Re: "common" symbols are no longer common?!?!?!

[Mouse <mouse%Rodents-Montreal.ORG@localhost>]

> So, it seems like sometime in the last year common symbols are no
> longer marked as common!

I would say, rather, that the compiler no longer generates common
symbols.

This is a compiler regression, switching from common to def/ref.  (I
call it a regression because it breaks formerly working code with no
(apparent) compensating advantange.)  This *is* one of the pieces of
latitude the C spec gives to compilers; I'm discouraged - I wish I
could say "surprised" - to hear that compilers are breaking backward
compatibility by switching to it.  I don't understand what benefit they
perceive it as bringing that justifies breaking existing working code,
but preusmably there is one.

Depending on the compiler, there may be an option which can switch to
common, and it may be enough to just change that option's default value
in the source and rebuild.

> Perhaps this is fallout from a compiler or binutils upgrade?

I feel fairly sure that's exactly what it is: the old compiler uses the
common model and the new compiler uses lthe def/ref model.

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