Re: zlib update for gdb/binutils

[Nick Clifton <nickc at redhat dot com>]

Hi Guys,

>>>  - as noted in another mail, you synced GCC's configure.ac, introducing
>>>    a build failure with srcdir == builddir builds.  With GCC these
>>>    are discouraged, not sure about the status in gdb/binutils.
>>
>> In theory it is allowed.  But in practice it is discouraged.

> Regarding srcdir == builddir, I agree as well. The problem is that
> we have to consider the source packaging as well. I don't know it
> well enough right now to tell you whether it would work out-of-tree
> or not. After all, you're trying to create a package of the sources,
> which includes the files that were checked in the repository, but
> also some files that are generated by the source-package process.
> I wouldn't want to be missing some files by doing it out of tree...
> Maybe there is already a way. If there was, I wouldn't mind taking
> the approach where srcdir == builddir is no longer supported. This
> would allow some simplifications, particularly in the testsuite
> area, I believe.

I just remembered that Fedora builds with srcdir == builddir, at least
when a package maintainer runs "fedpkg local".  I do not know if the 
actual binary rpm building process does this, or if it happens for 
distributions other than Fedora, but I just thought that it would be
worth mentioning.

So if we do decide to ban srcdir == builddir then this might have some
cost for various distribution maintainers.  Although in the long run
it would probably be a good thing.

Cheers
  Nick