Re: Autoconf and apt

[Ralf Wildenhues]

* Robert Rehammar wrote on Tue, Aug 19, 2008 at 08:08:32AM CEST:
> So the next thing would then be for configure to ask apt to download and
> install libfoo, to meet the dependency. This way autotools would
> integrate with (e.g.) apt to make installations more smooth. This would
> save the user the work to download and install all packages that bar
> depends on and that exists in the apt repository.

If the dependencies are already listed in apt's database, then 'apt-get
build-dep libfoo' should be all you ever need.  If not, then I don't see
how Autoconf can behave better than it does now: the mapping of software
given as source to packaging names is still quite distribution-dependent.

So if you like, a good way out would be this, in pseudo-code:

  if $missing_libfoo; then
    AC_MSG_ERROR([This package needs $libfoo.  Please tell your system
administrator to `apt-get build-dep $PACKAGE])
  fi

with possibly adjusting for apt, rpm, etc.  What more could Autoconf
provide?

Cheers,
Ralf