Re: [MiNT] STAT bits - Ouch!

[Alan Hourihane <alanh@fairlite.co.uk>]

On Wed, 2010-12-08 at 17:00 -0500, Roger Burrows wrote:
> Hi Alan,
> On 8 Dec 2010 at 10:09, Alan Hourihane wrote:
> > 
> > This problem has been around a long long time.......
> > 
> > Given, pretty much, every unix'ish style OS defines these....
> > 
> > (stuff re __S_ defines omitted)
> > 
> > To fix this, I'm thinking of adding an additional command to Ssystem()
> > to tell the kernel to interpret these bits differently. Therefore any
> > new MiNTlib compiled applications would require a new kernel, and if it
> > doesn't get it, the application would fail instantly with an appropriate
> > error message. But existing applications would still work with new or
> > old kernels.
> > 
> > What do people think about this ?
> > 
> The incompatibility of defines is very irritating (& awkward in some cases).  
> I'm all in favour of changing them to the de facto standard.  So the new 
> Ssystem() command would ask the kernel to use the new (i.e. standard Unix) 
> defines for the current process.  Some questions on implementation:
> 1. Will MiNTlib automagically issue the new Ssystem() call, or will it be the 
> program's responsibility?

MiNTlib would do it before it calls main().

> 2. Will this attribute be inherited by a forked process?

Yes.

> 3. Will it be possible to write a new program with backward compatibility to 
> old kernels?

Not as it stands.

Alan.