Subject: Re: Compiling NetBSD with another compiler.
To: None <tech-userlevel@netbsd.org>
From: David Laight <david@l8s.co.uk>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 10/11/2007 20:52:50
On Thu, Oct 11, 2007 at 09:30:31PM +0300, Aleksey Cheusov wrote:
> 
> BTW. Can anybody explain what does "function renaming" mean

It makes a function (eg):

extern void foo(void);

generate a reference to a symbol other than 'foo'.

> any why it is used in NetBSD?

For backwards compatibility.
Typically if the prototype of a library function has to be changed (or
if the layout of a structure if refers to changes), then the new function
in the new library is renamed so that a 'compat' function can be defined
in order to support old binaries (or not defined so that they don't load).
This is all rather better than having old programs silently supply the
wrong arguments.

	David

-- 
David Laight: david@l8s.co.uk