SM and POSIX [ was Re: Is it a proper CVS dep tree? ]

[Owen Taylor <otaylor redhat com>]

Felix Bellaby <felix@pooh.u-net.com> writes:

> Tom Tromey writes:
>  > I'd be suprised if the SM specs are related to POSIX in any way.
> 
> Suprised me too! Section 8 of xc/doc/specs/SM/SMlib.txt:
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> Name                 Type          POSIX Type       Required?
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> SmCloneCommand       OS-specific   SmLISTofARRAY8      Yes
> SmCurrentDirectory   OS-specific   SmARRAY8            No
> SmDiscardCommand     OS-specific   SmLISTofARRAY8      No*
> SmEnvironment        OS-specific   SmLISTofARRAY8      No
> SmProcessID          OS-specific   SmARRAY8            No
> SmProgram            OS-specific   SmARRAY8            Yes
> SmRestartCommand     OS-specific   SmLISTofARRAY8      Yes
> SmResignCommand      OS-specific   SmLISTofARRAY8      No
> SmRestartStyleHint   SmCARD8       SmCARD8             No
> SmShutdownCommand    OS-specific   SmLISTofARRAY8      No
> SmUserID             SmARRAY8      SmARRAY8            Yes
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> xsm and smproxy use SmARRAY8 for the SmDiscardCommand.
> gnome follows "POSIX" and uses SmLISTofARRAY8 for the SmDiscardCommand.

I believe that they are saying

 "This is an appropriate type to use on a POSIX-compliant system"

not:
 
 "The POSIX standard specifies this particular type"

[ 
  As such, is it a good idea to change the type of SmDiscardCommand?
  Is there a reason why the list is necessary, or are we just
  breaking compatibility with existing SM programs for no
  good reason?
]

Regards,
                                        Owen