Re: nl_types.h

[Lloyd Parkes <lloyd%must-have-coffee.gen.nz@localhost>]

On 13/08/2014, at 12:13 pm, Matt Thomas <matt%3am-software.com@localhost> wrote:

> 
> I found I couldn't crossbuild netbsd on OSX if the host tool used 
> <nl_types.h> because the one in tools/compat is mostly empty.  If I moved it 
> out of the way, the build went fine.
> 
> My questions is why do we need it?  Why don't just use host's <nl_types.h>?  
> Do we build on anything that doesn't have a native <nl_types.h>?

Yeah, I found that last year and posted about it here. For some reason I didn’t 
PR it. I seem to recall doing a bit of digging and coming to the conclusion 
that it was added to compat for some program that #included it, but didn’t need 
it. I’m pretty sure I inferred the latter from the emptiness of the file. 

nl_types.h has been in compat for well over a decade and I have a strong 
suspicion that it is no longer needed. The commit message mentions that the 
commit (not necessarily the file) is closely aligned with Solaris 7 build 
support. 

I think compat/nl_types.h should just go away. It has done it’s job and the 
problem it solved has gone away. I am assuming that compat/nl_types.h can only 
be used by “./build.sh tools” because anything being compiled to run on NetBSD 
surely should be using include/nl_types.h instead. This leaves the problem of 
programs in our toolset that include nl_types.h (probably without using it) 
being built on platforms that don’t have nl_types.h. We could fix those 
programs, or we could abandon support for building on those platforms. I’m not 
convinced we’ll even find build platforms without nl_types.h these days, but 
people round here do have plenty of weird computers.

Cheers,
Lloyd