Re: [autoconf] checking automake version in configure.ac

[Ralf Corsepius]

On 10/06/2009 01:58 PM, Eric Blake wrote:
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> According to Ralf Corsepius on 10/6/2009 1:45 AM:
> > > > AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([1.11])
> > >
> > > yes, but...
> > >
> > > > This way, running an insufficient automake on your source files will
> > > > error out.
> > >
> > > ... I don't want that behavior. I just want to add a feature, not to
> > > forbid a user to rebuild the files.
> > Your consideration doesn't make sense.
> >
> > If your package requires a minimum version of automake, then your
> > package can't be rebuilt without a sufficient version of automake,
> > therefore the user must be stopped running his automake.
>
> The desired behavior TOTALLY makes sense (although this is an automake
> question, not an autoconf question)
> - an example is the use of color-tests
> when available, with a clean fallback to no color-tests if an older
> automake was sufficient for everything else.

Well, this is an entirely different use-case.

This is changing the configure's behavior at configure run-time. It is 
not the running "autogen.sh" (autoreconf) case.

And whether version checking is an appropriate means/good approach in 
general at all, is a different question.

Ralf