Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: Build System links/ recommendations

[Jan Hudec]

On Sat, Sep 04, 2004 at 22:17:47 +0100, Andrew Suffield wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 04, 2004 at 11:09:26PM +0200, Jan Hudec wrote:
> > On Sat, Sep 04, 2004 at 17:45:42 +0100, Andrew Suffield wrote:
> > > On Fri, Sep 03, 2004 at 06:28:44PM -0400, Stefan Monnier wrote:
> > > > > The node in info for make is called "Prerequisite Types":
> > > > > Top -> Rules -> Prerequisite Types
> > > > 
> > > > Hmm... I don't have it.
> > > > I'm using GNU make 3.79, I'm guessing it's not the latest (came with
> > > > redhat-9.3 I believe).
> > > > 
> > > > So your solution relies not just on GNU extensions, but on recent
> > > > GNU extensions.  Hmmm....
> > > 
> > > If you consider 2002 to be "recent". Supporting development
> > > workstations older than that is a waste of time, and build systems
> > > don't need this at all.
> > 
> > So you suggest having two different build systems, one for development
> > and one for instalation?
> 
> If you need to install on old or freaky systems, yes. It is virtually
> impossible (and certainly impractical) to have a development-grade
> build system for a complex project that also works on HP-UX 9, SunOS
> 2.6, or similar shit - not to mention a waste of time.

But it's exactly what automake is designed to do...

> With a little ingenuity you can generally fold them together such that
> you don't have to update two things in parallel all the time. autoconf
> and automake do it reasonably well.
> 
> [I don't actually bother to construct such a thing unless there's a
> demand for supporting freaky old systems, though]

There would be in this case. Guess which version of make is in current
stable debian... Right: 3.79.1-14. 

(Note: The project I was talking about was started in 2001 -- the
feature did not exist back then.)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                 Jan 'Bulb' Hudec 
<address@hidden>

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