Re: address@hidden: install-info]

[Karl Berry]

    In some spare minutes I made a list of options and their behaviour. I
    attach it here for your convenience.

Thanks for doing this research.  They are closer than I thought.  

    Perl I could start hacking
    
Very unfortunately, I don't think it would be acceptable for GNU to have
install-info in Perl.  The reason is that install-info is one of the
very few "basic utilities" listed in the GNU coding standards (see
below).  Having it require Perl to be installed seems at odds with this.
I can just imagine rms trying to build GNU some day and having make
install fail because he doesn't have Perl (which he won't) ...

So I fear it has to stay in C.  I agree it would be a whole lot easier
to implement in Perl :(.  Even worse, the current source is (as usual) a
lot less modular/understandable than it might be.

So I guess this has to go on the someday list ...

Thanks,
Karl



File: standards.info,  Node: Utilities in Makefiles

7.2.2 Utilities in Makefiles
----------------------------

Write the Makefile commands (and any shell scripts, such as
`configure') to run in `sh', not in `csh'.  Don't use any special
features of `ksh' or `bash'.

   The `configure' script and the Makefile rules for building and
installation should not use any utilities directly except these:

     cat cmp cp diff echo egrep expr false grep install-info
     ln ls mkdir mv pwd rm rmdir sed sleep sort tar test touch true

[...]