Re: generating a configure script in a subdirectory?

[Bob Friesenhahn]

On Sat, 20 Dec 2003, Andreas Schwab wrote:

> >>  > But beware, autoreconf can be dangerous and doesn't always work.
> >>
> >> Why?
> >
> > In times past, it has trashed & thrashed subdirectories.  For example,
> > I recall (a couple of years ago) that libltdl required a particular
> > version of Autoconf.  Libltdl was subordinate to my package's
> > directory.  Executing autoreconf ended up with a zero-length configure
> > script in the libltdl subdirectory.
>
> Please try this patch:
>
> 2003-12-20  Andreas Schwab  <address@hidden>
>
>       * bin/autoreconf.in: Don't recurse into libtool's libltdl
>       subdirectory.  Pass --ltdl to libtoolize in this case.

Please be aware that on November 27, changes were made in libtool CVS
to eliminate the configure script and other autoconf support files in
the 'libltdl' subdirectory.  The reason for this is that libltdl's
configure script bloats package size and unnecessary extends configure
time.

The preferred approach to configuring libltdl should be, and will be:

# Libltdl is used as a libtool convenience library
AC_LIBLTDL_CONVENIENCE(ltdl)
# Execute tests needed by libltdl
AC_LIB_LTDL
# Substitute INCLTDL LIBLTDL for use in dependent Makefiles.
AC_SUBST(INCLTDL)
AC_SUBST(LIBLTDL)
.
.
.
AC_OUTPUT(libltdl/Makefile)

Note that with this approach, definitions required by libltdl will
appear in the package's config.h header and ltdl.c will include the
package's config.h header.

Here is the ChangeLog entry:

2003-11-27  Gary V. Vaughan  <address@hidden>

        * libltdl/configure.ac: Removed.
        * configure.ac (AC_CONFIG_HEADERS): Merged from
        libltdl/configure.ac.
        (AC_LIB_LTDL): Ditto.
        (AC_CONFIG_FILES): Add libltdl/Makefile.
        (AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS): Removed.
        (AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS): Remove generation of libltdl/ltmain.sh.
        * libltdl/Makefile.am (libtool): Removed references, since we now
        share $(top_builddir)/libtool.
        * NEWS: Updated.

Bob
======================================
Bob Friesenhahn
address@hidden
http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen