Re: Macro Packages (was: Archive unification progress)

[Stepan Kasal]

Hi,

On Fri, Jan 21, 2005 at 09:25:38AM +1100, Tom Howard wrote:
> If we get dependency tracking working, we should be able to
> automatically create sudo packages.  The way I see this working from a
> users perspective is if they run `make install-ax_rpm`, only ax_rpm and
> it's dependencies will be installed.
> 
> Additionally macros that aren't meant to be installed by themselves
> (e.g. helper macros), could me marked as internal (put` @category
> internal` or similar in he m4 file) and no install_X target would be
> created for them.  If I can get it to work, this would provide far more
> flexibility that a hand placing macros into packages.
> 
> What do you think?

I don't understend whether the install target would correspond to a macro
(to one AC_DEFUN), or to a file.  I suggest that it corresponds to a file.

If there are several macros tied together, I'd put them to one file and
create one install target for the file.  (Say we have an AWK_DEFINE macro
and an AWK_DEFINE_UNQUOTED macro--whatever this might mean--; then I see
no use for a special install-awk-define-unquoted target.)

I like very much your idea of internal macros.  Again, I can imagine a
file will contain several internal macros which are tight together, and
nothing else.  I would call that file ``an internal package.''

So this all still plays well with my concept of package==file.

Have a nice day,
        Stepan