Re: CONFIG_BUILD_ELF64 broken on IP32 since 2.6.20

[Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>]

On Thu, Sep 27, 2007 at 10:11:49AM +0200, Franck Bui-Huu wrote:
> From: Franck Bui-Huu <vagabon.xyz@gmail.com>
> Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2007 10:11:49 +0200
> To: "Maciej W. Rozycki" <macro@linux-mips.org>
> CC: Atsushi Nemoto <anemo@mba.ocn.ne.jp>, tbm@cyrius.com,
> 	linux-mips@linux-mips.org
> Subject: Re: CONFIG_BUILD_ELF64 broken on IP32 since 2.6.20
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
> 
> Maciej W. Rozycki wrote:
> > On Thu, 27 Sep 2007, Atsushi Nemoto wrote:
> > 
> >> Current linux-queue code adds -msym32 if the load address was CKSEG0,
> >> so it can not be compiled with gcc 3.x.  I think this patch fixes the
> >> problem:
> >>
> >> http://www.linux-mips.org/archives/linux-mips/2007-03/msg00404.html
> > 
> >  It looks like it should -- why hasn't it been pushed?
> > 
> 
> I don't remember. I thought the last patchset had the fix.
> 
> Just to be sure I understand both of you correctly, could
> you confirm that in case of '-msym32' switch isn't supported,
> we should _silently_ drop this option ? That's what Atsushi
> was suggesting. But reading what Maciej wrote, it seems that
> we should notify the user...

-msym32 and previously the strategy to tell the compiler to generate 64-bit
code but the assembler to put it into 32-bit ELF was initially a hack
to get around the lack of proper 64-bit binutils support and later 
turned into a neat optimization with significant code size savings.  But
it's really just an optimization so there is nothing wrong with just
dropping the option (and whatever else goes along with it, I forgot all
the nasty details) on the floor if due to a vintage compiler it can't be
suported.

  Ralf