Re: [PATCH] free: preserve errno

[Pádraig Brady]

On 17/12/2020 09:54, Paul Eggert wrote:

* lib/free.c (rpl_free): Preserve errno.  Check for null only if
CANNOT_FREE_NULL is defined, as an optimization for POSIX 2008
platforms that do not preserve errno.
* m4/free.m4 (gl_FUNC_FREE): Check whether free preserves errno.
Also, define CANNOT_FREE_NULL if free cannot free NULL.
* modules/free (configure.ac): Also replace 'free' if
it does not preserve errno.

coreutils is now failing to build with:

  lib/free.c:28:1: error: no previous declaration
    for 'rpl_free' [-Werror=missing-declarations]
   28 | rpl_free (void *p)
      | ^~~~~~~~

In early 2008 coreutils removed use of the then deprecated "free" module,
but I now see 'canonicalize' explicitly depends on this now undeprecated module.

I've worked around the issue,
but I'm not sure how you'd prefer to handle it in gnulib.

thanks,
Pádraig