Re: question: gnulib modules that only exist in coreutils?

[Jim Meyering]

Assaf Gordon wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I'm trying to use "gnulib" in my project.
> I would like to use some modules that seem to exist in the 'coreutils'
> version of 'gnulib', but not otherwise.
>
> specifically: strnumcmp and randread (but later perhaps others).
>
> In coreutils, the files do exist:
> ===
> $ cd coreutils
> $ find -name "*randread*"
> ./gl/lib/randread.c
> ./gl/lib/randread.h
> ./gl/modules/randread
> ./gl/modules/randread-tests
> ./lib/randread.c
> ./lib/randread.o
> ./lib/.deps/randread.Po
> ./lib/randread.h
> ===
>
> But gnulib-tool doesn't recognize these files (compared to other
> modules, which it does:
> ===
> $ ./gnulib/gnulib-tool --find lib/xstrtold.c
> xstrtold
> $ ./gnulib/gnulib-tool --find lib/randread.c
> gnulib-tool: warning: file lib/randread.c does not exist
> ===
>
> And so I can't add them with "--add-import" in my projects.

Hi Assaf,

There is plenty of precedent for moving modules from
coreutils to gnulib.  In fact, that's more or less how
gnulib started: by factoring out coreutils configure/build
machinery.  For similar moves, see the di-set and ino-map
modules.

Those haven't been moved to gnulib mostly because I knew
of no other project that wanted to use them.

The procedure is to add each module to gnulib, perhaps adding
tests (the bar is higher, once a module becomes shared), then
add a commit to coreutils that both updates gnulib and removes
the files under gl/ that comprise each moved module.

Thanks,
Jim