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From: rer@hpfcdc.HP.COM (Rob Robason)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: tell() equivalent on Series 800
Message-ID: <5570457@hpfcdc.HP.COM>
Date: 6 Aug 90 17:00:03 GMT
Organization: HP Fort Collins, Co.
Lines: 32

Eric Johnson writes:

eric> We've just got an HP 800 (834?)  in house, and I've been porting
eric> our industrial automation software to it.  We're running HP-UX
eric> 7.0.  The only difference between the 800 series HP-UX 7.0 and
eric> the 300 series is that tell() does not appear to be available on
eric> the 800.  Is this correct?  (We're much more familiar with the
eric> 300 line.)

I need to know the history of tell().  I cannot find it in the AT&T, BSD
or HP-UX references.  Would you tell me how you knew about it in order to
use it in your original application?  You have indeed used it correctly,
I'm just trying to figure out how!

We have tentatively added tell to libc for the 800 for compatibility.
You will not see this until 8.0.

I would make the suggestion that you change your code to use

	lseek(fildes, SEEK_CUR, (off_t)0)

This returns the same value as tell(except the type is off_t instead of
int), works in 7.0 and is POSIX conformant.  This will make your code
its most portable.

As an aside, since it came too late to influence the application we're
discussing, a new feature of the HP-UX reference (added in 7.0, I think)
is the STANDARDS CONFORMANCE section which describes applicable
standards for each function.  This can be a useful guide to writing
portable software.

Rob Robason