ron is right: supposedly `portable' programs are full of gcc-specific stuff. much of it is fairly silly. if you google, somewhere there's a description of the unbelievable mess connected with strcmp and strncmp semi-builtins. staggering.
it's much easier just to regard a gcc-based environment as another world (which is what is, anyway) and let it be self-contained (as well as self-centred). at least plan 9 doesn't care what you do in user space, unlike some other systems. mind you, i'd be happier if linux could run its own programs. on a 192mbyte machine with an off-the-cd (errr. dvd) installation, apt-get can't update anything because it has exhausted the mmap mappings. i'm exhausted too. i'll just reinstall. i'll try ubuntu this time, that seems to work better.
