Re: AC_HEADER_DIRENT

[Jim Hyslop]

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Derek R. Price wrote:
> Paul Eggert wrote:
> 
>>>"Derek R. Price" <derek@ximbiot.com> writes:
>>>
>>>
>>>>Thanks, Bruno.  I've attached a patch that replaces all the references
>>>>to AC_HEADER_DIRENT with calls to AC_CHECK_HEADERS_ONCE([dirent.h
>>>>ndir.h]) and makes the accompanying changes in lib/*.  This patch does
>>>>simplify, though not quite as much as I was originally hoping, since I
>>>>had to leave in the <ndir.h> support for Windows.
>>>
>>>Can the Windows guys supply a dirent.h substitute module?  That would
>>>let you do the futher simplification.

Well, I had re-added the ndir.h support, because the diff library file
dir.c refers to the DIR structure, in the function dir_sort:

  if (dir->desc != -1)
    {
      /* Open the directory and check for errors.  */
      register DIR *reading = CVS_OPENDIR (dir->name);


The only declaration of DIR that I could find was in windows-NT/ndir.h

I just read the thread leading up to this discussion, and I get the
impression dirent.h and ndir.h are both obsolete. If that's the case,
which header should declare the DIR structure?

[...]
> Jim, anyone, is <dirent.h> a recent Windows
> development?  Can we rely on it?
[...]
> Hrm again.  Jim, it looks like CVS is including its own ndir.c and
> ndir.h in windows-NT/.  Is this necessary?  I believe Bruno said Windows
> had an <ndir.h>, which would imply that there was a readdir() that
> worked but returned a struct direct *.  Why is CVS supplying its own
> versions?

Neither dirent.h nor ndir.h are included in either MSVC6 or Visual
Studio 2005. At least, not with the versions I have installed (Visual
Studio 6 Enterprise, and Visual Studio 2005 Standard).

> As an aside, the first four (and 6 of the top 10) google hits on
> "windows ndir.h" are copies of or related to the CVS sources.  The other
> 4 top hits were not particularly interesting.  It also looks like hits
> 11-20 are more of the same.

It sounds likely that the CVS version is supplied to fill in some blanks.

BTW, just to ease the concerns over copyright for the folks on the
bug-gnulib list: I have started the process of filing the copyright
assignment forms. In the interim, I hereby confirm that all source code
I have contributed to date, and will contribute in the future, is either
my own work, or is copied from other free software and properly
attributed. No third party, such as an employer or educational
institute, has any copyright claim in any work I submit. I hereby
release any and all contributions I make to the GNU project under the
terms of the GPL or GPLL, whichever is appropriate to the module to
which I contribute.

- --
Jim Hyslop
Dreampossible: Better software. Simply.     http://www.dreampossible.ca
                 Consulting * Mentoring * Training in
    C/C++ * OOD * SW Development & Practices * Version Management

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