Re: -fpic instead of -fPIC

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hi Joakim,

* Joakim Tjernlund wrote on Mon, Jun 06, 2005 at 04:10:31PM CEST:
> 
> I want to use -fpic instead of -fPIC on a powerpc(linux) target since
> that generates smaller and faster libs.  But I can't find out how to
> make libtool use -fpic. I don't want to do local changes to the
> installed libtool.  build host is linux/x86.

The setting of pic_flag is hard-wired in AC_LIBTOOL_PROG_COMPILER_PIC in
libtool.m4 now, if that's what you are looking for.

But how would you have Libtool find out when it will be used for large
sources for which -fpic will fail?
(Note I *could* imagine some kind of parametrization a la `-small-pic',
but I'll tell you right away that the amount of possible breakage is
huge, huge, and dangerous, and hard to find only after hours of
compilation; and the resulting fights with users..)

Two questions to ponder before you think about -fpic: Have you measured
the speed impact of -fpic vs -fPIC?  Please show, I'm interested!
If the difference is noticeable: Have you slapped the library author
with Drepper's dsohowto.pdf yet?  If so, please share with us his/her
reasoning to ignore it.   :)

Regards,
Ralf