Re: PATCH RFA: Add Go support

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello Ian,

thanks for the patch!

* Ian Lance Taylor wrote on Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 11:42:56PM CEST:
> This patch adds support for the Go programming language to libtool.  Go
> is described at http://golang.org/ .
> 
> I'm not very familiar with libtool.  This patch is mostly a
> cut-and-paste job.  It is enough to let me use automake with LIBTOOL to
> build libraries from Go code.

Do you have, or are working on, an Automake patch for Go support?

> The patch requires a patch which I've proposed for autoconf:
> 
> http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/autoconf-patches/2010-10/msg00004.html
> 
> I'm not sure how to handle a libtool patch which requires an autoconf
> patch.  Perhaps this can not be committed until the next libtool
> release.

We usually try to support older Autoconf as well (currently back to
2.59), so that people don't need to upgrade all at once.  When only
macros from Autoconf proper are missing (as opposed to macros from other
third parties), they can be treated similarly to how AC_PROG_SED is
treated with a backup in libtool.m4.

There might be an ordering issue between the definition of AC_PROG_GO
and the AC_PROVIDE_IFELSE([AC_PROG_GO], ...) because the latter
essentially tacks code onto the former (this might be moot as a define
vs. expand thing, haven't checked though).

> In any case I would appreciate any comments and any advice as to how to
> get this committed to libtool.  Thanks.

tests/suffix.test should be updated.

Can you send output of
  ./libtool --tag=GO --config

for Libtool with Go support enabled?  You need to patch Libtool's
configure.ac to enable Go support (this should be part of the patch as
well).

A NEWS entry would be good.  Testsuite additions (to the new testsuite)
would be nice, like one setup where Go is the only language enabled (to
verify that object and executable extension computation work etc).
We can write those tests if you're not familiar with Autotest.

I haven't checked things in detail yet, but since it is new
functionality, the chance for regression is not so high.

Thanks,
Ralf