[Nix-dev] gcc for MacOS X

[Konrad Hinsen]

--On 17 avril 2012 14:25:18 +0200 Ludovic Courtès 
<ludovic.courtes at inria.fr> wrote:

> It turns out that getting GCC 4.6 to build on Darwin wasn’t so
> difficult.  The patch below fixes that, by adding lipo(1) to stdenv.
> However, since it modifies stdenv, it entails a full rebuild.
>
> Would it be a problem for you?  What do others think?

I don't mind any rebuild, as long as the result works. It's done only once, 
after all.

Which builder.sh is the patch for? Is it 
pkgs/development/compilers/gcc/4.6/builder.sh?

> Besides, having a working GCC on MacOS X raises the question of whether
> its stdenv should be use it in lieu of Apple’s GCC 4.2 (which is old,
> buggy, and no longer maintained.)  I’m inclined to stick to Apple’s
> GCC for now, because it’s good for portability testing.  But we could
> still switch in the future.

I'd argue for gcc 4.6, for compatibility with the rest of the world. I 
expect to use Nixpkgs like I use MacPorts now: for building standard Unix 
stuff. For programs written explicitly for the Mac, I usually install 
prebuilt binaries like most users do, again for compatibility with what 
most users do.

Konrad.