Re: [RFC] getting rid of the config.guess/sub problem when bootstrapping new ports/systems

[Pavel Raiskup]

> >> Works for me.  But we [distros] do want to mandate autoreconf anyway in the
> >> general case: it is the *only* way to keep upstream honest about the much
> >> hated build system not bitrotting until it decides to blow up right when we
> >> need it for a security update.
> >
> >I know.  But there is a lot of tarballs not able to be easily
> >autoreconf-ed (more than 10 years old) and not having upstream.. and it
> >needs a lot of changes downstream before autoreconf successes.. (and you
> >need to have a quite good knowledge about auto-toolset).
> 
> If upstream is dead, the distros should perhaps reevaluate whether to
> drop the package or de facto become upstream by a process of adoption.

Yes.  But if the problem is as easy as outdated config.{guess,sub}, simply
setting the CONFIG_{GUESS,SUB} variable is far more suitable.  Sometimes
distros are deploying compat packages having outdated sources.

What about this?  Ben (and others), would you consider something similar
like this one?  Without PATH traversal it could be very trivial:

diff --git a/config.sub b/config.sub
index 8b612ab..daac889 100755
--- a/config.sub
+++ b/config.sub
@@ -50,6 +50,12 @@ timestamp='2013-04-24'
 #      CPU_TYPE-MANUFACTURER-KERNEL-OPERATING_SYSTEM
 # It is wrong to echo any other type of specification.
 
+if test -n "$CONFIG_SUB"; then
+    # clean CONFIG_SUB variable!
+    CONFIG_SUB= $CONFIG_SUB $1
+    exit
+fi
+
 me=`echo "$0" | sed -e 's,.*/,,'`
 
 usage="\