Re: Bug#368502: autoconf: breaks existing build systems that use ${datadir}

[Ralf Wildenhues]

[ better keep the debian bug address in Cc: ]

* Ben Pfaff wrote on Tue, May 23, 2006 at 01:34:18AM CEST:
> 
> The "configure" script from the CVS autoconf did report warnings
> for the lack of datarootdir.  This appears to be harmless.  The
> two versions of "configure" generated identical config.h, modulo
> a few comments.  They also generated mostly identical
> Makefile.in, except for a few worrisome parts that appear
> unrelated to your bug report:
> 
>     -ac_ct_AR = ar
>     +ac_ct_AR = @ac_ct_AR@
> 
>     +ac_ct_RANLIB = @ac_ct_RANLIB@
>     +ac_ct_STRIP = @ac_ct_STRIP@
> 
> (Looks like some substitutions are missing somehow.  Perhaps I
> need to run more than just "autoconf".)

Rerunning automake will eliminate those lines completely.  (These
substitutions are unnecessary, as those variables should be internal
to the configure script only.)

>     if test "x${bindir}" = 'x${exec_prefix}/bin'; then
>       if test "x${exec_prefix}" = "xNONE"; then
>         if test "x${prefix}" = "xNONE"; then
>           bindir="${ac_default_prefix}/bin";
>         else
>           bindir="${prefix}/bin";
>         fi
>       else
>         if test "x${prefix}" = "xNONE"; then
>           bindir="${ac_default_prefix}/bin";
>         else
>           bindir="${prefix}/bin";
>         fi
>       fi
>     fi

Yes, code similar to this but with ${datadir} is going to have a
problem.  But the Autoconf manual has been warning against such code
for a while now:
  info Autoconf "Defining Directories"

Cheers,
Ralf