Re: --build and --host

[Henrique de Moraes Holschuh]

On Mon, 04 Mar 2002, Akim Demaille wrote:
> >>>>> "Henrique" == Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <address@hidden> writes:
> Henrique> It also means Debian will need to fork config.guess
> Henrique> permanently so as to force autoconf stuff to build using the
> Henrique> correct host arch (since there seems to be no way to
> Henrique> sepecify a build architecture without entering
> Henrique> cross-compiling mode or risking weird sidefects).  Did I get
> Henrique> that right?
> 
> I don't understand what you mean here.  configure is one thing,
> config.guess is another.  config.guess is already cross-compilation
> proof: its task is to guess the *build* machine, and it does by being
> independent of the cross-compiler.

Well, it goes more or less like this: we know beforehand the build and host
machine architectures, and often config.sub or config.guess need an update
to avoid breakage when those archs are very new.

A recent breakage in config.guess for MIPS and MIPSEL got the ball rolling
(suddenly nearly all GNU autoconf programs were broken in two archs, near
release, because of a script we should not even need to run in Debian to
begin with).

> And, as for Autoconf, passing --build, changes the build machine
> without entering cross-compilation.

That is the solution I am proposing system-wide [for Debian] right now:
always set --build (for autoconf 2.52+) or --host (for autoconf 2.13), using
the known-good architecture.  Set --host (for 2.52+) or --build (for 2.13)
as well if we are doing cross-compilation.

Apparently, this is enough and I was mistaken about the need to modify
config.guess.

-- 
  "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh