Ok, this is in, approved by Mark off-list. Thanks for your help everybody! Final testing bits: by me x86/linux powerpc/darwin by Paolo x86_64/linux ia64/linux by David Edelsohn powerpc/aix5.1 by Eric Botcazou sparc*/solaris2.[6-9] by John David Anglin hppa64-hp-hpux11.00 hppa2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 -benjamin