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Date:      Thu, 10 Oct 2002 12:38:41 -0700
From:      Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com>
To:        Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>
Cc:        Craig Rodrigues <rodrigc@attbi.com>, freebsd-standards@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Problem detecting POSIX symbolic constants
Message-ID:  <3DA5D741.FB59AE1B@mindspring.com>
References:  <20021010213351.X8598-100000@gamplex.bde.org>

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Bruce Evans wrote:
> _POSIX_REALTIME_SIGNALS is defined to 0:
> This means that the interface may work, and that it exists in headers and
> libraries, so applications may reference it in normal ways.  It may fail
> at runtime; applications must use sysconf() to determine if it is actually

Alternately, they can say "Screw you, OS designer!" and use it
as if it were "-1", so that they don't have to add all sorts of
runtime garbage to their programs, with multiple alternate code
paths, etc..  Makes for much more readable code.


> _POSIX_REALTIME_SIGNALS is undefined:
> Apparently the same as when it is defined to 0, except you cannot assume
> that anything related to it works until you call sysconf(), so you must
> not reference its interfaces statically, and must use a dll or something
> that references it.  The dll is presumably available on systems that
> support it but not (except possibly a dummy version) on systems that
> don't support it.
> 
> I think the case where the symbol is undefined should never be implemented
> in practice.  It can be reduced to the case where the symbol is 0 using
> dynamic linkage with the complications for linkage not visible to the
> application.

I think you will have to go back in time, for this to happen.  As
things stand today, there are systems where it's undefined that
were implemented before the symbol was a twinkle in some feature-test
weenie on the POSIX committee's eye.

-- Terry

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