SunOS, _XOPEN_SOURCE, _POSIX_C_SOURCE, C99, etc...

xopen-stdc-extensions.md

How To Correctly Set _XOPEN_SOURCE and __EXTENSIONS__

This is a work-in-progress, but aims to help navigate the murky waters of setting _XOPEN_SOURCE in such a way that it is compatible across C standards on SunOS systems.

Introduction

A table is worth a thousand words. Defines used in a default compilation environment (i.e. no -std=.. specified):

Define	GCC 4.x (C90) or older	GCC 5.x (C99) or newer
_XOPEN_SOURCE=500	Ok	Error
_XOPEN_SOURCE=600	Error	Ok
_POSIX_SOURCE	Ok	Error
_POSIX_C_SOURCE=199506L	Ok	Error
_POSIX_C_SOURCE=200112L	Error	Ok
__EXTENSIONS__	Ok	Ok

The basic problem boils down to this:

• You cannot use _XOPEN_SOURCE=500 or older if building with a C99 or newer compiler.
• You cannot use _XOPEN_SOURCE=600 or newer if building with a C90 or older compiler.

The problem is exacerbated by different compiler defaults, meaning that the same piece of code may break depending on which version of GCC you are using:

• GCC <= 4.x default to C90 or older.
• GCC >= 5.x default to C99 or newer.

Thus:

• Code which unconditionally defines _XOPEN_SOURCE=500 or older will fail with GCC >= 5.x
• Code which unconditionally defines _XOPEN_SOURCE=600 or newer will fail with GCC <= 4.x

An alternative selection of standards is done by _POSIX_C_SOURCE, and this generally falls into the same issues:

• _POSIX_C_SOURCE=199506L (if set) or older must be used for C90 or older
• _POSIX_C_SOURCE=200112L (if set) or newer must be used for C99 or newer

How To Fix

_XOPEN_SOURCE=500

The normal way we can resolve this is by testing for __STDC_VERSION__ and handle accordingly.

#if __STDC_VERSION__ - 0 < 199901L
#define _XOPEN_SOURCE 500
#else
#define _XOPEN_SOURCE 600
#endif

This however may not be appropriate in all situations. Some OS may behave differently if _XOPEN_SOURCE is set compared to the OS defaults, so care must be taken.

Generally the rule will be that if _XOPEN_SOURCE is already being set, then the above should be safe. However if it is being added, then it's probably worth wrapping it inside a __sun section:

#if defined(__sun)
#  if __STDC_VERSION__ - 0 < 199901L
#define _XOPEN_SOURCE 500
#  else
#define _XOPEN_SOURCE 600
#  endif
#endif

_XOPEN_SOURCE=600

If the software has hardcoded _XOPEN_SOURCE=600 then the simplest fix, at least in a pkgsrc environment, is to ensure the software is built in a C99 environment by setting USE_LANGUAGES:

USE_LANGUAGES+= c99

Care should be taken if this is set in a public header, as then every dependency will also need C99.

If the software requires adding _XOPEN_SOURCE=600 and does not already set _XOPEN_SOURCE in the source, then

USE_LANGUAGES+= c99
CPPFLAGS.SunOS+=  -D_XOPEN_SOURCE=600

will avoid the need for patching.

__EXTENSIONS__

Adding __EXTENSIONS__ to expose additional features should be safe in any C environment.

_XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED

Setting _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED effectively ignores what _XOPEN_SOURCE is set to and forces XPG4v2 mode.

This is wrong. Don't ever set it.