Re: [coreutils/gnulib] m4/host-os.m4: Fixed bug inserting string 'GNU/' to Linux, kFreeBSD, etc (#2)

[Bruno Haible]

> >   https://github.com/coreutils/gnulib/pull/2
> 
> The change itself won't make it into upstream code:

The foremost reason to reject this change is that it combines two
distinct changes in the same patch.

1) The platforms linux*. "Linux" vs. "GNU/Linux". This discussion goes back
   to 1995. The arguments like "Change the string to
   'BSD/Oracle/Microsoft/Redhat/ISC/Apache/MIT/GNU/Linux'" were already
   heard back then. You may not like the outcome of this discussion, but there
   is no need to revive it 22 years later.

2) The platforms kfreebsd*-gnu, knetbsd*-gnu, netbsd*-gnu*. These platforms
   have their home pages here:
   https://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/index.en.html
   https://www.debian.org/ports/netbsd/index.en.html
   As you can see they do have "GNU/" in their name.

> a) the output of 'uname -o' is very probably often used in scripts
> to detect the current platform.  Any change will definitely break
> a lots (if not all) of them.

I don't think many scripts use "uname -o". Most scripts use "uname -s"
or "uname -sr". Nevertheless, even if there are few such scripts, it's
no good to break them without good reason.

Bruno