Re: [htdig-dev] Configuration patch

[Gilles D. <gr...@sc...>]

According to Jim Cole:
> Hi - As someone already mentioned with regard to their Red Hat install, 
> the configuration changes to the 3.2 code base require auto* tools more 
> recent than those provided with the distribution. The same is true for 
> OS X, which currently provides autoconf 2.52 and automake 1.6.1. It 
> looks like the minimum requirements are currently autoconf 2.54 and 
> automake 1.7.
> 
> For the time being at least, I am unable to fully test the changes. It 
> appears that the required version of automake is even ahead of what is 
> available via fink, so it would have to be installed manually. Not to 
> say that installing it manually is any great chore, but I do wonder if 
> we are getting ahead of ourselves here. If upgrading auto* tools is 
> going to become a prerequisite for the typical ht://Dig install, that 
> is probably a bad thing.
> 
> Are the relevant enhancements only available via the newer auto* tools?

I don't know if it's still the case now, but in the past the auto*
tools were only needed when you needed to develop/update the Makefiles,
and weren't needed just to compile the code.  Now I think that with the
snapshots, the modtimes of the files aren't always set correctly so make
thinks it needs to rerun some of the auto* tools.

If things are set up correctly, you should normally be able to compile
and install an htdig distribution without using the auto* tools, unless
the packaged Makefiles don't work on your system.  It may be, though, that
with the new auto* tools the Makefiles end up being more system dependent
than in the past.

Can anyone with more automake/autoconf experience comment on the
feasibility of this?  It would be nice if installation of ht://Dig
continued not to require the auto* tools.

-- 
Gilles R. Detillieux              E-mail: <gr...@sc...>
Spinal Cord Research Centre       WWW:    http://www.scrc.umanitoba.ca/
Dept. Physiology, U. of Manitoba  Winnipeg, MB  R3E 3J7  (Canada)