This is the mail archive of the
binutils@sourceware.org
mailing list for the binutils project.
Re: [PATCH] do not require dc in gold testsuite
- From: Ralf Wildenhues <Ralf dot Wildenhues at gmx dot de>
- To: Ian Lance Taylor <iant at google dot com>
- Cc: Allan McRae <allan at archlinux dot org>, binutils at sourceware dot org
- Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2010 20:26:42 +0100
- Subject: Re: [PATCH] do not require dc in gold testsuite
- References: <4D01002D.1040402@archlinux.org> <mcrbp4uep4b.fsf@google.com>
* Ian Lance Taylor wrote on Thu, Dec 09, 2010 at 08:13:24PM CET:
> Allan McRae <allan@archlinux.org> writes:
>
> > This is a partial reversion of the changes made in
> > http://sourceware.org/ml/binutils-cvs/2010-08/msg00004.html which
> > appear to have been made to improve portability of the hex to decimal
> > conversion. However, I find the requirement of needing "dc" installed
> > for the test suite to succeed to be excessive. Instead, implement the
> > conversion in a third way using printf, which should provide the
> > portability without requiring additional software.
>
> Neither the shell builtin printf nor the printf command are portable to
> all Unix systems. The dc command is more portable than both.
>
> I don't object to not requiring dc, but requiring printf instead is a
> step sideways at best.
I think at this point you can require printf(1) on all systems that one
would want to run gold on. There are certain portability issues (see
info Autoconf 'Limitations of Builtins') regarding large outputs and
escape sequences, but I think the systems where it is completely missing
belong in a museum now.
Cheers,
Ralf