* top-level configure options, --help @ 2007-12-29 20:47 NightStrike 2008-01-04 2:18 ` Ian Lance Taylor 0 siblings, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread From: NightStrike @ 2007-12-29 20:47 UTC (permalink / raw) To: gcc-help I noticed that --with-sysroot is not listed in --help for the top level configure, but --with-build-sysroot is. Is that on purpose? Should the former not be used at all in place of the latter? ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: top-level configure options, --help 2007-12-29 20:47 top-level configure options, --help NightStrike @ 2008-01-04 2:18 ` Ian Lance Taylor 2008-01-04 6:13 ` NightStrike 0 siblings, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread From: Ian Lance Taylor @ 2008-01-04 2:18 UTC (permalink / raw) To: NightStrike; +Cc: gcc-help NightStrike <nightstrike@gmail.com> writes: > I noticed that --with-sysroot is not listed in --help for the top > level configure, but --with-build-sysroot is. Is that on purpose? > Should the former not be used at all in place of the latter? This is an unfortunate artifact of autoconf --help handling with recursive configure scripts. You'll see both mentioned in the output of gcc/configure --help. --with-build-sysroot needs to be handled at the top level in order to pass down the --sysroot option when compiling libraries; therefore, it appears in the top level --help output. --with-sysroot does not need to be handled at the top level; therefore, it does not appear in the top level --help output. Ian ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: top-level configure options, --help 2008-01-04 2:18 ` Ian Lance Taylor @ 2008-01-04 6:13 ` NightStrike 2008-01-07 14:14 ` Brian Dessent 0 siblings, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread From: NightStrike @ 2008-01-04 6:13 UTC (permalink / raw) To: Ian Lance Taylor; +Cc: gcc-help On 02 Jan 2008 08:54:39 -0800, Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com> wrote: > NightStrike <nightstrike@gmail.com> writes: > > > I noticed that --with-sysroot is not listed in --help for the top > > level configure, but --with-build-sysroot is. Is that on purpose? > > Should the former not be used at all in place of the latter? > > This is an unfortunate artifact of autoconf --help handling with > recursive configure scripts. You'll see both mentioned in the output > of gcc/configure --help. --with-build-sysroot needs to be handled at > the top level in order to pass down the --sysroot option when > compiling libraries; therefore, it appears in the top level --help > output. --with-sysroot does not need to be handled at the top level; > therefore, it does not appear in the top level --help output. If that's the case, there must be more options as well that are not present in top level's --help that really are options that the user would actually use. I would think that a simple AS_HELP_STRING macro in the top level configure would accomplish this. That, or a blank ARG_WITH macro.. something like: AC_ARG_WITH([sysroot], [AS_HELP_STRING([--with-sysroot], [Sets the sysroot])], [], []) You could list the option in the top level configure, but give it no action. This is a benefit to the user, so that the top level configure --help contains all the options that a user would use. ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: top-level configure options, --help 2008-01-04 6:13 ` NightStrike @ 2008-01-07 14:14 ` Brian Dessent 2008-01-07 14:25 ` NightStrike 0 siblings, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread From: Brian Dessent @ 2008-01-07 14:14 UTC (permalink / raw) To: NightStrike; +Cc: Ian Lance Taylor, gcc-help NightStrike wrote: > If that's the case, there must be more options as well that are not > present in top level's --help that really are options that the user > would actually use. I would think that a simple AS_HELP_STRING macro > in the top level configure would accomplish this. That, or a blank > ARG_WITH macro.. something like: > > AC_ARG_WITH([sysroot], > [AS_HELP_STRING([--with-sysroot], > [Sets the sysroot])], > [], > []) > > You could list the option in the top level configure, but give it no > action. This is a benefit to the user, so that the top level > configure --help contains all the options that a user would use. That's no good. You're just duplicating stuff already in gcc/configure.ac, which means now you have two copies in two separate directories of every option to maintain, which is a real pain, and it is a recipe for things getting out of sync. I doubt any maintainer would accept this. Besides, the toplevel configure machinery is shared between a number of projects, so it really shouldn't have specific knowledge of options implemented in particular subdirs that may or may not be present in the tree. The sysroot example is perhaps not the best one because it is probably implemented by all the tools that share this file, but it is certainly not true in general. You'd end up shipping a e.g. gdb tarball that advertises meaningless configure options in its --help that don't do anything because they only apply to gcc/ or libstdc++/ or libgfortran/ or whatever dirs that aren't present in the gdb subset of the tree. The real solution is supposed to be --help=recursive which in a normal autoconf project runs the --help in the top dir and then the --help of each existing subdir's configure. But for whatever reason, this has never worked with the src/gcc toplevel configure, which is a shame because the number of options that are specific to various subdirs (i.e. not listed by the toplevel configure) is quite large. But it's simple enough just to tell users to run e.g. gcc/configure --help or libstdc++-v3/configure --help or whatever until somebody fixes --help=recursive. Brian ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: top-level configure options, --help 2008-01-07 14:14 ` Brian Dessent @ 2008-01-07 14:25 ` NightStrike 2008-01-07 22:27 ` Brian Dessent 0 siblings, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread From: NightStrike @ 2008-01-07 14:25 UTC (permalink / raw) To: gcc-help; +Cc: Ian Lance Taylor On 1/6/08, Brian Dessent <brian@dessent.net> wrote: > The real solution is supposed to be --help=recursive which in a normal > autoconf project runs the --help in the top dir and then the --help of > each existing subdir's configure. But for whatever reason, this has > never worked with the src/gcc toplevel configure, which is a shame > because the number of options that are specific to various subdirs (i.e. > not listed by the toplevel configure) is quite large. But it's simple > enough just to tell users to run e.g. gcc/configure --help or > libstdc++-v3/configure --help or whatever until somebody fixes > --help=recursive. Ah, thank you for this. Where is this recursive help documented? ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: top-level configure options, --help 2008-01-07 14:25 ` NightStrike @ 2008-01-07 22:27 ` Brian Dessent 0 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread From: Brian Dessent @ 2008-01-07 22:27 UTC (permalink / raw) To: NightStrike; +Cc: gcc-help, Ian Lance Taylor NightStrike wrote: > Ah, thank you for this. Where is this recursive help documented? It's mentioned in the normal --help boilerplate of any standard autoconf-generated configure: -h, --help display this help and exit --help=short display options specific to this package --help=recursive display the short help of all the included packages Brian ^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
end of thread, other threads:[~2008-01-07 3:53 UTC | newest] Thread overview: 6+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed) -- links below jump to the message on this page -- 2007-12-29 20:47 top-level configure options, --help NightStrike 2008-01-04 2:18 ` Ian Lance Taylor 2008-01-04 6:13 ` NightStrike 2008-01-07 14:14 ` Brian Dessent 2008-01-07 14:25 ` NightStrike 2008-01-07 22:27 ` Brian Dessent
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