Re: [TrouSerS-tech] symmetric.c patch

[Hal F. <hal...@gm...>]

Writing cross platform code is hard to do right. It is easy to end up
with crufty code full of unnecessary ifdefs. You need someone who can
do the integration who is familiar with the nature of the various
supported platforms, with POSIX and C99 and other standards. In many
cases a little restructuring or re-architecting will allow the code to
run cross platform without ifdefs.

In this case:

On Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 6:14 AM, Wyllys Ingersoll
<wyl...@su...> wrote:
> Patch for src/trspi/crypto/openssl/symmetric.s
>
> * Solaris needs the "limits.h" header
>
> *** src/trspi/crypto/openssl/symmetric.c.old    Tue Jul 17 14:25:24 2007
> --- src/trspi/crypto/openssl/symmetric.c        Tue Sep  2 11:03:30 2008
> ***************
> *** 16,21 ****
> --- 16,24 ----
>   */
>
>  #include <string.h>
> + #ifdef __sun__
> + #include <limits.h>
> + #endif

I don't think the #ifdef __sun__ is needed at all. Isn't limits.h
present on virtually all platforms? Isn't it part of the C99 standard?
Now maybe that include file is not needed on other platforms, but it
doesn't hurt to include it.

In short I hope the maintainers don't just import these patches
verbatim. Apply some reasoning and logic, see if you can find a way to
integrate them without messing up the code. Some stuff is clearly
Solaris specific, others may represent code which can be implemented
more portably.

Hal Finney