Re: [PATCH] more portable bootstrap procedure

[Ralf Wildenhues]

* Jim Meyering wrote on Sat, Dec 13, 2008 at 01:09:10PM CET:
> Ralf Wildenhues <address@hidden> wrote:
> >
> > There is one question I have on this: coreutils requires 'tar', my patch
> > will allow $TAR as GNU tar.  However, Automake's macros will honor
> > $AMTAR only, not $TAR.  Is this where tar is used, or are there other
> > instances I am not aware of?  If yes, should I fix check_versions to
> > check $AMTAR instead of $TAR?

> Whichever you prefer is fine with me.  I use neither.

Well, why is tar then listed as a build prerequisite in bootstrap.conf?
Have you had a bad experience with non-GNU tar in 'make dist'?

> The rest of those changes look fine and passed a smoke test,
> so I'll push it (but without the Signed-off-by line) unless

You don't use Signed-off-by for coreutils?  Why not?

> you want to make further changes.

Well, yes, depending on your answers to above, either remove the 'tar'
line from bootstrap.conf, or add a line like
  test "$appvar" = TAR && appvar=AMTAR

to check_versions and s/TAR/AMTAR/ in usage.

Cheers, and thanks for the quick review,
Ralf