Environment variable to pass in options?

[Robert Lipe]

> We already have a tough time getting all the information we need to
> reproduce & fix problems.  Adding an environment variable of this
> nature just makes things harder since someone could put options in
> the environment variable, then forgot to tell us about them when
> they report a bug.

SCO has had a similar feature in their tools for a long time.  You can
stuff things in environmental flags or in /etc/default/cc.

I thoroughly hate this feature for the very reason Jeff describes.
I have people constantly asking me "why does the compiler do XXX"
and I spend a while beating on it and say, "it doesn't".   They
send a test case and say, "does too".  I test their test case and
say, "does not".   This is when they find out the system admin or
some other coworker added '-Obazillion -UseSomeEsotericThing' to
one of the above places and that's causing the wierdness.

Yes, I sometimes wish my compile lines would fit on a single 80 column
screen to increase the density of my 'make' output.  But after a couple
rounds of playing the above game, I get over it.