David Abrahams wrote:
When I looked into this problem I saw that configure in fact builds a test executable that included an object file compiled with g++. If the link step with gcc succeeds then LINKCC is set as above, otherwise CXX is used. Obviously, on my system this test was successful so configure decided to link with gcc. However, minimal changes to the source of the test program caused the link step to fail. It was not obvious to me at all why the latter source code should cause a dependency on the C++ runtime if the original code does not. My conclusion was that this test is fragile and should be skipped.
Sounds like it. I have never understood what the test was really checking for since the moment it was first described to me, FWIW.
I'll describe it once more: *If* a program is compiled with the C++ compiler, is it *then* possible to still link it with the C compiler? This is the question this test tries to answer.
If Python is built with --with-cxx then it should be linked with CXX as well.
U betcha.
Wrong. The test was introduced in response to complaints that Python unnecessarily links with libstdc++ on some Linux systems. On these Linux systems, it was well possible to build main() with a C++ compiler, and still link the entire thing with gcc. Since main() doesn't use any libstdc++ functionality, and since collect2/__main isn't used, one would indeed expect that linking with CXX is not necessary.
(On ELF based Linux/x86, at least.) That leaves me wondering
* when is --with-cxx really necessary?
I think it's plausible that if you set sys.dlopenflags
This has no relationship at all. --with-cxx is much older than sys.dlopenflags. It is used on systems where main() must be a C++ program for C++ extension modules to work (e.g. some Linux systems). Regards, Martin