Re: [RFC] getting rid of the config.guess/sub problem when bootstrapping new ports/systems

[Wookey]

+++ Thomas Petazzoni [2013-05-15 16:30 +0200]:
> Hello,
> 
> On Tue, 14 May 2013 23:53:44 -0400, Mike Frysinger wrote:
> 
> > yes, Gentoo fixed this for every package in our tree like 9 years ago
> > (we added a common function like 11 years ago that ebuilds could call
> > manually, but we found that didn't scale).  when you run a standard
> > autoconf script, we automatically search for files named "config.sub"
> > and "config.guess" and replace them with the up-to-date host copy.
> > no checking or anything :).  in hindsight, that seems like a bad
> > idea, but in practice, i think we have yet to find a package that
> > this doesn't actually work.
> 
> FWIW, we do the same thing in Buildroot (a tool that builds embedded
> Linux systems from source, through cross-compilation). Never had any
> problem doing so.

Same story in OpenEmbedded.

Given the widespread positive experience with this process, at least
in Linux distros, can those who think that defaulting to using
'current' versions is a bad idea produce any examples of genuine
problems large enough to counter the fairly major issue of updating
hundreds of these files for new architectures. Perhaps there are
non-linux arches where lots of things would break?

There have been some theoretical or obscure issues brought up so far
in this thread, and some history, but I haven't seen much that looks
like a good enough reason not to default to use current unless
configured not to (which anyone shipping a 'special' config.sub/guess
can use.

Wookey
-- 
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