RE: aclocal search path and multiple versions of libtool (none installed in same prefix as automake)

[Jeff Squyres]

On Wed, 7 May 2003, Philip Graham Willoughby wrote:

> I am aware of the dirlist patch.  I cannot use it however, because the
> structure I have (below the standard extra apps dir) is:
>
> libtool/1.4.3
> libtool/1.5
> automake/1.7.2
> automake/1.7.3
> [and some more patched, unofficial, automakes]
> autoconf/2.57
>
> So which versions should I add to dirlist?  If I add the 1.4.3 macros, noone
> [snipped]
> If any of you see an alternative viable solution, please let me know.

I understand your problem, and agree with you -- we'd like to structure
our directories that way as well.

However, we have come to accept the fact that at least these three
packages really need to be installed in a common root to work properly.
The easiest solution for everyone involved (sysadmin, user) is to just
make up triples and only support those combinations.  For example:

/opt/ac2.57-lt1.5-am1.7.4/
/opt/ac2.54-lt1.4.3-am1.5/
...and so on

I know it's ugly, and I know it's not quite Right.  But it works, and it
covers about 80% of what you need.  You could obviously make millions of
directories with all the possible permutations, but it's really not worth
the effort -- we have found that a relatively small number of combinations
makes everyone happy (bleeding-edge-developers and
must-have-stable-developers).

Also, I think we need to keep in mind that the original post in this
thread was simply asking for a note to be added to the docs that the
expected behavior is for these packages to be installed into a common
root.  While I'm sure there are many ways to make it work when they are
not installed together, probably the most common case (and also probably
the *easiest* case is when they are all installed together).  The
suggested doc fix sounds like a good idea to me.  :-)

Just my $0.02.

-- 
{+} Jeff Squyres
{+} address@hidden
{+} http://www.lam-mpi.org/