Re: fpending issues on LSB: [<sys/types.h> does not define size_t]

[Nelson H. F. Beebe]

Paul Eggert <address@hidden> writes about the failure of
<sys/types.h> in the Linux Standards Base to define size_t.

>> ...
>> "Nelson H. F. Beebe" <address@hidden> writes:
>>
>> > This is the same problem as before with size_t being used before
>> > it is defined with this compiler.
>>
>> <stdio_ext.h> is one thing; it's not standardized.  But <sys/types.h>
>> is another.  The compiler is seriously broken if <sys/types.h> does
>> not define size_t.
>>
>> As I recall, the last mainstream POSIX-like operating system that
>> didn't have size_t in <sys/types.h> was 4.3BSD-Reno (circa 1990), a
>> system so old that we haven't supported it for ages.  POSIX has
>> required <sys/types.h> to define size_t for quite some time.
>>
>> Jim indicated that he'd rather not worry about implementations that
>> are this far out of the mainstream.  Can you please fix this with the
>> LSB compiler, or get it fixed?
>> ...

Here is the relevant section of POSIX (IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (Revision
of IEEE Std 1003.1-1996 and IEEE Std 1003.2-1992) that confirms Paul's
statement:

>> ...
>> 12927 NAME
>> 12928           sys/types.h -- data types
>> 
>> 12929 SYNOPSIS
>> 12930           #include <sys/types.h>
>> 
>> 12931 DESCRIPTION
>> 12932           The <sys/types.h> header shall include definitions for at 
>> least the following types:
>> 
>> ...
>> 
>> 12963               size_t                           Used for sizes of 
>> objects.
>> ...

Neither ISO C89 nor ISO C99 Standards mention any header files in the
<sys/*.h> location.

This lack-of-definition failure is readily exhibited:

        % cat bug-lsbcc.c
        #include <sys/types.h>
        size_t p;

        % lsbcc -c  bug-lsbcc.c
        bug-lsbcc.c:2: error: syntax error before "p"
        bug-lsbcc.c:2: warning: data definition has no type or storage class

I signed up on the LSB discussion list this morning

        http://lists.freestandards.org/mailman/listinfo/lsb-discuss

to see if has been discussed there I have also since done a Web
search, which turned up a report of the same problem from 2003-07-18
14:16:

        
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=773937&group_id=1107&atid=101107

Given that three years have passed since that bug report, no bug
resolution is recorded, and my LSB compilers are new and dated
2006-05-25, I doubt that another problem report would have any effect.

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- Nelson H. F. Beebe                    Tel: +1 801 581 5254                  -
- University of Utah                    FAX: +1 801 581 4148                  -
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