[Build-common-hackers] Bug#487546: Bug#487546: cdbs: class/langcore.mk should set CC=gcc if CC is not set

[Martin-Éric Racine]

On Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 1:58 PM, Peter Eisentraut<peter_e at gmx.net> wrote:
> On Sunday 22 June 2008 18:11:39 Martin-Éric Racine wrote:
>> class/langcore.mk sets -g -Wall -O2 without checking whether CC can actualy
>> process these options. For instance, -g produces output that is partially
>> GDB-specific. On most GNU software, autotools perform these check for us
>> and set CC=gcc autogamically. On other software, CC is often left unset.
>> This is mostly okay on a Debian system, because the presumption is that
>> CC=gcc, but we can never be sure of what parallel compilers, etc. someone
>> might run, so it would be desirable for class/langcore.mk to set CC=gcc is
>> it is unset.
>
> Do you have a concrete counterexample where the current code does not work?

In the case where an upstream tarball comes with a single C file and
no Makefile, the only option a maintainer has is to create a manual
build target in debian/rules to compile the binary and to include
class/langcore.mk to always use the standard Debian build options.
However, class/langcore.mk includes GNU-specific options without
checking that the compiler supports them (or at least setting CC=gcc
to ensure that it does), so the build is not guaranteed to succeed.

-- 
Martin-Éric