Re: Moving EA function to libutil

[Manuel Bouyer <bouyer%antioche.eu.org@localhost>]

On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 09:35:53AM +0200, Emmanuel Dreyfus wrote:
> Hello
> 
> I seems desirable to move extended attribute copying functions from libc
> to libutil. This is about
> extattr_copy_file
> extattr_copy_fd
> extattr_copy_link
> cpxattr
> fcpxattr
> lcpxatte
> 
> While there, it seems it would be desirable to move
> extattr_namespace_to_string
> extattr_string_to_namespace
> 
> Removing functions from libc rquire bumping the major, which seems
> highly undesirable. 
> 
> - does the rule apply between releases? I just added EA copying
> functions to libc, can I move them to libutil without bumping the major?
> 
> - does the rule apply to unused stuff? EA support has been completely
> broken for years, I resurected it a few weeks ago. I am sure nobody was
> using it (kernel did not built, and with the build fixes it had a few
> lock-related panics). OTOH at least src/usr.sbin/extattrctl and
> src/usr.bin/extattr did link with extattr_namespace_to_string and
> extattr_string_to_namespace until now, but nobody has been using that
> two commands.

These functions may not have been called, at all, but some programs may have
linked with them. Removing them from libc could cause these programs
to fail with unresolved symbols.
So no, you can't remove the symbols from libc.

-- 
Manuel Bouyer <bouyer%antioche.eu.org@localhost>
     NetBSD: 26 ans d'experience feront toujours la difference
--