To: None <tech-userlevel@NetBSD.ORG>
From: J.T. Conklin <jconklin@netcom.com>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 02/27/1995 21:41:53
Today I discovered two more programs that use <regexp.h>, but don't
link with -lcompat to get the V8 regular expression functions.
I removed the V8 routines back when I originally integrated Henry
Spencer's POSIX regex routines. Chris added them again shortly
thereafter to be compatible with 4.4BSD.
I didn't disagree with that decision at the time, but I think time has
shown (as we've discovered programs that use <regexp.h> without linking
-lcompat) that being compatible with 4.4 has it's price. In particular,
in this case I think the price is too high for a little used API. If
this was BSD's traditional re_comp() and re_exec() regex API I would
probably feel differently.
Does anyone have any reason why we should keep the V8 regex routines?
--jtc
P.S: This time the programs are mount_portal and amd. I haven't had
time to fix them to use the POSIX regex routines or send a PR.