Re: [PATCH] Change linker to gcc for cygwin

[Reini Urban <reini dot urban at gmail dot com>]

> On Aug 15, 2015, at 7:52 AM, Achim Gratz <Stromeko@nexgo.de> wrote:
> 
> [Cygwin Perl maintainer here]
> 
> Ivan Pozdeev writes:
>> Currently, g++ is specified in hints/cygwin.sh
>> It is quite a weighty install - approaches 100M with dependencies -
>> and since it isn't really needed (see below), requiring it is
>> completely unnecessary.
>> Moreover, as a consequence, it's also required when building modules.
> 
> I'm in general sympathetic with trying to keep dependencies small.

yes, g++ is not required, only for -devel.

g++ is not needed as perl run-time dep, only as build dep and devel dep, 
for people compiling XS modules.

>> The current choice was introduced in commit
>> 4f3b19ea9f1065e1d9d263b4c07fca1ba8f29276
>> as a replacement for `ld2'; related cygwin maillist message by Reini Urban:
>> https://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2007-07/msg00665.html
>> Neither the message not the linked perl5-porters thread contain any
>> information on the choice of g++ over gcc.
>> 
>> Maybe Reini himself can comment on his decision?

g++ as ld was needed to be able to link C++ projects which also link to libperl, like
gnome I think.

> Maybe you could discuss things concerning Cygwin on the Cygwin mailing
> list first before proposing changes for Cygwin upstream.  I don't
> pretend to know every detail of how and where Perl is used on Cygwin and
> you shouldn't either.  Maybe using g++ as a linker was something that
> just happened or for reasons that are not valid anymore, but it's one of
> the things I wouldn't want to change on a whim.

It is still valid, Yaakov needed that.


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