Re: mem*/strr*/etc... obsolete warnings

[Bruno Haible]

Mike Frysinger wrote:
> > What extra information would you find useful here?
> 
> the simple explanation you posted in your e-mail should be in the 
> documentation.  and the modules file should point people to that section of 
> the documentation so that it shows up in the warning when they run the gnulib-
> tool.

I'm implementing the first part of what you say:


2009-01-24  Bruno Haible  <address@hidden>

        * doc/gnulib.texi (Obsolete modules): New section.
        Reported by Mike Frysinger <address@hidden>.

--- doc/gnulib.texi.orig        2009-01-24 16:42:31.000000000 +0100
+++ doc/gnulib.texi     2009-01-24 16:42:09.000000000 +0100
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 \input texinfo   @c -*-texinfo-*-
address@hidden $Id: gnulib.texi,v 1.44 2007-09-09 13:20:45 haible Exp $
 @comment %**start of header
 @setfilename gnulib.info
 @settitle GNU Gnulib
@@ -18,8 +17,7 @@
 which is a library of common routines intended to be shared at the
 source level.
 
-Copyright @copyright{} 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Free Software
-Foundation, Inc.
+Copyright @copyright{} 2004-2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 
 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
@@ -122,6 +120,7 @@
 * Comments::
 * Header files::
 * Out of memory handling::
+* Obsolete modules::
 * Library version handling::
 * Windows sockets::
 * Libtool and Windows::
@@ -263,6 +262,30 @@
 fail.
 
 
address@hidden Obsolete modules
address@hidden Obsolete modules
+
+Modules can be marked obsolete.  This means that the problems they fix
+don't occur any more on the platforms that are reasonable porting targets
+now.  @code{gnulib-tool} warns when obsolete modules are mentioned on the
+command line, and by default ignores dependencies from modules to obsolete
+modules.  When you pass the option @code{--with-obsolete} to
address@hidden, dependencies to obsolete modules will be included,
+however, unless blocked through an @code{--avoid} option.  This option
+is useful if your package should be portable even to very old platforms.
+
+In order to mark a module obsolete, you need to add this to the module
+description:
+
address@hidden
+Status:
+obsolete
+
+Notice:
+This module is obsolete.
address@hidden example
+
+
 @node Library version handling
 @section Library version handling