Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: vfork | Date | Thu, 11 Nov 1999 09:58:17 +0100 (MET) | From | (Rogier Wolff) |
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kernel@kvack.org wrote: > On Wed, 10 Nov 1999, Ed Hall wrote: > > > As someone who has seen the hubris of numerous Unix vendors in assuming > > that portability isn't their problem--especially when it comes to > > documentation--it pains me when Linux folks take a similar tack. Looked > > at from the perspective of someone coming to Linux from elsewhere in > > the Unix world, your attitude looks downright hostile. Such attitudes > > belong on Slashdot, not here. > > Don't take such opinions as representative of anyone other than the > individual that posted it (the same applies to my comment, although I do > think that people are generally not hostile to portability issues, rather > merely uninformed). Personally, I try to avoid writing non-portable code, > but the fact of the matter is that it's impossible to ensure that a piece > of code will work properly on an architecture that it hasn't been tested > on. That said, the fixes are usually pretty simple.
Right! While writing an application, before you know it, you're using a system-specific feature or extension. If only manual pages would at least tell me what's POSIX and what's a linux extension.
For example the "select" manpage for Linux is good in that respect:
> On Linux, timeout is modified to reflect the amount of time not > slept; most other implementations do not do this. This causes > problems both when Linux code which reads timeout is ported to other > operating systems, and when code is ported to Linux that reuses a > struct timeval for multiple selects in a loop without reinitializing > it. Consider timeout to be undefined after select returns.
Roger.
-- ** R.E.Wolff@BitWizard.nl ** http://www.BitWizard.nl/ ** +31-15-2137555 ** *-- BitWizard writes Linux device drivers for any device you may have! --* "I didn't say it was your fault. I said I was going to blame it on you."
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