source directory already configured

[t . martitz]

Hello,

I came across the following issue:

We have one source directory, and part of that is built twice. Once for our
target platform (cross compile, in-tree build) and once for build host (to
make some tests, out-of-tree build).

Now we would like to use the same configure script, just with different
arguments, for the two builds. However when I execute configure the second
time in the build directory for host build then configure exits with the
error message "source directory already configured; run "make distclean"
there first". I understand that this is because the first configure was run
in the actual source directory because we do in-tree builds there.

However, to my understanding it should not be a problem to re-run configure
for an out-of-tree build because the outputs (config.status etc.) are
placed in the out-of-tree directory, so overwriting of files created by the
first configure run is not possible. Indeed, configure does not give an
error when the first build is out-of-tree too, which suggests there is no
conflict between two builds generated by same configure script.

Can you suggest a solution for this, preferably one that does not imply
doing out-of-tree builds for the cross compiled built too. Can I make
configure simply skip that change somehow?

Best regards and thank you in advance
Thomas Martitz