On Thu, Feb 20, 2003 at 10:40:12PM +0100, Per Olofsson wrote: > Are autoconf scripts broken?
Often they do not find the libraries although they are there and options to set the paths don't work. Some scripts also require and check for unncessary things. > What do you suggest doing when a package depends on several other > libraries or need to check some things like library versions and > availability of certain functions? Write your own configure script? > Use Imake? People who can't check a few Makefile options probably use binary packages. In case of Ion and PWM, almost the same system.mk, with a few options added along the way, can be used with all the releases of both the WM:s. A minimal library to get around some of the most common OS function availability/compatibility issues should be written. The foobar-config scripts provide a simple way to get the necessary parameters for libraries that provide the scripts within makefiles. Versions could be written for libraries/OSes that still miss them. The scripts could also be used to create a 'make check' target that can be used to check if something is missing when compile fails or before the compile at the user's discretion (unlike with autoconf, which forces sometimes lenghty and unnecessary waits). Similar scripts could be used to get other system information. All without giving up readable and easily fixable/customizable Makefiles (same can not be said of autoconf scripts or the resulting Makefiles that have to be fixed in every directory). -- Tuomo
