Re: [RFC] getting rid of the config.guess/sub problem when bootstrapping new ports/systems

[Adrian Bunk]

On Tue, Oct 09, 2012 at 10:17:44AM -0700, Russ Allbery wrote:
> Adrian Bunk <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> > One problem is that in new upstream versions of
> > autoconf/automake/libtool there are sometimes slight incompatibilities,
> > and you end up with shipping many different versions of each of these
> > tools (even today Debian already ships 5 different versions of
> > autoconf).
> 
> > E.g. putting automake 1.13 [1] as automake package into Debian would 
> > then require updating thousands of packages just for getting the whole 
> > archive to build again.
> 
> This is a lot of work, yes.  But personally I think it's valuable work
> that we shouldn't shy away from, and with which we can often help
> upstream.
>...

Debian unstable usually contains code from the upstream stable branch, 
and even from that the latest release is often a few months old (no new 
upstream release or the latest is not yet in Debian).

The issue might often already be fixed in the latest upstream unstable 
development, and it could easily result in most of the work being 
cherry-picking patches that are already upstream.

>...
> (autoconf-dickey is a separate matter; at this point, I think it's best to
> treat that as a permanent fork.)

(I'm currently working with Thomas towards getting more of his packages
 buildable with autoconf 2.69)

cu
Adrian

BTW: Please send a copy of the mail to me when you reply to emails from me.

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