On 7/5/21 6:34 PM, Bruno Haible wrote:

> What are these appropriate flags?

It was "./configure TIME_T_32_BIT_OK=yes". Though this wasn't documented 
well and perhaps needed other options, and it's different in style from 
how largefile worked.

> I'd like to understand
>    - whether these flags are simple or complicated,

They should be simple.

>    - whether we really do need a module dependency 'largefile' -> 'year2038',
>    - how to best document these things.

It shouldn't be a module dependency, since year2038 means "I must have 
64-bit time_t or I won't build" whereas largefile merely means "I want 
the widest off_t/dev_t/ino_t/time_t available". That being said, 
largefile can use some of the year2038 macros.

> we need an
>   AC_ARG_ENABLE([year2038], ...)
> like we already have an
>   AC_ARG_ENABLE([largefile], ...)

Yes, something like that would be better than the TIME_T_32_BIT_OK flag.

I installed the attached patches into Gnulib to implement the above 
suggestions. The first one is just a doc fix; the second one does the 
real work.