From 52c2cd2f06d1ed983abb9d86006ca45a75181b2e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Bruno Haible Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2008 13:04:07 +0100 Subject: Advocacy documentation. --- doc/gnulib-intro.texi | 34 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 34 insertions(+) (limited to 'doc/gnulib-intro.texi') diff --git a/doc/gnulib-intro.texi b/doc/gnulib-intro.texi index 169ca80547..fa282a4b29 100644 --- a/doc/gnulib-intro.texi +++ b/doc/gnulib-intro.texi @@ -1,3 +1,37 @@ +@node Benefits +@section Benefits of using Gnulib + +Gnulib is useful to enhance various aspects of a package: + +@itemize @bullet +@item +Portability: With Gnulib, a package maintainer can program against the +POSIX and GNU libc APIs and nevertheless expect good portability to +platforms that don't implement POSIX. + +@item +Maintainability: When a package uses modules from Gnulib instead of code +written specifically for that package, the maintainer has less code to +maintain. + +@item +Security: Gnulib provides functions that are immune against vulnerabilities +that plagues the uses of the corresponding commonplace functions. For +example, @code{asprintf}, @code{canonicalize_file_name} are not affected +by buffer sizing problems that affect @code{sprintf}, @code{realpath}. +@code{openat} does not have the race conditions that @code{open} has. Etc. + +@item +Reliability: Gnulib provides functions that combine a call to a system +function with a check of the result. Examples are @code{xalloc}, +@code{xprintf}, @code{xstrtod}, @code{xgetcwd}. + +@item +Structure: Gnulib offers a way to structure code into modules, typically +one include file, one source code file, and one autoconf macro for each +functionality. Modularity helps maintainability. +@end itemize + @node Library vs Reusable Code @section Library vs. Reusable Code -- cgit v1.2.1