toolchain/42840: xstr obfuscation not needed any more?

[martin%NetBSD.org@localhost]

>Number:         42840
>Category:       toolchain
>Synopsis:       xstr obfuscation not needed any more?
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    toolchain-manager
>State:          open
>Class:          change-request
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Thu Feb 18 12:45:00 +0000 2010
>Originator:     Martin Husemann
>Release:        NetBSD 5.99.24
>Organization:
The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.
>Environment:
System: NetBSD nelly.aprisoft.de 5.99.24 NetBSD 5.99.24 (NELLY.MP) #114: Tue 
Feb 9 11:19:15 CET 2010 
martin%emmas.aprisoft.de@localhost:/nelly/usr/src/sys/arch/sparc64/compile/NELLY.MP
 sparc64
Architecture: sparc64
Machine: sparc64
>Description:

While looking at some sysinst code I came around this strange line:

          { PART_SWAP,    { 's', 'w', 'a', 'p', '\0' },

(and a few more with the same style). Scratching my head, checking that "swap"
instead generates the same object code, asking around... long story short,
this is due to limitations in the xstr(1) parser, and once upon a time 
apparently this was used, via setting SHAREDSTRINGS in the makefile, to 
eliminate duplicate strings.

However, our .mk docs say:

SHAREDSTRINGS   If defined, a new .c.o rule is used that results in shared
                strings, using xstr(1). Note that this will not work with
                parallel makes.

and with no suprise I am unable to find any use of xstr or SHAREDSTRINGS
in our current build.

If this is the case, the code should be cleaned up to make it readable
again.

>How-To-Repeat:
code inspection

>Fix:
Verify that xstr isn't used any more, de-obfuscate all relevant sources?