[OMPI devel] Should visibility and memchecker abort configure?

[Ralph Castain]

Hi folks

I make heavy use of platform files to provide OMPI support for the  
three NNSA labs. This means supporting multiple compilers, several  
different hardware and software configs, debug vs optimized, etc.

Recently, I have encountered a problem that is making life difficult.  
The problem revolves around two configure options that apply to debug  
builds:

1. --enable-visibility. Frustrating as it may be, some compilers just  
don't support visibility - and others only support it for versions  
above a specific level. Currently, this option will abort the  
configure procedure if the compiler does not support visibility.

2. --enable-memchecker. This framework has a component that requires  
valgrind 3.2 or above. Unfortunately, if a valgrind meeting that  
criteria is not found, this option will also abort the configure  
procedure.

Is it truly -necessary- for these options to abort configure in these  
conditions? Would it be acceptable for:

* visibility just to print a big warning, surrounded by asterisks,  
that the selected compiler does not support visibility - but allow the  
build to continue?

* memchecker to also print a big warning, surrounded by asterisks,  
explaining the valgrind requirement and turn "off" the build of the  
memchecker/valgrind component - but allow the build to continue? It  
would seem to me that we would certainly want this for the future  
anyway as additional memchecker components are supported.

If this would be acceptable, I am happy to help with or implement the  
changes. It would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Ralph