Re: libahdi [Re: CVS commit: basesrc]

[Julian Coleman <J.D.Coleman%newcastle.ac.uk@localhost>]

[trying and catch everything in one message - hope it makes sense]

Bernd Ernesti wrote :
> I saw no discussion anywhere about adding a new library.
> 
> What is it for and why does it need to be a library?
> 
> And why should it be m68k only? 

Lennart Augustsson wrote :
> Indeed.  I don't think a library should be added in /usr without proper
> discussion.

Jason Thorpe wrote :
> Yes, and it should not require ANY machine-depenent constants to build.

OK, I admit I didn't discuss it first.  Should I remove it?

The library is a set of routines to handle the Atari native disk layout.  I
put the routines in a library as I want (at least) sysinst and a user-land
utility to be able to use the routines.  It seemed sensible to use a library
rather than duplicate the code.  Perhaps I should just duplicate the code?

I thought that the library should go in /usr, which is where all the other
libraries go.  Should it be installed somewhere else instead?  The makefile
only installs the library for the Atari, but the manual pages on all
architectures.  If we want a unified m68k /usr, then the library must be
installed for all m68k machines if it is installed on any one of them?

>From vague mumblings that it would be useful to have user-land utilities that
are able to read other ports' disks, would it be better to turn this into a
more general set of routines to do this?  I can do this for Atari and Sun
(I don't have any other machines to test).  Libdisklabel?  Libahdi does use
a header file specific to port-atari at the moment.  If a library to handle
all the native disk labels would be useful, all the machine-dependent
headers describing disk labels will need to be installed for all ports.

J

PS.  A more appropriate mailing list would be ... tech-userlevel?
-- 
                    My other computer also runs NetBSD
                          http://www.netbsd.org/