[kaffe] Re:_[kaffe]_Upgrading_autotools_requirements_to_a_more_recent_version

[Dalibor Topic]

Hi Jim,

--- Jim Pick <jim at kaffe.org> wrote:
> Nobody likes to mess with the auto* tools.
> 
> How about if we put together a separate small
> "toolchain"
> package that developers can install, which contains
> versions
> of the auto* tools that can be installed in an
> non-intrusive
> location.  We'd release a new toolchain tarball
> periodically.

I wouldn't want to maintain that ;)

I'd prefer to update FAQ.requiredlibs and FAQ.automake
with latest information. As long as we use the
unmodified tools as released by the FSF, I don't see a
need for releasing our own toolchain. At the moment, I
think that automake 1.4p5 and autoconf 2.13 work well
unmodified, as well as the latest versions.

> A more controversial move would be to remove the
> autogenerated bits from CVS - then people building
> from
> CVS would be forced to use autogen.sh and the
> toolchain.
> I'm interested in what CVS users think about that. 
> I think
> we could meet the needs of casual CVS users by just
> doing
> more frequent releases.
> 
> Personally, I think we should continue to check in
> the
> autogenerated bits (eg. configure and the
> Makefile.in's)
> for the time being.

Well, mauve did that, and it means you have to update
to latest auto* tools in order to use mauve. It is a
little painful when you don't have the latest auto*
tools around and just want to compile the thing to use
it, and don't want to hack on it.

I don't like the idea to force people to have the
latest newest  auto* tools just to be able to compile
kaffe (hacking the build system is a different
matter). It kind of beats the cross compatibility idea
of running ./configure; make; make check. It turns it
into autoreconf; slap forehead; get, build & install
latest auto* tools for the platform; run make check on
the latest auto* tools for the platform and take a
long walk outside; autoreconf; ./configure; make; make
check; make install.

While checking in the bits generated by auto* tools is
redundant, it is very convenient if you only want to
build kaffe quickly, and don't want to hack its guts.
So I, too, think that checking in the autogenerated
bits is o.k.

cheers,
dalibor topic

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