[bug] autotools.configure() uses --host and --build when cross-compiling

https://github.com/conan-io/conan/blob/d23c1b4631a297112d67ed2e6adb3a961b58d2c6/conan/tools/gnu/autotoolstoolchain.py#L188

        for flag, var in (("host", self._host), ("build", self._build), ("target", self._target)):
            if var and flag not in user_args_str:
                configure_args.append('--{}={}'.format(flag, var))

The old conans autotools_environment.py had parameters to set build=False host=False`, to prevent the configure script from being called with --host and --build. That seems like a useful thing for one problematic recipe: libvpx It has a custom configure script that does not handle --host and --build.

One way to workaround this is to patch the script so it accepts and ignores these parameters. This sounds fragile.

The other way is to generate my own call to the configure script. This seems appropriate and simpler than adding more cruft to the conan core. https://github.com/conan-io/conan-center-index/pull/13799

So, I thought I should raise this to see what you guys thought.

[franramirez688]

I like it 😃 but the first one … if you only want to prune host, then if you don’t specify ‘build’ then it would call with build=None due to default arguments? ie at.update_configure_args( host=None ) would also prune build ?

Not at all. You pass only the arguments that you want to change, the rest of them are unaffected. For instance:

at = AutotoolsToolchain(self)
# at.configure_args -> ['--host=wasm32-local-emscripten', '--build=x86_64-linux-gnu', '--target=aarch64-linux-android']
at.update_configure_args(host=None, target="my_triplet")
# configure_args -> ['--build=x86_64-linux-gnu', '--target=my_triplet']

[franramirez688]

@paulharris

Only to clarify the issue’s title, it says always, but it’s only happening when cross-compiling, isn’t it?