Re: GNU Make 4.4.0.90 on Debian 11.1

[Bruno Haible]

Paul Smith wrote:
> > But instead I see 4 test failures in the 'features/archives'
> > category.
> 
> These are because:
> 
>   ! /bin/sh: 1: cc: not found
> 
> Why is there no C compiler on this system?  Or is the problem that it's
> not on the PATH for some reason?

Indeed, there is no 'cc' nor 'gcc' in $PATH on this system. The reason is
that several C compilers can be chosen. I installed GCC 10, and then set the
environment variable
  CC="gcc-10"
and this is found in $PATH, as /usr/bin/gcc-10.

Per GNU standards [1], a GNU package should use $CC, not 'cc' — so that users
have the freedom to use a compiler of their choice (clang, TinyCC, whatever...).

In this test you have the lines

  # Fallback if configure did not find AR
  my $ar = get_config('AR') || 'ar';

Why not do the same for CC?

  my $cc = get_config('CC') || 'cc';

Bruno

[1] https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Configuration.html