Re: [BUG?] macOS (Intel) build warnings: "ranlib: file … has no symbols" for aarch64 objects

Nathan Bossart <nathandbossart(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> Hm. The options I see for fixing this seem to be:

> * Pass -no_warning_for_no_symbols flag on this platform, but that option
> might not be available in older toolchains.

> * Add a random symbol to this file. That seems like a hack.

> * Add build logic to only compile this file when necessary. I've been
> trying to get rid of complexity here, so this feels like a step backwards.

> IMHO none of these options seem worth the effort to fix a warning on an
> obsolescent platform, so my vote is to do nothing for now.

The idea I'd had was to simply merge pg_popcount_aarch64.c
and pg_popcount_x86.c into one file. Since each one is basically
one giant #ifdef block conditioned on a different symbol, they'd not
interfere. But I wouldn't propose this unless it made sense from
a code-structure viewpoint, and I'm not sure it does. It could
make sense if there was some code that could be shared, but I'm
not seeing much.

regards, tom lane