Re: RFC: "Autotools Introduction" chapter draft (16 pages long)

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello Ben, Alexandre,

* Ben Pfaff wrote on Mon, Aug 14, 2006 at 09:06:15PM CEST:
> Alexandre Duret-Lutz <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> > package, run `./configure && make && make install', and repeat with the
> > next package to install.
> 
> I'm never sure whether I should recommend running "make" before
> "make install".  "make install" will first build everything that
> "make" will, right?

Yes, and in theory, it should not make a difference which sequence you
issue (which would make the one you prefer faster, as it spawns less
instances of `make').  However, there are more packages that fail to
have everything built with a `./configure && make install', mostly due
to unclean inter-Makefile dependencies, than packages for which it is a
lot of work to have the `all' target rebuilt upon the `install' target.
However, the latter hinders an important feature mentioned in the GCS:
to be able to build as one user, and install as a different user.[1]

> >      ~ % tar zxf amhello-1.0.tar.gz
> >      ~ % cd amhello-1.0
> >      ~/amhello-1.0 % ./configure
[...]

> Most of the time, when I see a shell example, the shell used in
> the example is the Bourne shell (hence a $ prompt).  I don't know
> if it makes a difference to you or whether a reader could be
> confused by it.

FWIW, I certainly would prefer a $ prompt as well; I was a bit surprised
by it at one time in the past.

> >    The user first unpacks the package, and then `cd' into the newly
> > created directory to run the `configure' script.

> `cd' -> `cd's

`cd' into -> enters, please.

Cheers,
Ralf

[1] Yes, in some situations, Libtool is a source of failure here.
    DESTDIR installs as unprivileged user provide a workaround.