Re: CVS commit: src/crypto/external/bsd/netpgp/dist

["Perry E. Metzger" <perry%piermont.com@localhost>]

Alistair Crooks <agc%pkgsrc.org@localhost> writes:
> On Wed, May 06, 2009 at 06:47:37PM +0200, Joerg Sonnenberger wrote:
>> On Wed, May 06, 2009 at 03:52:15PM +0100, Alistair Crooks wrote:
>> > You're right, if you believe that the failure of a runtime check for
>> > the length of time_t being greater than or equal to 4 bytes is
>> > sufficient to abort an application.
>> 
>> ...which can and should be a compile-time assertion.
>
> Absolutely - we can put it in <sys/cdefs.h>, right next to the check
> for the value of pi changing, and the check for int32_t being able to
> address 32 bits.
>
> Having this kind of thing as compile-time checks would take a huge
> weight off my mind.
>
> Alistair
>
> PS.  It has suddenly struck me that your suggestion might have been
> serious. Oh well...

Often, when one is writing code like this, one assumes something like
the idea that time_t is always, say, four bytes. Then, later, someone
like Christos comes along and turns the value into an eight byte
quantity and assumptions fail. It is nice to have the assumptions fail
in a nice loud way at compile time. This is not the same as checking
that pi has not changed.

Perry
-- 
Perry E. Metzger                perry%piermont.com@localhost