Re: portable error(3)

[Greg Troxel <gdt%ir.bbn.com@localhost>]

"Jeremy C. Reed" <reed%reedmedia.net@localhost> writes:

> glibc provides error(3)
>
> http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/Error-Messages.html
> (see "The error function")
>
> Does pkgsrc have a portable way of handling this?
>
> I have looked at many packages and they have many different ways.
>
> So I am wondering if we have an official way.
>
> I noticed when upgrading tuxmath. It uses error() and it is not detected 
> or defined if needed.
>
> I looked at USE_FEATURES, but didn't see it as a choice.

I read this as

  tuxmath uses non-portable constructs such as a GNU libc error(), and
  fails if they aren't provided.  How do we deal with this in pkgsrc?


I see two ways:

  fix the nonportable programs to work in a posix environment

  create a devel/gnulibc-error package that provides these functions,
  and make the nonportable programs depend on it, figuring out how to
  pull the new lib into LIBS or how to patch the programs to use it.