Response Files
- On some systems (such as older UNIX systems and certain Windows variants) command-lines have relatively limited lengths. Windows compilers therefore support "response files". These files are mentioned on the command-line (using the "@file") syntax. The compiler reads these files and inserts the contents into argv, thereby working around the command-line length limits. This feature is frequently requested by Windows users of GCC.
Personnel
- Mark Mitchell
Delivery Date
- Posted to the GCC mailing lists on 2005-08-24.
Benefits
- Improves usability of compiler on systems with limited command-line lengths.
Dependencies
- None
Modifications Required
- A new routine will be added to libiberty to pre-process the command-line, expanding any "@file" arguments. The GCC driver will use this routine. A possible follow-on project would be to teach all of the subprocesses to understand "@file" as well, and then have pex-*.c generate response files if the command-line would otherwise be too long.