Re: [PATCH] gas: Add --with-optimization=OPTION

[Joseph Myers <joseph at codesourcery dot com>]

On Mon, 26 Feb 2018, H.J. Lu wrote:

> On Mon, Feb 26, 2018 at 10:33 AM, Joseph Myers <joseph@codesourcery.com> wrote:
> > On Mon, 26 Feb 2018, H.J. Lu wrote:
> >
> >> 1. Add --with-optimization=OPTION configure option for x86 gas.  This
> >> allows the default optimization type to be adjusted at configure time.
> >
> > I don't think such a configure option is appropriate.  It's far outside
> > the standard definition of either --enable or --with options.
> > Command-line options and assembler directives should be fully sufficient
> > without any such configure option, especially given that the assembler is
> 
> So it is OK to enable encoding optimization by default.  But it is inappropriate
> to control it at configure time.

Correct.  --enable and --with options are deliberately limited in the GNU 
Coding Standards to controlling support for optional features and how the 
package works with something external.  This is neither of those; it's not 
even close to either of those.  So the assembler should have a sensible 
default choice (in the absence of command-line options or directives to 
override that at runtime), meaning there is a consistent message for users 
about what versions of the assembler do what, without variation depending 
on configure options.

-- 
Joseph S. Myers
joseph@codesourcery.com