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Re: [Grep-devel] [PATCH] grep: use 'j' printf length modifier for [u]int
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From: |
Jim Meyering |
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Subject: |
Re: [Grep-devel] [PATCH] grep: use 'j' printf length modifier for [u]intmax_t |
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Date: |
Sun, 16 Oct 2016 16:28:45 -0700 |
On Sun, Oct 16, 2016 at 12:13 AM, Zev Weiss <address@hidden> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I noticed the print_offset() function in src/grep.c has been formatting its
> uintmax_t argument manually since sometime in the 1990s, when that was
> apparently necessary. The C99 'j' printf length modifer for [u]intmax_t has
> been around for a while now though -- hopefully long enough that grep can
> safely use it instead of reimplementing it.
Hi Zev,
That is a compelling patch.
However, we have deliberately not used %j anywhere in gnulib-based
packages like coreutils, grep, gzip, diffutils because while it is
easy to build/use a new compiler on an old system, it is harder to
provide adequate run-time support for that.
On the plus side, I found that gettext has been using %j in one of its
tools for over two years:
http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/gettext.git/commit/?id=b93e0b2a5b353699769696a09640ffde837e66d0
That is encouraging, and suggests it may finally be time to remove
these kludges everywhere and jump on the C99 train, finally.
Other opinions?
At worst, we could #ifdef this with the existing code and add an
autoconf run-test (they *are* frowned upon, with good reason, though)
to detect whether %ju actually works, and fall back to the existing
code when it doesn't.