Re: bug#34817: coreutils 8.31 compile failure on rhel5

[Bruno Haible]

Hi Paul,

> Making the variable 'static' might cause some compilers to notice that
> the variable never changes, so it's a constant, so it can be folded, and
> then they (mistakenly) convert -0.0 to 0.0. Originally the variable was
> extern and the extern hack prevents most compilers from doing this
> incorrect optimization (unless they're doing whole-program optimization,
> which typically they aren't). Since making the variable static removed
> the hack, I decided it was clearer to use the larger change, which makes
> it more obvious that we aren't trying to work around this potential
> problem any more.

Yes, I perfectly agree. When I said "a simpler fix", I did not mean
"a better fix". Your fix is the more reliable one!

Bruno