Re: [bug-gnulib] lib-link.m4: AC_LIB_LINKFLAGS_BODY: --without-libFOO-prefix?

[Bruno Haible]

Simon Josefsson wrote:
> What is the point of this configure parameter?
>
> I understand that --with-libFOO-prefix is used to set the prefix that
> make the macro search in $prefix/include and $prefix/lib to find
> libFOO.
>
> Specifically, what is the difference between not supplying
> --without-libFOO-prefix and supplying it?

By default, the AC_LIB_LINKFLAGS_BODY macro will search in $prefix/include
and $prefix/lib, where $prefix is given through the --prefix option.
This is needed for the quite frequent use of people that build many
GNU packages into the same $prefix directory.

By specifying --without-libFOO-prefix you disable this search directory,
so that the search will only consider /usr/include and /usr/lib (and
possibly others that the compiler uses, through CPPFLAGS etc.).

> Further, does this macro handle 64-bit libraries in $prefix/lib64?

No. Excellent point. I need to work on that. Is there a standard convention
that would tell me whether to look in lib or lib64? Seems to be OS dependent,
CPU dependent (seen on x86_64 and sparc64 but not on alpha), and compiler
mode dependent (whether sizeof(long) == 8 or == 4), no?

Bruno