Re: depcomp deficiency [was: m4-1.4.7 build feedback]

[Nelson H. F. Beebe]

Joseph S. Myers <address@hidden> remarks:

>> This is a GCC bug [failure to recognize -- option] ....

I just checked a bunch of gcc installations on our systems: they range
from this:

        %  gcc -- --version
        gcc: Ambiguous abbreviation --
        2.95.3

to this:

        % cc -- --version
        cc: ambiguous abbreviation --
        cc (GCC) 4.1.1 20060525 (Red Hat 4.1.1-1)

The gcc folks could probably argue that -- is indeed ambiguous,
because there is no way to tell which of the following arguments are
intended for the preprocessor, the compiler, the assembler, or the
linker.  There are already -W[x],-option,value options to direct
arguments to specific components.

However, on {Free,Net}BSD, c89 and c99 could use -- to mean that
anything that follows is to be passed to the underlying compiler that
they wrap.  They could argue, though, that they do not guarantee what
that compiler actually is, so any such option use would be inherently
nonportable.

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