Re: Fwd: setting SHELL variable

[Paul D. Smith]

%% Jonathan Baccash <address@hidden> writes:

  jb> But a typical makefile depends on the platform-specific compiler,
  jb> utility programs... even the shell!

  >> Not much you can do about compilers; certainly no one would suggest
  >> bundling a compiler with make!

  jb> I guess you are right, but perhaps there could be some sort of
  jb> framework whereby make could be easily extended by a compiler
  jb> vendor.  The makefile writer simply says "use multithreaded C
  jb> runtime library" or "turn on optimizations", and the compiler's
  jb> extension to the make framework translates this into its own
  jb> compiler options.  If this got to be a hot feature, perhaps then
  jb> we could reasonably expect our compiler (or open source community)
  jb> to provide such an extension.

Hm.  I suppose.

The reality is that the open source community has pretty much
standardized on GCC as a compiler, and UNIX systems in general have
already standardized on a set of flags that are essentially universal
and have been since the 1970's: -O for optimization, -g for debugging,
-o to specify an output file, etc. so there's really not that much
incentive to create a common framework like that in the
UNIX/POSIX/Linux/BSD world.

For programs where that makes a difference, tools like autoconf are used
to probe the compiler to find options that enable ANSI C modes, etc.;
these are run _BEFORE_ make is invoked, and modify or create the
makefile itself.

-- 
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 Paul D. Smith <address@hidden>          Find some GNU make tips at:
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 "Please remain calm...I may be mad, but I am a professional." --Mad Scientist