Re: HPPA STMP_FIXPROTO patch

[Jeff Law <law at porcupine dot slc dot redhat dot com>]

In message <200208281728.KAA28148@hpsje.cup.hp.com>, Steve Ellcey writes:
 >> Well, I'd like to install this, but it makes me very nervous given the
 >> multitude of problems we've had with the HP include files in the past.
 >> 
 >> What end-user value do we get by installing this patch?
 >> 
 >> 
 >> jeff
 >
 >The end-user value is in having fewer GCC specific header files.  There
 >were a number of header file changes between 11.00 and 11.11 and there
 >may be more in the future and when this happens it can break GCC by
 >making an 11.00 built GCC not work on 11.11 even though the two systems
 >are compatible.
If we could get rid of all of the header files munged by fixproto and
fixincludes, then it would make sense to go forward with this.  Just removing
a few really doesn't help that much (in fact, the false sense of security 
caused by less breakage when running 11.00 compilers on 11.11 IMHO offsets
any small value we get by having fewer munged header files).

Really the way to go is to get HP to fix the hpux header files so that neither
fixincludes nor fixproto are necessary.  Then it becomes a hell of a lot easier
to use tools built under one rev of the OS with newer revs of the OS.

Until we reach that point, the way to take the tools build on one machine
and use them on a different machine is to copy the binaries and re-run
fixincludes/fixproto to install header files suitable for each machine
where GCC is expected to run.  We both know that even if the OS rev hasn't
changed that vendor patches can munge header files and "fun" ways.

Jeff