On 01/18/2012 11:22 AM, Stefano Lattarini wrote:
As of 2012-01-17, according to Google codesarch, almost no active
package is using the 'multilib' feature offered by automake.
This is only partially correct. Multilibs are a compiler's feature (esp.
a GCC feature) and widely used in the embedded world.
The only major exception seems to be GCC...
Not quite. GCC is the #1 user of multilibs itself and framework
multilib'ed libraries are using.
But on a closer look,
it become clear that GCC basically carries its own version of
multilib support. In fact, Automake syncs its 'config-ml.in' and
'symlink-tree' scripts from GCC; and the GCC repository contains a
version of the 'multi.m4' file that is *more* updated than the one
in the automake repository (the former having being modified the
last time in 2008, the latter only in 2006).
Correct, multilibs in automake have always been the automake
maintainer's unloved and obviously ununderstood step child.
It's only a reflection of multilibs not being widely used by main-stream
Linux distros and architectures having been used for Linux so far. (The
"arms" being on the raise could change this situation)
The 'multilib' feature was anyway hardly documented at all, only
being briefly cited in the manual as an "obscure feature", "still
experimental", that was only for users "familiar with multilibs"
and which "can debug problems they might encounter".
I don't know who wrote this, but I prefer to abstain from further
commenting on it :(
* NEWS (Future backward incompatibility): Update.
* doc/automake.texi: Deprecate multilib support. State that it
will be removed from automake core in the next major release.
* m4/multi.m4 (AM_ENABLE_MULTILIB): Deprecate. If called, now
gives a proper warning in the 'obsolete' category (while still
retaining its former behaviour for the rest).
* tests/multilib.test: Update.
* contrib/multilib/multi.m4: New, verbatim copy of the earlier
version of multi.m4, without the new deprecation warning.
---
I will push this patch to maint in 72 hours if there is no objection.
Then I'll proceed with a patch for master that removes the multilib
support from the Automake core and moves it into 'contrib/' (I will
post that patch here before committing, of course).
Maximum veto ... this step would be a massive regression to me.
It's a step which would throw my works back ca. 10 years.
Ralf
