Re: sed 4.0e (built with autoconf 2.59a) works on 45 platforms

[Ralf Corsepius]

On Mon, 2004-03-15 at 23:15, Paul Eggert wrote:
> "Paolo Bonzini" <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> > When cross-compiling, autoconf accepts a bare name for a tool
> > (e.g. "ld" for a cross-linker); gcc has special macros to exclude
> > cross tools without a prefix.  Is there a reason to do so?
> 
> I assume so, but I don't know what it is.

Canadian Cross building support.

>   Perhaps GCC has special
> needs, but then again perhaps this indicates a deficiency in Autoconf.

The deficiency is autoconf first trying host-prefixed tools then falling
back to non-prefixed tools for cross-compilation.

This behavior is not strict enough for Canadian Cross building, when you
typically have strict naming conventions wrt. to build-, host- and
target-tools.

> When was this added to GCC and why?
I don't know, but I am using similar macros for RTEMS for years (before
autoconf-2.13), because autoconf's macros are not applicable to us.

Ralf