problem building for cygwin

[Simon Peyton-Jones]

[Narrowing to cvs-ghc list]

| > Hi I'm trying to build for cygwin.
...
| > Ran ./configure --with-ghc=c:/ghc/ghc-6.2.1/bin/ghc --with-
| >                                          gcc=c:/cygwin/bin/gcc

Yes, in principle GHC *should* build perfectly well when built for
Cygwin (i.e. target=i386-unknown-cygwin), but as the building makes
clear (I hope) this isn't a path we have ever actually tried (though
others have, and succeeded too, at various times in the past).  

There is no reason it should not work, but I bet the build system tests
the wrong flags sometimes.  

I rather think that you should ./configure with
-target=i386-unknown-cygwin, as Simon says.  I don't think you need
specify the host as well; I don't think it has much effect, if any.
Though I'm hazy about many aspects of the build system.

 | Sounds like the compiler's Makefile should be checking the host
rather
| than the target when adding -package unix too.

And this is a good example of what I mean by "testing the wrong flags".

If you are prepared to push this through till it works, I know there are
people who'd like a Cygwin GHC (that is, a GHC that compiles programs
that run under Cygwin) because it gives access to Posix stuff.  If you'd
like to send us build-system patches, we'll apply them.

Simon