On 4/22/24 7:21 AM, Bruno Haible wrote:

dealing with this problem means to define 2 functions instead of 1.

Since Gnulib is a source library, that complexity would be needed only for use inside object libraries - and these libraries already need to deal with off_t issues.


(Also, the problem will go away soon enough anyway, as 32-bit off_t
systems will likely die out by 2038 due to time_t issues of all things....)

The problem will not entirely go away then. Only one function will be
needed then, but it will be platform-dependent whether its return type
is 'off_t' (standardized but 32-bit on Haiku) or 'off64_t' (always 64-bit
but not standardized). [1]

You lost me there. Although I don't use Haiku, my impression is that off_t is 64 bits on Haiku. See, for example, <https://www.haiku-os.org/docs/api/SupportDefs_8h.html>.


I think that the problem with regoff_t was that it already had legacy uses
and therefore could not move to 64 bits. A problem that we won't have with
'zoff_t'.

True, but now that you mention off64_t it strikes me that zoff_t would basically be off64_t, and off64_t has had its own problems: its only use in apps is to deal with deficient libraries, and it is a pain in libraries (where its only use is to deal with deficient apps :-). I don't offhand see why zoff_t would do any better than off64_t has done, or why we would need to give a new name to this unloved type.


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