Feature #1654
Consider removing “-Werror” from Makefile CFLAGS
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Description
Unless you’re compiling tvheadend against all potential compilers, I think it is a bad idea to release software with the -Werror CFLAG set. You risk alienating potential users who download your software, build, encounter an error that could just as easily be ignored, and then assume that there is something wrong with tvheadend or their operating system.
New versions of GCC often fix false alarms of warnings from older versions. Just take a how many false warning tickets there are in GCC’s issue tracker.
Additionally, having -Werror shuts out an entire compiler that would otherwise be supported! The increasingly popular LLVM/clang builds tvheadend just fine (tested w/v3.2), but a user would likely never know that if they tried – as it produces warnings that get flagged as errors.
I understand –Werror ensures that warnings don’t creep into the codebase, which is great… but I don’t think the end-user should have to be concerned about such things.
History
Updated by Adam Sutton over 11 years ago
Updated by - Status changed from New to Rejected
In short, no.
Having all warnings as errors is a sensible practice, it reduces the gotchas that slip through the net. But I'm more than happy to fix things that are spotted (as diff compiler versions do warn about diff things).
Ofc people are more than welcome to disable it for their own local builds etc...
Adam