project structure question

[John Calcote]

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I'm autoconfiscating an existing project, and have come up against a
design decision. I hope I can get some advice from the list members:

My project is really three projects--two database management systems,
each built on top of a common portability took kit. The portability tool
kit (ftk) may be used quite independently of the databases (flaim and
xflaim). As a result, ftk is configured as its own project, which may be
built and used independently of flaim and xflaim.

Currently, my source tree is configured like this:

projects/
  flaim/
    ftk->../ftk
    src/
    util/
  ftk/
    src/
    util/
  xflaim/
    ftk->../ftk
    src/
    util/

In this structure, the projects/flaim/ftk and projects/xflaim/ftk
entries are (obviously) links to the higher level ftk directory. I've
written the flaim and xflaim configure.ac scripts such that the ftk
links beneath these directories are autoconf sub-projects.

1.Currently, when flaim and xflaim are built using VPATH builds (or even
when ftk is built independently), they all want to rebuild ftk, because
all three have or are independent copies of the ftk build tree.

2. I've considered creating configure.ac at the "projects" level, and
making flaim, xflaim and ftk simply build directories within the same
master project. Disadvanatages here include the fact that ftk can't be
shipped as a separate project or package.

3. I've considered creating a configure.ac at the "projects" level, and
making all three components sub-projects. This would alleviate the
problem mentioned with point 2 above, but I don't think there's a way to
specify the order that such sub-projects are built. Additionally, the
flaim and xflaim sub-projects would still have to somehow refer to the
ftk directory, which is outside of their individual source trees. They'd
still have to treat is as a dependency.

4. Any other configures I've not thought of?

I can reorganize my source tree anyway I like, but I'd like to do in
such a way as to maximize my flexibility and take full advantage of the
features and benefits of the GNU Autotools.

Any ideas from the vast experience bank here would be much appreciated,
and (as this information may become part of my Autotools book on
freesoftwaremagazine.com), I'm always more than happy to give attribution.

Thanks in advance,
John
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