Re: how to use multiple automake's at the same time?

[Guido Draheim]

Lukas Österreicher wrote:
> Hi there.
>
> I've been having trouble compiling software generated with automake 1.5 (or
> whatever
> except 1.4) on my redhat 7.2 system. I have tried upgrading to automake 1.5
> but that doesnt work nicely - I have damaged my system that way, and i would
> not be able to compile automake 1.4 sources then. I have read a thread about
> installing automake 1.4 and 1.5 at the same time and let it somehow choose by
> the source which to use, and i think this is already available on redhat 8,
> but i've had other troubles with that redhat version, so i prefer to use 7.2.
>
> So what I ask is:
> How to install automake 1.4 and 1.5 at the same time on a redhat 7.2 system
> (quite a few up2date packages installed already) in the described manner so I
> dont have to worry about version incompatibilities anymore? (If not else
> possible, by choosing the correct version by setting the right PATH).

I've hacked a script that does the trick for me - as I want to use different
combinations of autoconf libtool and automake. The toplevel makefile has
a magic var-set line, so the start of my Makefile.am usually looks like:

AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = foreign
AUTOTOOL_VERSION = autoconf-2.52 libtool-1.4.2 automake-1.5

Then I call a script "autotools" that looks into the Makefile.am and modifies
the $PATH accordingly, not much unlike the description about "stow", the
combinations are compiled with separate $prefix paths. The helper script and
all the combinations are ready-made as rpm files, just pick them up and
install.

You can find everything in the download section of http://ac-archive.sf.net
in the "autotools" section - here's the direct link:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=32081

They are a bit dated, I did not have time to rebuild the rpms with the
newest breed of autoconf and automake generations. And actually, I'm
currently waiting for Mandrake to fix a severe bug in bash before doing
interesting things (sorry to alexandre, the bug affects the ac-archive
rpms making quite definitly, so no good time to roll a new release).

cheers, guido