Re: new module 'strerror_r-posix'

[Bruno Haible]

Daniel P. Berrange wrote:
> > /* This lock protects the buffer returned by strerror().  We assume that
> >    no other uses of strerror() exist in the program.  */
> > gl_lock_define_initialized(static, strerror_lock)
> 
> It'd be good to have an impl that uses   strerror_s() on Win32
> since I don't think it is safe to assume that all other libraries
> linked against will have strerror() usage protected by the gnulib
> lock.

When you have a multithreaded program, you must ensure that all parts of the
program avoid to use functions with global side effects, like setlocale,
gethostname, sterrror, and similar.

If a program uses strerror in just one thread and strerror_r in the other
threads, you will have also a portability problem on HP-UX 11.23 and Solaris 9,
not only mingw. Therefore using strerror_s() is not a complete fix.

Also, strerror_s() did not exist in MSVC7 and is therefore not declared in
(at least some versions of) the mingw headers.

Bruno