Re: libtool, OS X, and GNU ranlib

[Ralf Wildenhues]

* Bob Friesenhahn wrote on Fri, Oct 02, 2009 at 06:58:23AM CEST:
> This seems like a lot of complexity to me.  First off, someone who
> "knows what they are doing" won't overwrite a necessary build tool.
> Secondly, the person who really knows what they are doing could 'rm'
> the file.

You are forgetting about
- make install DESTDIR=...
- cross-compilation from or to darwin.

For a DESTDIR install, Peter's warning may be too strict, for cross
compilation, it could either be too strict or not strict enough.

I think the general policy is to allow users to shoot themselves in the
foot if they so prefer.  I'm fine with the warning.  I don't think you
need to prefix variables with underscores in the patch though,
configure.ac is our domain.

> Of course, it is possible to identify similar situations on other
> systems.  For example, someone could specify a prefix of /usr/ccs on
> Solaris and overwrite the Sun provided linker.

The Sun linker is not named 'libtool', however.

Thanks,
Ralf