Re: cache directory is not removed

[Akim Demaille]

| > * In message <address@hidden>
| > * On the subject of "Re: cache directory is not removed"
| > * Sent on Thu, 6 Jun 2002 12:46:15 -0500
| > * Honorable Bill Wendling <address@hidden> writes:
| >
| > BTW, the removal of automatically generating a config.cache file by
| > default was a bad idea, in my opinion...
| 
| absolutely!!
| 
| > Why was config.cache deemed removable but the autom4te.cache directory
| > isn't?
| > Very strange...
| 
| not at all.  this is a common case of "developer's egotism": "what
| matters for me, matters for all, what does not matter for me, does not
| matter for anyone" (no offense please - we all think like that
| sometimes)
| 
| autoconf _developers_ run _autoconf_ often, thus they want it to run
| fast, while they run _configure_ rarely, so they do not care about its
| speed. 

Great.  I didn't know you Sam, but I'm happy you presented yourself
early enough so that I don't have to waste time explaining things to
someone who doesn't want to hear.

For your edification, maybe you'd like to read the longuish threads
named `config.cache considered harmful'.

http://sources.redhat.com/ml/autoconf/2000-02/threads.html#00319

    * Cross-compilation considered harmful, Paul D. Smith
          o Re: Cross-compilation considered harmful, Pavel Roskin
                + Re: Cross-compilation considered harmful, Paul D. Smith
          o Re: Cross-compilation considered harmful, Ossama Othman
                + Re: Cross-compilation considered harmful, Paul D. Smith
          o Re: Cross-compilation considered harmful, Alexandre Oliva
    * Re: config.cache considered harmful, T.E.Dickey
          o <Possible follow-up(s)>
          o Re: config.cache considered harmful, T.E.Dickey
          o Re: config.cache considered harmful, Harlan Stenn
    * autoconf is broken in various ways, Martin Buchholz
          o Re: autoconf is broken in various ways, Tom Tromey
                + Re: autoconf is broken in various ways, Lars Hecking
                + Re: autoconf is broken in various ways, Martin Buchholz
                      # Re: autoconf is broken in various ways, Tom Tromey
                      # config.cache considered harmful, Martin Buchholz
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Alexandre Oliva
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Jamie Zawinski
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Akim Demaille
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Alexandre Oliva
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Akim Demaille
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Alexandre Oliva
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Martin Buchholz
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Tom Tromey
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Martin Buchholz
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Akim Demaille
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Martin Buchholz
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Akim Demaille
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Lars Hecking
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Akim Demaille
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Alexandre Oliva
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Akim Demaille
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Ian Lance Taylor
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Akim Demaille
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Ian Lance Taylor
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Akim Demaille
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Ian Lance Taylor
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Akim Demaille
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Ian Lance Taylor
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Akim Demaille
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Ian Lance Taylor
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Paul Eggert
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Ian Lance Taylor
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Akim Demaille
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Ian Lance Taylor
                      # Portable programming (was: config.cache considered 
harmful), Russ Allbery
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Martin Buchholz
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Didier Verna
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Felix Lee
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Harlan Stenn
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Felix Lee
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Akim Demaille
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Martin Buchholz
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Akim Demaille
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Martin Buchholz
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Alexandre Oliva
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Tom Tromey
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Martin Buchholz
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Akim Demaille
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Russ Allbery
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Tom Tromey
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Martin Buchholz
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Ian Lance Taylor
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Pavel Roskin
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Lars Hecking
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Olly Betts
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Akim Demaille
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Olly Betts
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Pavel Roskin
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Martin Buchholz
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Harlan Stenn
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Pavel Roskin
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Akim Demaille
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Greg A. Woods
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Tom Tromey
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Greg A. Woods
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Akim Demaille
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Martin Buchholz
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Pavel Roskin
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Akim Demaille
                      # Re: config.cache considered harmful, Martin Buchholz
                      # Re: autoconf is broken in various ways, Didier Verna
                      # Re: autoconf is broken in various ways, Akim Demaille
                + Re: autoconf is broken in various ways, Russ Allbery
                      # Re: autoconf is broken in various ways, Tom Tromey
                      # Re: autoconf is broken in various ways, Didier Verna
                      # Re: autoconf is broken in various ways, Russ Allbery
          o Re: autoconf is broken in various ways, Akim Demaille
                + Re: autoconf is broken in various ways, Martin Buchholz
                      # Re: autoconf is broken in various ways, Akim Demaille
                      # Re: autoconf is broken in various ways, Martin Buchholz


And bye!  Have a nice life.

| autoconf _users_ run _autoconf_ rarely, so they do not care about its
| speed (but they do care about the junk it leaves behind!), but they run
| _configure_ (relatively) often, so they do care about its speed and
| they appreciate the speedup they get from config.cache.
| 
| think of your _users_!
| your users _want_ config.cache and
| they do _not_ want autom4te.cache!