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+FUNCTIONS
+
+This is a document for example functions to ensure portability
+across different systems. These are mere examples as we currently
+depend on non POSIX utilities on packages. These dependencies will
+be removed as we go forward.
+
+I don't want to turn the functions in here into a library because
+these are really simple, and I believe that the build scripts sho-
+uld be self-contained. What's the point of creating portable func-
+tions if the functions themselves depend on a library file to be
+installed on a system?
+
+These obviously have their own limitations, but not every limitation
+has to be solved in a single function. Use your imagination, non-
+standard flags/commands may save you some keypresses, but they are
+not standard, because you can already do these with your brain and
+a few more keypresses.
+
+SED -i
+------
+
+The -i function isn't portable across systems, and isn't defined
+by POSIX. But it isn't too valuable as it can be replaced with a
+simple function. I present you sed_i. This function only depends
+on the fact that the file name is the last argument.
+
+
+    sed_i() {
+        # This makes sure that we store the last argument on
+        # a file variable.
+        for file; do :; done
+
+        # Run the arguments against sed, and redirect output
+        # to a temporary file simply named '_'.
+        sed "$@" > _
+        # Instead of moving we cat into the file. This way we
+        # do not have to worry about preserving permissions of
+        # the file
+        cat _ > "$file"; rm -f _
+    }
+
+In build scripts with multiple 'sed -i' usage, such a function
+can be defined for and used. If only it is used a single time,
+defining such a function is quite unnecessary. In such a case
+prefer doing it manually. Assume the file is named 'file.h' and
+we are calling 's/this/that/g'.
+
+
+    sed 's/this/that/g' file.h >_
+    cat _ > file.h; rm -f _
+
+
+INSTALL -D,-t
+-------------
+
+'install' does not have a standard. Options such as '-D' and '-t',
+even though they are the most used, do not exist on every impleme-
+ntation. Avoid using these flags where possible. You can prefer us-
+ing functions such as these. The first function is similar to '-t'
+flag, where you can install multiple files to a given target. The
+second function is similar to the usage without the '-t' flag, a
+single file where it will be named as the argument.
+
+
+    kinstall_t() {
+         # usage: kinstall_t 755 /usr/bin file1 file2 file3
+         mod=$1 dir=$2; mkdir -p "$dir"
+         shift 2
+         for file; do
+             ! [ -d "$dir/$file" ] || {
+                 printf '%s\n' "Error: $dir/$file is a directory >&2"
+                 return 1
+             }
+             cp "$file" "$dir"
+             chmod "$mod" "$dir/$file"
+         done
+    }
+
+
+    kinstall() {
+        # usage: kinstall 755 /usr/bin/file filename
+        mod=$1 target=$2; mkdir -p "${target%/*}"
+        shift 2
+        ! [ -d "$target" ] || {
+            printf '%s\n' "Error: $target is a directory" >&2
+            return 1
+        }
+        cp "$file" "$target"
+        chmod "$mod" "$target"
+    }
+