On Tue, 3 Apr 2001, Ralf Baechle wrote:
> Brokeness starts with autoconf's AC_CHECK_SIZEOF macro implementation
> which is used frequently throughout a whole distribution and there are
> so many test that require actually execution of code on the target that
> fix a whole distribution for crosscompilation and keeping it uptodate
> is seriously double-plus un-fun.
Well, I can't see any other way to check sizeof of a type. OTOH, I
haven't seen many programs that call AC_CHECK_SIZEOF on unions or structs
-- that's where the real problem might be as predicting member alignment
is not always easy (especially for "evil" objects -- but if such ones
exist the actual problem is a badly written program begging for a
rewrite). There is no need to check sizeof for simple types -- ISO C
<stdint.h> types might be used if a desired number of bits in a type is
needed with a fallback to AC_CHECK_SIZEOF for legacy hosts only (which we
don't care that much of). In short, the macro shouldn't really be used in
most cases.
I sustain the problem does not lie in the tool but in its usage.
--
+ Maciej W. Rozycki, Technical University of Gdansk, Poland +
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
+ e-mail: macro@ds2.pg.gda.pl, PGP key available +
|