Re: suggestions about AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR

[Lorenzo Bettini]

Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> Hi Lorenzo,
>
> * Lorenzo Bettini wrote on Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 09:20:05AM CEST:
> > Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> > > * Lorenzo Bettini wrote on Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 08:15:01PM CEST:
> > >
> > > > Yes I know, and these are those files; I was thinking of distributing 
> > > >  since my macro (for my library) relies on boost regex, so I wanted 
> > > > to  check also for boost regex library inside my macro
> > > You are correct in that you should have those files in your source tree,
> > > and it is fine if you distribute them in your package tarballs, but
> > > since your package is not the principal owner of these macro files, you
> > > should not *install* them.  That's the crucial difference.
> > >
> > > So, instead of the two lines quoted above, it would be ok to write
> > >   EXTRA_DIST = ax_boost_base.m4 ax_boost_regex.m4
> > >
> > > However, in case you are using these macros in your configure.ac anyway,
> > > then automake will already take care of adding them to your distribution
> > > tarball anyway, even without the EXTRA_DIST line.
>
> > but if I don't install them, then the users that want to use my macro  
> > will have to get the additional files themselves, and that would make my  
> > macro for my library useless at that point, wouldn't it?
>
> In what way is that different from installed third-party header files?
> You wouldn't install them with your package either, but still require
> their presence on your users' systems.

You're right about the headers, but installing a few macro files is more 
convenient than installing a whole library ;-)

however, I think I can solve this with pkg-config anyway

cheers
        Lorenzo

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Lorenzo Bettini, PhD in Computer Science, DI, Univ. Torino
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