AC_GNU_SOURCE and cross compiling

[Tobias C. Rittweiler]

Hello asdfas,

the following is a small conversation between me and Paolo Bonzini
about a bug in the configuration system of sed. It might be autoconf
related, so I'll list here the important parts.


=== April 17, 9:03:19 PM, Me to Paolo:
> Excerpt of a response (by me) to a compilation problem in the ROCK Linux
> mailing list:
>
>   Sed makes use of getline(3) which is a GNU extension, and to to stay
>   portable it has its own version. To test whether to use its own
>   imlementation, there's an m4 macro, AM_FUNC_GETLINE, defined
>   (config/getline.m4) -- within that definition there's an
>         AC_TRY_RUN([...], ..getline=yes.., ..getline=no..,
>                           ..getline=no..).
>   Or IOW it _always_ uses its own version when cross-compiling.
>
>   The actual problem is elsewhere, namely that in configure.ac
>   AC_GNU_SOURCE is used which _seems_ to set _GNU_SOURCE _always_!
>   This means, that all GNU extensions, and so glibc's getline(), are
>   used, and hence the error message of a "previous declaration
>   declaration of `getline'", because the above macro automatically
>   assumes to use sed's own getline().
>
> --snip-
> --- configure.ac.orig   2003-04-16 10:18:42.000000000 +0200
> +++ configure.ac        2003-04-16 10:17:54.000000000 +0200
> @@ -13,7 +13,9 @@
>
>  AC_PROG_CC
>  AC_PROG_RANLIB
> -AC_GNU_SOURCE
> +if test "x$cross_compiling" = xno; then
> +  AC_GNU_SOURCE
> +fi
>  AC_AIX
>  AC_MINIX
>  AC_ISC_POSIX
> --snap--
>
> This should fix the problem [...]

=== April 17, 11:01:46 PM, Paolo to me:
> An interesting problem.  You should report it to the Autoconf mailing list to 
> get a
> satisfying solution.

=== April 17, 11:32:09 PM, Me to Paolo:
> Well, I thought of that myself, but I'd except an answer like: 'This
> isn't a bug, the programm foobar must work around it'.
>
> Hmm, documentation says:
> Macro: AC_GNU_SOURCE
>     If using the GNU C library, define _GNU_SOURCE. Allows the use of
>     some GNU functions. Should be called before any macros that run the
>     C compiler.
>
> The problem that it let's the question open whether 'using the GNU C
> library' depends on the host or on the target machine. It apparantly
> does on the host.


Hope it's conceivable. I won't be able to respond for the next week,
since I'll drive in holiday tomorrow, just FYI.

-- 
cheers,
 Tobias                                       <address@hidden>

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