Re: [bug-inetutils] inetutils-1.8: ftp build error

[Chet Ramey]

On 7/25/10 10:33 AM, Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:
>    > This is a known bug, the reason if I recall is that readline
>    > exports xmalloc and xrealloc is to allow programs to hook their
>    > own version into readline.  So the readline maintainer has
>    > declined any fixes for this.
> 
>    This is a severe bug. It makes readline useless for any project
>    that uses gnulib.

Maybe.  There are workarounds, as I detailed in a message to bug-readline
in June.

Another problem is that gnulib has significantly expanded the scope of
the xmalloc/xrealloc/xfree interface.  The source file that defines
those also defines half a dozen other functions: x2realloc, xzalloc, etc.
It also calls those functions internally, requiring the source file to be
linked in whether or not the application calls any of them directly.  I
don't consider this good interface design.  Readline defines only
xmalloc/xrealloc/xfree.  That's an acceptably small footprint, though I
could also see adding xcalloc.

Chet
-- 
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
                 ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, ITS, CWRU    address@hidden    http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/