Re: gnulib-izing sharutils

[Bruce Korb]

Hi Bruno,

Bruno Haible wrote:
> Hi Bruce,
> 
>> gnulib-izing sharutils
> 
> You are welcome to send a one-line patch to gnulib/users.txt!

Sure.  Be happy to.  First, though, I think I need to get sharutils working....

>>> Notice from module error:
>>>   If you are using GNU gettext version 0.16.1 or older, add the following 
>>> options
>>>   to XGETTEXT_OPTIONS in your po/Makevars:
>>>     --flag=error:3:c-format --flag=error_at_line:5:c-format
> 
> It cannot be easily suppressed, because gnulib-tool is run before the
> gettext macros are collected by 'aclocal'.
> 
> Would it remove the confusion if I would add the following sentence to the
> notice?
> 
>    "If you are using GNU gettext version 0.17 or newer, you can ignore this
>     notice."

I did figure that much out.  At issue is whether this is strictly relevant
for the tool manufacturer (e.g. "me" for sharutils), or the builder
(the aforementioned "hapless builder of sharutils").  I also thought
that gtver=$(gettext --version|head -1|sed 's/.*)  *//') would readily
answer the question.  At least for the tool manufacturer. :)

> The order should be
> 
>    AC_PROG_CC
>    gl_EARLY
>    gl_INIT
> 
> The doc 
> <http://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib/manual/html_node/Initial-import.html>
> suggests
>   "invoke gl_EARLY in ./configure.ac, right after AC_PROG_CC,"
> and
>   "... the macro gl_INIT. Place it further down in the file, typically where
>    you normally check for header files or functions."

OK.  I'm convinced.  The gnulib (and autoconf!!) need a manual section that
categorizes the various macros and specifies the proper ordering of the
categories.  That tidbit was 3/4 the way down a long web page among plenty
of other web pages one has to read and understand.  Maybe I'm dumb and lazy,
but I do find it difficult to juggle it all.....

> But there is a known problem with AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS in autoconf <= 
> 2.63.
> I'd suggest to use autoconf 2.64 and then remove all invocations of
> AC_GNU_SOURCE.

Since I don't have any at all, that should be fairly simple.  However:
> $ autoconf --version
> autoconf (GNU Autoconf) 2.64
and I still see the warning: configure.ac:22: warning: The macro 
`AC_GNU_SOURCE' is obsolete.
(and, no, line 22 does not say AC_GNU_SOURCE on it.)

>> * I get a whole mess of messages like this.  Since none of this  appears in 
>> either
>>   configure.ac nor m4/sharutils.m4, I'm guessing some macro some where pulls 
>> it in.
>>   It is hard to trace though:
>>> $ ls ../../../lib/autoconf
>>> ls: cannot access ../../../lib/autoconf: No such file or directory
>>   So, to the messages:
>>
>> configure.ac:21: warning: The macro `AC_TRY_RUN' is obsolete.
> 
> You can ignore these warnings. AC_TRY_RUN and AC_TRY_LINK cannot go away
> because hundreds of autoconf macros use them.

Then the warnings should go away:
>> configure.ac:21: note: The macro `AC_TRY_RUN' is an obsolescent macro. \
>> please avoid using it.

Such a message would be much less disconcerting. :)

The whole thing ends with this:
> configure: creating ./config.status
> config.status: creating src/remsync
> config.status: creating src/compress-dummy
> config.status: creating contrib/Makefile
> config.status: creating doc/Makefile
> config.status: creating intl/Makefile
> config.status: creating lib/Makefile
> config.status: creating po/Makefile.in
> config.status: creating src/Makefile
> config.status: creating src/mail-files
> config.status: creating src/mailshar
> config.status: creating tests/Makefile
> config.status: error: cannot find input file: `Makefile.in
> $ ls -l Make*
> -rw-r--r-- 2 bkorb dev 1049 Aug 30 11:18 Makefile.am
> $ sed -n '/^AC_CONFIG_FILES(/,/AC_OUTPUT/p' configure.ac
> AC_CONFIG_FILES([
>   contrib/Makefile
>   doc/Makefile
>   intl/Makefile
>   lib/Makefile
>   po/Makefile.in
>   src/Makefile
>   src/mail-files
>   src/mailshar
>   tests/Makefile
>   Makefile
> ])
> AC_OUTPUT

Would you like the entire configure run output?  Would that give
some more clues?  Thank you, Bruno, for your help!!

Regards, Bruce