15. Writing Portable C with GNU Autotools
GNU Autotools permits you to write highly portable programs. However,
using GNU Autotools is not by itself enough to make your programs portable.
You must also write them portably.
In this chapter we will give an introduction to writing portable
programs in C. We will start with some notes on portable use of the C
language itself. We will then discuss cross-Unix portability. We will
finish with some notes on portability between Unix and Windows.
Portability is a big topic, and we can not cover everything in this
chapter. The basic rule of portable code is to remember that every
system is in some ways unique. Do not assume that every other system is
like yours. It is very helpful to be familiar with relevant standards,
such as the ISO C standard and the POSIX.1 standard. Finally,
there is no substitute for experience; if you have the opportunity to
build and test your program on different systems, do so.
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