On 08/13/2012 08:10 PM, Dennis Clarke wrote: > > >>> I suggest you try building with a recent version of gcc. >>> >>> If you really must use that other compiler, consider >>> instrumenting the failing test to make it report the >>> precise grep command that is failing. If you do, please >>> report that, along with the actual/expected output. >>> >> How is this not helpful? It suggested a possible way out from >> your problem (use GCC), or, failing that, instructions to give >> the developers what they need to start investigating the problem. >> > > Part of the reason I am doing all this is to build a recent GCC. > Now, this is a good explanation. However, note that Autoconf-generated configure scripts and Automake-generated Makefiles should be portable enough to work with a decent grep implementation like the one offered in /usr/xpg4/bin/grep on Solaris.
> Something I do, a lot. I can not abide by the dependance on the > very expensive Sun/Oracle developer tools. For the sake of reasonable > portability across many platforms I would rather work with GCc. > > see : http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-4.7/buildstat.html > > I have excellent results for GCC 4.7.1 on i386-pc-solaris2.8 which > is very very old. However it has the benefit that anything which > runs flawlessly on Solaris 8 will run everywhere else in the > Solaris world. Sparc is another issue and I am working on that. > >>> ------------------------------------------------------------- >>> >>> Essentially, we are Linux, we don't do UNIX, go make UNIX >>> like Linux. >>> >> Actually, most the GNU tools (among them grep) strive to be >> greatly portable, sometimes even too much IMHO. >> >> The issue is that the developers' time is limited, and if they >> don't have a Solaris machine with a Sun compiler to test with, >> well, they won't lose their time fighting to get one. If Oracle >> is interested in having their systems supported better, it's on >> them to offer easy access to Solaris and the Sun C compiler to >> Free Software and Open Source developers; if they don't, their >> system will get a "best effort" support at most. I see this as >> right and proper, and sometimes even too generous. And if a >> user of a fringe/uncommon/proprietary systems is interested in >> making things work for himself, it's on him to provide the >> developers with enough help or feedback to make that possible; >> this too seems appropriate to me. > > Hey man, get off my soap box! I was here first. :-) > Yeah, I noticed too late :-) (after reading the latest messages in the bug-grep list). > [SNIP] > Regards, Stefano