[Rpm-maint] [patch] rpm is not a cross-tool

[Ralf Corsepius]

On Mon, 2007-08-06 at 10:42 -0500, Mark Hatle wrote:
> The easiest way to check this.  (Conceptually.. tailor to suit)
> 
> On a non-linux host, such as solairs, configure to run on a linux host.

If you run
configure --host=<linux> 
on a solaris machine, with the patch applied, it is supposed to build
linux executables with linux settings.

>  If you following the paths through configure, you'll see it checks and
> hardcodes values based on the settings.
Right, based on $host.

>   I'm not an autoconf expert so
> I'll leave which variables are the right ones to you..
>
>  but the key is
> that when you configure, picking the "solaris" CFLAGS, and other
> configurations is obviously wrong when targeting linux.
CFLAGS is the autoconf variable to take the cflags of the compiler being
used. In case of cross-compilation, the compiler to be used will be a
cross compiler (typically with gcc: $host-gcc).

I.e. CFLAGS inside of the Makefile are supposed to carry the cross
compiler's flags, as well as all settings to be generated should be
"host" flags.

> A little less extreme.  Configuring on an x86_32 linux host, to run RPM
> on "arm" linux machine. 
I am familiar with cross-compilation, believe me
(http://www.rtems.org ;) ).

>  Again, there is another set of things that
> check the host system and may configure values incorrectly..  This has
> been a constant source of problems to me...
Well, it shouldn't.

--build=<...> --host=<...> is well documented in autoconf and is widely
in use in plenty of packages around.

Ralf