Re: ATTN: g++ maintainer: Using string instances to pass arguments to dlls

[Charles Wilson <cygwin at cwilson dot fastmail dot fm>]

James R. Phillips wrote:
> John also wonders [2] why libstdc++ is static as opposed to shared on cygwin. 
> I have searched the archives, and verified its static nature, but was unable to
> find an explanation.
>
> [1] http://www.octave.org/mailing-lists/help-octave/2005/3734
> [2] http://www.octave.org/mailing-lists/help-octave/2005/3738

IIRC this is what mathematicians call a "hard problem". :-)

gcc is fully autotoolized: it uses autoconf, automake, and libtool when 
building.  However, you really only get decent cygwin support for DLLs 
from libtool of 1.5.x series or better.  BUT, this requires at least 
automake-1.7.x or better, which in turn requires autoconf-2.5x or better.

Until "recently" (circa last 18 months or so), gcc used MUCH older 
versions of these tools: autoconf-2.13, automake???, and (worst of all) 
a privately hacked version of libtool-1.4.x.  However, over the last 
year or more, several dedicated people have been slowly moving gcc's 
build system over to more modern autotools.

I do not know if that process is complete, but it is a necessary (but 
not sufficient) step for building the runtime libraries as DLLs under 
cygwin.  There has been sporadic interest in correcting this problem, 
and convincing gcc to build dll runtimes under cygwin, but:
 (1) as I said, this is a "hard" problem
 (2) and it hasn't been very pressing issue: C doesn't have this 
problem; only C++, Fortran, (maybe others) need additional runtime libs 
other than cygwin1.dll -- and C is the 800 lb gorilla of open source 
software.  C++, Fortran, etc, are often afterthoughts unfortunately 
(except in specialized fields like hardcore numerics).

FWIW, Nicholas Wourms has expresses recent interest on this list in 
trying to resolve this issue (and IIRC he was active with the gcc team 
~18 months ago, and has just recently 'returned').  Nick?

--
Chuck


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