From: Mark Bergman <bergman AT Panix DOT Com>
Subject: long args, mapping filenames to 8.3
To: djgpp AT sun DOT soe DOT clarkson DOT edu
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1993 13:53:00 -0500 (EST)

I'm getting bitten the long-argument list problem. I'm using the MKS
Make under the MKS Kornshell, so I can pass command lines up to 8K
between programs that will accept them, but gcc will not.

I'm trying to port Psroff to DOS, and I'd like to keep everything as
"Unix" as possible so I have a hope of convincing the author to
incorporate my changes into the next release. Using response files in a
makefile is a pretty big departure from Unix practice, as is defining a
"longargs" variable and using environment variables to pass arguments.

Why don't gcc, cpp, flex, etc. accept as many arguments as they are
passed, as well as response files and environment variables? That way,
PC users with kinder, gentler shells (MKS, 4DOS, various pd ksh, csh)
that can pass long arguments don't have to go through contortions to
use gcc? I don't feel up to hacking gcc source, so please let me know
if there is a basic flaw that I'm missing?

On a less "whiney" note, I've finished a sh/awk combo to convert
filenames under Unix. Given a directory tree, this script will walk the
tree, create unique file and directory names, and determine if any
conflicts will result. It then goes through each file in the tree,
changing any references within the file from "improper" names to the
new, 8.3 acceptable name.

E-mail for more details or the script itself.
-- 
Mark Bergman    (Biker, Stagehand, (former) Unix user support grunt)
718-855-9148

bergman AT panix DOT com
{cmcl2,uunet}!panix!bergman