Fwd: Bug#267140: autoconf: AC_LINK_IFELSE does not allow to specify an alternate linker

[Ben Pfaff]

As the Debian maintainer of packaging for Autoconf, I'm
forwarding along this bug report.  I don't know much about
libtool so I don't feel confident responding to it by myself.

-------------------- Start of forwarded message --------------------
Subject: Bug#267140: autoconf: AC_LINK_IFELSE does not allow to specify an 
alternate linker
From: Yann Dirson <address@hidden>
To: Debian Bug Tracking System <address@hidden>
Message-ID: <address@hidden>

Package: autoconf
Version: 2.59-7
Severity: wishlist

AC_LINK_IFELSE and such rely on the definition of ac_link (from c.m4
for C and C++, AFAICT).  For those 2 langauges, ac_link is defined as
a $CC or $CXX invocation.

This notably causes problems when one wants to link about libtool .la
files, since then the linker must be 'libtool --mode=link $CC".

I work around this by setting ac_link="libtool --mode=link $ac_link"
prior to calling AC_LINK_IFELSE, but that's obviously a gross hack.

Especially, automake makes use of LD and CXXLD in Makefiles, and I
also have to set them to "libtool --mode=link $(CXX)" and such.

It would be nice to be able to change LD and CXXLD in configure.ac,
have those values used fo the tests, and automatically propagated to
Makefile's.

Does that sound reasonable, or am I missing an obvious feature here ?
-------------------- End of forwarded message --------------------

-- 
On Perl: "It's as if H.P. Lovecraft, returned from the dead and speaking by
seance to Larry Wall, designed a language both elegant and terrifying for his
Elder Things to write programs in, and forgot that the Shoggoths didn't turn
out quite so well in the long run." --Matt Olson