compile error building building Python-3.8.5 on Debian 8.11 (yes, old!)

[Python]

On Fri, Sep 04, 2020 at 08:04:33AM -0800, Joshua J. Kugler wrote:
> On Thursday, September 3, 2020 8:59:09 PM AKDT Cameron Simpson wrote:
> > I've built 3.8.5 on a few other machines happily recently.
> > 
> > Building Python 3.8.5, running make and gcc (Debian 4.9.2-10+deb8u2)
> > 4.9.2 I get this:
> 
> I am going to assume the version of C required is past what is in that old of 
> a version of Debian.

No... even the latest versions of GCC will let you use the oldest C
standards ("version") by using the -cstd flag, and that flag is set
(to c99) on the command line.  So unless that's just the wrong
version, that's definitely not the problem.  There's also nothing
to suggest that there's a syntax problem in the output Cameron pasted
(it only describes a *usage* problem).  An obsolete library would be
more likely, but there's nothing in the provided output to suggest
that either.

It appears to me thatthe output that Cameron pasted is missing the
context that would tell you what the problem is.  Usually GCC gives an
additional error right before compilation stops that gives a sort of
summarized description of the reason compilation failed.  There's none
present in what Cameron provided.

But I will also note the -Werror= flag on the compile line, which
turns warnings into errors... but I'm too lazy to look up whether the
specified option affects the mentioned bounds checking (seems like it
wouldn't, but there's no guarantee the bounds checking behavior isn't
also implied by that option, without specific knowledge of that
compiler behavior, which I lack).  If that were the case, FWIW, GCC
would usually emit an additional error to the effect of "warnings
being treated as errors."

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