Re: gcc*-libs help needed: rpath needs fixing

[Jonathan Perkin <jperkin%mnx.io@localhost>]

* On 2024-09-06 at 13:30 BST, Rhialto wrote:

> On Fri 06 Sep 2024 at 10:07:38 +0100, Jonathan Perkin wrote:
> > This stuff is just very difficult to test due to the large number of
> > possible setups and differences across OS, and has a very high chance of
> > completely breaking everything.  I would recommend treading carefully.
>
> Also, few C packages *really* need it.  I suspect it is not possible to
> auto-detect the dependency beforehand. But maybe it is possible to
> create some build-time check at the end to check if one of the libraries
> in this directory is used, and fail if the dependency isn't declared?

I have a vague recollection of doing this at some point to see what the
actual state of USE_GCC_RUNTIME was, and finding out that we'd need to 
add it to some N thousand packages (as well as continuing to add it when 
necessary in the future).

One of the problems is that the libgcc requirement differs between OS, 
depending on what the native libc provides.  It's just really messy, 
which is why for now I've gone with "always add the dependency, except 
for a specific list of packages that are known-good without it".

Ultimately with our GCC infrastructure there are two main paths forward:

 * Make it really simple, remove all of the confusing complexity, and
   put the burden on the user to configure mk.conf to make it work
   correctly for their environment.  My "gcc-selection" branch aims
   towards this.

 * Continue to increase complexity, adding special cases for all sorts of
   different environments, with the goal of having things Just Work.

At the moment, and for a number of years now, we're somewhere between 
the two with all the associated pains of sitting on the fence, where 
gcc.mk is very complicated and brittle, yet still needs a bunch of 
mk.conf additions to get it working in specific environments.

My preference has always been path #1, others have generally wanted path 
#2.  While I am very strongly pro "Just Works", I just don't think it's 
a realistic option for this situation, unfortunately.

--
Jonathan Perkin   -   mnx.io   -   pkgsrc.smartos.org
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