*BSD News Article 50188


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From: torvalds@cc.Helsinki.FI (Linus Torvalds)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: DEBATE: BSD vs. Linux
Date: 5 Sep 1995 08:36:29 +0300
Organization: University of Helsinki
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References: <4233kp$t8p@hilly.apci.net> <4280t8$ijg@er5.rutgers.edu> <42c18e$eg7@klaava.helsinki.fi> <42dp79$bv5@wolfe.wimsey.com>
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In article <42dp79$bv5@wolfe.wimsey.com>,
Curt Sampson <curt@cynic.portal.ca> wrote:
>In article <42c18e$eg7@klaava.helsinki.fi>,
>Linus Torvalds <torvalds@cc.Helsinki.FI> wrote:
>>
>>Linux/alpha and Linux/i386 share the same source tree: you need to edit
>>the top-level Makefile (change ARCH=i386 to ARCH=alpha) to compile the
>>standard 1.3.22 kernel on the alpha. 
>
>If I compile a full i386 kernel, and then change the ARCH in the
>makefile and compile an Alpha kernel, do I still have my 386 kernel
>and all its object files?
>
>Or in other words, can I cross compile from a platform where I also
>compile native systems for that platform?

This is getting ridiculous.  In a word (or three): "Who really cares?"

You'd need to set up some VPATH thingy, and in a cross-compiler
environment you'd need to change the architecture-specific files to
point to the current compiler (or else set up the system so that "gcc"
just happens to be the right compiler in both setups) and maybe tweak
something else as well (config files: you have to do a "make config"
after changing the ARCH anyway).. 

Quite frankly, I'd suggest using two different source trees (or
actually, doing a symlink expansion of the original source tree).  Or
just do a "make clean" in between compiling for the alpha and for the
x86, if you don't expect to recompile all the time.  I can't see that
this would be a major issue for _anybody_, unless you're really anal
retentive about things like that. 

		Linus

[ sorry about the "anal retentive", but I'm reading this in the linux
  advocacy group, so I'm allowed ;-]