Re: ./configure in debian/rules

[Peter Kourzanov <peter.kourzanov@xs4all.nl>]

Russ Allbery wrote:

> Thomas Bushnell BSG <tb@becket.net> writes:
>
>  
>
> > I'm one of the people who actually helped design the GNU Makefile and
> > configure standards, and --host does not "signal that you're
> > cross-compiling."  What signals that you are cross-compiling is a
> > disagreement between --host and --build.
> >    
>
> That's the old way.  Autoconf changed this in the current releases.  Now,
> specifying --host signals that you're cross-compiling, whether it
> disagrees or not.
>  
>
> Yes, this was not a backward compatible change.  A lot of people were
> upset about it.  And yes, it was a change in the GNU Makefile and
> configure standards.  But see the current Autoconf manual:
>
> `--host=HOST-TYPE'
>     the type of system on which the package will run.  By default it
>     is the same as the build machine.  Specifying it enables the
>     cross-compilation mode.
>  
That is to say the least a very confusing statement. But OK, I suppose
that avoiding side-effects was not part of the reasoning behind this 
change;-(

Also, why is it then not an error to pass --host=X together with
--build=X? According to that description, this is the default and 
enables both cross-compilation as well as native mode at the same time!!!

> There's a long archived discussion on the Autoconf mailing list about it.
>  

Will look at it, thanks.

Pjotr Kourzanov