On Sun, Nov 1, 2009 at 5:50 AM, Mike Frysinger <report@bugs.python.org> wrote:
>
> Mike Frysinger <vapier@users.sourceforge.net> added the comment:
>
> AC_TRY_RUN is already documented:
> http://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/html_node/Obsolete-Macros.html#index-AC_005fTRY_005fRUN-1992
>
> there are a bunch of distros out there (like OE and Gentoo) that have
> been maintaining cross-compile patches for python.  i'm pretty sure the
> stuff in Gentoo works for 2.6.x, but i havent tried 3.1.x yet.
>
> ive given up on pushing to upstream as this bug (among others)) shows
> that such attempts go nowhere

Actually what Mike showed was helpful for me. I didn't realize that
the 3rd argument to AC_TRY_RUN was for Canadian cross, aka
cross-compiling.

My personal opinion on why past attempts have failed (and it's just my
opinion) is probably because:

1. The change set wasn't incremental, thus the diff was large, and the
checkin was rejected.
2. The patch was based on previous versions of python, which doesn't
help the current trunk, release-maint* branches, etc.

I'm more than happy to steal existing code (if possible :)..), but it
should be well designed so longterm maintenance can be eased, and the
cross-compile issue can be resolved in a correct manner.

It took me 2 months to rewrite the Makefile infrastructure for LTP --
this should be a lot simpler and less painful to resolve (in terms of
autotools input files, Makefile, etc). setup.py and distutils is
something that I need to defer to someone more seasoned in the python
internals (at least for mentoring) s.t. it can be resolved on all
branches.

First comes first, I'll propose some changes for cross-compilation
dealing with some of the AC_TRY_RUN tests -- there are some tests that
can be turned into preprocessor defines and/or AC_TRY_COMPILES [the
sizeof(pthread_t), etc], then I'll look at the other tests and propose
appropriate action for them.

If needed individuals in the python org. aren't aware of this work, it
probably should be brought to their attention sometime in the next
couple of weeks, because I need to make sure core team members are
aware of these changes so that they can get reviewed and checked into
the project in a timely manner (my group needs to upgrade from 2.4.2
to python 2.6.x in the next couple months; this is a stopgap item for
us because we use a cross-compilation environment).

All the best,
-Garrett