On 01/14/2015 09:49 AM, Stefan Monnier wrote:
> This is hideous.  Why do we need that?

Assuming --enable-gcc-warnings, it's a combination of things. First, gcc 
-Wsuggest-attribute=const complains if it can deduce that an extern 
function is const but the function wasn't declared const. Second, this 
particular function is const on some platforms and not on others, so we 
can't simply declare it to be const everywhere. Third, the DEFUN syntax 
doesn't give us a way to declare a function const only on some 
platforms.  Fourth, gcc -Wredundant-decls won't let us supply another 
extern declaration by hand, with the const attribute on platforms that 
need const, because GCC complains if there are duplicate extern declations.

There are several possibilities for how to fix this in a less-ugly way, 
including:

1.  Omit -Wsuggest-attribute=const.

2.  Omit -Wredundant-decls.

3.  Make make-docfile.c even smarter and/or trickier.

The attached patch would do (2), as I expect this is simplest. Would you 
prefer this?