Re: Libtool release plan

[Olly Betts]

On Tue, May 16, 2006 at 01:03:43PM +0200, Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> * Olly Betts wrote on Tue, May 16, 2006 at 11:28:41AM CEST:
> > I've tried it now.  I didn't have to modify any of the configure scripts
> > at all.
> 
> Any self-grown or third-party macros that use exit(3) in compile tests?

Not that I can find!

> That is meant to be fixed, so that is a bug: CVS HEAD Libtool should not
> cause any Fortran tests unless you choose to.  Can I reproduce this
> easily (maybe from the tarball link you posted earlier)?

Hmm, something is amiss as ltmain.sh in the source tree says it is from
libtool 1.5.8, which I don't even have installed currently as far as I
can tell.

I'm guessing the issue is that the tarball builder reuses the same
SVN checkout and just reruns "autoreconf" without "--force".  The
output from "autoreconf --help" says:

  Run `autoconf' (and `autoheader', `aclocal', `automake', `autopoint'
  (formerly `gettextize'), and `libtoolize' where appropriate)
  repeatedly to remake the GNU Build System files in the DIRECTORIES or
  the directory trees driven by CONFIGURE-AC (defaulting to `.').

  By default, it only remakes those files that are older than their
  predecessors.  If you install new versions of the GNU Build System,
  running `autoreconf' remakes all of the files by giving it the
  `--force' option.
    
I had read that as saying "if you upgrade autoconf, automake, or libtool
then running autoreconf implicitly uses the `--force' option", but
rereading it I think it probably isn't saying that.

And the info manual makes this totally clear:

  `autoreconf' runs `autoconf', `autoheader', `aclocal', `automake',
  `libtoolize', and `autopoint' (when appropriate) repeatedly to update
  the GNU Build System in the specified directories and their
  subdirectories (*note Subdirectories::).  By default, it only remakes
  those files that are older than their sources.

  If you install a new version of some tool, you can make `autoreconf'
  remake _all_ of the files by giving it the `--force' option.
       
I suggest that autoreconf's --help should follow the info version -
in particular "sources" is better than "predecessors" and the
last sentence is a lot clearer in the info version.

I'll fix the tarball generation to always use --force and hopefully this
problem will then go away.  Incidentally, this shouldn't be a factor in
the other problem as the release tarballs are built from a clean checkout.

Cheers,
    Olly