Re: Fix for compiling m4 on VAX
John Klos <[email protected]> Wed, 30 Oct 2013 23:08:41 +0000 (UTC)
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.gnu.m4.patches,gmane.comp.lib.gnulib.bugs |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
Hi, >> This change needs to be incorporated upstream in gnulib (cc'd); from >> there it will find its way into the next m4 release. Thank you. > What compiler is being used, and what macros does this compiler > predefine? gcc (GCC) 4.1.3 20080704 prerelease (NetBSD nb3 20111107) The common relevant macros are __vax__ (for OpenBSD, too - no idea about GNU/Linux or if that port even exists any more) and, of course, __NetBSD__. > More generally: > > Why is the change needed? What happens, exactly, if you don't > have the change? > > The VAX doesn't have NaNs at all, right? So that section of > code shouldn't be compiled at all: isnan should simply return > 0 without inspecting its argument. That is the real bug that > needs to get fixed here. Without it, compiling m4 fails: http://mail-index.netbsd.org/tech-pkg/2010/03/24/msg005186.html And yes, VAXen have no NaNs, so yes, isnan would never possibly return true on VAX.