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Re: fatal error: gnu/stubs-32.h: No such file


On Mon, Jul 29, 2013 at 6:22 AM, Andrew Haley <aph@redhat.com> wrote:

> There should be a better diagnostic.

If you remember, the start of this thread was:

> Why is it that configure worked but stubs-32.h was not found?

That is the correct thing to do.  The reply, basically, was:

    It's too hard.

OK, fine, the backup is to Google:

    fatal error: gnu/stubs-32.h: No such file or directory

and have an early hit that tells you that you did not configure some 32 bit
developer package you had never heard of before.  I guess that's easier
than configure tests or #error directives for the folks who do the
multi-lib stuff.

> > But we know people are running into this issue and reporting it.
> Yes.  But that on its own is not sufficient to change the default

That's a pretty obnoxious comment.  I translate it as, "I don't care if
people are having trouble.  It is a nuisance to me to do that and anyone
building GCC should already know they need <whateveritwas>-devel for
32 bits."  I guess I can be obnoxious, too.  But slightly more politely put:

> No, we aren't. We're disagreeing about whether it's acceptable to
> enable a feature by default that breaks the compiler build half way
> through with an obscure error message. Real systems need features that
> aren't enabled by default sometimes.

The fundamental issue, to me, is:  What do you do when you cannot proceed?

I think you should detect the issue as *soon as practical* and then *ALWAYS*
emit a message that *TELLS THE USER WHAT TO DO*.  This failure is
later than it could be and leaves the user hanging and twisting in the wind.

Not good.


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