Re: strftime?

[turnbull@example.com (Stephen J. Turnbull)]

>>>>> "Darren" == Darren Cook <darren@example.com> writes:

    Darren> I am developing a (Windows console) program that has to be
    Darren> recompiled under Unix. According to the online-help

What online-help?  The online help that comes with Windowze?  Get man
installed right....

    Darren> strftime is not available under Unix, yet it goes into

It is under Linux (libc 5.3.12) and SunOS Release 4.1.3-JLE1.1.3.  I
assume you have GCC installed; do 'nm /usr/lib/libc.a | fgrep
strftime'.

    Darren> detail about Posix modifiers. I thought Posix and Unix
    Darren> were fairly much the same thing - what is the difference?

Posix is a standard for programs to interface to the operating system;
it doesn't care what that operating system is.  I'm sure the designers
of (Posix-compliant) Windwoze NT would be unamused to hear Windwoze NT
characterized as "fairly much the same thing" as Un*x.  I think the
main reason why Posix functions look a lot like what we think of as
Unix functions is that the Posix working group is heavily informed by
C programming practice.  Most C environments provide a libc that looks
a lot like the Unix environment.  For example, MS-DOS compilers often
provide 'sbrk' and 'write' and suchlike, even though they don't fit
the DOS model of the machine very well.  Some even provide ioctl
calls, which are definitely not DOSoid.

    Darren> More importantly, is strftime available under a)Linux,
    Darren> b)Solaris?

a) Yes.  b) Probably.  See above.  If you're worried about its
availability under any given environment, you can borrow it from
either Linux's libc or DJGPP's libc source.

    Darren> BTW, 'man' does not work in my Linux installation. I

"Does not work" covers a lot of ground.  If the symptoms include your
monitor shooting a fountain of sparks to the ceiling, then it's
probably not so trivial as installing a program.  :-) What are the
error messages?

    Darren> suspect I told it not to install a program that man
    Darren> uses. Can someone tell me what that program is, so I can
    Darren> make sure I include it when I reinstall.

Probably groff(1) or nroff(1).  Other things that can go wrong
    - man pages not installed ('ls -lR /usr/man | less')
    - man pages read-protected ('ls -lR /usr/man | less')
    - man not installed ('whereis man')
    - man not executable ('ls -l `whereis man`')
    - MANPATH not set ('echo $MANPATH')
and probably even more things than that.

-- 
                           Stephen John Turnbull
University of Tsukuba                                        Yaseppochi-Gumi
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences  http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/
Tennodai 1-1-1, Tsukuba, 305 JAPAN                 turnbull@example.com