On Mon, Mar 03, 2025 at 03:09:56PM +0100, Peter Seiderer wrote: > > this patch addresses the issue reported at [1], where it is impossible > > to specify the shell, Python and Perl paths during cross-compilation > > when using Meson. > > I still believe that is is a 'misuse' of the cross-file (as stated already > here [1]) the given programs in cross-file are to be meant to run while > cross-compiling (at compile time) and not on the target (e.g. it would be > impossible to find a program (as the name find_program indicates) at > compile/configure where the target layout is yet unknown.... > > I believe the correct solution is an extra configure option for cross-compile > and a sane default (or find_program) in case of native build... I'm mostly going by Eli's assessment [1]: On Tue, Feb 18, 2025 at 09:41:23AM -0500, Eli Schwartz wrote: > Overriding it via the cross file would be fine -- if your goal is to > only ever find_program(..., native: false) in order to detect a path and > embed it, then it doesn't matter whether cross files are for running > cross tools on the build machine or for looking up cross tools to detect > a path and embed it, since the two goals would never *come into > conflict*. And that's what actually matters -- if you are concerned that > cross files will be wrong as they specify the cross-compile environment > not the install environment, then you shouldn't be using find_program() > either, you should be exclusively using build options. So this makes me assume that this usage is okay. The reason why I prefer using a cross-file is that it makes it possible to specify the complete environment for a cross-compilation in a single file. This would include both the toolchain, but also target-specific options like the shell/Python/Perl path. In theory, this would make it possible to eventually start shipping machine files as part of the Git project that are completely sufficient to set up cross-compilation for e.g. Windows. That being said, this is only my opinion and it's not set into stone. I just don't quite see the cross-file as abuse and think it has merit to do it that way. If there is another good argument why having a build option is preferable then I'm all ears and happy to revise my opinion. Patrick [1]: 24df8aa2-760f-4da3-88b0-ab97796373fd@xxxxxxxxxx
