bug#11034: Removing 'cygnus' mode in the near future

[Stefano Lattarini]

Severity: wishlist
thanks

The section "The effect of --cygnus" in the automake manual reads:

  Some packages, notably GNU GCC and GNU gdb, have a build environment
  originally written at Cygnus Support.
  ... [SNIP] ...
  GNU maintainers are advised to use gnu strictness in preference to the
  special Cygnus mode.  Some day, perhaps, the differences between Cygnus
  trees and GNU trees will disappear (for instance, as GCC is made more
  standards compliant).  At that time the special Cygnus mode will be
  removed.

And as of today, almost any use of the 'cygnus' option has disappeared from
the GCC and GDB trees; for example, the command:

  grep cygnus `find -name '*configure*' -o -name '*[Mm]akefile*' \
                    -o -name '*.am' -o -name '*.mk'`

yields this in the GCC tree:

  ./zlib/Makefile.am:AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = 1.8 cygnus
  ./zlib/Makefile.in:AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = 1.8 cygnus

and this in the GDB tree:

  ./bfd/doc/Makefile.in:AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = 1.9 cygnus
  ./bfd/doc/Makefile.in:# cygnus option.
  ./bfd/doc/Makefile.am:AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = 1.9 cygnus
  ./bfd/doc/Makefile.am:# cygnus option.
  ./etc/configure.texi:option of @file{/usr/cygnus/@var{release}}, where 
@var{release} is the
  ./etc/configure.texi:@file{/usr/cygnus/@var{release}/address@hidden, where 
@var{host} is the
  ./etc/configure.texi:AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = cygnus
  ./etc/configure.texi:AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = cygnus 1.3
  ./etc/configure.texi:@cindex canadian cross in cygnus tree
  ./etc/configure.texi:@cindex cygnus configure

So it's time we start thinking about deprecating and finally removing the
cygnus mode.  I'm opening this report so we won't forget about the issue.

Regards,
  Stefano