Re: Automake and AR

[Ralf Wildenhues]

* NightStrike wrote on Wed, Mar 03, 2010 at 09:05:25PM CET:
> On Wed, Mar 3, 2010 at 2:51 PM, Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> >  AC_CHECK_TOOL([AR], [ar], [false])

> I am also noting that in this and previous emails, you are
> recommending "false" as the third argument.  In the manual, there are
> numerous locations that serve as examples that imply a colon is the
> proper choice (and thusly it is what I have used).  Which is better?

Well, for tools like ranlib which is optional and unneeded on many
systems it is desirable that the build succeeds without it.  If
configure doesn't detect ar, you have a problem if you need it,
and if you happen to additionally link against your in-tree static
library using -L. -lfoo rather than recommended libfoo.a, then a missing
ar might now even turn in a bad build, linking against a wrong installed
libfoo.

This thing is an option precisely because there is no one answer that is
always correct.

Cheers,
Ralf