ANNOUNCE: GHC version 6.8.2

[Manuel M T Chakravarty]

Ian Lynagh:
> On Fri, Dec 14, 2007 at 12:11:17PM +1100, Manuel M T Chakravarty  
> wrote:
>>>
>>> otool -L compiler/stage2/ghc-6.8.2
>>>      /opt/local/lib/libgmp.3.dylib (compatibility version 8.0.0,
>>> current version 8.1.0)
>>
>> Yes, it does.  That's very strange for the *stage2* compiler.  I ran
>> otool on pwd and ghc-pkg (which were the problem in 6.8.1 and those
>> binaries don't depend on "gmp").
>>
>> Ian, why would a stage2 compiler depend on an external gmp?  I  
>> thought
>> it would always use the one bundled with ghc.
>
> Do you mean the one in gmp/ in the ghc repo? That's only used if there
> isn't an external GMP on the system; it's basically only there because
> we don't want to require that Windows users install GMP.

It seems to be a matter of the precise ld call parameters whether the  
gmp/ in the ghc repo is used or the external one.  In using the stage1  
compiler to link the stage2 compiler, the external one wins, but in  
linking other programs with the stage1 compiler, the internal gmp wins.

Actually, I think, we should use the gmp/ in the ghc repo by default  
(at least on non-Linux).  Why?  I don't think it is nice to build  
binaries by default that I can't copy to and run on another computer  
running the same OS without having to install extra fancy stuff like  
gmp.  In other words, your average Mac doesn't have gmp installed.   
Just because I happen to have gmp on my Mac, I don't want to build a  
dependency into all binaries generated by ghc that prevent me from  
using these binaries on other Macs.

Manuel