Re: multiple dots in filenames

[Paul Eggert]

Bruno Haible <address@hidden> writes:

> 2) There is a difference between run-time requirements and build-time
>    requirements. The use of a file named Makefile.in.in is a build-time
>    restriction; you can assume a developer does some effort to set up a
>    suitable environment. I cannot use e.g. gnulib-tool on SMB filesystems
>    on Linux; I cannot build programs on NFS filesystems if there is a time
>    skew between the server and the client; so I don't do that: I use other
>    filesystems instead.

I'd like to second Bruno's suggestion here.  In today's environment we
see more and more request for supporting unusual file systems (e.g.,
file systems that cannot represent the 'x' bit in file permissions),
but this can turn into an enormous time sink for GNU developers.  My
standard response nowadays is to copy your data to more-standard file
system and use that.  I realize this is sometimes inconvenient for
developers and/or users, but in the long run it's for their benefit.

For several years HP has recommended that people use a more-modern VMS
file system if they want to run GNU tools.  By "more-modern" I mean
ODS-5, which has been around for 8 years, long enough that it is now
available on all OpenVMS systems that HP still supports.  See
<http://vmsone.com/~ovmskits/opnsrctoos2/gnv/documentation/gnvreadme_first.html>
section 1.2.  If even HP doesn't support older file systems in their
free-software ports, then GNU volunteers shouldn't have to support
those file systems either.