Re: Request for configure override for AC_FUNC_MALLOC

[Ben Pfaff]

Marc Singer <address@hidden> writes:

> On Tue, Feb 22, 2005 at 05:18:33PM -0800, Ben Pfaff wrote:
>> Marc Singer <address@hidden> writes:
>> 
>> > The trouble is that I want to be able to cross compile a large
>> > number of packages without going through the effort to patch
>> > and add this function.
>> 
>> If programs fail because of this, it's because they're not using
>> AC_FUNC_MALLOC properly: they are not making a replacement for
>> malloc() available as the Autoconf documentation says they must.
>> You should report bugs against these programs.
>
> Perhaps, but this has the unwanted side effect of introducing a
> different and uncessary code path when cross-compiling.  

If the program doesn't make a replacement available but it
decides that one is necessary (based on AC_FUNC_MALLOC), then it
should cause configuration to fail because compilation cannot at
that point succeed.  This is the bug in those programs.

> Even though autoconf recommends that a replacement be
> available, it would also be proper to detect that the target
> uses an approved GNU C library and not require the replacement
> malloc.

Sure.  How would you do that, though?  I don't see any way, in
general, to detect what C library the target will use.
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