Re: Proposed Autoconf 2.50 path
On Sun, May 27, 2001 at 09:41:47PM +1000, Sam Couter wrote:
> Marcus Brinkmann <Marcus.Brinkmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de> wrote:
> >
> > The lesson to learn here is that packages should not require libtool,
> > autoconf, or whatever at build time. Those tools are designed to be run at
> > source preperation time, so it is the responsibility of the package
> > maintainer to run them before packaging the source.
>
> So... should my packages not require gcc or ld to build either?
Have you ever wondered why the autoconf maintainer bother to write it in
extremely portable shell syntax? Have you read the generic INSTALL
instructions that ship with many GNU programs using autoconf?
> Sorry, I don't agree with your argument. A generated file is a generated
> file, and if the upstream source doesn't have it (or if you've patched the
> files which are input source for the generated file), then you need to
> generate it.
This is true and also fails, because my point is that the file should
already be generated with a proper version of autoconf, so you usually don't
need to re-generate it. If you just want to build the package, and don't
patch it, you don't need autoconf (see /usr/share/automake/INSTALL) if the
source is properly maintained.
> I don't see configure scripts or Makefiles as any different to object files
> or compiled and linked binaries.
Then you are seeing it differently from the autoconf authors, and probably all
GNU software maintainers who use autoconf and regenerate configure before a
release, exactly because they want to relief the user from installing
autoconf themselve. The same goes for automake and libtool, and probably a
bunch of other stuff.
> They're generated from source, which means
> they will probably get generated during the build.
Only if you change the source. In the case where this is the normal mode of
operation, I'd expect the person who modified the source to also perform the
regeneration, read: the Debian maintainer.
Marcus
--
`Rhubarb is no Egyptian god.' Debian http://www.debian.org brinkmd@debian.org
Marcus Brinkmann GNU http://www.gnu.org marcus@gnu.org
Marcus.Brinkmann@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
http://www.marcus-brinkmann.de
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