Re: Tips to modernize autotools configuration

[Ralf Corsepius]

On 02/17/2010 04:18 AM, Javier Jardón wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I've created this page: [1]
> with some tips to modernize the autotools configuration of GNOME (or
> others) projects.
>
> As I'm not an autotools expert, It would be great if someone of you
> take a look to the page to correct the possible mistakes.
> (Feel free to edit the page directly or comment here the issues)
>
> Best regards,
>
> [1] http://live.gnome.org/GnomeGoals/ModernAutotools

My personal remarks on your document:

- Don't use ACLOCAL_FLAGS
Modern configuration setups don't need it.

- AM_MAINTAINER_MODE has valid use cases. Though I agree with your 
intention to discourage users from using it, your formulation is way too 
strict, IMO.

- Recommend automake >= 1.11.1.
automake 1.10 is known to be suffering from critical security issues.

- Recommend using vanilla FSF autotools- -not the versions vendors ship, 
because they typically have patches which can render modifying/patching 
auto*tool files difficult.


What I am missing:

- Ship tarballs with all sources and generated files included.

- Don't run autoreconf/autogen.sh during builds.

- Don't exploit autotools's internals.


Ralf