Re: [Mingw-users] libtool, dlls and -lm

[Keith MARSHALL]

Ralf Wildenhues wrote, quoting Bob Frieshahn:
>> Since there is no standard 'file' command provided with MSYS/MinGW,
>> is this safe?
>
> OK, so the only remaining case really is MSYS/MinGW itself.  Do we
> know of win32 installations that provide a `file' command that does
> not do what we expect?  Note that not having `file' available would
> be fine here, but one that does something completely unrelated, for
> example, would hurt. 

While it is true that MSYS/MinGW doesn't include a `file' command as
standard, it is perfectly feasible to use a `foreign' implementation
with MSYS;  e.g. I have installed the GnuWin32 v4.16 implementation
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=23617&package_id=18878
into my `/usr/local' MSYS tree.  Not sure how robust it is;  e.g. it
misidentifies manpage sources as `MKS Spell hash (old format)', and
its own manpage refers to incorrect locations for the `magic' files,
but it does seem to identify executables, shell scripts, and `*.a'
or `*.dll' libraries reasonably well.  There may be a few gotchas,
such as:--

* executable names need to be spelled out in full, including the
  EXEEXT;  (file `which sh` says `no such file or directory', but
  file `which sh.exe` works as expected).

* `*.o' files are identified as `80386 COFF executable, not stripped',
  rather than as relocatable (object) files;  (file-3.37 on my Linux
  box does likewise, for i586-mingw32-gcc compiled objects).

* may be some other weirdos I haven't encountered yet...

Not suggesting that you should always expect `file' to be present, but
some MSYS users may have it.  Maybe, if it's needed to improve libtool
support, we could consider adding it to a future msysDTK release, or
provide it as a mingwPORT.

Regards,
Keith.