[Fwd: Re: How to cvs checkout SASL]

[Howard Chu]

I was thinking it might be a good idea for the autoconf/automake docs to 
include suggested best practices for distributing source. Said practice 
to include providing ready-to-run configure script etc. in 
CVS/svn/whatever if you actually intend for 3rd parties to be able to 
build from your source tree.

I think "scaring off potential developers" is more serious than it 
sounds; it sometimes takes hours for me to get the right combination of 
autotools installed to build somebody's source tree. I don't scare 
easily, but I hate wasting my time. It would take no real effort for the 
project maintainers to commit their generated files. It takes inordinate 
effort for some other developer.
--
  -- Howard Chu
  Chief Architect, Symas Corp.  http://www.symas.com
  Director, Highland Sun        http://highlandsun.com/hyc
  Chief Architect, OpenLDAP     http://www.openldap.org/project/
> --- Begin Message ---
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> Subject: 
>
> Re: How to cvs checkout SASL
>
>
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> Date: 
>
> Mon, 26 Feb 2007 02:44:11 -0800 (PST)
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>
> Hi,
>
> My prob is simple. I want to have a system made where
> it will automatically checkout the *latest* SASL and
> build it. Now, to checkout thru a script, "cvs co
> sasl"
> seems to be the best choice but then the problem
> starts from there. How do I build across all
> platforms? Today,I was doing it on RedHat Linux 9 and
> installed the latest
> autoconf,make and automake softwares from GNU and I
> ran the recommended command sequences
> $ aclocal -I cmulocal -I config
> $ automake
> $ autoheader
> $ autoconf
> $ cd saslauthd
> $ autoconf
>
> I always get some or the other error. Either it
> complains about my versions or it says this header or
> that missing,like for example "automake requires
> `AM_CONFIG_HEADER', not `AC_CONFIG_HEADER'".
> I may see some site and solve this but then another
> one crops up and so on it goes.
> Could you pls tell me the min versions/requirements to
> run these commands successfully on RedHatLinux version
> 9 and on Solaris 9 and above?
>
> Thanks
> Biswatosh
>
>
> --- "Roberto C. Sanchez" <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> > On Tue, Feb 20, 2007 at 11:04:31PM -0800, Howard Chu
> > wrote:
> > > Yes, but there's a difference between a developer
> > and a package 
> > > maintainer. Since the configure script depends on
> > specific versions of 
> > > the autotools, and the requirements differ for
> > different packages, the 
> > > package maintainers ought to create these files
> > and keep them with the 
> > > rest of the source code. As it is I have to
> > maintain 5 different 
> > > versions of autoconf on my machine because of
> > dependencies of this sort.
> > > 
> > > Likewise, if a source tree uses automake, then a
> > usable set of 
> > > Makefile.in files with maintainer-mode disabled
> > should be part of CVS, 
> > > because independent developers don't need their
> > Makefiles 
> > > auto-regenerating at the drop of a hat,
> > particularly because the 
> > > regeneration will look for tools whose versions
> > may not match those on 
> > > the build machine. Omitting these details is a
> > good way to frustrate 
> > > developers and keep away people who would
> > otherwise be productively 
> > > contributing to the project.
> > > 
> > You bring up good points.  However, I still
> > maintain, that it is better
> > to not keep those things in revision control.  Given
> > the wide target
> > audience, of courier (in terms of platforms and
> > such), it might make
> > sense to keep the minimally needed set in revision
> > control.
> > 
> > Of course, you could also argue that people who are
> > scared off by having
> > to generate their own scripts should wait for public
> > releases :-)
> > 
> > Regards,
> > 
> > -Roberto
> > 
> > -- 
> > Roberto C. Sanchez
> > http://people.connexer.com/~roberto
> > http://www.connexer.com
> > 
>
>
>
>  
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> --- End Message ---