use a different default configure.compiler

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Apr 16, 2012, at 02:00, Ryan Schmidt wrote:

>> There simply HAS to be some way of forcing Macports to use the compiler that I want to use and not argue and not make changes whenever and just do what I tell it to.
> 
> As of MacPorts 2.1.0 beta 1 yes you can override the default value of configure.compiler than MacPorts chose for you, so feel free to upgrade to that version and change the appropriate value in macports.conf. Note that individual ports might specify an alternate compiler, if it is already known that using a particular compiler will not work (but I can't think of many ports that wouldn't work with Apple gcc 4.2). Note that Xcode 4.2 and up no longer include any Apple gcc compilers, so you cannot set configure.compiler to gcc-4.2 if you have Xcode 4.2 or later. You can however install the apple-gcc42 port, which is basically the same thing, and set configure.compiler to apple-gcc-4.2.

What I forgot to add is that the ability of MacPorts to influence what compiler a port will use (whether that's MacPorts' default value of configure.compiler or one you set yourself in macports.conf or on the command line when installing an individual port) depends on that port respecting the configure.compiler variable, which is what the UsingTheRightCompiler wiki page is all about. If you discover a port that does not respect configure.compiler (and I'm sure there are still several), please file a ticket in the issue tracker referencing that wiki page (assuming one has not already been filed) so someone can look into fixing the port.