Re: libtool and autoconf

[Alexander Mai]

On Mon, Sep 03, 2001 at 01:13:29AM +0100, Gary V. Vaughan wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 29, 2001 at 11:30:14AM +0200, Alexander Mai wrote:
> > As reported (but never addressed) libtool 1.4 doesn't work
> > with autoconf 2.13 - at least not on all systems, alpha-linux
> > being an exception/example.
> 
>   $ grep AC_PREREQ ~/devel/savannah/libtool-1-4/*.m4
>   /home/gary/devel/savannah/libtool-1-4/acinclude.m4:[AC_PREREQ(2.13)dnl
>   /home/gary/devel/savannah/libtool-1-4/aclocal.m4:[AC_PREREQ(2.13)dnl
>   /home/gary/devel/savannah/libtool-1-4/aclocal.m4:AC_PREREQ([2.13])
>   /home/gary/devel/savannah/libtool-1-4/libtool.m4:[AC_PREREQ(2.13)dnl
>   /home/gary/devel/savannah/libtool-1-4/ltdl.m4:[AC_PREREQ(2.13)
> 
> That is definitely a bug.  Could you post details and/or a patch
> please?

The error log is:
autoconf: Undefined macros:
***BUG in Autoconf--please report*** AC_TRY_DLOPEN_SELF
***BUG in Autoconf--please report*** AC_TRY_DLOPEN_SELF
***BUG in Autoconf--please report*** AC_TRY_DLOPEN_SELF
***BUG in Autoconf--please report*** AC_TRY_DLOPEN_SELF
***BUG in Autoconf--please report*** AC_TRY_DLOPEN_SELF
***BUG in Autoconf--please report*** AC_TRY_DLOPEN_SELF
***BUG in Autoconf--please report*** AC_TRY_DLOPEN_SELF

How do I report things properly? Just sending a configure.in
is not sufficient ...?!

> > As for all auto* projects you manage all the time to avoid writing
> > at a prominent place in the docs which versions of the other
> > tools are required, I really wonder why?!?
> 
>   $ egrep -i 'auto(conf|make)' ~/devel/savannah/libtool/NEWS
>   * Now bootstraps with autoconf-2.50 and automake-1.4-p4.
>     Automake >= 1.5 will install stripped libraries with "make install-strip".
>   * Documentation improvements; recommend automake users to insert libtool.m4
>     (requires automake 1.4).
>   * Automake support for Libtool now uses the LTLIBRARIES primary.  See
>     the Automake documentation for more information.
>   * Full support for Automake 1.2 (including ansi2knr features).
> 
> Not guilty.

Errrr...
NEWS is a summary from even old and outdated stuff, is it?
Installation/usage requirements should be in the docs,
libtool.texi clearly visible.
 
> > All I could dig out is that libtool itself has some demands,
> > e.g. autoconf 2.5x but nothing about working with libtool itself?!
> 
> libtool.m4 and ltdl.m4 explicity AC_PREREQ a minimum autoconf version,
> which affects projects that wish to use libtool since they too will
> need these files.  With respect to Automake, Libtool never requires
> anything more recent than the latest stable release, usually not even
> that.
> 
> > Since autoconf 2.5x won't be installed on my systems I tried
> > the libtool 1.4b version with autoconf 2.13. 
> > Unfortunately the number of errors is still increasing:
[...]
> 
> That definitely won't work, in the development branch:
> 
>   $ grep AC_PREREQ ~/devel/savannah/libtool/*.m4
>   /home/gary/devel/savannah/libtool/acinclude.m4:[AC_PREREQ(2.50)dnl
>   /home/gary/devel/savannah/libtool/aclocal.m4:[AC_PREREQ(2.50)dnl
>   /home/gary/devel/savannah/libtool/aclocal.m4:AC_PREREQ([2.13])
>   /home/gary/devel/savannah/libtool/libtool.m4:[AC_PREREQ(2.50)dnl
>   /home/gary/devel/savannah/libtool/ltdl.m4:[AC_PREREQ(2.50)
> 
> (although I should probably fix that rogue 2.13...)

Does this mean that there won't be anything
beyond 1.4 which is happy with autoconf 2.13?

> > (and if there's a kind soul around please tell it to the
> > other auto* maintainers ;-)
> > Or just point me to the right place in the docs ...
> 
> Chack the NEWS file for user visible changes between releases.

To repeat myself: I don't think that any GNU or whatever
standard forces people to read a ChangeLog/NEWS or whatever
files which are usually just for 'insiders' to follow
development? Why should a new user to libtool care
about it's history?

-- 
Alexander Mai
address@hidden