSIX) and to provide
access functions to the kernel's system calls, and little more.
There is no clear borderline between both areas.
For example, Gnulib has a facility for generating the name of backup
-files. While this task is entirely at the application level --- no
-standard specifies an API for it --- the na@"{@dotless{i}}ve code has
+files. While this task is entirely at the application level---no
+standard specifies an API for it---the na@"{@dotless{i}}ve code has
some portability problems because on some platforms the length of file
name components is limited to 30 characters or so. Gnulib handles
that.
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
+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.
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
-will not support all versions that are at most three years old, but 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.
+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
-people from their developers or users community contributes support to
-Gnulib.
+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
@itemize
@item
-glibc systems. With glibc 2.8 or newer, they are frequenty tested. With
+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
+Mac OS 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.
priority.
@item
Solaris 8 and newer are occasionally tested. Solaris 7 is rarely tested.
-Solaris 2.6 and older is rarely tested and low priority.
+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
@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.
+Only the latest version of mingw is tested; older versions are not supported.
@item
-Native Windows, with MSVC as compiler, is not tested and low priority.
+Native Windows, with MSVC as compiler, is rarely 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.
QNX is not tested and low priority.
@end itemize
-These operating systems are all supported in an unvirtualized environment.
+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
rarely tested and low priority: WINE has a set of behaviours and bugs that
is slightly different from native Windows.
-The following platforms are @emph{not} supported by Gnulib. Even correct
-patches for their support will not be applied.
+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
the @file{m4/} subdirectory. Build scripts reside in the
@file{build-aux/} subdirectory.
-The module description contains the list of files --- @code{gnulib-tool}
+The module description contains the list of files; @code{gnulib-tool}
copies these files. It contains the module's
-dependencies --- @code{gnulib-tool} installs them as well. It also
+dependencies; @code{gnulib-tool} installs them as well. It also
contains the autoconf macro invocation (usually a single line or
-nothing at all) --- @code{gnulib-tool} ensures this is invoked from the
+nothing at all); @code{gnulib-tool} ensures this is invoked from the
package's @file{configure.ac} file. And also a @file{Makefile.am}
-snippet --- @code{gnulib-tool} collects these into a @file{Makefile.am}
+snippet; @code{gnulib-tool} collects these into a @file{Makefile.am}
for the tailored Gnulib part. The module description and include file
specification are for documentation purposes; they are combined into
@file{MODULES.html}.
@item
It ensures consistency of the used autoconf macros and @file{Makefile.am}
rules with the source code. For example, source code which uses the
-@code{getopt_long} function --- this is a common way to implement parsing
-of command line options in a way that complies with the GNU standards ---
-needs the source code (@file{lib/getopt.c} and others), the autoconf macro
+@code{getopt_long} function---this is a common way to implement parsing
+of command line options in a way that complies with the GNU standards---needs
+the source code (@file{lib/getopt.c} and others), the autoconf macro
which detects whether the system's libc already has this function (in
@file{m4/getopt.m4}), and a few @file{Makefile.am} lines that create the
substitute @file{getopt.h} if not. These three pieces belong together.
@subsection Enhancements of ISO C or POSIX functions
These are sometimes POSIX functions with GNU extensions also found in
-glibc --- examples: @samp{getopt}, @samp{fnmatch} --- and often new
-APIs --- for example, for all functions that allocate memory in one way
+glibc---examples: @samp{getopt}, @samp{fnmatch}---and often new
+APIs---for example, for all functions that allocate memory in one way
or the other, we have variants which also include the error checking
against the out-of-memory condition.
@subsection Portable general use facilities
-Examples are a module for copying a file --- the portability problems
+Examples are a module for copying a file---the portability problems
relate to the copying of the file's modification time, access rights,
-and extended attributes --- or a module for extracting the tail
-component of a file name --- here the portability to Woe32 requires a
-different API than the classical POSIX @code{basename} function.
+and extended attributes---or a module for extracting the tail
+component of a file name---here the portability to native Windows
+requires a different API than the classical POSIX @code{basename} function.
@subsection Reusable application code
Module description files are under this copyright:
@quotation
-Copyright @copyright{} 200X-200Y Free Software Foundation, Inc.@*
+Copyright @copyright{} 20XX--20YY Free Software Foundation, Inc.@*
Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
in any medium, are permitted without royalty provided the copyright
notice and this notice are preserved.
Autoconf macro files are under this copyright:
@quotation
-Copyright @copyright{} 200X-200Y Free Software Foundation, Inc.@*
+Copyright @copyright{} 20XX--20YY Free Software Foundation, Inc.@*
This file is free software; the Free Software Foundation
gives unlimited permission to copy and/or distribute it,
with or without modifications, as long as this notice is preserved.
Documentation files are under this copyright:
@quotation
-Copyright @copyright{} 2004-200Y Free Software Foundation, Inc.@*
+Copyright @copyright{} 2004--20YY Free Software Foundation, Inc.@*
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
@itemize
@item
-There is the newest version of Gnulib from the Git repository. The
-source tree can also be fetched from a read-only CVS that mirrors the Git
-repository.
+There is the newest version of Gnulib from the Git repository.
@item
We also make stable releases every two months, at
projects / gnulib.git / blobdiff