[sane-devel] pros and cons regarding --enable-pthread for Linux

[Johannes Meixner]

Hello,

currently we (i.e. openSUSE/Novell) compile sane-backends
with its default configure setting "--disable-pthread" for Linux.

A consequence is that the mustek_usb2 backend is not built
because it requires "--enable-pthread", see
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=633780

Therefore I am thinking about to use "--enable-pthread"
but I don't know about possible bad consequences.

Therefore I like to get information about the pros and cons
regarding "--enable-pthread".

In particular what is the reason why "--enable-pthread" is
the default for MacOS X/MINGW but not for everything else,
in particular not for Linux.

I found the older mail thread "fork or pthread for async I/O?"
on sane-devel dated February 2000:
http://www.sane-project.org/old-archive/2000-02/0013.html
where in particular
http://www.sane-project.org/old-archive/2000-02/0017.html
seems to show a reason why the default is "--disable-pthread".

But I don't know if this default still makes sense or is it
probably safe at least for Linux to use "--enable-pthread"?


Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner
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