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Date:      Tue, 22 Jun 1999 11:26:05 +0200
From:      Eivind Eklund <eivind@freebsd.org>
To:        "Brian F. Feldman" <green@unixhelp.org>
Cc:        chat@freebsd.org
Subject:   __FreeBSD_version hairsplitting [was Re: cvs commit: doc/en/handbook/ports chapter.sgml]
Message-ID:  <19990622112605.H81707@bitbox.follo.net>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.10.9906211432480.47644-100000@janus.syracuse.net>; from Brian F. Feldman on Mon, Jun 21, 1999 at 02:34:01PM -0400
References:  <19990621122224.S63035@bitbox.follo.net> <Pine.BSF.4.10.9906211432480.47644-100000@janus.syracuse.net>

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[I'm moving this to -chat]

On Mon, Jun 21, 1999 at 02:34:01PM -0400, Brian F. Feldman wrote:
> On Mon, 21 Jun 1999, Eivind Eklund wrote:
> > On Sun, Jun 20, 1999 at 08:03:45PM -0400, Brian F. Feldman wrote:
> > > But __FreeBSD_version is mainly for the ports system anyway!
> > 
> > Disagree.  __FreeBSD_version is mainly so any developer that maintain
> > something outside the FreeBSD tree can be able to make it work with
> > most versions of FreeBSD.  In a way, it is a testimony to our
> > ineptness at creating and maintaining good APIs.
> 
> The ports system is the collection of programs for FreeBSD;

No.  The ports system is infrastructure to easily build, install, and
uninstall a set[1] of programs for use under FreeBSD.  This set is a
small subset of the complete set of programs that can run under
FreeBSD.

> how does that not use __FreeBSD_version? Ports do that. And most of
> the time, with any changes, it is not the API that changes but the
> ABI.

There are other mechanisms than __FreeBSD_version for handling that.
__FreeBSD_version is for handling API differences; it is at source
level.

Eivind.


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