Re: Problem with autoconf 2.52

[Gary V. Vaughan]

On Wed, Oct 24, 2001 at 03:45:14PM -0500, David Snopek wrote:
> This is not exactly a bug, but it does require an extra step inorder to 
> work properly.  Here is the situation:
> 
> Imagine that you're including libltdl as a convenience library in a 
> package (using "libtoolize --ltdl"), and specify 
> "AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS(libltdl)" in your configure.in.  You're using 
> autoconf 2.52 to generate the configure script.
> 
> Under most situations, this runs fine.  But there are weird problems 
> that can happen because the "configure" in libltdl was generated using 
> 2.13.  Most notably, specifying any host, target, or build option will 
> cause libltdl's configure to exit with error.
> 
> This can be solved a couple of ways:
> 
> (1) Using "libtoolize --ltdl --copy" and running "aclocal ; autoconf ; 
> automake" in the libltdl directory.
> (2) Generating the original copy (located in 
> ${prefix}/share/libtool/libltdl) with the newest version of autoconf 
> since I believe they are all "forward-compatible".
> (3) Cause the "configure" in libltdl to be regenerated with using the 
> local system autoconf when "libtoolize --ltdl" is called.  I think this 
> is the most elegant solution.
> 
> In any case, I think the user should be warned.  This should be put in a 
> FAQ or added to the info pages on libltdl.
> 
> If anyone has any additional questions or comments, please e-mail me 
> directly as I am not subscribed to the list.  I hope this helps somebody!!

I think it ought to be the responsibility of the developer to bootstrap
their package correctly... to encourage that, I guess we should have
`libtoolize --ltdl' not install generated files into their package.  And we
should reflect that in the documentation too, obviously.

Comments?

Cheers,
        Gary.
-- 
  ())_. Gary V. Vaughan     gary@(oranda.demon.co.uk|gnu.org)
  ( '/  Research Scientist  http://www.oranda.demon.co.uk       ,_())____
  / )=  GNU Hacker          http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool  \'      `&
`(_~)_  Tech' Author        http://sources.redhat.com/autobook   =`---d__/