Subject: bug#9728: Incorrect -L flags order for HP-UX

From: Vincent Lefevre <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2011 09:40:44 +0200

On 2011-10-13 21:39:56 -0500, Bob Friesenhahn wrote:
> On Fri, 14 Oct 2011, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
> >>It should be possible for the user to build a package doing
> >>./configure ..options..; make LDFLAGS=-fancyflag
> >>CPPFLAGS=-I/want/coffee;
> >
> >I don't think this should be allowed: MPFR does some tests at
> >configure time based on the current environment. If the user
> >modifies the environment at make time, the configure tests no
> >longer make sense (e.g. modifying LDFLAGS at make time can select
> >a different GMP version). So, if the user does this, it is up to
> 
> Actually, the user should be allowed to shoot themselves in the foot
> if they request it.

Perhaps, but then, I think that if the user has a good reason to
do this, then it should be able to override the settings done at
configure time. So, --with-gmp=DIR should modify LDFLAGS, not
AM_LDFLAGS, because as $(AM_LDFLAGS) appears before $(LDFLAGS),
there would be no way to override a -L flag set in AM_LDFLAGS
by just modifying LDFLAGS.

Note: Mutt also modifies CPPFLAGS / LDFLAGS, not the AM_* versions.

> LDFLAGS should be set including the user-provided setting
> during the entire configure run so test results should be valid.

This is how this works with MPFR.

> I know that MPFR configure does work differently than almost any
> other software package.

I don't know what you mean here. The main difference IMHO, is that
MPFR will try to get the compiler and flags chosen by GMP, but this
is necessary in general (we have much fewer bug reports since we do
this), though quite awkward. And if GMP does something in the user's
back, MPFR shouldn't be blame for trying to fix things.

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <[email-masked]> - Web: <http://www.vinc17.net/>
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Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / Arénaire project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)