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<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE gsdoc PUBLIC "-//GNUstep//DTD gsdoc 1.0.0//EN" "http://www.gnustep.org/gsdoc-1_0_0.xml">
<gsdoc base="Base">
<head>
<title>GNUstep Base</title>
<author name="Richard Frith-Macdonald">
<email address="rfm@gnu.org"/>
<url url="http://www.gnustep.org/developers/whoiswho.html"/>
</author>
<version>$Revision$</version>
<date>$Date$</date>
</head>
<body>
<chapter>
<heading>Base</heading>
<p>
The GNUstep base library is a free software package implementing
the API of the OpenStep Foundation Kit (tm), including later
additions. This documentation package describes the core of the
base library, for documentation on additional classes, see the
BaseAdditions documentation package.
</p>
<index scope="project" type="title" />
<section>
<heading>Compatibility</heading>
<p>
GNUstep is generally compatible with the OpenStep specification and
with recent developments of the MacOS (cocoa) API. Where MacOS
deviates from the OpenStep API, GNUstep generally attempts to
support both versions. In some cases the newer MacOS APIs are
incompatible with OpenStep, and GNUstep usually supports the richer
version. See the
<uref url="OpenStepCompliance.html">OpenStep Compliance</uref> section
for more information on OpenStep Compliance.
</p>
<p>
In order to deal with compatiblity issues, GNUstep uses two
mechanisms - it provides conditionally compiled sections of
the library header files, so that software can be built that
will conform strictly to a particular API, and it provides
user default settings to control the behavior of the library
at runtime.
</p>
<subsect>
<heading>Conditional compilation</heading>
<p>
Adding an option to a makefile to define one of the following
preprocessor constants will modify the API visible to software
being compiled -
</p>
<deflist>
<term>NO_GNUSTEP</term>
<desc>
GNUstep specific extensions to the OpenStep and MacOS cocoa
APIs are excluded from the headers.
</desc>
<term>STRICT_MACOS_X</term>
<desc>
Only methods and classes that are part of the MacOS cocoa
API are made available in the headers.
</desc>
<term>STRICT_OPENSTEP</term>
<desc>
Only methods and classes that are part of the OpenStep
specification are made available in the headers.
</desc>
</deflist>
<p>
<em>NB</em> These preprocessor constants are used in
<em>developer code</em> (ie the code that users of GNUstep write)
rather than by the GNUstep software itsself. They permit a
developer to ensure that he/she does not write code which depends
upon API not present on other implementations (in practice,
MacOS-X or some old OPENSTEP systems).<br />
The actual GNUstep libraries are always built with the full
GNUstep API in place, so that the feature set is as consistent
as possible.
</p>
</subsect>
<subsect>
<heading>User defaults</heading>
<deflist>
<term>GNU-Debug</term>
<desc>
<p>
An array of strings that lists debug levels to be used
within the program. These debug levels are merged with
any which were set on the command line or added programmatically
to the set given by the [NSProcessInfo-debugSet] method.
</p>
</desc>
<term>GSLogSyslog</term>
<desc>
<p>
Setting the user default <code>GSLogSyslog</code> to
<code>YES</code> will cause log/debug output to be sent to
the syslog facility (on systems which support it), rather
than to the standard error stream. This is useful in
environments where stderr has been re-used strangely for
some reason.
</p>
</desc>
<term>GSMacOSXCompatible</term>
<desc>
<p>
Setting the user default <code>GSMacOSXCompatible</code> to
<code>YES</code> will cause MacOS compatible behavior to be
the default at runtime. This default may however be overridden
to provide more fine grained control of system behavior.
</p>
</desc>
<term>GSOldStyleGeometry</term>
<desc>
<p>
Specifies whether the functions for producing strings
describing geometric structures (NSStringFromPoint(),
NSStringFromSize(), and NSStringFromRect()) should produce
strings conforming to the OpenStep specification or to
MacOS-X behavior. The functions for parsing those strings
should cope with both cases anyway.
</p>
</desc>
<term>GSSOCKS</term>
<desc>
<p>
May be used to specify a default SOCKS5 server (and optionally
a port separated from the server by a colon) to which tcp/ip
connections made using the NSFileHandle extension methods
should be directed.<br />
This default overrides the SOCKS5_SERVER and SOCKS_SERVER
environment variables.
</p>
</desc>
<term>Local Time Zone</term>
<desc>
<p>
Used to specify the name of the timezone to be used by the
<ref type="class" id="NSTimeZone">NSTimeZone</ref> class.
</p>
</desc>
<term>NSWriteOldStylePropertyLists</term>
<desc>
<p>
Specifies whether text property-list output should be in
the default MacOS-X format (XML), or in the more human
readable (but less powerful) original OpenStep format.
</p>
<p>
Reading of property lists is supported in either format,
but <em>only</em> if GNUstep is built with the libxml
library (which is needed to handle XML parsing).
</p>
<p>
NB. MacOS-X generates illegal XML for some strings - those
which contain characters not legal in XML. GNUstep always
generates legal XML, at the cost of a certain degree of
compatibility. GNUstep XML property lists use a backslash
to escape illegal chatracters, and consequently any string
containing either a backslash or an illegal character will
be written differently to the same string on MacOS-X.
</p>
</desc>
<term>NSLanguages</term>
<desc>
<p>
An array of strings that lists the users prefered languages,
in order or preference. If not found the default is just
English.
</p>
</desc>
</deflist>
</subsect>
<subsect>
<heading>Environment variables</heading>
<p>
There are some environment variables used by GNUstep base, where
there would be problems onbtaining data from the defaults asystem.
</p>
<deflist>
<term>CRASH_ON_ABORT</term>
<desc>
<p>
The default exception handler will either cause the program to
simply terminate, or to crash - leaving a core dump. The
standard behavior is to leave a core dump if the library was
built for debugging, and to simply exit if it was not.
</p>
<p>
The CRASH_ON_ABORT environment variable can be used to
override this behavior. If this is defined to <em>NO</em>,
<em>FALSE</em>, or <em>0</em> then the program will simply
exit when an exception occurs. Any other value of the
variable will cause the program to generate a core dump.
</p>
</desc>
<term>GNUSTEP_STRING_ENCODING</term>
<desc>
<p>
This is used to specify the default encoding for 8-bit
strings. It defaults to NSISOLatin1StringEncoding, but
may be any of the 8-bit encodings supported by your system
(excluding multi-byte encodings).
</p>
</desc>
<term>GNUSTEP_HOST_CPU</term>
<desc>
<p>
Used in place of GNUSTEP_TARGET_CPU if the other is missing.
</p>
</desc>
<term>GNUSTEP_HOST_DIR</term>
<desc>
<p>
Used in place of GNUSTEP_TARGET_DIR if the other is missing.
</p>
</desc>
<term>GNUSTEP_HOST_OS</term>
<desc>
<p>
Used in place of GNUSTEP_TARGET_OS if the other is missing.
</p>
</desc>
<term>GNUSTEP_LOCAL_ROOT</term>
<desc>
<p>
Used to specify the GNUstep root directory for local
(non-system) resources. Typically all locally produced
or contributed software is installed relative to this.
</p>
</desc>
<term>GNUSTEP_NETWORK_ROOT</term>
<desc>
<p>
Used to specify the GNUstep root directory for local
(non-system) resources that are intended to be shared
across a local network. Typically this is an NFS exported
directory shared by many machines. It provides an
alternative to GNUSTEP_LOCAL_ROOT.
</p>
</desc>
<term>GNUSTEP_SYSTEM_ROOT</term>
<desc>
<p>
Used to specify the GNUstep system root directory ... all
system libraries, tools, applications, headers, resources
in general are located relative to this.
</p>
</desc>
<term>GNUSTEP_USER_ROOT</term>
<desc>
<p>
This environment variable, commonly set by the make system,
is <strong>not</strong> used by GNUstep programs. Instead
values from <code>.GNUsteprc</code> are used (see later).
</p>
</desc>
<term>GNUSTEP_TARGET_CPU</term>
<desc>
<p>
Overrides the default value of the machine (hardware)
name used on this system.
</p>
</desc>
<term>GNUSTEP_TARGET_DIR</term>
<desc>
<p>
Overrides the default path used to locate subdirectories
for GNUstep binaries withing bundles and applications.
This is normally equivalent to a path made up of the
GNUSTEP_TARGET_CPU and GNUSTEP_TARGET_OS
</p>
</desc>
<term>GNUSTEP_TARGET_OS</term>
<desc>
<p>
Overrides the default value of the operating system
name used on this system.
</p>
</desc>
<term>GNUSTEP_TZ</term>
<desc>
<p>
Used to specify the timezone to be used if there is no
timezone specified in the user defaults system.
The preferred
mechanism is to use the 'Local Time Zone' value from the
user defaults system.
</p>
</desc>
<term>HOMEDRIVE</term>
<desc>
<p>
Used on windoze to locate the home directory.
</p>
</desc>
<term>HOMEPATH</term>
<desc>
<p>
Used on windoze to locate the home directory.
</p>
</desc>
<term>LANGUAGES</term>
<desc>
<p>
If there is no NSLanguages user default set, and there is
no language infromation available in the native system locale
mechanism, then this environment variable is used to provide
a list of the languages that the user prefers to use.
languages listed in this variable must be separated by
semicolons.
</p>
</desc>
<term>LOGNAME</term>
<desc>
<p>
This is used as the default value for the current user
(as returned by the NSUserName() functions). If it is not
specified, or contains an illegal value, other methods are
used to get the user name.
</p>
</desc>
<term>LIBRARY_COMBO</term>
<desc>
<p>
Used to override the default value of the combination
of standard libraries used to build binaries. This
value locates the final subdirectory used to locate binaries.
</p>
</desc>
<term>NSDeallocateZombies</term>
<desc>
<p>
This may be used in conjunction with NSZombieEnabled to specify
whether the objects should really be deallocated. If you set
this to YES, the zombie logging will only work until the
deallocated memory is re-used.
</p>
</desc>
<term>NSZombieEnabled</term>
<desc>
<p>
If this is set to YES, then deallocation of an object causes
the object to be morphed into a Zombie ... a special object
which will call the GNUstep specific GSLogZombie() function
to log the method call.<br />
You can set a breakpoint in this function and examine the
process memory if you are running under a debugger.<br />
As this overrides actual object deallocation, all memory
allocated for objects will be leaked!
</p>
</desc>
<term>SOCKS5_SERVER</term>
<desc>
<p>
Specifies the default socks server to be used when making
outgoing tcp/ip connections using NSFileHandle. This may
also specify a port after the host name (and spearated
from it by a colon).<br />
This environment variable is used only if the GSSOCKS
user default is not set.
</p>
</desc>
<term>SOCKS_SERVER</term>
<desc>
<p>
Equivalent to SOCKS5_SERVER, but used only if that is not
defined.
</p>
</desc>
<term>TZ</term>
<desc>
<p>
Used to specify the timezone to be used if there is no
timezone specified by any other mechanism. The preferred
mechanism is to use the 'Local Time Zone' value from the
user defaults system.
</p>
</desc>
</deflist>
</subsect>
<subsect>
<heading>.GNUsteprc files</heading>
<p>
The locations of the directories in which user specific files and
the user defaults database are stored are defined in the
<code>.GNUsteprc</code> files.<br />
If no location is given for user specific files, they are stored
in the GNUstep subdirectory of the users home directory.<br />
If a separate location is not given for the defaults database, it
is stored in the same directory as other user specific files.<br />
</p>
<p>
The presence of a <code>.GNUsteprc</code> file in a users home
directory premits the user to customize file locations using
two commands -
</p>
<deflist>
<term>GNUSTEP_DEFAULTS_ROOT=...</term>
<desc>
The text after the '=' is taken to be the path to the users
files. If it begins with a '~' character, the users home
directory is prepended to it.
</desc>
<term>GNUSTEP_USER_ROOT=...</term>
<desc>
The text after the '=' is taken to be the path to the users
files. If it begins with a '~' character, the users home
directory is prepended to it.
</desc>
</deflist>
<p>
The presence of a <code>.GNUsteprc</code> file in the GNUstep
system directory may provide default paths for all users and
may even override user specific files. The content of this file
is as for the user specific file, but permits two additional
commands -
</p>
<deflist>
<term>FORCE_DEFAULTS_ROOT</term>
<desc>
If this line is present, and the file specifies a
GNUSTEP_DEFAULTS_ROOT, then the value given in the system-wide
file is used irrespective of the user specific file.
Otherwise, the value in the user specific file takes precedence.
</desc>
<term>FORCE_USER_ROOT</term>
<desc>
If this line is present, and the file specifies a
GNUSTEP_USER_ROOT, then the value given in the system-wide
file is used irrespective of the user specific file.
Otherwise, the value in the user specific file takes precedence.
</desc>
</deflist>
</subsect>
</section>
</chapter>
<back>
<index scope="project" type="class" />
<index scope="project" type="protocol" />
</back>
</body>
</gsdoc>