[Mingw-users] Deprecation of __USE_MINGW_ANSI_STDIO

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Eli Zaretskii eliz****@gnu*****
Mon Jan 7 01:22:14 JST 2019


> From: Keith Marshall <keith****@users*****>
> Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2019 21:09:51 +0000
> 
> > There's a similar problem with __USE_MINGW_FSEEK.  The warning for
> > that one is emitted by stdio.h, so it's a little bit easier to fix.
> > But the alternative, to set _WIN32_WINDOWS to something smaller than
> > 0x0500, is also somewhat problematic, since it requires conditionals
> > that do it only for mingw.org's MinGW (because MinGW64 supports only
> > Vista and later).
> 
> And we committed to continuing legacy support, (IIRC, you were a strong
> advocate for that commitment).  But why is it a problem, anyway?
> AFAICT, __USE_MINGW_FSEEK serves *no useful purpose whatsoever*, on
> *any* platform which is not Win9x, so why do mingw-w64 still have it?

No, __USE_MINGW_FSEEK is indeed not relevant to MinGW64.  The problem
is specific to MinGW.  But the solution, to define _WIN32_WINDOWS,
might create a problem for MinGW64.

> And why is it a problem if *both* _WIN32_WINNT and _WIN32_WINDOWS are
> defined?  The former is explicitly related to support levels on WinNT
> derived platforms, while the latter is exclusive to Win9x; IAC, there is
> no fundamental reason why you cannot declare an intent to support Win9x
> to (say) _WIN32_WINDOWS_ME, and simultaneously require
> _WIN32_WINNT_WIN2K or later on WinNT; AFAIK, MinGW.org headers no longer
> restrict API visibility on the basis of any _WIN32_WINDOWS definition,
> (unless it's an API which is exclusive to, or differently implemented
> on, Win9x).

Maybe it's just my lack of knowledge, then.

> > It would be easier if the warning about __USE_MINGW_FSEEK is also
> > removed, as the entire GCC/GDB/Binutils chain uses it, for example.
> 
> I don't recall seeing any related warnings, when I built GCC-8.2.0 or
> binutils-2.31; I can't comment on GDB usage, because I've never built
> it.

AFAICT, the bfd and opcodes directories use this, and it comes from
bfd/configure.host.  So yes, you won't see it in GCC, but you should
see it when building Binutils (but I didn't yet try building Binutils
since upgrading the MinGW runtime).

> However, __USE_MINGW_FSEEK is another feature test macro which
> really shouldn't be visible outside of MinGW.org source code, and the
> case for not deprecating it is even weaker ... how many of those
> projects which abuse it actually deliver Win9x compatible code today,
> anyway?

Well, we do want MinGW Binutils to work on Windows 9X, don't we?

> Those that do should *really* be defining _WIN32_WINDOWS, which
> implicitly enables the __USE_MINGW_FSEEK feature.

My problem with _WIN32_WINDOWS is that it appears in a dozen places in
our w32api headers, and just analyzing its impact is a serious job.
By contrast, __USE_MINGW_FSEEK is a much more focused knob.



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