Re: [patch] Get coreutils 6.1 to build on a ANSI 89 compiler

[mwoehlke]

Paul Eggert wrote:
> mwoehlke <address@hidden> writes:
> > people seem to want to only support GNU software
> > on the latest stable release of Linux
>
> That may be true for other packages but it's not true of coreutils.
> Coreutils is built fairly regularly on older systems, even systems
> like Solaris 2.6 (released 1997) that are no longer supported by their
> original suppliers.

I know, it just seems like a number of the conversations here about 
potentially-high-impact changes have been carried on as if Linux 2.6 was 
the only supported platform.

For instance, the recent conversation about openat, etc, mentioned 
corner cases that might cause a Linux system to not have /proc. What I 
don't recall seeing is ANY concern for systems that don't even *have* /proc.

Now I know that in this case we're talking about something where the 
emulation layer is reported to work well, but again, it's the 
*appearance* of not caring about other platforms that worries me. Since 
I don't have the ability to read the official developer's thoughts, I 
have to rely on what I see here, and when all I see is concern about 
Linux without concern for other platforms where I would expect to see 
some (even if only, "oh, yeah, and the emu layer will handle other 
OS's"), I get a little worried. :-)

At any rate, thank you both (Paul and Bob) for the reassurance that 
non-Linux is not forgotten. :-)

--
Matthew
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