Cross compilers without assemblers (rant)

[Zack Weinberg]

$ .../configure --target=powerpc-apple-darwin --enable-languages=c
...
$ make all-gcc TARGET-gcc=cc1
...
checking assembler for .machine directive support... no
*** This target requires an assembler supporting ".machine"
make: *** [configure-gcc] Error 1

Yep, I don't have an assembler available that supports .machine.
Matter of fact, I don't have an assembler available that supports
Mach-O.  Or the PowerPC instruction set.  And I DON'T CARE, because
all I'm trying to do is make sure I can still compile cc1.

I deeply resent having to jump through extra hoops for a testing
process which has already chewed up most of the afternoon.

</rant>

zw

(what, a constructive suggestion you want?  Fine.  Don't error out in
this circumstance when host != target.  Better still, don't even try
to probe features of the assembler when host != target, <target>-as
doesn't exist, and this isn't a unified-tree build; just assume the
user knows what they're doing.)