Mercurial > emacs
changeset 1858:794bd24d1415
Initial revision
| author | Jim Blandy <jimb@redhat.com> |
|---|---|
| date | Sun, 14 Feb 1993 14:13:56 +0000 |
| parents | 9d65dfc7bdb7 |
| children | bf9e3f462e86 |
| files | =PROBLEMS |
| diffstat | 1 files changed, 764 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) [+] |
line wrap: on
line diff
--- /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000 +++ b/=PROBLEMS Sun Feb 14 14:13:56 1993 +0000 @@ -0,0 +1,764 @@ +This file describes various problems that have been encountered +in compiling, installing and running GNU Emacs. + +* On some variants of SVR4, Emacs does not work at all with X. + +Try defining BROKEN_FIONREAD in your config.h file. If this solves +the problem, please send a bug report to tell us this is needed; be +sure to say exactly what type of machine and system you are using. + +* Linking says that the functions insque and remque are undefined. + +Change oldXMenu/Makefile by adding insque.o to the variable OBJS. + +* Emacs fails to understand most Internet host names, even though +the names work properly with other programs on the same system. + +This typically happens on Suns and other systems that use shared +libraries. The cause is that the site has installed a version of the +shared library which uses a name server--but has not installed a +similiar version of the unshared library which Emacs uses. + +The result is that most programs, using the shared library, work with +the nameserver, but Emacs does not. + +The fix is to install an unshared library that corresponds to what you +installed in the shared library, and then relink Emacs. + +* On a Sun running SunOS 4.1.1, you get this error message from GNU ld: + + /lib/libc.a(_Q_sub.o): Undefined symbol __Q_get_rp_rd referenced from text segment + +The problem is in the Sun shared C library, not in GNU ld. + +The solution is to install Patch-ID# 100267-03 from Sun. + +* Self documentation messages are garbled. + +This means that the file `etc/DOC-...' doesn't properly correspond +with the Emacs executable. Redumping Emacs and then installing the +corresponding pair of files should fix the problem. + +* M-x shell immediately responds "Process shell exited abnormally with code 1". + +This is often due to inability to run the program `env'. +This should be in the `etc' subdirectory of the directory +where Emacs is installed, and it should be marked executable. + +* Trouble using ptys on AIX. + +People often instll the pty devices on AIX incorrectly. +Use `smit pty' to reinstall them properly. + +* Shell mode on HP/UX gives the message, "`tty`: Ambiguous". + +christos@theory.tn.cornell.edu says: + +The problem is that in your .cshrc you have something that tries to +execute `tty`. If you are not running the shell on a real tty then +tty will print "not a tty". Csh expects one word in some places, +but tty is giving it back 3. + +The solution is to add a pair of quotes around `tty` to make it a single +word: + +if (`tty` == "/dev/console") + +should be changed to: + +if ("`tty`" == "/dev/console") + +Even better, move things that set up terminal sections out of .cshrc +and into .login. + +* Using X Windows, control-shift-leftbutton makes Emacs hang. + +Use the shell command `xset bc' to make the old X Menu package work. + +* Emacs running under X Windows does not handle mouse clicks. +* `emacs -geometry 80x20' finds a file named `80x20'. + +One cause of such problems is having (setq term-file-prefix nil) in +your .emacs file. Another cause is a bad value of EMACSLOADPATH in +the environment. + +* Emacs starts in a directory other than the one that is current in the shell. + +If the PWD environment variable exists, Emacs uses this variable as +the initial working directory. + +Some shells automatically update this variable, while other shells fail +to do so. If you use two such shells in combination, the variable can +end up wrong. This confuses Emacs. + +The solution is to put something in the start-up file for the shell +that does not update PWD, to get rid of that environment variable. +For example, in csh, use `unsetenv PWD'. + +* Emacs gets error message from linker on Sun. + +If the error message says that a symbol such as `f68881_used' or +`ffpa_used' or `start_float' is undefined, this probably indicates +that you have compiled some libraries, such as the X libraries, +with a floating point option other than the default. + +It's not terribly hard to make this work with small changes in +crt0.c together with linking with Fcrt1.o, Wcrt1.o or Mcrt1.o. +However, the easiest approach is to build Xlib with the default +floating point option: to decide at run time what hardware is +available. + +* Emacs fails to get default settings from X Windows server. + +The X library in X11R4 has a bug; it interchanges the 2nd and 3rd +arguments to XGetDefaults. Define the macro XBACKWARDS in config.h to +tell Emacs to compensate for this. + +I don't believe there is any way Emacs can determine for itself +whether this problem is present on a given system. + +* Keyboard input gets confused after a beep when using a DECserver + as a concentrator. + +This problem seems to be a matter of configuring the DECserver to use +7 bit characters rather than 8 bit characters. + +* M-x shell persistently reports "Process shell exited abnormally with code 1". + +This happened on Suns as a result of what is said to be a bug in Sunos +version 4.0.x. The only fix was to reboot the machine. + +* Programs running under terminal emulator do not recognize `emacs' + terminal type. + +The cause of this is a shell startup file that sets the TERMCAP +environment variable. The terminal emulator uses that variable to +provide the information on the special terminal type that Emacs +emulates. + +Rewrite your shell startup file so that it does not change TERMCAP +in such a case. You could use the following conditional which sets +it only if it is undefined. + + if ( ! ${?TERMCAP} ) setenv TERMCAP ~/my-termcap-file + +Or you could set TERMCAP only when you set TERM--which should not +happen in a non-login shell. + +* Error compiling sysdep.c, "sioctl.h: no such file or directory". + +Among USG systems with TIOCGWINSZ, some require sysdep.c to include +the file sioctl.h; on others, sioctl.h does not exist. We don't know +how to distinguish these two kind of systems, so currently we try to +include sioctl.h on all of them. If this #include gets an error, just +delete it. + +* X Windows doesn't work if DISPLAY uses a hostname. + +People have reported kernel bugs in certain systems that cause Emacs +not to work with X Windows if DISPLAY is set using a host name. But +the problem does not occur if DISPLAY is set to `unix:0.0'. I think +the bug has to do with SIGIO or FIONREAD. + +You may be able to compensate for the bug by doing (set-input-mode nil nil). +However, that has the disadvantage of turning off interrupts, so that +you are unable to quit out of a Lisp program by typing C-g. + +The easy way to do this is to put + + (setq x-sigio-bug t) + +in your site-init.el file. + +* Problem with remote X server on Suns. + +On a Sun, running Emacs on one machine with the X server on another +may not work if you have used the unshared system libraries. This +is because the unshared libraries fail to use YP for host name lookup. +As a result, the host name you specify may not be recognized. + +* Watch out for .emacs files and EMACSLOADPATH environment vars + +These control the actions of Emacs. +~/.emacs is your Emacs init file. +EMACSLOADPATH overrides which directories the function +"load" will search. + +If you observe strange problems, check for these and get rid +of them, then try again. + +* Shell mode ignores interrupts on Apollo Domain + +You may find that M-x shell prints the following message: + + Warning: no access to tty; thus no job control in this shell... + +This can happen if there are not enough ptys on your system. +Here is how to make more of them. + + % cd /dev + % ls pty* + # shows how many pty's you have. I had 8, named pty0 to pty7) + % /etc/crpty 8 + # creates eight new pty's + +* Fatal signal in the command temacs -l loadup inc dump + +This command is the final stage of building Emacs. It is run by the +Makefile in the src subdirectory, or by build.com on VMS. + +It has been known to get fatal errors due to insufficient swapping +space available on the machine. + +On 68000's, it has also happened because of bugs in the +subroutine `alloca'. Verify that `alloca' works right, even +for large blocks (many pages). + +* test-distrib says that the distribution has been clobbered +* or, temacs prints "Command key out of range 0-127" +* or, temacs runs and dumps xemacs, but xemacs totally fails to work. +* or, temacs gets errors dumping xemacs + +This can be because the .elc files have been garbled. Do not be +fooled by the fact that most of a .elc file is text: these are +binary files and can contain all 256 byte values. + +In particular `shar' cannot be used for transmitting GNU Emacs. +It typically truncates "lines". What appear to be "lines" in +a binary file can of course be of any length. Even once `shar' +itself is made to work correctly, `sh' discards null characters +when unpacking the shell archive. + +I have also seen character \177 changed into \377. I do not know +what transfer means caused this problem. Various network +file transfer programs are suspected of clobbering the high bit. + +The only verified ways to transfer GNU Emacs are `tar', kermit (in +binary mode on Unix), and rcp or internet ftp between two Unix systems, +or chaosnet cftp using raw mode. + +If you have a copy of Emacs that has been damaged in its +nonprinting characters, you can fix them: + + 1) Record the names of all the .elc files. + 2) Delete all the .elc files. + 3) Recompile alloc.c with a value of PURESIZE twice as large. + You might as well save the old alloc.o. + 4) Remake xemacs. It should work now. + 5) Running xemacs, do Meta-x byte-compile-file repeatedly + to recreate all the .elc files that used to exist. + You may need to increase the value of the variable + max-lisp-eval-depth to succeed in running the compiler interpreted + on certain .el files. 400 was sufficient as of last report. + 6) Reinstall the old alloc.o (undoing changes to alloc.c if any) + and remake temacs. + 7) Remake xemacs. It should work now, with valid .elc files. + +* temacs prints "Pure Lisp storage exhausted" + +This means that the Lisp code loaded from the .elc and .el +files during temacs -l loadup inc dump took up more +space than was allocated. + +This could be caused by + 1) adding code to the preloaded Lisp files + 2) adding more preloaded files in loadup.el + 3) having a site-init.el or site-load.el which loads files. + Note that ANY site-init.el or site-load.el is nonstandard; + if you have received Emacs from some other site + and it contains a site-init.el or site-load.el file, consider + deleting that file. + 4) getting the wrong .el or .elc files + (not from the directory you expected). + 5) deleting some .elc files that are supposed to exist. + This would cause the source files (.el files) to be + loaded instead. They take up more room, so you lose. + 6) a bug in the Emacs distribution which underestimates + the space required. + +If the need for more space is legitimate, change the definition +of PURESIZE in puresize.h. + +But in some of the cases listed above, this problem is a consequence +of something else that is wrong. Be sure to check and fix the real +problem. + +* Changes made to .el files do not take effect. + +You may have forgotten to recompile them into .elc files. +Then the old .elc files will be loaded, and your changes +will not be seen. To fix this, do M-x byte-recompile-directory +and specify the directory that contains the Lisp files. + +* The dumped Emacs (xemacs) crashes when run, trying to write pure data. + +Two causes have been seen for such problems. + +1) On a system where getpagesize is not a system call, it is defined +as a macro. If the definition (in both unexec.c and malloc.c) is wrong, +it can cause problems like this. You might be able to find the correct +value in the man page for a.out (5). + +2) Some systems allocate variables declared static among the +initialized variables. Emacs makes all initialized variables in most +of its files pure after dumping, but the variables declared static and +not initialized are not supposed to be pure. On these systems you +may need to add "#define static" to the m- or the s- file. + +* Compilation errors on VMS. + +You will get warnings when compiling on VMS because there are +variable names longer than 32 (or whatever it is) characters. +This is not an error. Ignore it. + +VAX C does not support #if defined(foo). Uses of this construct +were removed, but some may have crept back in. They must be rewritten. + +There is a bug in the C compiler which fails to sign extend characters +in conditional expressions. The bug is: + char c = -1, d = 1; + int i; + + i = d ? c : d; +The result is i == 255; the fix is to typecast the char in the +conditional expression as an (int). Known occurrences of such +constructs in Emacs have been fixed. + +* rmail gets error getting new mail + +rmail gets new mail from /usr/spool/mail/$USER using a program +called `movemail'. This program interlocks with /bin/mail using +the protocol defined by /bin/mail. + +There are two different protocols in general use. One of them uses +the `flock' system call. The other involves creating a lock file; +`movemail' must be able to write in /usr/spool/mail in order to do +this. You control which one is used by defining, or not defining, +the macro MAIL_USE_FLOCK in config.h or the m- or s- file it includes. +IF YOU DON'T USE THE FORM OF INTERLOCKING THAT IS NORMAL ON YOUR +SYSTEM, YOU CAN LOSE MAIL! + +If your system uses the lock file protocol, and fascist restrictions +prevent ordinary users from writing the lock files in /usr/spool/mail, +you may need to make `movemail' setgid to a suitable group such as +`mail'. You can use these commands (as root): + + chgrp mail movemail + chmod 2755 movemail + +* Emacs won't work with X-windows if the value of DISPLAY is HOSTNAME:0. +* GNUs can't make contact with the specified host for nntp. + +Some people have found that Emacs was unable to connect to the local +host by name, as in DISPLAY=prep:0 if you are running on prep, but +could handle DISPLAY=unix:0. Here is what tale@rpi.edu said: + + Seems as + though gethostbyname was bombing somewhere along the way. Well, we + had just upgrade from SunOS 3.5 (which X11 was built under) to SunOS + 4.0.1. Any new X applications which tried to be built with the pre + OS-upgrade libraries had the same problems which Emacs was having. + Missing /etc/resolv.conf for a little while (when one of the libraries + was built?) also might have had a hand in it. + + The result of all of this (with some speculation) was that we rebuilt + X and then rebuilt Emacs with the new libraries. Works as it should + now. Hoorah. + +If you have already installed the name resolver in the file libresolv.a, +then you need to compile Emacs to use that library. The easiest way to +do this is to add to config.h a definition of LIBS_SYSTEM, LIBS_MACHINE +or LIB_STANDARD which uses -lresolv. Watch out! If you redefine a macro +that is already in use in your configuration to supply some other libraries, +be careful not to lose the others. + +Thus, you could start by adding this to config.h: + +#define LIBS_SYSTEM -lresolv + +Then if this gives you an error for redefining a macro, and you see that +the s- file defines LIBS_SYSTEM as -lfoo -lbar, you could change config.h +again to say this: + +#define LIBS_SYSTEM -lresolv -lfoo -lbar + +* Emacs spontaneously displays "I-search: " at the bottom of the screen. + +This means that Control-S/Control-Q "flow control" is being used. +C-s/C-q flow control is bad for Emacs editors because it takes away +C-s and C-q as user commands. Since editors do not output long streams +of text without user commands, there is no need for a user-issuable +"stop output" command in an editor; therefore, a properly designed +flow control mechanism would transmit all possible input characters +without interference. Designing such a mechanism is easy, for a person +with at least half a brain. + +There are three possible reasons why flow control could be taking place: + + 1) Terminal has not been told to disable flow control + 2) Insufficient padding for the terminal in use + 3) Some sort of terminal concentrator or line switch is responsible + +First of all, many terminals have a set-up mode which controls +whether they generate flow control characters. This must be +set to "no flow control" in order for Emacs to work. Sometimes +there is an escape sequence that the computer can send to turn +flow control off and on. If so, perhaps the termcap `ti' string +should turn flow control off, and the `te' string should turn it on. + +Once the terminal has been told "no flow control", you may find it +needs more padding. The amount of padding Emacs sends is controlled +by the termcap entry for the terminal in use, and by the output baud +rate as known by the kernel. The shell command `stty' will print +your output baud rate; `stty' with suitable arguments will set it if +it is wrong. Setting to a higher speed causes increased padding. If +the results are wrong for the correct speed, there is probably a +problem in the termcap entry. You must speak to a local Unix wizard +to fix this. Perhaps you are just using the wrong terminal type. + +For terminals that lack a "no flow control" mode, sometimes just +giving lots of padding will prevent actual generation of flow control +codes. You might as well try it. + +If you are really unlucky, your terminal is connected to the computer +through a concentrator which sends flow control to the computer, or it +insists on sending flow control itself no matter how much padding you +give it. You are screwed! You should replace the terminal or +concentrator with a properly designed one. In the mean time, +some drastic measures can make Emacs semi-work. + +One drastic measure to ignore C-s and C-q, while sending enough +padding that the terminal will not really lose any output. +Ignoring C-s and C-q can be done by using keyboard-translate-table +to map them into an undefined character such as C-^ or C-\. Sending +lots of padding is done by changing the termcap entry. Here is how +to make such a keyboard-translate-table: + + (let ((the-table (make-string 128 0))) + ;; Default is to translate each character into itself. + (let ((i 0)) + (while (< i 128) + (aset the-table i i) + (setq i (1+ i)))) + ;; Swap C-s with C-\ + (aset the-table ?\C-\\ ?\C-s) + (aset the-table ?\C-s ?\C-\\) + ;; Swap C-q with C-^ + (aset the-table ?\C-^ ?\C-q) + (aset the-table ?\C-q ?\C-^) + (setq keyboard-translate-table the-table)) + +An even more drastic measure is to make Emacs use flow control. +To do this, evaluate the Lisp expression (set-input-mode nil t). +Emacs will then interpret C-s and C-q as flow control commands. (More +precisely, it will allow the kernel to do so as it usually does.) You +will lose the ability to use them for Emacs commands. Also, as a +consequence of using CBREAK mode, the terminal's Meta-key, if any, +will not work, and C-g will be liable to cause a loss of output which +will produce garbage on the screen. (These problems apply to 4.2BSD; +they may not happen in 4.3 or VMS, and I don't know what would happen +in sysV.) You can use keyboard-translate-table, as shown above, +to map two other input characters (such as C-^ and C-\) into C-s and +C-q, so that you can still search and quote. + +I have no intention of ever redisigning the Emacs command set for +the assumption that terminals use C-s/C-q flow control. This +flow control technique is a bad design, and terminals that need +it are bad merchandise and should not be purchased. If you can +get some use out of GNU Emacs on inferior terminals, I am glad, +but I will not make Emacs worse for properly designed systems +for the sake of inferior systems. + +* Control-S and Control-Q commands are ignored completely. + +For some reason, your system is using brain-damaged C-s/C-q flow +control despite Emacs's attempts to turn it off. Perhaps your +terminal is connected to the computer through a concentrator +that wants to use flow control. + +You should first try to tell the concentrator not to use flow control. +If you succeed in this, try making the terminal work without +flow control, as described in the preceding section. + +If that line of approach is not successful, map some other characters +into C-s and C-q using keyboard-translate-table. The example above +shows how to do this with C-^ and C-\. + +* Control-S and Control-Q commands are ignored completely on a net connection. + +Some versions of rlogin (and possibly telnet) do not pass flow +control characters to the remote system to which they connect. +On such systems, emacs on the remote system cannot disable flow +control on the local system. + +One way to cure this is to disable flow control on the local host +(the one running rlogin, not the one running rlogind) using the +stty command, before starting the rlogin process. On many systems, +"stty start u stop u" will do this. + +Some versions of tcsh will prevent even this from working. One way +around this is to start another shell before starting rlogin, and +issue the stty command to disable flow control from that shell. + +* Screen is updated wrong, but only on one kind of terminal. + +This could mean that the termcap entry you are using for that +terminal is wrong, or it could mean that Emacs has a bug handing +the combination of features specified for that terminal. + +The first step in tracking this down is to record what characters +Emacs is sending to the terminal. Execute the Lisp expression +(open-termscript "./emacs-script") to make Emacs write all +terminal output into the file ~/emacs-script as well; then do +what makes the screen update wrong, and look at the file +and decode the characters using the manual for the terminal. +There are several possibilities: + +1) The characters sent are correct, according to the terminal manual. + +In this case, there is no obvious bug in Emacs, and most likely you +need more padding, or possibly the terminal manual is wrong. + +2) The characters sent are incorrect, due to an obscure aspect + of the terminal behavior not described in an obvious way + by termcap. + +This case is hard. It will be necessary to think of a way for +Emacs to distinguish between terminals with this kind of behavior +and other terminals that behave subtly differently but are +classified the same by termcap; or else find an algorithm for +Emacs to use that avoids the difference. Such changes must be +tested on many kinds of terminals. + +3) The termcap entry is wrong. + +See the file etc/TERMS for information on changes +that are known to be needed in commonly used termcap entries +for certain terminals. + +4) The characters sent are incorrect, and clearly cannot be + right for any terminal with the termcap entry you were using. + +This is unambiguously an Emacs bug, and can probably be fixed +in termcap.c, tparam.c, term.c, scroll.c, cm.c or dispnew.c. + +* Output from Control-V is slow. + +On many bit-map terminals, scrolling operations are fairly slow. +Often the termcap entry for the type of terminal in use fails +to inform Emacs of this. The two lines at the bottom of the screen +before a Control-V command are supposed to appear at the top after +the Control-V command. If Emacs thinks scrolling the lines is fast, +it will scroll them to the top of the screen. + +If scrolling is slow but Emacs thinks it is fast, the usual reason is +that the termcap entry for the terminal you are using does not +specify any padding time for the `al' and `dl' strings. Emacs +concludes that these operations take only as much time as it takes to +send the commands at whatever line speed you are using. You must +fix the termcap entry to specify, for the `al' and `dl', as much +time as the operations really take. + +Currently Emacs thinks in terms of serial lines which send characters +at a fixed rate, so that any operation which takes time for the +terminal to execute must also be padded. With bit-map terminals +operated across networks, often the network provides some sort of +flow control so that padding is never needed no matter how slow +an operation is. You must still specify a padding time if you want +Emacs to realize that the operation takes a long time. This will +cause padding characters to be sent unnecessarily, but they do +not really cost much. They will be transmitted while the scrolling +is happening and then discarded quickly by the terminal. + +Most bit-map terminals provide commands for inserting or deleting +multiple lines at once. Define the `AL' and `DL' strings in the +termcap entry to say how to do these things, and you will have +fast output without wasted padding characters. These strings should +each contain a single %-spec saying how to send the number of lines +to be scrolled. These %-specs are like those in the termcap +`cm' string. + +You should also define the `IC' and `DC' strings if your terminal +has a command to insert or delete multiple characters. These +take the number of positions to insert or delete as an argument. + +A `cs' string to set the scrolling region will reduce the amount +of motion you see on the screen when part of the screen is scrolled. + +* Your Delete key sends a Backspace to the terminal, using an AIXterm. + +The solution is to include in your .Xdefaults the lines: + + *aixterm.Translations: #override <Key>BackSpace: string(0x7f) + aixterm*ttyModes: erase ^? + +This makes your Backspace key send DEL (ASCII 127). + +* You type Control-H (Backspace) expecting to delete characters. + +Put `stty dec' in your .login file and your problems will disappear +after a day or two. + +The choice of Backspace for erasure was based on confusion, caused by +the fact that backspacing causes erasure (later, when you type another +character) on most display terminals. But it is a mistake. Deletion +of text is not the same thing as backspacing followed by failure to +overprint. I do not wish to propagate this confusion by conforming +to it. + +For this reason, I believe `stty dec' is the right mode to use, +and I have designed Emacs to go with that. If there were a thousand +other control characters, I would define Control-h to delete as well; +but there are not very many other control characters, and I think +that providing the most mnemonic possible Help character is more +important than adapting to people who don't use `stty dec'. + +If you are obstinate about confusing buggy overprinting with deletion, +you can redefine Backspace in your .emacs file: + (global-set-key "\b" 'delete-backward-char) +You may then wish to put the function help-command on some +other key. I leave to you the task of deciding which key. + +* Editing files through RFS gives spurious "file has changed" warnings. +It is possible that a change in Emacs 18.37 gets around this problem, +but in case not, here is a description of how to fix the RFS bug that +causes it. + + There was a serious pair of bugs in the handling of the fsync() system + call in the RFS server. + + The first is that the fsync() call is handled as another name for the + close() system call (!!). It appears that fsync() is not used by very + many programs; Emacs version 18 does an fsync() before closing files + to make sure that the bits are on the disk. + + This is fixed by the enclosed patch to the RFS server. + + The second, more serious problem, is that fsync() is treated as a + non-blocking system call (i.e., it's implemented as a message that + gets sent to the remote system without waiting for a reply). Fsync is + a useful tool for building atomic file transactions. Implementing it + as a non-blocking RPC call (when the local call blocks until the sync + is done) is a bad idea; unfortunately, changing it will break the RFS + protocol. No fix was supplied for this problem. + + (as always, your line numbers may vary) + + % rcsdiff -c -r1.2 serversyscall.c + RCS file: RCS/serversyscall.c,v + retrieving revision 1.2 + diff -c -r1.2 serversyscall.c + *** /tmp/,RCSt1003677 Wed Jan 28 15:15:02 1987 + --- serversyscall.c Wed Jan 28 15:14:48 1987 + *************** + *** 163,169 **** + /* + * No return sent for close or fsync! + */ + ! if (syscall == RSYS_close || syscall == RSYS_fsync) + proc->p_returnval = deallocate_fd(proc, msg->m_args[0]); + else + { + --- 166,172 ---- + /* + * No return sent for close or fsync! + */ + ! if (syscall == RSYS_close) + proc->p_returnval = deallocate_fd(proc, msg->m_args[0]); + else + { + +* ld complains because `alloca' is not defined on your system. + +Alloca is a library function in 4.2bsd, which is used very heavily by +GNU Emacs. Use of malloc instead is very difficult, as you would have +to arrange for the storage to be freed, and do so even in the case of +a longjmp happening inside a subroutine. Many subroutines in Emacs +can do longjmp. + +If your system does not support alloca, try defining the symbol +C_ALLOCA in the m-...h file for that machine. This will enable the use +in Emacs of a portable simulation for alloca. But you will find that +Emacs's performance and memory use improve if you write a true +alloca in assembler language. + +alloca (N) should return the address of an N-byte block of memory +added dynamically to the current stack frame. + +* Vax C compiler bugs affecting Emacs. + +You may get one of these problems compiling Emacs: + + foo.c line nnn: compiler error: no table entry for op STASG + foo.c: fatal error in /lib/ccom + +These are due to bugs in the C compiler; the code is valid C. +Unfortunately, the bugs are unpredictable: the same construct +may compile properly or trigger one of these bugs, depending +on what else is in the source file being compiled. Even changes +in header files that should not affect the file being compiled +can affect whether the bug happens. In addition, sometimes files +that compile correctly on one machine get this bug on another machine. + +As a result, it is hard for me to make sure this bug will not affect +you. I have attempted to find and alter these constructs, but more +can always appear. However, I can tell you how to deal with it if it +should happen. The bug comes from having an indexed reference to an +array of Lisp_Objects, as an argument in a function call: + Lisp_Object *args; + ... + ... foo (5, args[i], ...)... +putting the argument into a temporary variable first, as in + Lisp_Object *args; + Lisp_Object tem; + ... + tem = args[i]; + ... foo (r, tem, ...)... +causes the problem to go away. +The `contents' field of a Lisp vector is an array of Lisp_Objects, +so you may see the problem happening with indexed references to that. + +* 68000 C compiler problems + +Various 68000 compilers have different problems. +These are some that have been observed. + +** Using value of assignment expression on union type loses. +This means that x = y = z; or foo (x = z); does not work +if x is of type Lisp_Object. + +** "cannot reclaim" error. + +This means that an expression is too complicated. You get the correct +line number in the error message. The code must be rewritten with +simpler expressions. + +** XCONS, XSTRING, etc macros produce incorrect code. + +If temacs fails to run at all, this may be the cause. +Compile this test program and look at the assembler code: + +struct foo { char x; unsigned int y : 24; }; + +lose (arg) + struct foo arg; +{ + test ((int *) arg.y); +} + +If the code is incorrect, your compiler has this problem. +In the XCONS, etc., macros in lisp.h you must replace (a).u.val with +((a).u.val + coercedummy) where coercedummy is declared as int. + +This problem will not happen if the m-...h file for your type +of machine defines NO_UNION_TYPE. That is the recommended setting now. + +* C compilers lose on returning unions + +I hear that some C compilers cannot handle returning +a union type. Most of the functions in GNU Emacs return +type Lisp_Object, which is currently defined as a union. + +This problem will not happen if the m-...h file for your type +of machine defines NO_UNION_TYPE. That is the recommended setting now. +