2.36: windres tool broken; needs fix

[Martin Storsjö]

Hi Nick,

On Thu, 29 Apr 2021, Nick Clifton via Binutils wrote:

> Hi Thomas,
>
>> the windres tool as changed in 2.36 breaks build processes, see 
>> https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=27594 
>> <https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=27594>.
>> As the bug has not yet been assigned or commented, I'd like to make sure 
>> this gets fixed for the next release please.
>
> Do you have an example of a failing windres invocation that properly uses
> --preprocessor and --preprocessor-arg along with escaping relevant to the
> shell that is going to interpret the command line ?

I presume you mean that the examples, where existing projects call it with 
--preprocessor "$CC -E -xc -DRC_INVOKED", are considered improper use 
(even though they worked that way for years)?

I think this matter at least needs a more clear statement of this form:

---8<---

We acknowledge that GNU windres used to handle multiple arguments via the 
--preprocessor flag, and we know that multiple projects have started using 
it in that form. We consider that wrong and are willingly breaking those 
projects, for a new usecase that never worked like that before, as we 
consider the old behaviour incorrect.

---8<---

Because without that, it just looks like it's trading one bug for another 
one.

// Martin