Re: RFA: always default to using the libiberty regex

[Andrew Cagney <ac131313@redhat.com>]

> On Mon, Jan 27, 2003 at 04:56:56PM -0800, Martin M. Hunt wrote:
> 
>> This patch deletes the configure code to check the OS implementation of
>> regex and default to that. The default will now always be the builtin.
>> 
>> 
>> 2003-01-27  Martin M. Hunt  <hunt@redhat.com>
>> 
>> 	* configure.in: Revert check for system regex.  Use builtin 	regex by
>> default. 
>> 	* configure: Rebuilt.
>> 
> 
> 
> I'm still not convinced this is a good idea.
> 
> Context: it's a bug in the system's GNU C library, and should be fixed
> as such.  All the rest of us who have a version of glibc which has this
> issue addressed don't have a problem, and I don't really want to carry
> around yet another statically linked copy of regex if I don't need to. 
> Since it doesn't manifest on my system, I suspect it is fixed in glibc
> 2.3.1; it's another piece of fallout from Red Hat's choice of using the
> brand-new barely-tested glibc 2.2.93 for their desktop product.

There are several choices here:

- GDB prefers the installed regex.

This is what the current config is doing.
I think it is telling that the patch hasn't even been in for a month 
and, already, we've hit problems.  No matter where the problem is, it is 
GDB that will get the blame.  I also believe that way back when this was 
last debated, specific regex releases were identified as problematic.


- GDB prefers the bundled regex.

This is what the old config was doing.
Doing this means that GDB needs to, at regular intervals, upgrade that 
code.  We do this now for readline.  It also means that the GDB 
developers are insulated from problems with the utility libraries.


As best I can tell, the only people that really benefit from the system 
regex are those making distros - it saves them the hassle of having to 
remember --with-..regex=.  GDB developers don't benefit - we all need to 
specify the bundled regex as otherwize we can't reproduce each others 
results (cf Martin's problem).  GDB users don't benefit as they now get 
a GDB of unknown quality.

Andrew

--

Martin,

I suspect that you are configuring with the wrong autoconf.  You want 
the one on the sware binutils ftp site.

Andrew