gh-136677: Introduce executable specific linker flags to configure (#137296)

* introduce executable specific linker flags

Add PY_CORE_EXE_LDFLAGS and EXE_LDFLAGS which stores executable specific
LDFLAGS, replacing PY_CORE_LDFLAGS for building
executable targets.

If PY_CORE_EXE_LDFLAGS / EXE_LDFLAGS is not provided, then it defaults
to the value of PY_CORE_LDFLAGS which is the existing behaviour.

If both flags are supplied, and there is a need
to distinguish between executable and shared specific LDFLAGS,
in particular, PY_CORE_LDFLAGS should contain the shared specific LDFLAGS.

* documentation for new linker flags

* update Misc folder documentation

* Update Makefile.pre.in

Co-authored-by: Victor Stinner <vstinner@python.org>

---------

Co-authored-by: Filipe Laíns <filipe.lains@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: Victor Stinner <vstinner@python.org>
Co-authored-by: Filipe Laíns <lains@riseup.net>

Author: 3 people

Doc/using/configure.rst

@@ -1650,6 +1650,9 @@ Linker flags
    value to be able to build extension modules using the
    directories specified in the environment variables.
 
+   Please consider using ``EXE_LDFLAGS`` if the supplied linker flags are
+   executable specific, e.g. GCC's ``-pie`` flag.
+
 .. envvar:: LIBS
 
    Linker flags to pass libraries to the linker when linking the Python
@@ -1685,6 +1688,30 @@ Linker flags
 
    .. versionadded:: 3.8
 
+.. envvar:: EXE_LDFLAGS
+
+   Linker flags used for building executable targets such as the
+   interpreter. If supplied, :envvar:`PY_CORE_EXE_LDFLAGS`
+   will be used in replacement of :envvar:`PY_CORE_LDFLAGS`.
+
+   .. versionadded:: 3.15
+
+.. envvar:: CONFIGURE_EXE_LDFLAGS
+
+   Value of :envvar:`EXE_LDFLAGS` variable passed to the ``./configure``
+   script.
+
+   .. versionadded:: 3.15
+
+.. envvar:: PY_CORE_EXE_LDFLAGS
+
+   Linker flags used for building the interpreter and
+   executable targets.
+
+   Default: ``$(PY_CORE_LDFLAGS)``
+
+   .. versionadded:: 3.15
+
 
 .. rubric:: Footnotes
 

Lib/_osx_support.py

@@ -17,7 +17,8 @@
 _UNIVERSAL_CONFIG_VARS = ('CFLAGS', 'LDFLAGS', 'CPPFLAGS', 'BASECFLAGS',
                             'BLDSHARED', 'LDSHARED', 'CC', 'CXX',
                             'PY_CFLAGS', 'PY_LDFLAGS', 'PY_CPPFLAGS',
-                            'PY_CORE_CFLAGS', 'PY_CORE_LDFLAGS')
+                            'PY_CORE_CFLAGS', 'PY_CORE_LDFLAGS',
+                            'PY_CORE_EXE_LDFLAGS')
 
 # configuration variables that may contain compiler calls
 _COMPILER_CONFIG_VARS = ('BLDSHARED', 'LDSHARED', 'CC', 'CXX')

Lib/test/pythoninfo.py

@@ -528,6 +528,7 @@ def collect_sysconfig(info_add):
         'PY_CFLAGS',
         'PY_CFLAGS_NODIST',
         'PY_CORE_LDFLAGS',
+        'PY_CORE_EXE_LDFLAGS',
         'PY_LDFLAGS',
         'PY_LDFLAGS_NODIST',
         'PY_STDMODULE_CFLAGS',

Lib/test/test__osx_support.py

@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ def setUp(self):
             'CFLAGS', 'LDFLAGS', 'CPPFLAGS',
             'BASECFLAGS', 'BLDSHARED', 'LDSHARED', 'CC',
             'CXX', 'PY_CFLAGS', 'PY_LDFLAGS', 'PY_CPPFLAGS',
-            'PY_CORE_CFLAGS', 'PY_CORE_LDFLAGS'
+            'PY_CORE_CFLAGS', 'PY_CORE_LDFLAGS', 'PY_CORE_EXE_LDFLAGS'
         )
 
     def add_expected_saved_initial_values(self, config_vars, expected_vars):

Makefile.pre.in

@@ -123,7 +123,11 @@ PY_STDMODULE_CFLAGS= $(PY_CFLAGS) $(PY_CFLAGS_NODIST) $(PY_CPPFLAGS) $(CFLAGSFOR
 PY_BUILTIN_MODULE_CFLAGS= $(PY_STDMODULE_CFLAGS) -DPy_BUILD_CORE_BUILTIN
 PY_CORE_CFLAGS=	$(PY_STDMODULE_CFLAGS) -DPy_BUILD_CORE
 # Linker flags used for building the interpreter object files
+# In particular, EXE_LDFLAGS is an extra flag to provide fine grain distinction between
+# LDFLAGS used to build executables and shared targets.
 PY_CORE_LDFLAGS=$(PY_LDFLAGS) $(PY_LDFLAGS_NODIST)
+CONFIGURE_EXE_LDFLAGS=@EXE_LDFLAGS@
+PY_CORE_EXE_LDFLAGS:= $(if $(CONFIGURE_EXE_LDFLAGS), $(CONFIGURE_EXE_LDFLAGS) $(PY_LDFLAGS_NODIST), $(PY_CORE_LDFLAGS))
 # Strict or non-strict aliasing flags used to compile dtoa.c, see above
 CFLAGS_ALIASING=@CFLAGS_ALIASING@
 
@@ -986,7 +990,7 @@ clinic-tests: check-clean-src $(srcdir)/Lib/test/clinic.test.c
 
 # Build the interpreter
 $(BUILDPYTHON):	Programs/python.o $(LINK_PYTHON_DEPS)
-	$(LINKCC) $(PY_CORE_LDFLAGS) $(LINKFORSHARED) -o $@ Programs/python.o $(LINK_PYTHON_OBJS) $(LIBS) $(MODLIBS) $(SYSLIBS)
+	$(LINKCC) $(PY_CORE_EXE_LDFLAGS) $(LINKFORSHARED) -o $@ Programs/python.o $(LINK_PYTHON_OBJS) $(LIBS) $(MODLIBS) $(SYSLIBS)
 
 platform: $(PYTHON_FOR_BUILD_DEPS) pybuilddir.txt
 	$(RUNSHARED) $(PYTHON_FOR_BUILD) -c 'import sys ; from sysconfig import get_platform ; print("%s-%d.%d" % (get_platform(), *sys.version_info[:2]))' >platform
@@ -1676,7 +1680,7 @@ regen-re: $(BUILDPYTHON)
 	$(RUNSHARED) ./$(BUILDPYTHON) $(srcdir)/Tools/build/generate_re_casefix.py $(srcdir)/Lib/re/_casefix.py
 
 Programs/_testembed: Programs/_testembed.o $(LINK_PYTHON_DEPS)
-	$(LINKCC) $(PY_CORE_LDFLAGS) $(LINKFORSHARED) -o $@ Programs/_testembed.o $(LINK_PYTHON_OBJS) $(LIBS) $(MODLIBS) $(SYSLIBS)
+	$(LINKCC) $(PY_CORE_EXE_LDFLAGS) $(LINKFORSHARED) -o $@ Programs/_testembed.o $(LINK_PYTHON_OBJS) $(LIBS) $(MODLIBS) $(SYSLIBS)
 
 ############################################################################
 # "Bootstrap Python" used to run Programs/_freeze_module.py

Misc/ACKS

@@ -1916,6 +1916,7 @@ Guo Ci Teo
 Mikhail Terekhov
 Victor Terrón
 Pablo Galindo
+Rue Ching Teh
 Richard M. Tew
 Srinivas Reddy Thatiparthy
 Tobias Thelen

Misc/NEWS.d/next/Build/2025-07-21-00-33-38.gh-issue-136677.Y1_3ec.rst

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Introduce executable specific linker flags to ``./configure``.

configure

@@ -2422,6 +2422,7 @@ AS_CASE([$enable_wasm_dynamic_linking],
 AC_SUBST([BASECFLAGS])
 AC_SUBST([CFLAGS_NODIST])
 AC_SUBST([LDFLAGS_NODIST])
+AC_SUBST([EXE_LDFLAGS])
 AC_SUBST([LDFLAGS_NOLTO])
 AC_SUBST([WASM_ASSETS_DIR])
 AC_SUBST([WASM_STDLIB])