Re: RFC: Does hand editing of "config.h" make sense?

[Keith MARSHALL]

Bob Friesenhahn wrote, quoting me:
>> Yes, I see the logic of that.  But, if configure has already
>> determined that the header file is not present, or at least not
>> usable, why would any user realistically want to do that?
>
> The autoconf philosophy is that the user (person who builds the
> software) should be in control.  If some manual intervention from the
> defaults are required, it should not be necessary to edit files in
> order to handle that.
>
> The reason for overriding the existing/default configuration could be
> due to a poor choice by the configure script, or to experiment with an
> option without needing to re-run the configure script.

Ok, that makes sense.  Thanks.

> Unfortunately, while the user is able to add definitions, I am not
> aware of a way to remove definitions other than to edit the configured
> header files.

And, as Stepan has already noted, the ability to exclude definitions,
which configure has already added, could be potentially *more* useful
than adding those which configure thinks you shouldn't; IME, an autoconf
generated configure doesn't usually get this wrong!

Best regards,
Keith.