>>> Like mouse@ I am unaware of what makes ksem mandatory, [...] >> Whatever is 'mandatory'. > > Well, it was said to be...as jnemeth put it, it was "made unconditional > on the basis that it is essential". > >> But if you use programs that require POSIX shared memory, you should >> also offer POSIX semaphores. > > Perhaps - but, even if so, "offer" does not mean "mandate support for". > > But what uses POSIX semaphores - or even shared memory - that is so > essential as to justify making it non-optional? There are a lot of > other things which are pretty essential for most uses but which are > still optional, such as options INET, options FFS, and pseudo-device > pty, to name just three; I don't think "it's needed for many popular > uses of the system" is a good reason to make something impossible to > compile out. > >> Popular programs using POSIX shared memory are X11 including clients > > See above about popularity not being an excuse. (I feel reasonably > sure more systems use ptys - or INET - than use X11.)
FWIW, _all_ of my NetBSD systems run PostgreSQL and thus require that stuff.
