Re: apt-get/yum like dependency installation in autotool

[Hartmut Holzgraefe]

On 23.10.2012 18:05, Rudra Banerjee wrote:
> I don't  know if this is asking too much from autotools, but is it anyway 
> possible to install missing dependency files via autotools?
> say, in my program, I use libsoup as
> #include <libsoup/soup.h>
> 
> is it possible for autotools to install libsoup if it is missing?

How many different package systems are there? I'll just name BSD ports
besides the apt-get and yum you already mentioned ...

And how do you find out which package the file is in? Ok, apt-cache
search for Debian based distros, don't know enough about yum ...

But then again: what if different packages provide the same file?
E.g. due to different parallel versions, or for libraries due to
mixed 32/64bit setups, or the right version may actually only
be available in a custom ppa: yet and not in the mainline repos ...

If at all i'd let configure print "you *may* want to install the
xyz package first", but any automatic action would actually scare
me ...

-- 
hartmut