3 files changed, 29 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/lib/spack/docs/packaging_guide.rst b/lib/spack/docs/packaging_guide.rst
index 519c0da232..34d11308f5 100644
--- a/lib/spack/docs/packaging_guide.rst
+++ b/lib/spack/docs/packaging_guide.rst
@@ -1831,6 +1831,23 @@ successfully find ``libdwarf.h`` and ``libdwarf.so``, without the
 packager having to provide ``--with-libdwarf=/path/to/libdwarf`` on
 the command line.
 
+Message Parsing Interface (MPI)
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+It is common for high performance computing software/packages to use ``MPI``.
+As a result of conretization, a given package can be built using different
+implementations of MPI such as ``Openmpi``, ``MPICH`` or ``IntelMPI``.
+In some scenarios to configure a package one have to provide it with appropriate MPI
+compiler wrappers such as ``mpicc``, ``mpic++``.
+However different implementations of ``MPI`` may have different names for those
+wrappers.  In order to make package's ``install()`` method indifferent to the
+choice ``MPI`` implementation, each package which implements ``MPI`` sets up
+``self.spec.mpicc``, ``self.spec.mpicxx``, ``self.spec.mpifc`` and ``self.spec.mpif77``
+to point to ``C``, ``C++``, ``Fortran 90`` and ``Fortran 77`` ``MPI`` wrappers.
+Package developers are advised to use these variables, for example ``self.spec['mpi'].mpicc``
+instead of hard-coding ``join_path(self.spec['mpi'].prefix.bin, 'mpicc')`` for
+the reasons outlined above.
+
+
 Forking ``install()``
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/compiler.py b/lib/spack/spack/compiler.py
index d38c0b00b1..20896f9eec 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/compiler.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/compiler.py
@@ -97,6 +97,9 @@ class Compiler(object):
     # argument used to get C++11 options
     cxx11_flag = "-std=c++11"
 
+    # argument used to get C++14 options
+    cxx14_flag = "-std=c++1y"
+
 
     def __init__(self, cspec, cc, cxx, f77, fc):
         def check(exe):
diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/compilers/gcc.py b/lib/spack/spack/compilers/gcc.py
index 64214db32d..2e57e44856 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/compilers/gcc.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/compilers/gcc.py
@@ -54,9 +54,16 @@ class Gcc(Compiler):
         if self.version < ver('4.3'):
             tty.die("Only gcc 4.3 and above support c++11.")
         elif self.version < ver('4.7'):
-            return "-std=gnu++0x"
+            return "-std=c++0x"
         else:
-            return "-std=gnu++11"
+            return "-std=c++11"
+
+    @property
+    def cxx14_flag(self):
+        if self.version < ver('4.8'):
+            tty.die("Only gcc 4.8 and above support c++14.")
+        else:
+            return "-std=c++14"
 
     @classmethod
     def fc_version(cls, fc):