[PATCH] bfd: recognize *-*-windows* Windows targets

[Jan Beulich]

On 14.07.2026 01:15, Pedro Alves wrote:
> Clang's default target on Windows uses the "windows-msvc" OS in its
> triplet, e.g. x86_64-pc-windows-msvc, i686-pc-windows-msvc, and
> aarch64-pc-windows-msvc.  This is different from MinGW triplets -- it
> means that the compiler produces binaries following the Windows/MSVC
> ABI, not the GNU ABI.

Doesn't this mean that ...

>  config.sub already canonicalizes these, but
> config.bfd doesn't map them to a BFD target vector, so configuring for
> one of these targets fails to select a default vector.
> 
> Fix this by extending the i386, x86_64 and aarch64 PE entries to also
> match "*-windows*", so that Windows targets spelled with the "windows"
> OS select the same PE vectors as their mingw counterparts.

... this and ...

> Note: even though config.sub does not support "windows-gnu" today,
> Clang and Rust support it, as an alias for MinGW.  Clang also accepts
> plain "windows", treating it as MSVC.  That's why the patch matches
> "windows*".  Also, this is what is already used in bfd, anyhow:

... this is wrong, in meaning "GNU ABI" in all cases?

Further, while in the follow-on mail you say this aiming at gdb, what
about in particular ld? If ld is deliberately not covered, wouldn't
top-level configury then want to gain a noconfigdirs adjustment, such
that ld (and perhaps also other components) won't even be tried to be
configured?

Jan