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Re: Newbie ? - GNU Toolchain, autoconf, busybox, etc.


From: Paul Eggert
Subject: Re: Newbie ? - GNU Toolchain, autoconf, busybox, etc.
Date: 08 Sep 2003 10:15:00 -0700
User-agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.3

"STEWARD, Curtis (Jamestown)" <address@hidden> writes:

> The configuration would need to check for the existence of selected
> GNU tools and optionally their version,

Generally speaking, the Autoconf philosphy is to not bother checking
version numbers, since they are often misleading and are a maintenance
nightmare.  Instead, test for tool capabilities.  For example, suppose
you want to use the 'restrict' keyword if available.  Don't check the
compiler's version number; instead, compile a little program that uses
'restrict', and see whether the compilation succeeds.

> 3)  Say the OS has sed 2.95, could the application's GNU dependencies would
> be self-contained with the correct source to compile for the platform,
> otherwise use the existing version?

It could be done, yes.  However it is a bit much to copy 'sed's source
code around.




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