On Fri, Sep 01, 2000 at 03:13:04PM -0600, Tom Christiansen wrote:
> Can't you do this with with an environment setting?
>
> Shell people seem to think this a normal notion, but it's caused
> horrible security flaws in the past. And I couldn't imagine it of
> a C compiler, so I don't know why you would do this one.
If I may be so bold as to suggest that AIX folks may have a good idea,
at least in this area. For things like compilers (C, Fortran, ...)
they have a configuration file in /etc that contains entries like
(schematically):
cc_r:
crt = ... libc_r
libs = ... -lpthread
options = -D_THREAD_SAFE
...
c89:
...
options = -D_BONDAGE_AND_DISCIPLINE -DOH_SO_STRICT_STRICT_STRICT ...
The executables, /usr/bin/cc_r, and /usr/bin/c89, are than just hard
links to /usr/bin/cc (this may not be _exactly_ as AIX does it, so please
don't correct me on details). The main executable inspects its $ARGV[0],
errr, argv[1], and sets the various things appropriately based on the
configuration file. This is beautiful: the sysadmins can add "new
compilers" just be adding new definitions to the file, or edit the
old definitions.
--
$jhi++; # http://www.iki.fi/jhi/
# There is this special biologist word we use for 'stable'.
# It is 'dead'. -- Jack Cohen
