[Bug bootstrap/52623] 4.7.0-RC-20120314: bootstrap failure on AIX due to multilib and using C++ in post-stage1

["dje at gcc dot gnu.org" <gcc-bugzilla at gcc dot gnu dot org>]

http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=52623

--- Comment #10 from David Edelsohn <dje at gcc dot gnu.org> 2012-03-22 23:53:14 UTC ---
I recognize that a lot of FLOSS packages are developed on x86/Linux, but
POWER/AIX is not x86/Linux.  Upon further consideration, I am concerned that
your proposal forces all applications to link using -brtl.  Your proposal
implies that libtool and GCC should build all shared libraries using your
SVR4-compatibility design.  One could adjust GCC and libtool to link all
applications with -brtl, but libraries built the current way can work with
older releases of GCC and with XLC.  Even with the GCC change, many users will
be confused by XLC breakage and it will be a steep learning curve to teach
users to add -brtl to all applications that use newly-built FLOSS libraries
using the new libtool design.

I agree that AIX is gratuitously different from SVR4/Solaris/Linux with no
particular benefit.  However, it is what it is.  Without cooperation from IBM
and AIX to convert it to SVR4-compatibility by default, I'm not convinced that
imposing this compatibility is a good idea when the GNU tools do not control
the entire system stack.

An additional problem is Binutils "strip" command does not support the -e/-E
command line option to set F_LOADONLY.