Re: patch for MIPS varargs

[Andreas Jaeger <aj at oss dot sgi dot com>]

On Fri, Apr 21, 2000 at 11:17:49AM -0700, Donald Lindsay wrote:
> On 21 Apr 2000, Andreas Jaeger wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Hi Donald,
> > 
> > thanks for fixing this.  I do have a question about the ABI changes
> > regarding MIPS-Linux.  On MIPS-Linux we do use shared libraries.  If I
> > recompile libc which uses varargs, e.g. for printf, do I need to
> > recompile each binary program with this new compiler?
> 
> If a va_list is passed across the boundary between libraries. then they
> both have to use the "old" ABI, or else they both have to use the "new"
> ABI.
> 
> Yeah, irritating. We certainly don't want to make ABI changes often. If
> anyone sees a case that the new ABI can't handle, please say so REAL SOON.

I prefer to not make such ABI changes at all.  Your ABI change is one of the
worst kind - now every single binary and library that passes va_lists around
needs to be recompiled :-(.  Is there really no way to keep the old format?

> 
> A quick grep through /usr/include shows va_list mentioned in assorted I/O
> things, curses.h, gtk/gtkarg.h, tcl.h, linux/kernel.h (vsprintf),..
> 
> On the good side, testing should catch any bugs introduced this way.
> There isn't any subtlety about the differences.
> 
> > If this is the case, the change should be documented somewhere in a
> > prominent place (NEWS file?) to avoid lots of bug reports later.
> 
> I'm open to suggestions about where to document this.
I prefer NEWS and perhaps the FAQ.

Andreas
-- 
 Andreas Jaeger
  SuSE Labs aj@suse.de
   private aj@arthur.rhein-neckar.de
    currently: aj@oss.sgi.com