Re: maintainer mode

[Eric Siegerman]

On Thu, Apr 11, 2002 at 09:17:00PM +0200, Alexandre Duret-Lutz wrote:
> Warning: I'm going to give the "AM_MAINTAINER_MODE is pure evil
> on a stick" point of view.

> Now there are three cases:
>  1. The user unpacked your package, and then run ./configure and make.
>     [...]
>  2. The user modified configure.ac, or Makefile.am, or a sibling.  
>     [...]
>  3. Your package is broken, it contains some files which are
>     [...]

 4. The user imported your package into CVS (as I often do).
    Because CVS checkouts are done in alphabetical order, foo.in
    might well have a later timestamp than its corresponding foo,
    without the files' content having changed.  So the
    maintainer-mode tests charge ahead and try to rebuild foo,
    very probably with an incorrect version of the autotool in
    question.  Kaboom.

> 
> Let's see what happens when AM_MAINTAINER_MODE is used:
> 

 4. The package just builds.

--

|  | /\
|-_|/  >   Eric Siegerman, Toronto, Ont.        address@hidden
|  |  /
"Outlook not so good."  That magic 8-ball knows everything!
I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
        - Anonymous