Re: library depending on another library

[Braden McDaniel]

On Sun, 2009-04-19 at 10:34 +0200, Lorenzo Bettini wrote:
> Hi
> 
> I'm developing a library which depends on another library (boost regex); 
> now for my library I provide a pkgconfig file so that the user can use 
> pkgconfig for having the right settings for headers and library. 
> However, the user must also be aware that he must also search for boost 
> regex library (which, by the way, does not provide a pkgconfig file).
> 
> So, would it be better to provide an autoconf macro searching both for 
> my library and the required libraries?

It's a point of style, mostly.

There is some user benefit to failing at configure time if dependencies
are not satisfied; though for a small project that won't take much time
to compile, the benefit is pretty negligible.  And furthermore, things
like package managers are better at dependency checking than your
configure script is likely ever to be.

So do a check if it's easy.  But if it adds a bunch of complexity that
will significantly affect the cost of configure.ac's upkeep, don't
bother.

-- 
Braden McDaniel <address@hidden>