Subject: Re: endianness agnostic getpwent()
To: Jarom r Dolecek <dolecek@ibis.cz>
From: Jun-ichiro itojun Hagino <itojun@iijlab.net>
List: source-changes
Date: 11/12/2000 00:17:39
>> 	is it possible for us to put a fake entry (like "*endian*"), which
>> 	includes endian indication, into pwd.db?
>> 	- if there's an entry, password database lookup should convert endian
>> 	  as necessary.
>> 	- if there's no entry (= pwd_mkdb is old and library is new),
>> 	  too bad, it will be just like we are now.
>> 	- if pwd_mkdb is newer, fake entry should be harmless.

	an additional note: i'm still not 100% sure if it is the way to go.
	it sounds too much, if /etc is supposed to be cpu/arch dependent
	endian.
	we definitely need target-endian indication in builds anyways, for
	other places too (to build /usr/libdata and other target-endian data
	generation), and if we have the indication, we'll be able to use that
	for pwd.db generation and we will be happy.

	so my question is, do we support copying pwd.db across machines,
	specifically with different endian?

itojun