Re: why does autoconf check for all these extra compilers?

[Keith MARSHALL]

Ed Hartnett wrote:
> When attempting to do a mingw cross-compile, the configure script
> checks for a whole bunch of extra compilers. What's up with that?
>
> If I do this:
>
> bash-3.1$ ./configure --host=i686-pc-mingw32 --build=i686-pc-cygwin
> --disable-f90 CC="gcc -mno-cygwin"

Why would you do it like that?  Since you say `--build=i686-pc-cygwin',
I assume you *are* building on a native Win32 host with Cygwin.  Are
you trying to to simply prevent configure from accidentally picking up
Cygwin dependencies?  Normally, it should be sufficient to build as if
your application, or library in your case, were natively hosted, and
just give the `-mno-cygwin' option to the native gcc, to exclude the
Cygwin dependencies.

If you were doing a genuine x-compile, say from a GNU/Linux box, to
create MinGW/Win32 binaries, then your x-compiler would be called
i686-pc-mingw32-gcc, (or some such); that's why, when you switch on
x-compiling mode, which you do with differing `--build' and `--host'
specifications, configure will look for compilers with that prefix,
taken from your `--host' specification, since gcc itself would be
the native Linux variant.

If you are having trouble keeping Cygwin dependencies out of your
build, I'd suggest that you get a standalone MinGW, add MSYS and
its accompanying msysDTK, and build under MSYS.

HTH,
Keith.