Re: specifying multiple with arguments

[Alexandre Duret-Lutz]

On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 08:05:07PM -0500, Braden McDaniel wrote:
>
> To "specify more precisely which other package" is not the same as
> specifying "the external package's location". The latter, which you
> mentioned, is what I was suggesting the user variables CPPFLAGS and
> LDFLAGS are better for.

I find the GNU Coding Standards very clear on this point:


`--enable-FEATURE[=PARAMETER]'
     Configure the package to build and install an optional user-level
     facility called FEATURE.  This allows users to choose which
     optional features to include.  Giving an optional PARAMETER of
     `no' should omit FEATURE, if it is built by default.

     No `--enable' option should *ever* cause one feature to replace
     another.  No `--enable' option should ever substitute one useful
     behavior for another useful behavior.  The only proper use for
     `--enable' is for questions of whether to build part of the program
     or exclude it.

`--with-PACKAGE'
     The package PACKAGE will be installed, so configure this package
     to work with PACKAGE.

     Possible values of PACKAGE include `gnu-as' (or `gas'), `gnu-ld',
     `gnu-libc', `gdb', `x', and `x-toolkit'.

     Do not use a `--with' option to specify the file name to use to
     find certain files.  That is outside the scope of what `--with'
     options are for.

   All `configure' scripts should accept all of these "detail" options,
whether or not they make any difference to the particular package at
hand.  In particular, they should accept any option that starts with
`--with-' or `--enable-'.  This is so users will be able to configure
an entire GNU source tree at once with a single set of options.

   You will note that the categories `--with-' and `--enable-' are
narrow: they *do not* provide a place for any sort of option you might
think of.  That is deliberate.  We want to limit the possible
configuration options in GNU software.  We do not want GNU programs to
have idiosyncratic configuration options.