Re: problem with 'configure' on AIX-4.3.3.0 (tar, fileutils)

[Paul Eggert]

> From: Paul Townsend <address@hidden>
> Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 00:09:40 EST
> 
> Isn't using "strerror" in a check for POSIX sort of like mixing apples
> and oranges.

Yes, just as ISC mixed them.

> Is this a check for the "strerror" function, a check for a POSIX library
> or both?

The latter.

> If it's the latter, should there be two tests, one for "POSIX"
> and another for "strerror"?

Not particularly.  Nobody would really want to build a portable
application without the POSIX API on ISC UNIX.  It's not worth
worrying about.

> If this is the case or if we are checking
> just for POSIX, is there a <unique> POSIX function that could be
> substituted for "strerror"?

Perhaps.  But we'd need an ISC system to find that out.  Until someone
files a bug report and says that strerror is wrong, and some other
function is a better one, it's not worth worrying about this.

And I doubt whether we'll ever have to worry about it.  INTERACTIVE
UNIX is dead, and has been dead for years.  Time to move on.  And I
say this having worked with some of the people who wrote it, starting
in 1977.  They moved on long, long ago.