Re: Slink to potato upgrade
Kevin Dalley <kevin@seti-inst.edu> writes:
> Part of the reason there are problems with glibc2.1 is that the older
> libraries didn't quite follow the GNU coding standards:
> External symbols that are not documented entry points for the user
> should have names beginning with `_'.
> I believe that some external symbols lack the '_', allowing, maybe
> even encouraging users to depend on insufficiently documented features.
The problems with both StarOffice and JDK involve referencing symbols
with not one but two "_" characters at the front (if that isn't a
hint that the symbol is internal, I don't know what is).
> > It's not "many users code" either. It's only affecting people who
> > don't play by the rules and use library interfaces that don't
> > officially exist.
> Please give a list of all of the rules which are violated. It isn't
> only undocumented interfaces.
To start: Using internal glibc symbols, beginning with "__". Directly
screwing with utmp and wtmp files, instead of using the prober libc
functions. Manually obtaining a pty instead of using the proper
interface (only occurs in some poorly coded setuid programs). Hard
coding the prefix of the name of the pty's into the code.
Many of the issues affect only systems level programs. (login/user
accounting programs.)
Steve
dunham@cse.msu.edu
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