Module Name: src
Committed By: dholland
Date: Tue Jan 8 19:19:25 UTC 2013
Modified Files:
src/lib/libc/iconv: iconv.3
Log Message:
Rework the description of the const issue to improve the wording,
avoid saying "we", fix typos, etc.
XXX: groff and mandoc handle the URLs in here differently but both
XXX: mangle them, apparently because they're wider than one line.
XXX: Does anyone know how to fix this or do we need an URL shortener
XXX: on www.NetBSD.org?
To generate a diff of this commit:
cvs rdiff -u -r1.16 -r1.17 src/lib/libc/iconv/iconv.3
Please note that diffs are not public domain; they are subject to the
copyright notices on the relevant files.
Modified files:
Index: src/lib/libc/iconv/iconv.3
diff -u src/lib/libc/iconv/iconv.3:1.16 src/lib/libc/iconv/iconv.3:1.17
--- src/lib/libc/iconv/iconv.3:1.16 Fri Jan 4 07:27:57 2013
+++ src/lib/libc/iconv/iconv.3 Tue Jan 8 19:19:24 2013
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-.\" $NetBSD: iconv.3,v 1.16 2013/01/04 07:27:57 wiz Exp $
+.\" $NetBSD: iconv.3,v 1.17 2013/01/08 19:19:24 dholland Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c)2003 Citrus Project,
.\" All rights reserved.
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
-.Dd January 3, 2013
+.Dd January 8, 2013
.Dt ICONV 3
.Os
.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -235,24 +235,34 @@ and
conform to
.St -p1003.1-2001 .
.Pp
-Unfortunately due a historical mistake (documented in
-.Lk https://www5.opengroup.org/sophocles2/show_mail.tpl?&source=L&listname=austin-group-l&id=7404 ) ,
-where the unix header page had the
-second argument of
-.Fn iconv
-as
-.Ft char **
-and the manual page had the same as
-.Ft const char ** ,
-the definition of
+Historically, the definition of
.Ft iconv
has not been consistent across operating systems.
-Given the committee's decicion to follow the header definition, we had to make
-a decision between following the committee's change or keeping our existing
-definition which is arguably more correct like others have
-.Pq Lk http://www.gnu.org/savannah-checkouts/gnu/libiconv/documentation/libiconv-1.14/ .
-We chose to keep our definition and we believe that this is not a problem because
-most packages are aware of this issue and handle it anyway during configuration.
+This is due to an unfortunate historical mistake, documented in
+.Lk https://www5.opengroup.org/sophocles2/show_mail.tpl?&source=L&listname=austin-group-l&id=7404 "this e-mail".
+The standards page for the header file
+.In iconv.h
+defined the second argument of
+.Fn iconv
+as
+.Ft char ** ,
+but the standards page for the
+.Fn iconv
+implementation defined it as
+.Ft const char ** .
+The standards committee later chose to change the function definition to
+follow the header file definition
+.Pq without const ,
+even though the version with const is arguably more correct.
+.Nx
+has always used the const form.
+It was decided to reject the committee's regression and become
+.Pq technically
+incompatible.
+GNU libiconv has taken the
+.Lk http://www.gnu.org/savannah-checkouts/gnu/libiconv/documentation/libiconv-1.14/ "same route".
+Most third party software affected by this issue already handles it
+during configuration.
.\" ----------------------------------------------------------------------
.Sh BUGS
If
