Hi. I extracted getpath.c out of Python and modified it to make a
generally useful facility for C and C++ programming. These comments
are at the top of my .c file, and I would like to know if they pass
muster for meeting licensing, copyright, and aesthetics requirements:
// -*- Mode: C; fill-column: 79 -*-
//================================================== ===========================
// Description:
//
// pathToExecutable.c is a module that allows a Unix program to find the
// location of its executable. This capability is extremely useful for
// writing programs that don't have to recompiled in order to be relocated
// within the filesystem. Any auxiliary files (dynamically loaded
// libraries, help files, configuration files, etc.) can just be placed in
// the same directory as the executable, and the function
// pathToExecutable() can be used by the program at runtime to locate its
// executable file and from there the program can locate any auxiliary
// files it needs in order to operate.
//
// pathToExecutable() is smart enough to follow a symlink (or even a chain
// of symlinks) in order to find the true location of the executable. In
// this manner, for instance, you might install all of the files used by a
// program (let's say it's called "my-program"), including the executable,
// into the directory /usr/local/lib/my-program, and then put a symlink
// into /usr/local/bin that points to the executable
// /usr/local/lib/my-program/my-program. Initially pathToExecutable()
// will identify /usr/local/bin/my-program as the executable, but it will
// then notice that this "file" is really a symbolic link.
// pathToExecutable() will then follow the symbolic link and return
// "/usr/local/lib/my-program/my-pogram" instead.
//
// Before a program can call pathToExecutable(), setArgv() must be called
// (canonically in main()) so that pathToExecutable() can fetch the value
// of argv[0] and use it to help figure out where the executable is
// located.
//
// Copyright and licensing information:
//
// This software is a heavily modified version of getpath.c from the
// Python 2.5.1 release. Both this software and the original software
// from which it is derived are freely distributable under the terms of
// the permissive freeware license, Python Software Foundation License
// Version 2. You can read more about this license here:
//
// http://www.python.org/psf/license
//
// The original software from which this software is derived carries the
// following copyright:
//
// Copyright (c) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 Python
// Software Foundation.
//
// The modifications to the original software, which are contained herein,
// are
//
// Copyright (c) 2007 Douglas Alan <doug AT alum.mit.edu>
//
//================================================== ===========================
Thanks,
|>oug
