_scproxy and Python Launcher fail to build wtih GNU gcc on macOS 10.13+

[RobertPFischer]

BPO	26317
Nosy	@terryjreedy, @ronaldoussoren, @vstinner, @ned-deily, @corona10, @websurfer5
PRs	bpo-26317: Build Problem with GCC + Macintosh OS X 10.11 El Capitain #13306 bpo-26317: GH Action Test #19681 bpo-26317: Support OBJC and OBJCXX configure command line variables #20176 bpo-25920: Remove socket.getaddrinfo() lock on macOS #20177 Revert "bpo-26317: Support OBJC and OBJCXX configure variables .. " (GH-20176) #20182
Files	log: Log file from attempt to build Python

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = 'https://github.com/ned-deily'
closed_at = None
created_at = <Date 2016-02-09.04:36:24.611>
labels = ['OS-mac', 'build', '3.9']
title = '_scproxy and Python Launcher fail to build wtih GNU gcc on macOS 10.13+'
updated_at = <Date 2020-05-19.08:11:12.595>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/RobertPFischer'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2020-05-19.08:11:12.595>
actor = 'Arfrever'
assignee = 'ned.deily'
closed = False
closed_date = None
closer = None
components = ['Build', 'macOS']
creation = <Date 2016-02-09.04:36:24.611>
creator = 'Robert P Fischer'
dependencies = []
files = ['41865']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 26317
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 27.0
messages = ['259914', '259927', '259929', '260113', '260162', '260194', '260195', '260215', '331768', '342037', '342055', '342081', '342139', '342179', '342432', '359893', '359894', '359922', '359923', '369213', '369218', '369224', '369227', '369246', '369247', '369248', '369325']
nosy_count = 9.0
nosy_names = ['terry.reedy', 'ronaldoussoren', 'vstinner', 'ned.deily', 'Arfrever', 'python-dev', 'Robert P Fischer', 'corona10', 'Jeffrey.Kintscher']
pr_nums = ['13306', '19681', '20176', '20177', '20182']
priority = 'high'
resolution = None
stage = 'patch review'
status = 'open'
superseder = None
type = 'compile error'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue26317'
versions = ['Python 3.9']

[RobertPFischer]

Changes to OS X 10.11 render GCC's Objective-C compiler useless. However, I want to compile the main part of Python in GCC (because my C++ / Fortran Cython modules use GCC).

I tried to build Python (via MacPorts) using Clang for Objective-C and GCC for C/C++. The environment upon running ./configure included:

CC='/Users/rpfische/macports/mpgompi-4.9.3/bin/gcc-mp-4.9'
CXX='/Users/rpfische/macports/mpgompi-4.9.3/bin/gcc-mp-4.9'
OBJC='/usr/bin/clang'
OBJCXX='/usr/bin/clang++'

HOWEVER... the build still tried to use GCC to compile Objective-C, and failed miserably:

:info:destroot /Users/rpfische/macports/mpgompi-4.9.3/bin/gcc-mp-4.9 -pipe -Os -arch x86_64 -Wno-unused-result -fno-common -dynamic -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O3 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -o FileSettings.o -c ./FileSettings.m
:info:destroot /usr/include/objc/NSObject.h:22:4: error: unknown type name 'instancetype'
:info:destroot - (instancetype)self;
:info:destroot ^
...

Log file attached.

[ronaldoussoren]

The build fails while building the "Python Launcher" application. This is an Objective-C project.

If GCC doesn't support the system headers on OSX 10.11 there's nothing the Python project can do about that.

[RobertPFischer]

I'm trying to compile the Objective-C portions of Python (the Python
Launcher app) with clang, not GCC. Why does Python insist on using GCC,
even when I set the OBJC env variable to clang? That seems to be a problem
that the Python project CAN fix.

On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 6:39 AM, Ronald Oussoren <report@bugs.python.org>
wrote:

Ronald Oussoren added the comment:

The build fails while building the "Python Launcher" application. This is
an Objective-C project.

If GCC doesn't support the system headers on OSX 10.11 there's nothing the
Python project can do about that.

----------
nosy: +ronaldoussoren

---

Python tracker <report@bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue26317\>

---

[ronaldoussoren]

The makefiles use CC throughout and don't look at and OBJC variable. Is that variable a standard way to specify an ObjC compiler in makefiles?

Make's default ruleset for compiling .m files uses $(CC) and doesn't look at $(OBJC).

I wouldn't be opposed to a patch that makes it possible to specify an ObjC compiler, could you write such a patch? BTW. The patch should also update the autoconf script (use AC_PROG_OBJC).

[RobertPFischer]

The makefiles use CC throughout and don't look at and OBJC variable. Is
that variable a standard way to specify an ObjC compiler in makefiles?

I believe that OBJC and OBJCFLAGS are standard for Autoconf/Automake:

https://www.gnu.org/software/automake/manual/html_node/Objective-C-Support.html

https://www.gnu.org/software/autoconf/manual/autoconf-2.61/html_node/Output-Variable-Index.html#Output-Variable-Index

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=using%20objective%20c%20with%20autoconf%20automake

I wouldn't be opposed to a patch that makes it possible to specify an ObjC

compiler, could you write such a patch? BTW. The patch should also update
the autoconf script (use AC_PROG_OBJC).

Sorry, I don't do Autotools --- a software package that came to us directly
from the seventh level of Hell. CMake's main claim to fame is it's not as
bad.

[terryjreedy]

3.4 only gets security fixes

[RobertPFischer]

Could this be fixed on 3.5 and 3.6?

On Fri, Feb 12, 2016 at 2:34 PM, Terry J. Reedy <report@bugs.python.org>
wrote:

Terry J. Reedy added the comment:

3.4 only gets security fixes

----------
nosy: +terry.reedy
stage: -> needs patch
type: -> compile error
versions: +Python 3.5, Python 3.6 -Python 3.4

---

Python tracker <report@bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue26317\>

---

[terryjreedy]

When you reply by email to an email, please snip off the quote, except for possible a line that you are responding to. The disposition of this issue for 3.5+ is up to Ned or Ronald.

[terryjreedy]

3.5 is and 3.6 will soon be on security fix only status. Robert, please verify that this is still an issue with 3.7 and the current build files.

[websurfer5]

This is still an issue with the 3.7 and the master branches. The Objective-C portion of the build still fails with gcc 8.3.0 on OS X Mojave (14.x). Specifying OBJC and OBJC++ on the configure command line does nothing because there is nothing in the script using the options.