README revision 60484 
1This directory contains the -liberty library of free software.
2It is a collection of subroutines used by various GNU programs.
3Current members include:
4
5	getopt -- get options from command line
6	obstack -- stacks of arbitrarily-sized objects
7	strerror -- error message strings corresponding to errno
8	strtol -- string-to-long conversion
9	strtoul -- string-to-unsigned-long conversion
10
11We expect many of the GNU subroutines that are floating around to
12eventually arrive here.
13
14The library must be configured from the top source directory.  Don't
15try to run configure in this directory.  Follow the configuration
16instructions in ../README.
17
18Please report bugs and fixes to "bug-gnu-utils@prep.ai.mit.edu".  Thank you.
19
20ADDING A NEW FILE
21=================
22
23There are two sets of files:  Those that are "required" will be
24included in the library for all configurations, while those
25that are "optional" will be included in the library only if "needed."
26
27To add a new required file, edit Makefile to add the source file
28name to CFILES and the object file to REQUIRED_OFILES.
29
30To add a new optional file, it must provide a single function, and the
31name of the function must be the same as the name of the file.
32
33    * Add the source file name to CFILES.
34
35    * Add the function to name to the funcs shell variable in
36      configure.in.
37
38    * Add the function to the AC_CHECK_FUNCS lists just after the
39      setting of the funcs shell variable.  These AC_CHECK_FUNCS calls
40      are never executed; they are there to make autoheader work
41      better.
42
43    * Consider the special cases of building libiberty; as of this
44      writing, the special cases are newlib and VxWorks.  If a
45      particular special case provides the function, you do not need
46      to do anything.  If it does not provide the function, add the
47      object file to LIBOBJS, and add the function name to the case
48      controlling whether to define HAVE_func.
49
50The optional file you've added (e.g. getcwd.c) should compile and work
51on all hosts where it is needed.  It does not have to work or even
52compile on hosts where it is not needed.
53
54ADDING A NEW CONFIGURATION
55==========================
56
57On most hosts you should be able to use the scheme for automatically
58figuring out which files are needed.  In that case, you probably
59don't need a special Makefile stub for that configuration.
60
61If the fully automatic scheme doesn't work, you may be able to get
62by with defining EXTRA_OFILES in your Makefile stub.  This is
63a list of object file names that should be treated as required
64for this configuration - they will be included in libiberty.a,
65regardless of whatever might be in the C library.
66