Ian Lance Taylor wrote:
>
> Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 19:03:50 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Pavel Roskin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> [..]
> I'm not sure whether AC_CANONICAL_TARGET should be dropped. An important
> word here is "canonical". Autoconf used to provide some service to the
> package, namely canonicalization of exactly one option that Autoconf
> itself doesn't use. Some software may depend on it, although, as I said
> before, the GNU toolchain has outgrown this approach.
>
> The GNU toolchain hasn't outgrown --target, because the current
> situation existed from the start. The GNU binutils always supported
> multiple targets. However, they default to a particular target, and
> that is what they use the --target option for. Additional targets are
> specified using --enable-target. (--enable-target is actually a newer
> innovation. Previously, the GNU binutils always supported all targets
> (i.e., what is now --enable-targets=all). Adding --enable-target was
> part of trimming down the binutils, speeding up the build and
> shrinking the sizes of the binaries).
>
How about adopting this into autoconf?
I like the idea of having autoconf support for --enable-targets="...".
> [..]
> Canonicalizing that target remains an important function.
How about having a general macro to derive canonicalization values
(*_alias, *_cpu, *_os, *_vendor) from a canonicalization triple?
> I don't see
> anything wrong with keeping AC_CANONICAL_TARGET.
>
> By the way, people talk about AC_CANONICAL_TARGET and
> AC_CANONICAL_BUILD, but in earlier years those were never documented.
This reminds me about proposing that we could consider to merge
http://www.airs.com/ian/configure or a reworked/derived version of it
into autoconf's docs.
[There might be copyright or other restrictions on this article, but ..
Ian?]
However this would go further than simply extending autoconf
documentation:
* This article describes Cygnus's (Ian's ?) conventions/standards.
* Cygnus's conventions/standards match well with existing means
(AC_CANONICAL_* etc.) in autoconf.
* Autoconf means (AC_CANONICAL_*) do not necessarily imply/require
Cygnus's conventions.
* Autoconf currently does not have explicit cross-compilation
canonicalization conventions, but silently implies Cygnus conventions.
IMHO, adopting this article would imply
* adopting Cygnus's cross-compilation conventions (or at least to
recommend them)
* tightening restrictions on using canonicalization.
* clarifying conventions.
I am in favor of doing so, but it might not be acceptable for other
people.
Ralf
--
Ralf Corsepius
Forschungsinstitut fuer Anwendungsorientierte Wissensverarbeitung (FAW)
Helmholtzstr. 16, 89081 Ulm, Germany Tel: +49/731/501-8690
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] FAX: +49/731/501-999
http://www.faw.uni-ulm.de
