Re: uname function in MSYS

On 6/7/2012 1:11 PM, Earnie Boyd wrote:
 >Since MSYS is Cygwin with changes, that someone was Cygwin which
 >provides a POSIX emulation runtime library.
I think I understand.  Does this mean that those components were
built with Cygwin, not with the MSYS development environment?

 >MSYS is a fork of an older version 1.3.x of Cygwin.  The goal of MSYS
I think I remember reading that somewhere.

 >gravy.  So, you should be able to follow the Cygwin methods and build
 >a MSYS dependent ghostscript assuming it doesn't require the newer
 >revisions of GCC and Cygwin.
That wasn't really my goal.  My ultimate goal is to create my own
uname function using Windows methods as you suggested.

 >But in this OS realm the POSIX uname function isn't available, you'll
 >need to use Windows methods to get the equivalent information.
I sort of figured that out while looking into the msys components and
trying to rebuild them.

 >> that.  I want to tamper with the uname command so I have my own custom uname.  This almost
 >> certainly means that I have to build msys source with the msys toolset.
 >No, it really means you need to port it to use Windows methods.
Sure, that is the ultimate goal.  I still would like to know, is it not true
that the current uname.exe provided by msys is built with the msys
toolset?  Since I have been able to rebuild msyscore and coreutils,
using the msys environment, I have to conclude the answer is yes.

By this point you are probably wondering why I am going to this much
trouble to do something that you don't think is a good idea.  Though I
have some experience with a few programming languages and development
environments, it was almost all learned on my own by trial and error.
It took me quite a while before I was able to learn enough of Mingw/msys
(and GTK) to where I could actually do some useful programming.  I am
not as well educated or experienced in this area as are many I see on
lists like this one.  The only learning method that I have had success
with is by taking little bits at a time.

 >> Can you please tell me what I would have to do to the coreutils makefile to make it
 >> link to the library containing GetEnvironmentVariable?
 >
 >Yes, GetEnvironmentVariable is a Windows API and which isn't intended
 >to be used with the MSYS/Cygwin runtime.  However, the emulation must
 >use it so there are special instructions for adding the appropriate
 >libraries when MSYS itself is built.
So would I be correct in understanding that it is built into the
runtime app like uname.exe but not available for linking into my
own app?

What are those special instructions?  how do I link to get that
GetEnvironmentVariable function available to coreutils, specifically
to the uname.c ?  Come to think of it, if my goal is supposed to be
to create a new uname.exe using windows methods, wouldn't I need
access to windows functions such as GetEnvironmentVariable?

 >I think your best bet will be to port ghostscript to windows methods.
 >I think that it has been done already, maybe you just need to follow
As far as Ghostscript goes, you are probably right.  At this point I just
hate admitting defeat on the uname side.  I would really like to know
how to make coreutils link with GetEnvironmentVariable such that I can
do some tampering to get a uname.exe that does what I want and in the
process I hope to learn enough of how it works to be able to port it to
a regular windows app that can be built with mingw environment.

Damon Register

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