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Article #1618Nasty 4.3 change to cc(1)
From: das
Date: Tue, 05 Aug 1986 01:17
Date: Tue, 05 Aug 1986 01:17
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Under SysV, 4.1, and 4.2,
cc -c -o blah blah1.c blah2.c
produces two object files, named blah1.o and blah2.o
cc -c -o blah blah.c
produces one object file, named blah.o
Under 4.3,
cc -c -o blah blah1.c blah2.c
produces two object files, named blah1.o and blah2.o
cc -c -o blah blah.c
produces one object file, named blah, not blah.o!!!!
While normal people don't usually specify both the -c flag and -o filename,
some shell scripts do (e.g. the C++ script "CC"). Obviously, someone decided
that -o should mean "If there's a single obvious output file, -o should
rename it," rather than "-o should rename the a.out file", since
cc -S -o blah blah.c
puts the assembly language output in blah, not blah.s (again, only when exactly
one source file is named).
I think the change is a mistake, since it breaks existing software and there's
no compelling reason I can see to prefer the new meaning of -o over the old.
Justifications?
-- David Smallberg, das@locus.ucla.edu, {sdcrdcf,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!das
-- David Smallberg, das@locus.ucla.edu, {sdcrdcf,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!das
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Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!mnetor!seismo!caip!ucla-cs!das From: das@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU Newsgroups: net.bugs.4bsd Subject: Nasty 4.3 change to cc(1) Message-ID: <377@curly.ucla-cs.ARPA> Date: Mon, 4-Aug-86 21:17:26 EDT Article-I.D.: curly.377 Posted: Mon Aug 4 21:17:26 1986 Date-Received: Tue, 5-Aug-86 22:48:50 EDT Reply-To: das@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU (David Smallberg) Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department Lines: 26