Re: [bug-gettext] AM_GNU_GETTEXT_PREREQ

[Daiki Ueno]

Roumen Petrov <address@hidden> writes:

Hello Roumen,

Thanks for the comment.

> Why not first xxx_PREREQ, like AC_PREREQ . Then macro AM_GNU_GETTEXT
> could extract if version is requested.
> Otherwise PREREQ is ambiguous.

Good point.  PREREQ would definitely need to check something at
M4 time, unlike AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION.

> It could be:
>
>   AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external])
>   AM_GNU_GETTEXT_EXTRACT([0.19.4])

Do you mean to reuse AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION as PREREQ?  That might cause
compatibility issues, though it could be avoided by checking the
version.

>   AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external 0.19.4 intl=PATH])

I worry that this might make it difficult to extract version by
autopoint.  By the way, if we change the convention of AM_GNU_GETTEXT,
perhaps we could give it a shorter name, e.g. GT_INIT.

>> This shall copy the necessary files directly from /usr/share/gettext, if
>> it meets the version requirement (>= 0.19.4).
>
> If understand idea is  new archive to contain only "recent" versions.
> Lets version 0.20.* not not add "drastic" change. Lest first "drastic"
> version is 0.21.
> Would you like to distribute archive with following content:
> a) at release time of 0.20 : only subdir for 0.20
> b) at release time of 0.20.1 : only subdir for 0.20.1
> c) at release time of 0.20.2 : only subdir for 0.20.2. Lest this is
> last from 0.20 series
> d) at release time of 0.21 :  subdirs for 0.20.2 and 0.21
>
> If the package require gettext 0.20 in case of c) and d) macro will
> extract version 0.20.2. Right ?

Actually, I was thinking of not using archive at all, but copying files
from the system directories (/usr/share/gettext, /usr/share/aclocal,
...), in a similar way libtoolize does.  That means, by PREREQ, only the
latest version installed on the system is supported (but people can
continue using AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION to stick with an older version).
Does that sound too inflexible?

Regards,
-- 
Daiki Ueno