Global autoconf cache

[Richard Stallman]

The global cache that autoconf formerly used was very good for
efficiency of autoconf, especially when building lots of packages.
Without that, it is slow.

I am told it had a problem: results depended on things such as
compiler options, that varied from package to package, this suggests
the idea of recording those in the cache, so that the cached results
would be reused only when truly applicable.  Is this possible?

    > 2. There were common problems where "rm config.cache" was part of the
    >    solution. E.g., run configure, it fails to detect som library needed
    >    for som optional feature. You install the library and rerun
    >    configure, and ten it still won't detect the library since the result
    >    was cached. 

This problem could be fixed automatically by making the the package
manager communicate with autoconf, to clear the cache whenever certain
packages are installed.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation
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Boston MA 02110
USA
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