[Mingw-users] min. POSIX API for MinGW ...

[Tor L. <tm...@ik...>]

KC writes:
 > MinGW is OK but no POSIX API :-(

No, nor does it claim to be.

 > I really don't want to spend my time on Win32 API ...

Why are you programming for Win32 then... no offense intended.

 > Thanks for MinGW's GIMP port which includes ORBit2, the
 > major part of my application, but I still need a little POSIX API such
 > as gettimeofday().

Use g_get_current_time().

 > Before I start replacing my POSIX call to Win32, I want to konw if
 > any POSIX API exist (partial porting should be enough) for MinGW?

Yes, in the Microsoft C library (that MinGW-built code uses): open,
dup, dup2, fstat, read, write, close, unlink, are those that come
first to mind ;)

MinGW has <dirent.h>, but if you use GLib anyway, use its GDir API
instead. MinGW also has a few other minor POSIX extensions on top of
the Microsoft library.

 > I do find a project called PW32 ... but it for DJGPP ... but maybe a
 > good start for me.

Well, you should consider whether trying to make Win32 look like POSIX
but still not going all the way a'la Cygwin or Interix makes
sense. What aspects of POSIX is it that you are after?

For instance, trying to hide Windows ACLs and pretend they are
rwxrwxrwx bits is bound to cause problems if you program *really*
needs to set or look at file protections closely. You need to rethink
what your code really wants to achieve and if you really need tight
protection control, you can't avoid handling ACLs. 

(There can be ACLs on POSIX systems, too, so why not then write a
wrapper for POSIXish and Win32 ACLs and submit as an enhancement to
GLib?)

--tml