[bug-gnulib] Re: findutils doesn't compile on sunos 4.1.4

[James Youngman]

On Fri, Jun 03, 2005 at 11:20:35AM +1000, jason andrade wrote:
> 
> hi,
> 
> just letting you know that findutils 4.2.20 doesn't seem to compile on 
> sunos 4.1.4.

Thanks for the bug report.  It would be nice if it did work.  

> the error is:
> 
> gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I../..     -g -O2 -c `test -f 'realloc.c' || 
> echo './'`realloc.c
> realloc.c: In function `rpl_realloc':
> realloc.c:40: `NULL' undeclared (first use in this function)
> realloc.c:40: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once
> realloc.c:40: for each function it appears in.)
> make[4]: *** [realloc.o] Error 1
> make[4]: Leaving directory `/local/dev/build/findutils-4.2.20/gnulib/lib'
> make[3]: *** [all] Error 2
> make[3]: Leaving directory `/local/dev/build/findutils-4.2.20/gnulib/lib'
> make[2]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
> make[2]: Leaving directory `/local/dev/build/findutils-4.2.20/gnulib'
> make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
> make[1]: Leaving directory `/local/dev/build/findutils-4.2.20'
> make: *** [all] Error 2

The realloc.c file is part of gnulib (this mail CC'ed to
address@hidden).  These days, gnulib assumes that the software is
being built on a C89-compliant system.  I suspect that SunOS 4.1.4
isn't such a system.  Certainly I believe that <stdlib.h> should
define NULL (though my copy of the standard isn't to hand).


> i'm happy to make this server available if needed - i have a sunos
> 4.1.4 and an irix 5.3 server available for developers interested in
> testing/porting software to older OSes.

That could indeed be a useful resource.  However, I have a limited
amount of time available to work on findutils (and the other free
software project I work on) and so I have to prioritise some things
over others.  That means that although I would like to fix this, in
practice I can't take the time out to do it.

However, I will usually accept patches to fix portabilty problems
(that is, I might not if the patch causes further problems elsewhere).
You should be aware however, that within the findutils distribution,
the "gnulib" subdirectory contains only pristine source code from the
gnulib project.  The way that findutils is built, packaged and
released (at the moment, at least) makes it impractical to ship a
modified version of gnulib.  Since I've copied this email to
address@hidden I hope that somebody on that list can confirm that
the problem as what I suspect and recommend a way forward.  That
suggestion might include sending a patch to the gnulib maintainers,
but it might not.

Thanks for your bug report.

Regards,
James Youngman.