Bug

`cpp: unterminated macro call' with MUI headers

Description

The problem is that some functions (declared/defined in the MUI headers) are really macros with gcc and you end up in trying to generate new macro calls, token by token, during the preprocessing.

Reported

by Tom Hayko <tjhayko@mail.io.org> (1-Dec-96)

Work-around

Don't use the Begin and End macros in the MUI header files, expand the macros manually.

Difficulty

Rewrite macros in the MUI header files that have a variable number of arguments to call the stubs found in `fd2inline-1.1'.

Cross-compilation

Almost every snapshot introduces few minor bugs as many patches to GCC have been submitted but seldomly tested in the context of cross-compilation. For Details, be sure to read section `Cross environment' in The Geek Gadgets Project Documentation. Report problems to <gg-gcc@ninemoons.com>.

Bug

`#error: float.h values not known for cross-compiler'

Description

A source just including `math.h' fails to compile. ixemul's `include/float.h' should be included instead of GCC's.

Reported

by Alfred Minarik <am@mdy.univie.ac.at> (16-Oct-96)

Work-around

Delete `lib/gcc-lib/m68k-cbm-amigaos/2.7.2.1/include/float.h', as suggested by Daniel V�rit� <daniel@brainstorm.fr>.

Bug

`ld: Undefined symbol _amiga_cpp_symname_hook'

Description

The macro is in the target config file where it should be in the host config file.

Reported

by Maarten D. de Jong <dejong@cpt6.stm.tudelft.nl> (26-Oct-96)

Work-around

Use the`pub/geekgadgets/updates/gcc-961012-patch-01' patch to Geek Gadgets 961012.

binutils -- Assembler, Linker and More

The programs `as' and `ld' used by GCC are found in the binutils package. Among others are `strip', `objdump' and `ar'. See section How programs are packaged.

The binutils-2.x series all use BFD. BFD is a link library to manipulate object and executable files in various formats.

The pre-2.x series of the binutils programs did not use BFD to write Amiga executables. They used custom output routines that worked fine but used a UNIX object format instead of the native Amiga one. As work on the BFD backend for the Amiga's hunk format progressed, the 2.x series of the binutils started using BFD to write Amiga executables.

Switching to BFD is known to have caused a lot of grief and crashes, for reasons as various as non-68000 code generation, failure to execute autoinit sections (affecting Libnix, see section Libnix -- Using the `-noixemul' option), bad loadfile hunk structure, ixemul.library not recognizing ixemul-compiled programs, and more.

Other BFD quirks include huge binutils executables (as, ld, strip, objdump etc.) as BFD gets linked in. As an example, the Geek Gadgets strip utility is 280KB in size, strings is 140KB. as doubled in size from 100KB to 220KB.

Be aware of the linker's (and `strip' and all other BFD-based tools) huge memory requirements (expect 2.5 times filesize).

At least writing executables files under various GCC options (including `-s', `-resident' and `-fbaserel') seems to be working since binutils-2.7 (Geek Gadgets snapshot 960902). Manipulating object files in Amiga format using fancy options is still hazardous as of November 1996.

Bug

Executables crashing with 8000000x gurus when using gcc's `-fbaserel', `-resident' or `-s' options

Work-around

Update to at least binutils-2.7 (since Geek Gadgets 960902)

as -- GNU assembler

None known (`|' or `/**/' comment problem?)

ld -- GNU linker

Daniel V�rit� <daniel@brainstorm.eu.org> is the current maintainer. See section binutils -- Assembler, Linker and More, about BFD quirks.

strip

Bug

`strip' on non gcc-compiled binaries destroys them

Description

strip or rather BFD did not support more than three hunks (one CODE, DATA and BSS). It didn't report an error but the executable is likely to be damaged.

Reported

by Tommy Johansson (around 17-Sep-96)

Work-around

Use `util/misc/Strip37_2.lha' from Aminet or update to at least Geek Gadgets 961012.

Status

Snapshots since 961012 include a good BFD (see section binutils -- Assembler, Linker and More) and `strip'.

ixemul.library

Hans Verkuil <hans@wyst.hobby.nl> is the current maintainer.

The pdksh shell stresses the UNIX-compatibility of ixemul.library. See section sh/ksh -- pdksh.

Bug

`ENV:' notification problem with ixemul.library

Description

If you change something in `ENV:' using the AmigaOS command SetEnv, ixemul may not notice it and still report the old settings to all ixemul programs.

Reported

by J�rg H�hle <Joerg.Hoehle@gmd.de> (18-Dec-96)

Work-around

Flush ixemul.library from memory or try UnSetEnv to remove the setting, then SetEnv to force a notify, then UnSetEnv again.

Bug

fcntl(,, O_NONBLOCK) doesn't work

Description

From `RPM' file: `build/pack.c'

 fcntl(fromCpio[0], F_SETFL, O_NONBLOCK);
 bytes = read(fromCpio[0], buf, sizeof(buf));

When read() can't read anything from the file (in this case a pipe) it returns -1. But read() waits, so the program is blocked.

Reported

by Kristof Depraetere <Kristof.Depraetere@rug.ac.be> (6-Jul-96)

Work-around

ioctl(fh, FIONBIO, 1);

Status

Fixed in ixemul-44.0.

Bug

missing ttyname() function

Reported

by Laurent.Peron@emi.u-bordeaux.fr (7-Oct-96)

Work-around

Update to at least ixemul-44.0

Bug

missing sbrk() function

Description

sbrk is a low-level UNIX call which is inappropriate on the Amiga as it assumes a memory heap growing in one direction only.

Reported

by Steve Kaye <stevek@phonelink.telme.com> (19-Jul-96)

Work-around

Use the GNU `dbmalloc' package if you can live with preallocating a fixed size "sbrk pool" or see if there is some #define not to use it.

sh/ksh -- pdksh

David Zaroski <cz253@cleveland.freenet.edu> is the maintainer.

The shell `GG:bin/sh' is a link to `GG:bin/ksh', which is a port of the pdksh package, a reimplementation of the Korn shell. It is freely distribuable and reasonably compatible with the Bourne shell and is therefore used as the basic UNIX shell within Geek Gadgets.

Bug

^C doesn't work for non ixemul-programs when run inside pdksh

Description

a mixed pdksh/ixemul bug?

Reported

by <Joerg.Hoehle@gmd.de> (3-Jul-1996)

Difficulty

Tough

Status

^C is disabled as of ixemul V43.1

Bug

pdksh does not read `etc:profile' as it previously did

Description

Should it?

Reported

by David Aschbrenner <pfloyd@netins.net> (16-Oct-96)

Work-around

If started as -ksh (the dash is the UNIX login marker), it will read `etc:profile' and `$HOME/.profile'. Another possibility is to set `$ENV' before starting pdksh.

Bug

line editing does not work in pdksh

Description

pdksh uses the native console by default. Use `set -o emacs' to get line editing through a readline-like builtin function. When `$VISUAL', `$EDITOR' or `$FCEDIT' contain the string emacs (or vi), pdksh switches to Emacs (or vi) line editing by itself.

Reported

by various, including Thomas Walter <walter@pctc.chemie.uni-erlangen.de> (21-Oct-96)

Work-around

`set -o vi' or `set -o emacs' and `bind ^X=prefix-2' for Emacs mode.

Status

Cursor keys are not recognized (Nov-96) when using `set -o', but <Joerg.Hoehle@gmd.de> posted some `bind' commands as a work-around (11-Dec-96).

Bug

really not a gcc bug?

Description

After updating locally to ixemul 44.0, the RCS conf.sh script stopped working correctly at the fread test. This failure was reduced to the test case included below. If the compile + run does not succeed on the first combination of types, then the test fails to deduce the right types. With ixemul 43.2, it just happened that for conf.sh the first combination was the right one, but the return type of fread changed in 44.0, triggering this bug.
To make the below test succeed, edit `a.c' to change the hardwired types of foo() to be `int foo (int arg);' and do `sh a.sh'. When run on a Unix system, the test works no matter what combination of types foo() has.

/* a.c -- Change these types to test */
long foo (long arg);

type foo (argtype arg) {}

main () { exit (0); }

-------- a.sh

#! /bin/sh
for type in int long
do
	for argtype in int long
	do
		echo trying type=$type, argtype=$argtype
		(gcc -Dargtype=$argtype -Dtype=$type a.c && a.out) && echo "FOUND IT" && break
	done && break
done || {
	echo $0: cannot deduce types
	exit 1
}
echo $0: deduced types $type, $argtype

Reported

on Sun, 18 Aug 1996, by fnf@ninemoons.com (Fred Fish)

Work-around

Status

bug triggered by fread() return type changing in ixemul-44.0

Bug

Lock up when exiting some non-ixemul program run from pdksh

Description

Typical examples are GNUEmacs, vim and Multiview.

Reported

by Bo Najdrovsky <bn@okcforum.org> (2-Nov-96)

Work-around

Update to ixemul-45.1 once it's available.

Status

Traced to an uncleared signal disturbing ixemul.library. Fixed in 45.1.

Autoconf and configure

The autoconf package generates `configure' scripts that check the system configuration and generate and modify `Makefile' accordingly. `configure' scripts also heavily stress the shell (see section sh/ksh -- pdksh) and you must have at least `pdksh-4.9' from Geek Gadgets 960530.

Bug

configure fails to detects non ANSI/ISO C compliant headers.

Description

The autoconf `AC_HEADER_STDC' test fails because of a mixed autoconf/ixemul bug pertaining to the ctype(3) functions and the interpretation of the default locale behaviour. islower() returns true for �, � etc. where it is expected to return false for any character above 0x7f under the default ("C") locale.

Reported

by Rask Ingemann Lambertsen <rask@kampsax.dtu.dk> (Sep-96)

Work-around

Correct the ac_cv_header_stdc entry in `config.cache' and `config.h' by hand

Volunteers

Lars Hecking <lhecking@nmrc.ucc.ie> made things progress

Status

See discussion in comp.lang.c.moderated and gnu.misc.discuss.

Libnix -- Using the `-noixemul' option

Maintainer: Gunther Nikl <gnikl@informatik.uni-rostock.de>

Bug

linker errors about DOSBase or SysBase in 970217 snapshot

Description

The Libnix archives were stripped with GNU binutils which removed long filenames causing duplicate entries, whereas the original Libnix archive was built using BSD ar and ranlib.

Reported

by Fred Fish <fnf@fishpond.ninemoons.com> (21-2-97)

Work-around

Use Libnix .a files from other snapshots

Bug

stdio buffer size is 1KB by default

Description

The default should be somewhere between 8KB and 32KB. DiskSpeed shows extremely poor results for buffers below 4KB.

Reported

by <Joerg.Hoehle@gmd.de> (12-Jun-1996)

Work-around

setvbuf(), but you don't want to modify foreign code for that

Difficulty

probably easy

Bug

`-noixemul' compiled binaries guru

Description

Caused since Libnix1.1 by the use of linker features (autoinit sections) which were broken in the binutils-2 linker. See section binutils -- Assembler, Linker and More.

Work-around

Update to at least version 960530 of binutils/ld.

Bug

Using sprintf() links in all of stdio

Description

sprintf uses some kind of pseudo FILE* to a RAM buffer internally and then uses its IO routines (fputc, open, __fflush ...) on it. This makes your code unnecessary big when you don't want to use stdio (because you use dos.library calls for example). You can't make tiny executables with Libnix sprintf().

Reported

by <Joerg.Hoehle@gmd.de> (1-Oct-1996)

Work-around

Try to use sprintf from `libamiga.a', be aware that `%d' assumes 16-bit ints then.

tar -- Tape Archives

Bug

tar does not accept Amiga filenames containing a colon, thus tar -tfv Store:gcc-2.7.2.tar does not work.

Description

new "feature" makes tar interpret the name before the colon as a remote host name, which is bad on the Amiga. Either drop the remote option completely or change the syntax in a portable way. The easiest way to circumvent the additional cmd line option is to add flag_force_local = 1 at the top of tar.c/decode_options(). This is ok as long as no one wants to use tar remotely (which doesn't work anyway, I [Lars Hecking] am told. This feature needs the second fork() in buffer.c/child_open(). And rexec(3), methinks.)

Reported

by <Joerg.Hoehle@gmd.de> (4-Jul-1996)

Work-around

Use `--force-local'

Volunteers

Joerg.Hoehle@gmd.de is working on it, Hans Verkuil <hans@wyst.hobby.nl> has supplied a patch adding a new `--force-remote' switch.

Difficulty

Seems easy

Status

A report about the "colon is used in pathnames of several OS" problem has been posted to gnu.utils.bugs and been "filed" by Francois Pinard <pinard@iro.umontreal.ca>, the GNU-tar maintainer.

Bug

tar xvMf /fd0 does not work with `FD0:' RawDiskHandler

Description

On a UNIX box, prepare a disk with tar cvMf /dev/fd0 Verzeichnis. Back on the Amiga, all I get is a requester saying `Free: corrupted segment' after the first fileheader. It does work with an old tar of mine. Lars Hecking <lhecking@nmrc.ucc.ie> adds: I have tried to find this bug and failed. AFAIR, the GNU tar port on Aminet was compiled with SAS/C and should be less functional than the Geek Gadgets version wrt stubbed-out Unix functions/syscalls. I think even compiling the SAS'd sources with gcc doesn't make `-M' work. Which leads me to the conclusion that hhere is either a bug in tar which doesn't show with SAS, or a bug in ixemul.library, or a bug in gg-gcc.

Reported

by Ingo Saitz <ingo@r1.iqo.uni-hannover.de>

Volunteers

Difficulty

Status

Untested

Bug

tar -tzvf foo.tgz and gzcat foo.tgz | tar -tvf - do not work

Work-around

Update to at least Geek Gadgets version 960530 of tar.

ls, cp, mv (fileutils)

Package: fileutils (see section How programs are packaged).

Bug

ls, cp, mv etc. (fileutils) do not correctly handle Amiga-style pathnames

Description

`ls -l GG:' did not work, while `ls -l /gg' did. To concatenate pathnames, UNIX programs either always insert an extra slash in between the parts or insert a slash only if a directory name is not already terminated by one. Both behaviours are incorrect on the Amiga, where `foo//bar' is different from `foo/bar' and no slash must be appended to device or volume names like `RAM:'. The rule is to only append a slash if a directory name is terminated by neither slash nor colon.

RAM:            RAM:foo
DEVS:DOSdrivers
SYS:Classes/    SYS:Classes/gadget
DEVS:/          DEVS:/Storage

Reported

by various (May 96)

Work-around

supply UNIX-style pathnames (`/RAM/', `/dev/PC0') and have ixprefs' "translate /" settings on.

Volunteers

you?

Difficulty

not difficult, just find all the places in all the sources

Status

still broken as of Geek Gadgets release 960714

Bug

`mv foo ram:' (mv across partitions) deletes foo but nothing is in RAM:

Description

mv: cannot move `foo' to `ram:/foo': No such file or directory.
`mv foo /ram/' didn't complain, but no file was found in /ram/ either.

5> list foo
foo                            5 ----rwed Today     21:56:53
1 file - 2 blocks
5> mv foo /workIII/
mv: cannot move `foo' to `/workIII//foo': File exists
5> ls /workIII/
  (no foo)
5> move foo text/
5> list text/foo
Directory "text" on Tuesday 09-Jul-96
foo                            5 ----rwed Today 
5> list workIII:info
Directory "workIII:info" on Tuesday 09-Jul-96
(..)
5> mv foo /workIII/info/
mv: cannot move `foo' to `/workIII/info//foo': Device not configured

Reported

by Lynn Winebarger <owinebar@nickel.ucs.indiana.edu> and Greg Jung <JUNG@ossen.nrl.navy.mil> (9-Jul-1996)

Volunteers

None

Difficulty

Status

texinfo elisp and TeX files (texinfo)

Package: texinfo (see section How programs are packaged).

Bug

TeX files may not be installed in the correct place.

Description

The two TeX macro files, `texinfo.tex' and `epsf.tex', which are needed when .texi files are processed into .dvi files, may be installed in the wrong place, depending on the local TeX installation. Furthermore, an older copy of `texinfo.tex' may be included, which will break the use of new features. The version of an `texinfo.tex' file, can be determined from the command `\\deftexinfoversion', which is located in the beginning of the file.

Reported

by maintainer (Sep 97)

Work-around

Move texinfo.tex and epsf.tex to a place where they can be found by the TeX system. Remove any obsolete copies of `texinfo.tex'.

Bug

Elisp files are not byte-compiled.

Description

The emacs lisp (.el) files from the texinfo distribution are not byte-compiled. With the current GG emacs version (18.59), several files can't be compiled, and therefore are all distributed uncompiled.

Reported

by maintainer (Sep 97)

Work-around

Modify the elisp files, or port emacs 19

Difficulty

Medium, if the files are modified, Hard if the fix involves porting emacs 19.

GDB -- GNU Debugger

Bug

some info commands do not work

Description

info dcache gives Enforcer hits.
info float gives `No floating point info available for this processor.' on my A4000/40, but info all-registers correctly shows FPU registers.

Reported

by Joerg.Hoehle@gmd.de (25-Aug-96)

Status

CVS -- Concurrent Versions System

Bug

`cvs commit' gives cvs [commit aborted]: cannot commit files as 'root'

Description

checkout, update, remove, add are all possible, but not commit.
Should CVS be compiled without the CVS_BADROOT option, which refuses to allow root to commit, (see `commit.c' in CVS source for details) to get it to work for non-networked users? On the current Amiga, essentially everyone has root priviledges regardless of what user the networking support sets you up as, so I [Fred Fish] see no problem with disable the cvs feature that blocks root from doing some operations. Furthermore, `cvs commit' invokes an external editor to create a log message. However, it passes it a UNIX style path name, which isn't grok'ed by my favorite editor.

Reported

by Diab Jerius <djerius@cfa.harvard.edu> 12-July-96

Work-around

Start up INet225 and turn on network support in ixemul.library, which sets you up as non-root. But then it's said to cause tons of Enforcer hits.

Volunteers

Difficulty

looks like recompile

Status

Norbert P�schel <pueschel@imsdd.meb.uni-bonn.de> has a beta `ixemul.library' with UID/GID handling. It sets the default user as nobody/nogroup when neither MultiUser nor networking are running.

Bug

`cvs checkout' works at random

Description

It doesn't check out complete directories. Caused by ixemul's `convert_dir.c' which doesn't set DT_DIR in a struct dirent. Notice that ARexx' `rexx/rexxio.h' defines DT_DIR with another value, causing a conflict with some applications.

Reported

by Lars Hecking <lhecking@nmrc.ucc.ie> (6-Nov-96). Conflict reported by Samuel Devulder <devulder@info.unicaen.fr> (31-Oct-96).

Work-around

Enclose DT_* definitions in `GG:include/sys/dirent.h' with #ifndef/#ifdef __amigaos__

Status

Ixemul's `convert_dir.c' fixed in 45.1.

Manual Pages and Documentation

See section Missing Documentation.

Bug

`man man' doesn't work, it says `cannot create'

work-around

Update to `manutils-2.0' by Lars Hecking <lhecking@nmrc.ucc.ie>, a far better man from NetBSD.

Bug

Can't use another pager for man

Description

If you get `sh: less: not found', then $PAGER is not set correctly. Set the local variable, not the global (`ENV:PAGER') one: (Set PAGER `Which MultiView`). Doing so is still prone to fail or deliver at least undesirable results, for two reasons:

• $PAGER ist called with Unix path names, which native programs will not grok; for this reason I have included a shell script viewer.sh with `manutils-2.0', which will translate absolute path names. This is really a crutch which may disappear in newer versions, but it's not on my current priority list. (See `man.conf' for an example how to use it).
• formatted man pages may still contain bold and underlined characters, which make them a bit unreadable in MultiView. [There is a man datatype on Aminet which takes care of this. `manutils-2.1' will use temporary files like `/tmp/man.278672.1' to let mandt recognize the file]

Reported

by Martin Steigerwald <steigerw@stud.uni-frankfurt.de> (26-Jul-96). `manutils-2.0' by Lars Hecking <lhecking@nmrc.ucc.ie>.

Bug

Can't use less as man's pager

Description

Many things can go wrong.

• SetEnv TERM amiga
• SetEnv LESSCHARSET latin1 to display all of ISO_8859_1
• Less uses ncurses since Geek Gadgets 960902, growing the binary from 90KB to 190KB. See section The (n)curses library and terminfo files for ncurses problems.

Work-around

Check everything. Better: use MultiView (see above) or the amigaized `Less-1.6Z'.

Reported

by many, including Martin Blom <lcs@lysator.liu.se> (15-Oct-96)

Bug

The manual datatype `mandt' is not working

Description

Not a Geek Gadgets bug. The so-called manual datatype can only display formatted manual pages (those that contain codes like m^H_a^H^_) but not unformatted (nroff) ones (containing sequences like .SH, .TH etc.). Unfortunately, most UNIX archives come with unformatted manual pages.

Work-around

Install `groff' to process unformatted manual pages or find formatted ones on the Internet.

Reported

by Lars Hecking <lhecking@nmrc.ucc.ie> (15-Oct-96)

Status

Geek Gadgets Makefiles need to be changed to generate and install readable (guide or formatted) manuals. See section Missing Documentation.

Bug

GhostScript hangs after ctrl-c or the `quit' command

Work-around

Use GhostScript or the `post.library' from Aminet.

Reported

by various (last Oct-96)

Status

Joop van de wege <Joop.vandeWege@medew.ento.wau.nl> wants to continue working on this after doing some other jobs.

Terminal problems

All UNIX programs that do screen-oriented output use some package or (link-)library for this purpose, either termcap, curses or ncurses.

The termcap library and file

GNUEmacs and less (prior to Geek Gadgets 960902) use termcap.

Bug

`WARNING: terminal cannot clear to end of line' and others

Description

Your $TERM or $TERMCAP variable is not set correctly, making termcap-based programs assume a dumb terminal (that only knows backspace). The terminal capabilities file location is `GG:etc/termcap' or `etc:termcap'. Unless somebody can telnet to your machine, you can get along with a minimal version that only contains an entry for `amiga' (and possibly `xterm' if you run some X server) instead of the complete one that's 440KB.

Work-around

First SetEnv TERM amiga. If it still doesn't work, SetEnv TERMCAP GG:etc/termcap.

Reported

by many, including Martin Steigerwald <steigerw@stud.uni-frankfurt.de>

The (n)curses library and terminfo files

Ncftp and less (since Geek Gadgets 960902) use ncurses and its associated `lib/terminfo/...' files.

Bug

Error messages about terminal or `terminfo'

Description

Many things can go wrong.

• SetEnv TERM amiga
• Programs using ncurses will build a terminal information file when none is found. Create an empty `GG:lib/terminfo/' directory, then run less (or ncftp) and wait for it to process your `termcap' file, creating `GG:lib/terminfo/A/amiga'. It's not necessary to install the giant (see below) ncurses distribution when you need just the `amiga' file.
• $HOME must be set correctly, as it will try to create `$HOME/.terminfo/...' if it can't access `GG:lib/terminfo/'.

Reported

by many. Explanations from Steve Hodge <sbh@cs.waikato.ac.nz> (18-Oct-96).

Bug

`Less: Name collision between pcansi-25 pcansi-mono25'

Description

Bad `terminfo' files or missing $TERM?

Work-around

SetEnv TERM amiga. Make an empty `GG:lib/terminfo/' and recreate entry (as above).

Bug

`GG:lib/terminfo/...' is huge

Description

It comprises 1696 files, summing up to 3.7MB of data, not counting the file-system's rounding up to the next block. Furthermore, binaries using ncurses instead of termcap grow, less for example from 90KB to 190KB.

Work-around

Just keep `terminfo/a/amiga', `v/vt100*,vt220*', `x/xterm*' and delete all others that you don't need.

Reported

by Lars Hecking <lhecking@nmrc.ucc.ie> (16-Oct-96)

Networking -- ixnet.library

`ixnet.library' is used internally by `ixemul.library' to manage all networking functions. It will use either AS225's `socket.library' or AmiTCP's `bsdsocket.library' but could be extended to support other protocols.

Bug

Every ixemul program opens `ixnet.library'

Description

For every ixemul program started, the library must check if it was run as a daemon as the startup is then different.

Work-around

Disable networking in ixprefs.

Other Programs

Bug

`dumphunks' fails on binaries with embedded MEMF_* flags

Description

In the Amiga object-file format, the most-significant bits of the "hunk size in longwords" longword (perhaps even as much as the whole most significant byte, but I'm not sure) are reserved for such things as memory-type indication, and dumphunks forgets to filter them out. This can lead to some really weird numbers when you run dumphunks on an executable with a chip hunk.

Reported

by Jeroen T. Vermeulen <jtv@dial.xs4all.nl> (7-Dec-96)

Status

A patch has been submitted by Daniel V�rit� <daniel@brainstorm.fr> on 7-Dec-96.

OS and Third-Party Bugs

This is not a list of all OS bugs but rather a mention of some that affect the use of Geek Gadgets tools.

Bug

pipe ...| ... and/or PIPE: don't work correctly

Description

PIPE: aka `L:queue-handler' looses bytes up to and including OS 3.1. Use Heinz Wrobel's `util/sys/HWGQueue.lha'. Furthermore, the pipe command from Andy Finkel's os204hacks package is slightly broken. You may wish to replace it with either `util/cli/pipe3310.lha' or `util/shell/Pipe-1.5.lha'

Work-around

Bug

Symbolic links don't work in RAM:

Description

The RAM: filesystem doesn't support soft links. This affects RPM, as it creates symbolic links in tmp: which is normally on RAM:

Reported

by Kristof Depraetere <Kristof.Depraetere@rug.ac.be> (26-Nov-96)

Work-around

As far as RPM is concerned, assign tmp: to a HD.

Bug

Can't delete symbolic link

Description

C:Delete only works when the file the link points to can be accessed.

Work-around

Use `GG:bin/rm' or other tools that just call DeleteFile() without trying to Lock() first.

Bug

`mathieeesing*.library' bug in conjunction with 68040

Description

Reported to show up with G++

Reported

by Kriton Kyrimis <kyrimis@dias.cti.gr> (5-Nov-96)

Work-around

Use `util/boot/MathPatch.lha' from Aminet or the Libnix archive.

Bug

Can't put {, } or " in AmigaGuide buttons

Description

Balanced braces work, unbalanced don't (at least in 39.11). It also depends on the library version. This affects `makeinfo --amiga' when generating AmigaGuide files.

Reported

by Kriton Kirimis <kyrimis@cti.gr> (22-Oct-96)

Work-around

V35: Translate { to [, } to ] and " to '
V39: Either do the same, or only translate unbalanced braces (non-trivial to detect)
V40: Translate " to '
But sometimes { is needed and can't be translated (e.g. in an index list).

Volunteers

Kristof Depraetere <Kristof.Depraetere@rug.ac.be> maintains the Amiga port of Texinfo.

Status

Makeinfo now translates the characters as above but only if one uses @{, @} or @" (old Texinfo doesn't know about this last one) (Oct-96).

Bug

different guide files for V34, V39 and V40 versions of `amigaguide.library'

Description

\\ is needed instead of \ in V40, etc., requiring the `--amiga-40' etc. options to makeinfo.

Difficulty

Get AT or whoever to release V41 for free, like they did for Installer, so everybody gets it and uses that one.

Bug

AmiCDFS problems show up with du

Description

du doesn't work with this file system, giving errors like

du: /HD2/AmiTCP/logs/aws-access: File exists
du: cannot change to `..' from directory /HD2/: Input/output error

The other `du: cannot return to starting directory: No such file or directory' error is due to a bug in ixemul.library fixed in 45.1.

Reported

by Thomas Walter <walter@pctc.chemie.uni-erlangen.de> (27-Nov-96)

Work-around

Use another CDROM file system.

Status

Has that bug been reported to Asimware?

Bug

`libamiga.a' defines common symbols like stub

Description

... and many more. Avoid using a variable of that name in your code or you'll get spurious and hard to find errors.

Reported

by Matthias Hopf <mshopf@informatik.uni-erlangen.de>

Work-around

Try to avoid using `libamiga.a' by using inlines.

List of Long-Waiting Easy Fixes

They are waiting for somebody to download the archives, change the behaviour of the affected packages and send back diffs to the Geek Gadgets mailing lists. Fred Fish can't do it all.

Most of them is a matter of modifying `Makefile' (i.e. in fact `Makefile.in') or `configure' (`configure.in') and thus may require some knowledge about autoconf. Some require adding a `configure' script to a package that does not yet use autoconf.

Geek Gadgets packages must have configure scripts (not necessarily created by autoconf, but doing so is recommended) and be able to build in a directory other than the source directory.

Missing Documentation

Bug

Some binary archives do not contain documentation files

Description

The `Makefile' install targets do not copy manpages or create AmigaGuide files. Known packages missing documentation or guide files: libg++ (for libg++ and iostream).

Work-around

Get source archive and run makeinfo --amiga.

Reported

by various, including <Laurent.Peron@emi.u-bordeaux.fr> (13-Oct-96)

Difficulty

This particular problem for example would probably not take more than an hour for someone to fix. See autoconf as an example of how to do it, or any of the other packages for which Guide files get installed in `GG:guide/'.

Status

Fred Fish already corrected several packages: "The problem is that there are hundreds of little things like this that could turn into a full time job for one person, and I already have one of those."

Writing Tutorials

Bug

There is no tutorial to Geek Gadgets

Requires

Some practice with Geek Gadgets

Reported

by Janne Kiviluoto <jajoki@utu.fi> (7-Nov-96)

Difficulty

Varying as many topics need to be covered

Status

Some people are said to work here and there. Please inquire on <gg-projects@ninemoons.com> for the current status on this.

Modifying Configure Scripts

Bug

Some packages (i.e. lynx) does not use configure, thus they are not rebuilt on every snapshot. Besides violating the main goal of having everything rebuild on each snapshot this can indeed cause problems if rebuilts of other packages introduce non-backward-compatible changes.

Requires

autoconf knowledge

Reported

various

Status

Some people are said to work here and there. Please inquire on <gg-projects@ninemoons.com> for the current status on this.

How programs are packaged

`binutils'

ld (see section ld -- GNU linker), as (see section as -- GNU assembler), strip (see section strip), ar, objdump. Note that the binutils archive from GG 970109 was not stripped and 11MB instead of 3MB in size. Wait for a newer snapshot.

`CVS'

cvs (see section CVS -- Concurrent Versions System), `commit', `update' etc. are switches to the cvs program.

`fileutils'

ls, cp, mv (see section ls, cp, mv (fileutils)).

`GCC'

See section gcc -- C front end, section g++ -- C++ front end, section cpp -- preprocessor, section cc1 -- actual C compiler.

`tar'

section tar -- Tape Archives.

`pdksh'

sh, ksh (see section sh/ksh -- pdksh).

`man'

apropos, whatis, catman (see section Manual Pages and Documentation).

`Libnix'

section Libnix -- Using the `-noixemul' option.

Testref: section How programs are packaged.
Testxref: See section How programs are packaged.
Testpxref: (see section How programs are packaged)

General Index

$

-

_

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

i

k

l

m

n

p

q

r

s

t

v

This document was generated on 1 October 1997 using the texi2html translator version 1.51.