Re: [RFH] macro ordering problems in sed

[Bruno Haible]

Jim Meyering wrote:
> Here's a patch that does the job, at the expense of
> switching to AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]).

Agreed. Shipping intl/* as part of the package was the usual approach around
1995-1998. Nowadays, thanks to the other packages that use i18n via gettext()
and thanks to libttol, you can nearly assume that anyone who is interested in
localized messages has GNU gettext installed. A note about this dependency
in the DEPENDENCIES file or in the INSTALL file is useful, however.

> -AM_GNU_GETTEXT(no-libtool, need-ngettext, ../intl)
> +AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external])

The mention of 'need-ngettext' is still needed, though. 'sed' uses the
ngettext function, therefore the autoconfiguration needs to reject a
libintl which provides gettext() but not ngettext(). Here's a proposed
patch:


2008-10-03  Bruno Haible  <address@hidden>

        * DEPENDENCIES: New file.
        * README: Refer to it.
        * Makefile.am (EXTRA_DIST): Add it.

        * configure.ac (AM_GNU_GETTEXT): Restore need-ngettext option.

Changing permissions from . to 100644
--- DEPENDENCIES.orig   2003-09-23 19:59:22.000000000 +0200
+++ DEPENDENCIES        2008-10-03 13:41:53.000000000 +0200
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+The following packages should be installed before GNU sed is installed:
+
+* GNU libiconv
+  + Not needed on systems with
+      - glibc 2.2 or newer, or
+      - MacOS X 10.3 or newer, or
+      - NetBSD 3.0 or newer.
+    But highly recommended on all other systems.
+    Needed for display of localized error messages.
+  + Homepage:
+    http://www.gnu.org/software/libiconv/
+  + Download:
+    http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/libiconv/
+    ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/libiconv/
+  + If it is installed in a nonstandard directory, pass the option
+    --with-libiconv-prefix=DIR to 'configure'.
+
+* GNU gettext runtime
+  + Not needed on systems with glibc 2.2 or newer.
+    But highly recommended on all other systems.
+    Needed for display of localized error messages.
+  + Homepage:
+    http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/
+  + Download:
+    http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gettext/
+    ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gettext/
+  + If it is installed in a nonstandard directory, pass the option
+    --with-libintl-prefix=DIR to 'configure'.
--- Makefile.am.orig    2008-10-03 13:43:49.000000000 +0200
+++ Makefile.am 2008-10-03 13:36:57.000000000 +0200
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 noinst_DATA = bootstrap.sh
 noinst_HEADERS = basicdefs.h
 
-EXTRA_DIST = BUGS THANKS COPYING.DOC README.boot \
+EXTRA_DIST = BUGS DEPENDENCIES THANKS COPYING.DOC README.boot \
        autoboot build-aux/texi2dvi build-aux/help2man
 
 html:
--- README.orig 2008-10-03 13:43:49.000000000 +0200
+++ README      2008-10-03 13:43:46.000000000 +0200
@@ -4,7 +4,8 @@
 more detailed descriptions of changes.
 
 See the file INSTALL for generic compilation and installation
-instructions.
+instructions, and the file DEPENDENCIES for packages that should
+be installed prior to this package.
 
 See the file BUGS for instructions about reporting bugs.
 
--- configure.ac.orig   2008-10-03 13:43:49.000000000 +0200
+++ configure.ac        2008-10-03 13:36:30.000000000 +0200
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@
 
 AC_DEFUN([AM_MKINSTALLDIRS], [MKINSTALLDIRS="$mkdir_p" 
AC_SUBST(MKINSTALLDIRS)])
 AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION(0.15)
-AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external])
+AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external], [need-ngettext])
 
 AC_CHECK_FUNCS_ONCE(isatty bcopy bzero isascii memcpy memset strchr strtoul
                    popen pathconf isblank fchown fchmod setlocale wcrtomb