1.5.18: suppressing non-C language checks / pass flags to cc in link mode

[Paul Jakma]

Hi,

I have a problem (2 actually ;) ).

Problem 1:

Is there any sane way to have libtool pass on CFLAGS to cc in link 
mode?

Libtool seems to trust it's own knowledge of what CFLAGS the compiler 
should use in link mode beyond anything supplied by the user in 
CFLAGS. There is a workaround it seems -XCClinker <flag>, but it 
is problematic: If you have a number of options which CC must be 
passed during link mode, it becomes quite unmanageable.

E.g: If you set CFLAGS to include -XCClinker ... then configure's 
'does compiler work?' test fails (because it invokes cc directly).

The only other alternative then, it seems, is to write your configure 
script to include some kind of extra 'LINK_MODE_CFLAGS' variable, 
then tack that on to CFLAGS and also generate an additional 
'LI5BBTOOL_CCLINK_FLAGS' variable for each word in LINK_MODE_CFLAGS 
combined with -XCClinker and then use LIBTOOL_CCLINK_FLAGS in 
prog_LDADD in your Makefile.am's.

That's quite convoluted, and would not be neccessary if libtool would 
just pass on the flags. Why doesn't it? (Buggy compilers which won't 
take the same flags for compile and link modes?).

The problem is that it isn't uncommon to have compiler flags which 
must be specified at both compile and link time. E.g. flags 
controlling incremental linking, inter-object link optimisation, 32 
or 64 bit ABIs, etc.

Is it the idea that the sane way for libtool to work is to have 
/intimate/ knowledge of each compiler and each platform? :) (I know 
the idea is to try abstract things a bit, but to the point of making 
it impossible to easily build 64bit binaries? ;) )


Problem 2:

I tried to upgrade to a 1.5.18 in order to see if Problem 1 had been 
addressed at all (i had been using 1.5.6 i think - perhaps with some 
m4 files from CVS circa 2004 which dont have this problem). However, 
I found that there still does not seem to be a way to suppress 
libtool's desire to check for every possible language known to 
computer science.

It's annoying to get bug reports from users unable to build the 
software due to their C++, Fortran, whatever compiler not working 
correctly, particularly when the software concerned is C..

I tried setting up configure.ac ala:

AC_LIBTOOL_CONFIG([C])

but that didnt work. Some of the other auto* tools seem to be unhappy 
that I'm not using AC_PROG_LIBTOOL. :( Whats the way to get what I 
want (other than by hacking _AC_PROG_LIBTOOL to remove the CXX, F77 
and GCJ macros)?

I'm using automake 1.9.5 and autoconf 2.59.

regards,
--
Paul Jakma      address@hidden  address@hidden  Key ID: 64A2FF6A
Fortune:
Karl's version of Parkinson's Law:  Work expands to exceed the time alloted it.