libtool-patches
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: libtool --mode=execute gdb


From: Ralf Wildenhues
Subject: Re: libtool --mode=execute gdb
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2009 18:26:47 +0100
User-agent: Mutt/1.5.18 (2008-05-17)

* Bruno Haible wrote on Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 06:02:52PM CET:
> Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> > That let me check in more detail.
> > Mode inference was removed here:
> > <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/libtool-patches/2003-09/msg00062.html>
> > and deprecated here:
> > <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/libtool-patches/2002-11/msg00007.html>
> 
> The removal did not apply to the 1.5.x branch. The libtool 1.5.26 doc has:
> "If not specified, an attempt is made to infer the operation mode from
>  the MODE-ARGS.  Not specifying the MODE is currently deprecated, ..."
> And libtool-1.5.26 is less than one year old.

It is irrelevant to this discussion when the actual removal happened.
Deprecation is relevant, and it has been long coming, and long warned
about, already in version 1.5 (as in: 1.5.0, not 1.5.26).

> What is unreliable about inferring from 'gdb' that the mode is 'execute'?
> 'gdb' cannot be used for compiling, linking, or installing programs.

Tomorrow somebody asks about a short-hand for xdb, then one for dbx,
then ddd.  It's not limited to debuggers: next week somebody asks for
valgrind, strace, truss, or his favorite name for uninstalled programs.
I refuse to go this way because of the expected maintenance hassle.

> > This is documented in "info Libtool 'Invoking libtool'", albeit rather
> > briefly. 
> 
> "or a unique abbreviation of it". That is too brief. Based on this doc I
> would not have inferred that 'e' is a valid abbreviation for '--mode=execute'.

Let's look at the whole paragraph:

| `--mode=MODE'
|      Use MODE as the operation mode.  When using libtool from the
|      command line, you can give just MODE (or a unique abbreviation of
|      it) as the first argument as a shorthand for the full
|      `--mode=MODE'.

It's quite clear that "unique abbreviation of it" refers to "just MODE"
and not to "--mode=MODE".

> An example in that section would be useful.

Yes, I will add an example along with testsuite exposure.

Cheers,
Ralf




reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]