Big Brother errors during make....

[MAD_2]

First, I would like to know if I am posting this question in the correct place... Maybe I should go to networking instead, I am not sure.

I got the following errors while running make during installation of the big brother server. Can anyone tell me what may have happened?

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cc -O -DHPUX -DREGEXEC -DGETTIMEOFDAY -c bb.c
cc -O -DHPUX -DREGEXEC -DGETTIMEOFDAY -c bbsend.c
cc: "bbsend.c", line 164: warning 604: Pointers are not assignment-compatible.
cc: "bbsend.c", line 164: warning 563: Argument #2 is not the correct type.
cc -O -DHPUX -DREGEXEC -DGETTIMEOFDAY -c utils.c
cc -O -DHPUX -DREGEXEC -DGETTIMEOFDAY -o bb bb.o bbsend.o utils.o
cc -O -DHPUX -DREGEXEC -DGETTIMEOFDAY -c dohostsvc.c
cc -O -DHPUX -DREGEXEC -DGETTIMEOFDAY -c bbd.c
cc: "bbd.c", line 125: warning 604: Pointers are not assignment-compatible.
cc: "bbd.c", line 125: warning 563: Argument #2 is not the correct type.
cc: "bbd.c", line 1031: warning 604: Pointers are not assignment-compatible.
cc: "bbd.c", line 1031: warning 563: Argument #2 is not the correct type.
cc: "bbd.c", line 1062: warning 604: Pointers are not assignment-compatible.
cc: "bbd.c", line 1062: warning 563: Argument #2 is not the correct type.
cc: "bbd.c", line 1125: warning 604: Pointers are not assignment-compatible.
cc: "bbd.c", line 1125: warning 563: Argument #2 is not the correct type.
cc -O -DHPUX -DREGEXEC -DGETTIMEOFDAY -c bbpage.c
cc -O -DHPUX -DREGEXEC -DGETTIMEOFDAY -o bbd bbd.o dohostsvc.o bbpage.o
bbsend.o utils.o
cc -O -DHPUX -DREGEXEC -DGETTIMEOFDAY -c bbnet.c
cc: "bbnet.c", line 327: warning 604: Pointers are not assignment-compatible.
cc: "bbnet.c", line 327: warning 563: Argument #2 is not the correct type.
cc: "bbnet.c", line 416: warning 604: Pointers are not assignment-compatible.
cc: "bbnet.c", line 416: warning 563: Argument #2 is not the correct type.
cc -O -DHPUX -DREGEXEC -DGETTIMEOFDAY -o bbnet bbnet.o utils.o
cc -O -DHPUX -DREGEXEC -DGETTIMEOFDAY -c touchtime.c
cc -O -DHPUX -DREGEXEC -DGETTIMEOFDAY -o touchtime touchtime.o
cc -O -DHPUX -DREGEXEC -DGETTIMEOFDAY -c dumphostsvc.c
cc -O -DHPUX -DREGEXEC -DGETTIMEOFDAY -o dumphostsvc dumphostsvc.o dohos
tsvc.o utils.o
cc -O -DHPUX -DREGEXEC -DGETTIMEOFDAY -c getipaddr.c
cc -O -DHPUX -DREGEXEC -DGETTIMEOFDAY -o getipaddr getipaddr.o utils.o
cc -O -DHPUX -DREGEXEC -DGETTIMEOFDAY -c bbstat.c
cc -O -DHPUX -DREGEXEC -DGETTIMEOFDAY -o bbstat bbstat.o
cc -O -DHPUX -DREGEXEC -DGETTIMEOFDAY -c bbrun.c
cc -O -DHPUX -DREGEXEC -DGETTIMEOFDAY -o bbrun bbrun.o utils.o

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Thanks!

[A. Clay Stephenson · Accepted solution]

It means that the code devepopers were a bit sloppy. Most of the time these warnings can be safely ignored.

Without looking at the source code it's difficult to know but here's an example of the kinds of things that will do this:

The write system call is prototyped like this (from memory so you should man 2 write to be sure)

ssize_t write(int fildes, const void *buf, size_t nbytes)

Now suppose that we actually invoked write using buf as an array of characaters

char buf[1024]
n = write(fdes,buf,80);

That code would work perfectly well but would generate the same kind of warning you got because the "type" of the buf variable was incorrect (in language speak, the actual parameters did not agree in type with the formal parameters).

The "fix" is to tell the compiler that I know this isn't exactly what you expected but "trust me". That is done by "casting" the variable to the expected type:

n = write(fdes,(void *) buf,80);

Essentially, the developers were not rigorous enough about casting all the operands. You can PROBABLY run the code safely but every once in a while those pesky warnings are trying to tell you something important.