On Wed, 3 Mar 2004, Love wrote:

> compile_et/libcom_err in heimdal/kth-krb (and base) supports more feature=
s
> (among others, threadsafeness) in the .et file that e2fsprogs
> compile_et/libcom_err have started to support (at least partly).

I see that Debian's krb5 package's README says:
  "... To avoid introducing yet another com_err into Debian, I patched the
  Kerberos sources to use the e2fsprogs com_err. This required adding a
  k5_comerr_glue.c to libkrb5 to implement several functions not included
  in the e2fsprogs com_err.  This is an abstraction violation.
  Fortunately, work is underway to unify all the different versions of
  com_err so this can go away in the future."

> > It appears that the e2fsprogs "Common Error Description Library for UNI=
X"
> > is derived from MIT and KTH source.
>
> I would guess its derived from MIT. KTH one is a diffrent implementation.

It actually has a lib/et/com_right.c file that says copyright Kungliga
Tekniska H=F6gskolan.

> > Any suggestions on which libcomm_err implementation to use? And how to =
get
> > packages that previously provided it to use it?
>
> They are all the same, so it doesn't matter which one you choose. All the
> error-codes are the same, and the API, but not the ABI. Choose one and on=
ly
> one, mixing (w/o renameing) will cause you headaches.


Sam Hartman, the Debian developer, told me today:

  "I believe that current e2fsprogs has a superset of com_err
  functionality for all Unix com_err implementations.  I believe that
  everything besides OpenAFS on Debian is moving towards using it.

  "OpenAFS will probably not need to move to this com_err until it starts
  building shared libraries."

I see the latest e2fsprogs has latest Heimdal compile_et extensions.

I'd like to start working on a libcom_err package based on this
e2fsprogs-1.35/lib/et/ code. It has the original Student Information
Processing Board of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology copyright
and license (1987, 1988). This license needs to be updated maybe: it
mentioned "without fee", but other files say "any purpose". The KTH code
included is a BSD license. It also has UCB code and some FSF'd tex macros.

Is anyone else interested in this? (And want to package this themselves?)


   Jeremy C. Reed
   http://www.reedmedia.net/