Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watnot!watmath!clyde!cbatt!ihnp4!ptsfa!lll-lcc!styx!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!hplabs!hpcea!hpfcdc!hpfclp!diamant
From: diamant@hpfclp.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Hard Disk Problem ( and some more bugs )
Message-ID: <9490002@hpfclp.HP.COM>
Date: Sat, 28-Feb-87 16:27:40 EST
Article-I.D.: hpfclp.9490002
Posted: Sat Feb 28 16:27:40 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 2-Mar-87 07:31:52 EST
References: <496@ubu.warwick.UUCP>
Organization: HP, Fort Collins, CO
Lines: 29

> 4) tar won't read from standard input using the -, and rm won't let you
> remove things that start with a -. Probably missing features rather than bugs
> really.

I don't think MINIX is to blame here for rm.  This is because if you say
something like "rm -foobar" it looks like an option to rm.  I have seen this
behavior in most UNIX systems.  You can do something like "rm -i *foobar" to
get rid of files like this.
> 
> 5) C programs must expicitly flush all buffers before exiting. I don't if
> this a V7ism or if it is a bug as I don't have access to a V7 system.

This is a documented incompatibility (in the Libraries part of appendix C, 
page 409-410).  The explanation is that to avoid including stdio in all
programs (to reduce their size), the MINIX C compiler doesn't flush stdio's
buffers since stdio may not be included.  I suspect that the same result
could have been accomplished without creating a source incompatibility by
one of two approaches:

	1) Use a compiler switch to tell the compiler not to include stdio
	   cleanup code.
	2) Include by default a very small cleanup routine that detects whether
	   stdio was included, and flushes the buffers only if the library
	   was loaded.

John Diamant
SCO				UUCP:  {hplabs,hpfcla}!hpfclp!diamant
Hewlett Packard Co.		ARPA Internet: diamant%hpfclp@hplabs.HP.COM
Fort Collins, CO