Re: AutoGen-5.6.2 w/o libxml2 build problem

[Bob Friesenhahn]

On Tue, 22 Jun 2004, Alexandre Duret-Lutz wrote:

> Hi Bruce!
>
> > > > "Bruce" == Bruce Korb <address@hidden> writes:
>
> [...]
> Bruce> When you invoke, "make dist" I believe you are claiming
> Bruce> that you wish to construct a new distribution for some
> Bruce> distribution-related purpose.  If you merely wish to
> Bruce> verify that the parts that you can build are built
> Bruce> correctly, you would invoke, "make check".  If you are
> Bruce> making a distribution, then that distribution needs to
> Bruce> be verified that all parts of it are functional.  It
> Bruce> would be difficult to verify the functionality of ag2xml
> Bruce> if you do not have libxml2.  Therefore, I do not think
> Bruce> it is correct to try to do a "make dist" when all
> Bruce> components cannot be built.
> [...]
>
> I tend to disagree.  First, `make dist' is a *user* target and
> I'd expect it to work even when some part of the tree is not
> being built.  For instance a user might have fixed the package
> locally, and will want to run `make dist' in order to carry his
> fixed version to other hosts.  He may not care about the subpart
> of the package that isn't build.  Second, there are cases where
> it is simply not possible to build all directories: setup with
> architecture-dependent directories come to mind.

Hear! Hear!  It is best/necessary to recurse all directories and use 
Automake conditionals to map out parts that shouldn't be built.

For a properly maintained open source package using Automake, any user 
with appropriate standard tools (may need some GNU versions to fix 
bugs) should be able to extract the distribution to a directory, 
configure it, and then be able to successfully execute any target 
documented in the Automake manual.  This should be a requirement for 
any GPLed or LGPLed package since failure to support this flexibilty 
is a failure to support the spirit of GPL and open source in general.

Any recipient of the package should have the ability to become a 
package "maintainer" without removing site/developer specific hacks.

Bob
======================================
Bob Friesenhahn
address@hidden
http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen