gfortran requires input files for linking?

[Peter O'Gorman]

Hi,

The libtool-2.2.8 testsuite fails some tests on darwin10 with gfortran 
because it makes use of Apple ld's -force_load flag to load all members 
of convenience archives. One of the tests creates link lines like:

gfortran -dynamiclib -Wl,-undefined -Wl,dynamic_lookup -o 
.libs/liba12.0.dylib   -Wl,-force_load,./.libs/liba1.a 
-Wl,-force_load,./.libs/liba2.a -install_name /notexist/liba12.0.dylib 
-compatibility_version 1 -current_version 1.0 -Wl,-single_module

For which gfortran complains:
gfortran: no input files; unwilling to write output files

and exits with error.

On my linux system, it has a link line that, while similar, passes 
gfortran's test for input files:
gfortran -shared  -Wl,--whole-archive ./.libs/liba1.a ./.libs/liba2.a 
-Wl,--no-whole-archive  -L/usr/lib/gcc/i686-redhat-linux/4.4.4 
-L/usr/lib/gcc/i686-redhat-linux/4.4.4/../../.. -lgfortranbegin 
-lgfortran -lm -lc -lgcc_s    -Wl,-soname -Wl,liba12.so.0 -o 
.libs/liba12.so.0.0.0

The only difference being that the archives are not -Wl, quoted.

Would the maintainers accept a patch that either
a) removes any checking for input files
or
b) warns instead of errors if it sees no input files

and which would be preferred?

Thanks,
Peter