Re: changing the default compilers for autoconf

[Eric Blake]

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According to Thomas Dickey on 9/17/2007 6:23 AM:
> 
> It's more than that.  Setting the flags to -g is a policy decision made
> in the mid-90's based on the claim that setting the optimization flag
> in any compiler other than gcc would expose bugs in that compiler.
> 
> (the claim of course is incorrect, but there's no point in discussing it
> on this mailing list)

I agree that the claim is probably not true, especially since compiler
technology has improved in the meantime.  However, this IS the appropriate
list for discussing the issue.  Please, feel free to post examples and/or
patches of what you think can be improved, rather than assuming,
pessimistically, that we don't care to hear what you have to say.
Furthermore, I don't see this claim written in the manual, which means
that while it may have been one of the justifications provided at the time
the default was set, it does not necessarily remain the justification used
today for keeping that default.

Personally, I still think that a default of -g for non-gcc is still
appropriate - in this day and age, disk space is relatively cheap, and
leaving debugging symbols in speeds development.  And the Autoconf manual
is quite clear that the user is free to specify CFLAGS to override the
autoconf defaults, including via a config.site file to make this user
preference automatic for all projects on that machine.  So while the
default of -g may not be your preference, I hope that it is still
configurable enough that you do not feel locked into that default.  And if
there is something we could do to make the documentation more clear on
this point, again, discussion or patches are welcome.

- --
Don't work too hard, make some time for fun as well!

Eric Blake             address@hidden
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