Rainer Orth <r...@cebitec.uni-bielefeld.de> writes:
> Hi Alexandre,
>
>> On Jan 28, 2015, Mike Stump <mikest...@comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>>> On Jan 28, 2015, at 2:27 AM, Rainer Orth <r...@cebitec.uni-bielefeld.de>
>>> wrote:
>>>> There are two ways to fix this:
>>>>
>>>> * Remove the definition of _XOPEN_SOURCE completely. This is slightly
>>>> more risky, but more future-proof since defining features test macros
>>>> has been an endless source of trouble in the past.
>>
>>> I think I prefer this one...
>>
>>> But, as I say that, I read:
>>
>>> https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=4372
>>
>>> and there is no hint what host caused him to put the change in, in the
>>> first place. :-( Alexandre, do you recall what host needed the
>>> _XOPEN_SOURCE in libobjc for pthread_mutexattr_settype?
>>
>> The 2005 timeframe suggests it was probably GNU/Linux, and some digging
>> in glibc indicates this flag affected nptl's pthread.h's declarations of
>> various such functions back then. This changed back in 2010, with glibc
>> commit d3c7e68655, in response to newer standards, so I guess this
>> confirms the suggestion from the timeframe. Of course, this being a
>> standard-compliance issue, other targets were likely affected as well,
>> since it looks like there was a standards change, and removing the flag
>> might cause regressions in old systems that remain stuck to the old
>> standards.
>
> Thanks for digging this up. I doubt that anyone using a 2005 vintage
> glibc is really using current GCC trunk, though ;-)
>
> I recall that either or both of IRIX and Tru64 UNIX have been affected
> by _XOPEN_SOURCE definitions in the past. Both of them were last
> supported in GCC 4.7, so are now ancient history.
>
> I'm with Mike here: either we remove the _XOPEN_SOURCE definition now
> and, in case of breakage, add them back exactly for those targets that
> need it, documenting where and why it is necessary. Otherwise, we will
> never get rid of this cruft and break more modern systems on the way.
It's been a week now since I posted the patches and there's still no
conclusion which of the two alternatives to install.
Rainer
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Rainer Orth, Center for Biotechnology, Bielefeld University
