X-Git-Url: https://erislabs.net/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fgnulib-intro.texi;h=e2d388d6b06bf1c93fd0a19bb57b1ae14cf82cb2;hb=a0c6d64df03b9dbbe9515d47f72f5639174abc80;hp=2a32c81643a21373184058f5b66f30f7953c5b3b;hpb=c30db8821cd00c7be8d84249d120bba99aac69cd;p=gnulib.git diff --git a/doc/gnulib-intro.texi b/doc/gnulib-intro.texi index 2a32c8164..e2d388d6b 100644 --- a/doc/gnulib-intro.texi +++ b/doc/gnulib-intro.texi @@ -74,6 +74,116 @@ as an application aid: it takes care of redirecting stdin and/or 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 +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. + +Niche operating systems are generally unsupported by Gnulib, unless some +people from their developers or users community contributes 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 frequenty 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 is 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 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 + +These operating systems are all supported 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 @emph{not} supported by Gnulib. Even correct +patches for their support will not be applied. + +@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