[m-dev.] Other things to do before the release.

[Fergus Henderson]

On 12-Sep-1998, Tyson Dowd <trd at cs.mu.OZ.AU> wrote:
> On 12-Sep-1998, Fergus Henderson <fjh at cs.mu.OZ.AU> wrote:
> > On 10-Sep-1998, Tyson Dowd <trd at cs.mu.OZ.AU> wrote:
> > > - Consider changing Linux default to using shared libraries.
> > 
> > This is worth considering. If it were easy, it might be worth doing too ;-)
> > I may be wrong, but I don't think it will be easy.
> 
> 	- Generate libraries same as usual.
> 	- Generate all code as PIC unless specified by user.
> 	- --no-pic or something needs to be given as a MGNUCFLAG
> 	  to turn this off.
> 	- Use static linking if --static is defined, otherwise use
> 	  shared linking.
>
> The picreg part of the grades would stop people accidently linking
> non-PIC code with PIC libraries (at least for Mercury code).
> 
> Have I forgotten something?

I'm not sure what you mean by the first point ("generate libraries
same as usual"); it seems to be contradicted by the ones that follow ;-)
If you generate libraries "same as usual", but all code is PIC
unless specified by the user, then the static libraries will be
built as PIC too.  That would mean that there would be no way for the
user to make use of the `--no-pic' option, since the installed copies
of the libraries would all be PIC.

Maybe you meant that the *result* of generating the libraries
should be the same as usual, rather than the *process*.
But if so, you didn't explain how the process needs to be
changed in order to achieve the same result.

-- 
Fergus Henderson <fjh at cs.mu.oz.au>  |  "I have always known that the pursuit
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh>  |  of excellence is a lethal habit"
PGP: finger fjh at 128.250.37.3        |     -- the last words of T. S. Garp.