Re: sys_errlist (Re: gcc (Re: porting?))

[hyc@troy.la.platsol.com (Howard Chu)]

  On Tue, 10 Feb 1998, Yves Pelletier wrote:
  > In function  strerror(), sys_errlist is declared:
  > 
  > #ifndef __MBASE__
  >         extern char const *const sys_errlist[];
  > #else
  >         extern char const *sys_errlist[];
  > #endif

  Any reason why this has to be done because the variable is declared 
  inside strerror.c?

  The best sould be if I'm asked to just declare it 

  char const *const sys_errlist[];

  everywhere. The problem is that if it is used in baserel program it has 
  to have a right declaration. If it is declared diffrently or used without 
  declaration (?) linker fives a few nice errors. Any ideas anyone? Is the 
  array really needed to be global or could it just be static inside 
  strerror.c? The point of having both strerror() and the array is not 
  clear for me. 

The reason it's declared globally is because it gets used by external code.
You might consider programs that reference sys_errlist as poorly behaved,
but there are a lot of them out there. 
  -- Howard