Re: --with-foo= vs. FOO=${FOO:-foo_default}

[Ben Pfaff]

Russ Allbery <address@hidden> writes:

> This seems like obviously bad advice to me.  How is one expected to handle
> something like specification of a default paper size unless there's a user
> switch somewhere?
>
> Surely the GNU coding standards aren't arguing that editing a cryptic
> configuration file is an improvement over a configure switch?

In my experience, a cryptic configuration file is almost always
an improvement over a configure switch.  To change a configure
switch, I have to find the program's source code and figure out
and go through its configuration, compilation, and installation
procedure.  To change a configuration file, I just have to find
it and edit it, and if it's well-written then it even has a
comment above each option explaining my choices.

This is especially important when the software is provided in a
pre-packaged form.  For the purpose of a Debian binary package,
for instance, the end user will not want to retrieve the source
code and recompile just to change something that should be in a
configuration file.
-- 
address@hidden - address@hidden - address@hidden - address@hidden