Re: configure scripts in mercurial

[Sam S. <sd...@gn...>]

Hi,

> *  <Wbret-Plevy.Ubruyr@g-flfgrzf.pbz> [2016-09-01 11:34:06 +0000]:
>
> Daniel Jour replied to Sam Steingold:
>>> Also, you removed the configure script, so now people have to install 
>>> autoconf to build clisp.
>>> Are you sure this is right?
>>I removed it from the repository because it is a generated file now. It
>>would be part of a source distribution (a release) though, thus only
>>CLISP developers need to have autoconf/automake/etc.
>
> 1. It's good that you plan to keep configure as part of a release
>    distribution. People expect to write ./configure ... && make.

Absolutely!

> I believe some people could be upset if they had to use autotools.
> Probably that is precisely the reason why some open source project
> nevertheless *include* configure within their RCS/SVN/hg/git tree,
> beside configure.in.  The former file is then typically generated by
> one or a team of maintainers with a known (working) configuration, not
> by individual users.  Often enough, the file is only updated at
> release time in hg/git.  For instance, the wine project works exactly
> like this.

And Emacs no longer does.

Getting autotools is trivial on most widely used platforms, e.g., linux,
*bsd (including macosx), windows (cygwin/mingw).

However, we don't have to switch away from our current modus operandi.

Here and now is the right time and place for people to voice their
opinions - do you like the current system (configure scripts in
mercurial) or would you prefer the Emacs style (configure scripts in the
distribution tar ball but regenerated by each developer).

> Somehow, it would be a pain for a user to have to get clisp source
> from hg but a working configure from inside a downloaded distribution,
> instead of having everything in the tree.

This is not right. You should regenerate the configure files yourself.
E.g., when I clone the Emacs git tree, I run "./autogen.sh all" which
does all the magic.

At any rate, you vote is noted: keep configure in mercurial.

Thanks.

-- 
Sam Steingold (http://sds.podval.org/) on darwin Ns 10.3.1404
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