Bug#1104466: autoconf: Keep "-lmingwex" and "-lmoldname" in linker flags
Package: autoconf
Version: 2.71-3.1
Severity: normal
Tags: patch upstream
Dear maintainers,
I am forwarding below a request from Markus Mützel on the debian-octave
mailing list
(https://lists.debian.org/debian-octave/2025/04/msg00000.html)
To make things easier, I am attaching to this bug report the patch that
Markus submitted to the upstream autoconf authors. This patch has been
integrated into the upstream Git repository.
Best,
Rafael Laboissière
* Markus Mützel <markus.muetzel@gmx.de> [2025-04-30 12:55]:
Hello,
The Octave developers are using Debian to create the tarballs that are
distributed for each new version.
Currently, there is an issue with the latest version of autoconf
(autoconf-2.72) that is distributed by Debian: Some Fortran system
libraries are (incorrectly) removed from the linker flags when targeting
Windows. Without these linker flags, Octave’s binaries still link without
errors when targeting Windows. However, some functions (like asin(2))
return wrong values.
Users/distributors who are building Octave for Windows would be affected
by that issue if we used autoconf-2.72 to create the distributed tarballs.
To work around that, we are using an older version of autoconf
(autoconf-2.71) to create the tarballs. However, that means that we are
missing out on some improvements in the latest version of autoconf (e.g.,
better support for LLVM Flang).
The issue with autoconf-2.72 would be solved by cherry-picking this patch
from upstream:
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/autoconf.git/commit/?id=9ff9c567b1a7a7e66fa6523d4ceff142b86bddaa
Could you please integrate that change in Debian’s autoconf package?
Thank you!
Markus
commit 9ff9c567b1a7a7e66fa6523d4ceff142b86bddaa
Author: Markus Mützel <markus.muetzel@gmx.de>
Date: Sun Jan 5 18:14:19 2025 +0000
Keep "-lmingwex" and "-lmoldname" in linker flags for MinGW
It is needed when building Octave targeting Windows. Without it, the
implementation of "casin" from the Windows runtime is used instead of
the replacement from MinGW-w64. That means that results for the
"casin" function are wrong without that change.
* lib/autoconf/fortran.m4: Do not remove "-lmingwex" or "-lmoldname"
from the linker flags when targeting MinGW. Removing "-lmingwex" causes
an incorrect linker resolution for functions like "casin" for projects
that consist of Fortran and C++ sources. Removing "-lmoldname" causes
issues for Fortran projects that try to use POSIX-like C functions
without a '_' symbol prefix when targeting MinGW.
diff --git a/lib/autoconf/fortran.m4 b/lib/autoconf/fortran.m4
index 75631492..0fc7545d 100644
--- a/lib/autoconf/fortran.m4
+++ b/lib/autoconf/fortran.m4
@@ -666,7 +666,7 @@ while test $[@%:@] != 1; do
-lang* | -lcrt*.o | -lc | -lgcc* | -lSystem | -libmil | -little \
|-LANG:=* | -LIST:* | -LNO:* | -link)
;;
- -lkernel32 | -lmingw* | -lmoldname)
+ -lkernel32)
# Ignore this library only on Windows-like systems.
case $host_os in
cygwin* | msys* | mingw* | windows*) ;;
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