Re: RFE: configure -> dependency list on exit.

[Hugh Sasse Staff Elec Eng]

On Fri, 4 Mar 2005, John W. Eaton wrote:

> On  4-Mar-2005, Hugh Sasse Staff Elec Eng <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> | > it from their package system) or you have to embed this knowledge in
> | > autoconf, which seems bad and would only work for a few tools in
> |
> | So where does it go, then?  People have said not to put it in a text
> | file, because that is hard to maintain and takes no account of the
> | dynmaic nature of configure.  You're saying it shouldn't go in
> | autoconf.
>
> I don't have a problem with a configure script pointing out that a
> particular tool is needed, and I'm not arguing against a macro to help
> out with this (see below).

OK.
> My point is that I think that the messages should avoid telling people
> how to install something, and the knowledge of where to find things
> should not be embedded in autoconf itself (that is different from
> putting some information in configure.in) because the details of how

OK, well I misunderstood you then.  Those were example messages
(about flex) and I certainly agree that autoconf itself should not
generate where to get things from on the basis of information built
into autoconf itself.

> to install something is system dependent and may change over time.  So
> it is probably not good to say "install the RPM file for flex" or "use
> apt-get" or "go to the ftp site" because these tools and the ftp sites
> tend to change (slowly, yes, but sometimes faster than the packages
> that would print these messages).

Reading such a message tells me what is missing, and info about
where to get it may be useful for some time.  If it proves wrong,
I'd fall back on {web search, asking people, ...} tools that I'd use
anyway, so I'd argue that nothing is actually lost, but help is
gained for as long as the info is valid.

> FWIW, here is what I have Octave do at the end of its configure
> script:
>
>  Octave is now configured for sparc-sun-solaris2.9
>
>    Source directory:     .
>    Installation prefix:  /usr/local
>    C compiler:           gcc   -Wall -W -Wshadow -g -O2
        [existing libraries, etc elided]
>    BLAS libraries:
>    FFTW libraries:
        [etc]
That's neat, and concise, but I'd need to search for that library if
I wanted it, when the output could hint where to look.  I respect
your reasons for not doing so, but would appreciate it if output
could help where possible.
> Additional messages about f2c/f77, g++/gcc versions (if it is old,
> there is no way it can build Octave), termcap/terminfo, gperf, less,
> runtest, and gnuplot are possible.  All these messages are generated
> "by hand" so a macro to help with this could be useful.

thank you, that's what I'm trying to do, add useful functionality.
>
        [octave link, comments]
I've been meaning to look at octave anyway, so I'll note that.
Thank you.
> Thanks,
>
> jwe
        Thank you,
        Hugh