* This work-around is needed until both bash and libtool wisen up.

* extraData will be used after all.

* NEC SX might not be the only platform without asynchronous I/O facilities.
* Also fix problem where the feature is available at compile time but
  not enabled at run-time.

* This prevents bogus double free errors if reshListDestruct encounters
  an error that triggers itself again via at_exit.

* This is later needed for collective operations on distributed grid data.

* This change minimizes the number of actual queries.

* Also use temporary to save repeated queries.

* This reduces later changes to data-structures.

* And use this to eliminate similar code in the serial test program.

* The corresponding divergent behaviour was introduced in r3975.