[PATCH] Let the default compiler be configurable

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Jun 9, 2011, at 21:23, Joshua Root wrote:

> On 2011-6-10 10:48 , Ryan Schmidt wrote:
>> 
>> On Jun 9, 2011, at 16:07, Jeremy Huddleston wrote:
>> 
>>> I assumed that this was already possible and was amazed that it wasn't... with this patch, one can set "compiler" in $prefix/etc/macports.conf to choose a default compiler.
>>> 
>>> Thoughts?
>> 
>> We do not want the user to be able to specify that. It's yet another variable of limited utility that we don't have adequate resources to support.
>> 
>> That is to say, the user can already specify the compiler by overriding configure.compiler when running the install command. But we don't want to put that in macports.conf to give the mistaken impression that we approve of users doing that.
> 
> Specifically it means that every port would have to make sure it is
> using a compiler that works for it (or equivalently not using ones that
> don't), rather than being able to rely on a reasonable default being set.
> 
> We do already have some variables in macports.conf that can easily cause
> breakage and we don't support changing, namely binpath and extra_env.
> Maybe if we grouped all the setting in that category (optflags is the
> other one that comes to mind) in a section at the end of the file, with
> a strongly worded comment to the effect of "Changing these is not
> supported. If you do change them it is at your own risk. Do not report
> bugs or ask for support if something breaks after you change them."?

Perhaps. But what is the purpose of an option to change the compiler? If a port doesn't work with its default compiler, then that is a bug to be reported and fixed in that port. And if the port does work with its compiler, then why are we changing it?