Re: Deprecating non-functional SHAREDSTRINGS build option and xstr(1)

[Luke Mewburn <luke%mewburn.net@localhost>]

On 23-05-21 19:45, Anders Magnusson wrote:
  | Den 2023-05-21 kl. 19:40, skrev Luke Mewburn:
  | > I'm going to deprecate the build option SHAREDSTRINGS in bsd.prog.mk
  | > and any other associated build machinery, and probably remove
  | > xstr(1) too.
  | > 
  | > Unless, of course, there's an exceptionally good reason to keep this
  | > non functional feature.
  | > 
  | > 
  | > Rationale:
  | > 
  | > 1. The build option SHAREDSTRINGS hasn't worked for at least 16 years,
  | > and possibly even longer, maybe as far back as 2003-07-22 when
  | > I added .c.o rules to bsd.sys.mk (so the SHAREDSTRINGS .c.o rules
  | > in bsd.prog.mk aren't actually being used).
  | > 
  | > See PR 35964 at
  | > 	https://gnats.netbsd.org/cgi-bin/query-pr-single.pl?number=35964
  | > 
  | > Even though gnu/dist/bc was replaced with usr.bin/dc, building -current
  | > still fails (at least in tests/bin/df and other tests/ subdirs that
  | > build PROG), and the workaround looks ugly.
  | > 
  | > 
  | > 2. xstr is not a host tool, probably because it doesn't work as a native
  | > build option.
  | > 
  | > 
  | > 3. The problem that xstr(1) solves is better solved by modern compilers and
  | > linkers, which have evolved in the 30+ years that xstr has existed.
  | > 
  | > 
  | > Thoughts?
  | 
  | Please remove.
  | The only architecture where I know xstr is something useful is pdp11.
  | It wasn't of any use (on vax) in the 80's either.
  | 
  | -- Ragge

Thanks for the feedback & support.


I realised after sending the mail that mkstr(1) is also part of this
and I'll also remove mkstr.


I have tested a build.sh release after removing SHAREDSTRINGS support,
mkstr, and xstr, and all seems well.


Luke.