[Python-bugs-list] [ python-Bugs-635034 ] Don't define _XOPEN_SOURCE on OpenBSD

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Bugs item #635034, was opened at 2002-11-07 16:57
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Category: Python Library
Group: Python 2.3
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Submitted By: Jon Ribbens (jribbens)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: Don't define _XOPEN_SOURCE on OpenBSD

Initial Comment:
Defining _XOPEN_SOURCE on OpenBSD breaks many 
things. For example, it makes the select and time 
modules unavailable (*oops*).

I think this is probably a bug in OpenBSD (I have 
bugreported it there) but in the absence of the ability to 
fix the bug in every OpenBSD installation in the world it 
would be nice if Python would detect OpenBSD and not 
define _XOPEN_SOURCE.

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>Comment By: Martin v. Löwis (loewis)
Date: 2002-11-09 21:26

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Your statement "are simply not available  in any header
file" is factually incorrect: none of the header files
change on disk by defining something, so the definitions are
still in the header files. Can you please attach the header
file that normally carries select?

> Why is _XOPEN_SOURCE being defined anyway?

Because many systems require it, for conformance. POSIX
mandates that you define it, if you want to use system
interface that are specified by more recent POSIX releases, see

http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/007904975/basedefs/xbd_chap02.html

In particular, many features of HP-UX are not available
unless you define _XOPEN_SOURCE, the same holds for the
various SCO Unices.

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Comment By: Jon Ribbens (jribbens)
Date: 2002-11-09 21:02

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It would be a great deal of effort to make separate bug reports 
(I would have to individually test every Python feature by 
hand), and it wouldn't gain anything.

The problem is that OpenBSD is buggy, has been since 
version 2.0 and still is in the very latest CVS. For example, if 
you define _XOPEN_SOURCE (its value doesn't make any 
difference, just if it is defined) then there is absolutely no way 
to get the select(), fd_set, etc, they are simply not available 
in any header file. You can't use select() in a C program that 
#defines _XOPEN_SOURCE.

I don't see why you say there is "no way" to withdraw the 
definition of _XOPEN_SOURCE - instead of making the 
addition of _XOPEN_SOURCE to the header file 
unconditional, simply detect OpenBSD in ./configure and 
don't define it in that case. Why is that difficult?

Why is _XOPEN_SOURCE being defined anyway? Because 
it breaks everything so badly on OpenBSD, and nobody has 
noticed this before, I am suspecting that almost no programs 
out there except Python define it. This makes it likely to 
break things on many different platforms.

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Comment By: Martin v. Löwis (loewis)
Date: 2002-11-09 20:09

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You need to provide more details. For the moment, I see *no
way* to withdraw the definition of _XOPEN_SOURCE, not even
for OpenBSD.

Please make separate bug reports for each issue, perhaps
starting with the select module. Why is it unavailable?
select *is* a feature of POSIX, after all (as is poll).

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