Re: target names and glibc versions on linux

[Jim Wilson <wilson at tuliptree dot org>]

Alex Hornby wrote:
> I've been having a bit of trouble with the way that config.guess returns
> the same string (i686-pc-linux-gnu) for glibc 2.0, 2.2 and 2.3 based
> GNU/Linux systems.

What kind of trouble?  We can't help if we don't know what the problem is.

> I suppose my question is whether there are any plans to add a glibc
> version number in the config.guess output in a similar manner to the
> solaris output (e.g. i686-pc-linux-gnu2.0 )

Historically we haven't done this except when there were major 
significant differences that couldn't be handled with a few ifdefs in 
the source.  For instance the switch from libc5 to glibc.

A glibc version number is not sufficient to distinguish a GNU/Linux 
release.  There are also kernel version numbers, binutils version 
numbers, make/lex/bison version numbers, etc.  There are so many 
different linux releases that adding version numbers would probably add 
too much confusing clutter.

> If this is not desirable then some explanation (or pointer to an
> explanation) of the rationale might help me get my head around things...

The question is backwards.  There is no point in adding glibc version 
numbers unless we really need them, and at the moment we don't need 
them.  Changing the config.guess output is a heavy weight mechanism, so 
we need a good reason before we do that.

Jim