How to overcome "u_int8_t vs uint8_t" issue efficiently

Question

I am trying to build a package (libnet) in Solaris and I found that in Solaris there are no u_xxx_t but uxxx_t defined in sys/types.h

I had 2 questions:

1-Shouldn't autotools take care of this for me?

2-I guess I'm not the first one facing this (although google was little help) is there a standard/eficient/correct/quick way of overcoming this?

Answer 1

The most reasonable way of overcoming tis is to stick with the standard spelling of the type names (even if that standard is a "future" one for the implementation you are using). C99 introduced a standard nomenclature for such type names and in C99 it is uint8_t. So, even if you are using a C89/90 compiler I'd suggest you use uint8_t in your code. If on some platform it is unavailable or spelled differently, you simply introduce a platform-specific typedef name that "converts" the spelling

typedef u_int8_t uint8_t;

For this to work you'll need a header file that is included into every translation unit. Normally, each project has one created specifically for solving issues like this one.

Answer 2

The typename uint8_t is standard, so I'm not sure where you found u_int8_t.

This is simple enough that you can do it a fast, dumb way with perl (or sed, if you must), and fix any minor problems that it causes by hand:

perl -pi.orig -e "s/\bu_(\w+_t)\b/u$1/g" *.c

(This will save the original, unmodified files with the .orig suffix.)

Answer 3

1. No
2. Use conditional preprocessor directives i.e. #define u_xxx_t uxxx_t or typedef wrapped in a #ifdef block, i.e. typedef u_xxx_t uxxx_t