Hi Alastair, On Sun, Dec 07, 2025 at 11:29:24AM +0000, Alastair McKinstry wrote: > Revisiting this old bug. > > I note though that after adding that dependency, libtool-bin will > effectively become unusable to cross building, because its gcc:hostarch > dependency will not be satisfiable. In a distant future, we want it to > depend on gcc-for-host instead and thus allow cross compilers to be > used. Until that becomes reality, the dependency on gcc will remind us > that cross building anything that Build-Depends on libtool-bin will be a > fruitless exercise. > > What in your opinion should be done now?
Thank you for raising this. There are several non-obvious angles here. One angle is an aspect from my initial report: | I note though that after adding that dependency, libtool-bin will | effectively become unusable to cross building, because its gcc:hostarch | dependency will not be satisfiable. In a distant future, we want it to | depend on gcc-for-host instead and thus allow cross compilers to be | used. Until that becomes reality, the dependency on gcc will remind us | that cross building anything that Build-Depends on libtool-bin will be a | fruitless exercise. That distant future mentioned there is right now. We do have gcc-for-host since trixie. Beware though that for using it, we must patch libtool to actually use a triplet-prefixed gcc. It presently uses a bare gcc. Practically speaking, due to using the bare gcc, libtool-bin is unusable for cross compilation right now. Tightening that dependency on gcc merely prevents us from attempting a build that would fail anyway. Considerable effort has gone into moving packages from libtool-bin. Keep in mind what Kurt said: | Really nothing should be build-depending on that. I consider it a | bug that anything uses it. That should generate libtool by | running configure. We're up to 70 packages a few of which have patches. At some point we should simply delete the package and have everyone libtoolize instead. So my current understanding is that the tightened dependency does no harm beyond what is broken already. Helmut
