Re: Bug in ./configure in binutils 2.10.0.18

[Mark Kettenis <kettenis at wins dot uva dot nl>]

   Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2000 16:37:57 -0700
   From: "H . J . Lu" <hjl@lucon.org>

   On Sat, Aug 12, 2000 at 11:43:40PM +0200, Stefan Pettersson wrote:
   > I have a i386 system with both libc5.4.33 and libc2.1.3.
   > I use libc5 as the default when compiling.
   > gcc is 2.95.2.
   > 
   >  ./configure
   >  Configuring for a i686-pc-linux host.
   >  Created "Makefile" in /usr/src/binutils-2.10.0.18 using "mt-frag"
   >  Cannot find the GNU C library minor version number.
   > 
   > I have traced it down to config.if makes a test which fails:
   >  gcc if9679.c -o if9679
   >  if9679.c: In function `main':
   >  if9679.c:6: `__GLIBC_MINOR__' undeclared (first use in this function)
   >  if9679.c:6: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once
   >  if9679.c:6: for each function it appears in.)
   > 
   > Why don't I have any `__GLIBC_MINOR__'?
   > 
   > If I force "libc_interface=-libc5-" ./configure works.
   > Is that safe to do?
   > 

   That is a bug in config.sub (config.guess?). Could someone please
   fix that damn bug?

Someone should update config.guess and config.sub from the master
version.  The *libc1 stuff is back now, and config.guess returns the
canonical i?86-pc-linux-gnu for modern Linux/x86 systems again.

However, this config.if stuff is broken too:

 * It is irrelevant for binutils, only relevant for libstdc++.

 * It is stupid to use __GLIBC_MINOR__ as some sort of ABI indication.

 * It should be possible to configure for i586-pc-linux-gnu on any
   Linux/x86 ELF system.

etc. etc.

Can we *please* get rid of it ASAP, use a *sane* library versioning
scheme for the new libstdc++, and use proper autoconf checks to check
for features only available in recent versions of the GNU C Library?

Mark