Re: GNAT for Debian

[Preben Randhol <randhol+abuse@pvv.org>]

Simon Wright wrote:
> But you must be very careful where the gcc-lib/i686-whatever-linux
> stuff goes -- not on top of your working standard compiler.

That is no problem:

/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i486-linux/2.8.1/
                            ^^^^^
                            gcc version

> So you need a clean way of putting the GNAT builds (especially if you
> have more than one) in places where they can't be mistaken and will
> never end up on your path.

You cannot have two gnat compilers at the same time. At least not as the
standard compiler. 

> I choose /opt because if didn't seem like a bad idea; if it was, I am
> very sorry. /usr/lib/gnat-3.15p (for example) would be a perfectly
> good place, or /usr/local/gnat-3.15p.
> 
> You could easily then install gnatgcc and friends by symlinks in
> /usr/local/bin (say).
> 
> The point of my gnatfe is to do effectively just that but in a way
> that you can alter the compiler actually used by changing an
> environment variable, which is effectively the prefix you built the
> compiler with.

Sure, but it makes it harder to maintain as a package I would say.

Normal practice if you need more than one gcc is that is is named:

gcc-2.95
gcc-3.2
gcc-3.3

etc... and gcc symlinks to the standard. Of course one could do that
too, but then one might get problems with gnatmake calling wrong gnatgcc
because of bad symlinks. 

> I quite realize that if you're building a package for people to
> install & use on the other side of the world without handholding,
> things may look different!

Exactly

-- 
Ada95 is good for you.
http://www.crystalcode.com/codemage/MainMenu/Coding/Ada/IntroducingAda.php