[OpenAFS-devel] which OS's can't handle prototypes in kernel code?

Garance A Drosihn drosih@rpi.edu
Mon, 11 Jun 2001 15:24:24 -0400


At 1:13 PM -0500 6/11/01, Neulinger, Nathan wrote:
>  > Also note that it's a *compiler* which would not understand
>>  prototypes, not a "system".  So there may be OS's which have
>>  compilers that do not understand prototypes, but those same
>>  systems probably have some other C compiler available which
>>  DOES know about prototypes.
>
>The issue is that on some systems, building kernel code forces
>the choice of what compiler to use, and often, the kernel
>compilers are very lacking (i.e. I know the c compiler on HP-UX
>used for the kernel has lots of limitations.)
>
>Using __P() might be a good choice though.

Often there is a FREE compiler available, and that might not
be 'ansi'.  That does not mean it is "the kernel compiler", as
if that is the only compiler which can compile the kernel...
People use the free compiler because it's FREE, not because
they have no other choice.

In any case, the point I was making was that if you use __P(),
and if you have some kind of autoconfigure setup, then the
decision to use __P() should NOT key off the platform.  It
should key off whether the compiler chosen by the user will
understand prototypes.

-- 
Garance Alistair Drosehn            =   gad@eclipse.acs.rpi.edu
Senior Systems Programmer           or  gad@freebsd.org
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute    or  drosih@rpi.edu