Re: specifying multiple with arguments

[Braden McDaniel]

On Tue, 2005-03-15 at 16:25 -0500, Dan Manthey wrote:
> 
> 
> On Tue, 15 Mar 2005, Braden McDaniel wrote:
> 
> > While you can use any value you want as the argument to a --with-*
> > option, anything other than "yes" or "no" usually complicates the UI and
> > should generally be avoided unless it is a clear simplification (IMO).
> >
> > So why not:
> >
> >    ./configure --with-package1 --with-package2
> >
> > Braden
> >
> 
> You're confusing the semantics of --enable-* and --with-*.

I'm not.

>   --with-* is
> intended to specify use of an optional external package and as such often
> needs to have the external package's location specified (e.g.
> --with-X=/usr/local/X11R6).

CPPFLAGS, LDFLAGS are generally better for that.

>   If you consider a "package" to instead be an
> interface, say to a set of functions, it becomes sensible to specify
> multiple implementing packages that each provide the interface (e.g.
> --with-line-ui=readline,some-other-thing).  I don't know if such an
> interpretation is sanctioned by Autoconf, but it's well within the scope
> of --with-*, in which case, it may be reasonable for --with-foo=bar,quux
> to also be expressed as --with-foo=bar --with-foo=quux.

Better, IMO, to provide mutually exclusive options and emit an error
message if they are used together.

-- 
Braden McDaniel                           e-mail: <address@hidden>
<http://endoframe.com>                    Jabber: <address@hidden>