From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: Rob Landley <rob@landley.net>
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 21:32:55 +0000
Subject: Re: [RFC] Get rid of SUBARCH
Message-Id: <1377207175.2737.113@driftwood>
List-Id: <linux-sh.vger.kernel.org>
References: <52167AB8.4060206@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <52167AB8.4060206@gmail.com> (from ddaney.cavm@gmail.com on Thu
	Aug 22 15:55:20 2013)
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To: David Daney <ddaney.cavm@gmail.com>
Cc: Richard Weinberger <richard@nod.at>, Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@linux-m68k.org>, Sam Ravnborg <sam@ravnborg.org>, Linux-Arch <linux-arch@vger.kernel.org>, Michal Marek <mmarek@suse.cz>, Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>, Paul Mundt <lethal@linux-sh.org>, Jeff Dike <jdike@addtoit.com>, Guan Xuetao <gxt@mprc.pku.edu.cn>, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>, "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>, the arch/x86 maintainers <x86@kernel.org>, linux-kbuild <linux-kbuild@vger.kernel.org>, "linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>, linux-m68k <linux-m68k@lists.linux-m68k.org>, Linux MIPS Mailing List <linux-mips@linux-mips.org>, Linux-sh list <linux-sh@vger.kernel.org>, uml-devel <user-mode-linux-devel@lists.sourceforge.net>

On 08/22/2013 03:55:20 PM, David Daney wrote:
> On 08/22/2013 01:41 PM, Rob Landley wrote:
>> On 08/22/2013 07:58:26 AM, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
>>> On Wed, Aug 21, 2013 at 9:51 PM, Sam Ravnborg <sam@ravnborg.org>  
>>> wrote:
>>> >> > The series touches also m68k, sh, mips and unicore32.
>>> >> > These architectures magically select a cross compiler if ARCH  
>>> !>>> SUBARCH.
>>> >> > Do really need that behavior?
>>> >>
>>> >> This does remove functionality.
>>> >> It allows to build a kernel using e.g. "make ARCH=m68k".
>>> >>
>>> >> Perhaps this can be moved to generic code? Most (not all!)
>>> cross-toolchains
>>> >> are called $ARCH-{unknown-,}linux{,-gnu}.
>>> >> Exceptions are e.g. am33_2.0-linux and bfin-uclinux.
>>> >
>>> > Today you can specify CROSS_COMPILE in Kconfig.
>>> > With this we should be able to remove these hacks.
>>> 
>>> The correct CROSS_COMPILE value depends on the host environment, not
>>> on the target configuration.
>> 
>> Actually it depends on _both_.
>> 
> 
> I think the important issue is not the exact dependencies of the  
> value of CROSS_COMPILE, but rather that it varies enough that  
> automatically choosing a value based on SUBARCH often gives the wrong  
> result.
> 
> Removing SUBARCH and setting CROSS_COMPILE either from the make  
> command line (or environment) or the config file, is a good idea  
> because it simplifies the build system, makes things clearer, and  
> yields more predictable results.
> 
> David Daney

Agreed. Expecting the build to guess the right $CROSS_COMPILE is like  
expecting it to guess the right $PATH. It should be specified, not  
heuristically probed.

Rob