# Differing signedness warnings when compiling ruby-odbc

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/differing-signedness-warnings-when-compiling-ruby-odbc/51948>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [January 9, 2006, 4:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/differing-signedness-warnings-when-compiling-ruby-odbc/51948 "2006-01-09T16:24:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ben\_Gribaudo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Ben\_Gribaudo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Ben_Gribaudo)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 4:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/differing-signedness-warnings-when-compiling-ruby-odbc/51948/1 "2006-01-09T16:24:07Z")

</div>

Hi,

When compiling ruby-odbc 0.996 on Ubuntu Breezy, gcc outputs a number  
of warnings that “pointer targets in passing argument x of y differ in  
signedness”. (see output below)

Should these warnings concern me? Is there a way to resolve the  
underlying issue?

Box info:  
GNU make 3.80.  
Linux version 2.6.12-10-686-smp (buildd@terranova) (gcc version 3.4.5  
20050809 (prerelease) (Ubuntu 3.4.4-6ubuntu8)) #1 SMP Fri Nov 18  
12:27:41 UTC 2005

Thank you,  
Ben

=== Output from Make ===  
gcc -fPIC -Wall -g -O2 -fPIC -I. -I/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux  
-I/usr/lib/rub  
y/1.8/i486-linux -I. -DHAVE\_SQL\_H -DHAVE\_SQLEXT\_H -DHAVE\_TYPE\_SQLTCHAR  
-DHAVE\_OD  
BCINST\_H -c odbc.c  
odbc.c: In function  
âget\_err\_or\_infoâ:odbc.c:761: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 4 of  
âSQLErrorâ differ  
in signedness  
odbc.c:761: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 6 of  
âSQLErrorâ differ  
in signedness  
odbc.c: In function  
âcallsqlâ:odbc.c:949: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 4 of  
âSQLErrorâ differ  
in signedness  
odbc.c:949: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 6 of  
âSQLErrorâ differ  
in signedness  
odbc.c: In function  
âupcase\_ifâ:odbc.c:1994: warning: pointer targets in initialization differ in  
signedness  
odbc.c: In function  
âdbc\_infoâ:odbc.c:2305: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 6 of  
âSQLTablesâ diffe  
r in signedness  
odbc.c:2313: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 6 of  
âSQLColumnsâ diff  
er in signedness  
odbc.c:2321: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 6 of  
âSQLPrimaryKeysâ  
differ in signedness  
odbc.c:2332: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 6 of  
âSQLStatisticsâ d  
iffer in signedness  
odbc.c:2348: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 6 of  
âSQLForeignKeysâ  
differ in signedness  
odbc.c:2348: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 12 of  
âSQLForeignKeysâ  
differ in signedness  
odbc.c:2357: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 6 of  
âSQLTablePrivileg  
esâ differ in signedness  
odbc.c:2365: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 6 of  
âSQLProceduresâ d  
iffer in signedness  
odbc.c:2374: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 6 of  
âSQLProcedureColu  
mnsâ differ in signedness  
odbc.c:2374: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 8 of  
âSQLProcedureColu  
mnsâ differ in signedness  
odbc.c:2385: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 7 of  
âSQLSpecialColumn  
sâ differ in signedness  
odbc.c: In function  
âstmt\_cursornameâ:odbc.c:3763: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 2 of  
âSQLSetCursorName  
â differ in signedness  
odbc.c: In function  
âstmt\_prep\_intâ:odbc.c:4667: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 2 of  
âSQLExecDirectâ d  
iffer in signedness  
odbc.c:4672: warning: pointer targets in passing argument 2 of  
âSQLPrepareâ diff  
er in signedness  
gcc -shared -L"/usr/lib" -o odbc.so odbc.o -lruby1.8 -lodbcinst  
-lodbc -lpthr  
ead -ldl -lcrypt -lm -lc