Re: [HACKERS] acl problem in NetBSD/m68k

Bruce Momjian <maillist@candle.pha.pa.us> writes:
>> There are two ways we could attack this: (1) put a "pad" field into
>> struct AclItem (prolly two uint8s) to try to ensure that compilers
>> would think it is 8 bytes long, or (2) make the size field for aclitem
>> in pg_type.h read "sizeof(AclItem)".  I think the latter is a better
>> long-term solution, because it eliminates having to try to guess
>> what a compiler will do with a struct declaration.

> Currently, initdb runs through pg_type.h using sed/awk, so it can't
> see any of the sizeof() defines.

Hmm, that does put a bit of a crimp in the idea :-(

> I guess we don't have any other 'struct' data types that need
> to know the size of the struct on a give OS.

Right now I think all the other ones are either single-type structs (eg
point is two float8s, so no padding) or varlena.  But this is something
that will come up again, I foresee...

> Maybe padding with an Assert() to make sure it stays at the fixed size
> we specify is a good solution.

I agree, that's probably an OK patch for now.  When we have more than
one such type it'll probably be time to bite the bullet and implement
a clean solution.
        regards, tom lane