Yet another look at the apr_off_t problem

The only real problem is that the size of apr_off_t is variable
depending on compiler options (because it is an off_t typedef).

Greg Hudson proposed to make apr_off_t 64 bit, but the drawback of doing
so is that it cannot be done for apr 0.9 because the ABI would change.
Another appealing solution is to simply modify apr to make the size of
apr_off_t fixed to the size of off_t when apr is compiled. What I'm
saying is that apr should have an autoconf test to find out the size of
off_t, and use that size when creating the apr_off_t typedef.

Right now it is

        typedef off_t apr_off_t;

but after such a change it should be something like

        #if APR_HAS_32BIT_OFF_T
        typedef apr_int32_t apr_off_t;
        ...

if autoconf finds out that off_t is 32 bit at the time when apr is
configured and compiled.

The advantage of doing this is that we can release Subversion right now
without changes. With current apr, the perl bindings will be broken,
but when compiled with a fixed apr, they will just work.

The drawback is of course that someone need to change apr, and I don't
know who easy that is, or how fast it can be done.

Does this sound like a plan or what?

/Tobias, sleepless

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscribe@subversion.tigris.org
For additional commands, e-mail: dev-help@subversion.tigris.org
Received on Sat Jan 24 01:51:41 2004