Re: coexist multiple versions of automake

[Paul Lew]

>>>>> "Allan" == Allan Clark <address@hidden> writes:

    Allan> When you say "libraries", are you referring to
    Allan> libXXX.{a,so}, or "The ABC Corp Widget Library" (a
    Allan> collection of libraries and non-standard tools)?

Sorry I did not state clearly.  I meant libraries used by my project
at work, e.g., ucd-snmp, unixODBC.  These libraries use the automake
and we just use them as is without playing much with them.

    Allan> Segmenting automake into automake-1.4/1.5/1.6 might be OK
    Allan> so long as users have the choice of choosing
    Allan> "automake-X.y", or simply choosing "automake" (which would
    Allan> continue to be the latest automake major revision).  I for
    Allan> one like to install automake, and know that when my check
    Allan> for updates yields "nothing new", my automake is the
    Allan> latest.

The problem we have is ucd-snmp choked on autoconf 2.52 and forced us
to roll back to 2.13.  With autoconf 2.13 we cannot upgrade the
automake to 1.6 which requires autoconf 2.52.  Can you see the problem
now?

    Allan> This *is* an automake issue, and not a libtool issue,
    Allan> right?

In general, when the building blocks are in constant change and
various packages only work with certain version than we have a
problem.  The problem I mentioned showed up in automake but definitely
not limited to it.  libtool, autoconf are all likely candidates.