[tlbuild] -funsigned-char is not portable

[Peter Breitenlohner]

On Wed, 3 Jun 2009, Vladimir Volovich wrote:

> if it is easy to avoid using this flag in the link command, it's the
> simplest approach;

Hi Vladimir,

no there is not. Automake uses CFLAGS (or CXXFLAGS) for both compilation and
linking.

> second one is to use an autoconf test such as
> http://www.nongnu.org/autoconf-archive/ac_prog_cc_char_subscripts.html
> which will allow to use -funsigned-char only on GCC (and the appropriate
> other flag on other compilers)

The problem is, that I will be away for ten days, starting tomorrow.
If you want to add such a test, fine. The only requirement is, that you
use some variable other than CFLAGS to pass the required flags to Makefile,
because the user should be allowed to override CFLAGS (and other *FLAGS)
when invoking make.

> third option (the most time consuming) is to modify bibtex8 sources to
> use unsigned char explicitly, instead of char.

Definitely to be done for TL2010, but probably not for TL2009.

Regards
Peter