Re: [PATCH] {master} missing: do not touch timestamps; only warn for out-of-date files

[Eric Blake]

On 06/20/2012 03:30 PM, Stefano Lattarini wrote:
> Before this change, the missing script had a twofold role:
> 
>   - it warned the user if some required maintainer tools was missing,
>     or too old;
> 
>   - in such a case, it tried to "fix" the timestamp of the files that
>     should have been rebuilt by that tool (without actually updating
>     the file contents, of course), to allow the build to continue.
> 

> +++ b/lib/missing
> @@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
>  #! /bin/sh
> -# Common stub for a few missing GNU programs while installing.
> +# Common wrapper for a few potentially missing GNU programs.
>  
> -scriptversion=2012-05-23.18; # UTC
> +scriptversion=2012-06-14.10; # UTC
>  

>  case $1 in
> ---run)
> -  # Try to run requested program, and just exit if it succeeds.
> -  run=
> -  shift
> -  "$@" && exit 0
> -  # Exit code 63 means version mismatch.  This often happens
> -  # when the user try to use an ancient version of a tool on
> -  # a file that requires a minimum version.  In this case we
> -  # we should proceed has if the program had been absent, or
> -  # if --run hadn't been passed.
> -  if test $? = 63; then
> -    run=:
> -    msg="probably too old"
> -  fi
> -  ;;

Ouch.  You've broken programs that use automake < 1.12 but which pull in
the latest build-aux scripts via gnulib, since older automake hard-coded
the use of the --run argument:

$ make
CDPATH="${ZSH_VERSION+.}:" && cd . && /bin/sh
/home/remote/eblake/m4-branch/build-aux/missing --run aclocal-1.11 -I m4
/home/remote/eblake/m4-branch/build-aux/missing: unknown '--run' option
Try '/home/remote/eblake/m4-branch/build-aux/missing --help' for more
information
make: *** [aclocal.m4] Error 1

It should still be possible to configure a project using gnulib's oldest
supported automake (I think that's even 1.9.6, thanks to RHEL 5 still
being in popular use; but I ran into this on the quite-new Fedora 17
where the installed automake is still 1.11.3), but coupled with the
latest build-aux script versions.  Can we restore at least a measure of
back-compatibility so that the new missing coupled with old automake
doesn't fail miserably?

-- 
Eric Blake   address@hidden    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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