Re: [GNU Crypto] Re: GCJ build

[Raif S. Naffah]

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On Sunday 27 October 2002 23:56, Olivier LF wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 27, 2002 at 11:03:52PM +1100, Raif S. Naffah wrote:
> > * there are lots of pieces of software that contributors will need
> > to install/have to contribute.
> > * to build GCJ contributors need to have the auto* tools.
> > * to use an open source VM; e.g. Kissme, and the runtime classes
> > that go with it, contributors need to have the auto* tools.
> >
> > the interesting thing to note here is that any GNU library/tool
> > required in conjunction with GNU Crypto, already requires what we
> > are debating whether to include or not to include in the list of
> > pre-requisites.
> >
> > > > if the above makes sense, and we do not want to over burden
> > > > ourselves maintaining stuff that is generated by the tools
> > > > anyway (and eliminate the need for including such files in the
> > > > deliverables), may be we should make the build rely/use the
> > > > auto* magic, even with the gcj/ alternative.
> > >
> > > I am not sure if I understand that one. Are you saying that even
> > > releases should have the dependency on autotools? That would be
> > > very unconventional.
> >
> > yes i am saying that the release would rely on the auto* tools to
> > build, if the user (a) is not happy using the gnu-crypto.jar from
> > the distribution, or (b) wants to build gnu-crypto.so.
> >
> > building GCJ, Classpath, and Kissme, all require the auto* tools. 
> > if we will be unconventional, we will be in good company :-)
>
> That is not correct. The standard way of building a GNU project is to
> run  "configure" then make. The only required dependencies are a
> shell and a working "make" program, autotools are never assumed to be
> present.
>
> It is actually the point of these tools, only developers need them,
> users just run "configure" to generate their Makefiles.
>
> If users were assumed to run "automake", then automake could directly
> probe their environment and output the final Makefiles. It does not
> do that because only developers are expected to run it. To that
> effect, automake output a zoo of targets for all possible cases.
> The final probing and generation of Makefiles is performed by the
> user running "configure".
>
> GCJ follows this strickly, all you have to do is:
>
> - checkout the latest
> - ../configure --prefix=...
> - make
>
> I have never needed the autotools to build GCJ. In fact I cannot
> recall a single GNU project that asked for more than the "configure"
> step!

Classpath and Kissme do.

but if GCJ assumes a working configure, then my argument falls in the 
water, since today we only cater for the (a) java interpreter and (b) 
native executables.

i'm convinced.  i'll add the Makfile.in and friends to the CVS some time 
this week and update the build instructions in the README accordingly.


cheers;
rsn
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