Re: [PATCH] configure: Avoid using strings binary

[Michal Prívozník]

On 10/13/22 12:39, Peter Maydell wrote:
> On Thu, 13 Oct 2022 at 09:47, Michal Privoznik <mprivozn@redhat.com> wrote:
>>
>> When determining the endiandness of the target architecture we're
>> building for a small program is compiled, which in an obfuscated
>> way declares two strings. Then, we look which string is in
>> correct order (using strings binary) and deduct the endiandness.
>> But using the strings binary is problematic, because it's part of
>> toolchain (strings is just a symlink to
>> x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-strings or llvm-strings). And when
>> (cross-)compiling, it requires users to set the symlink to the
>> correct toolchain.
>>
>> Fortunately, we have a better alternative anyways. Since we
>> require either clang or gcc we can rely on macros they declare.
>>
>> Bug: https://bugs.gentoo.org/876933
>> Signed-off-by: Michal Privoznik <mprivozn@redhat.com>
> 
> If we can determine this just by looking at C macros, does
> this really need to be a configure test at all ? Paolo?

Yes, because we're using this information to generate a file for meson
that's later used during cross compilation.

Michal