For all you Mac OSX users out there... This is kind of continuation of the [cd] and [pwd] problem(s) I've already covered in my last posting.
The Tcl8.4.x uses the OS-call realpath() to figure-out the real physical path of the file on the filesystem, stripped of all "./", "../", constructs, symlinks and alike. BANG: this function uses chdir/fchdir internally which changes the process current working directory for each invocation. It is called for just about *every* path you pass to the Tcl library! Wow! The funny thing: the man page does not care to mention this *important* side-effect! Of course, this defeats *any* multithreading code. There is no single point like [cd] command which mingles with the current dir; *all* path arithmetics eventually call into the realpath() and it will swap the current dir under your feet. This is not the case in Solaris and/or Linux OS. It appears to me that it only happens on Mac OSX (aka Darwin). First corrective measure is to define NO_REALPATH variable on Tcl compilation time. I have yet to figure out how to do this from the configure step, but the quick/dirty way is to go to the unix/tclUnixFCmd.c file and put at the very top of the file: #define NO_REALPATH and recompile/reinstall the Tcl. This solves this issue cleanly. The ultimate fix, of course, is to modify the Darwin realpath() to behave better. Concerning the memory trashing problems described in my previous mail, I have made a fix and will try to negotiate with the Tcl people to get it into the Tcl project asap. Cheers, Zoran -- AOLserver - http://www.aolserver.com/ To Remove yourself from this list: http://www.aolserver.com/listserv.html List information and options: http://listserv.aol.com/
