From: "deckerben" <bdeck AT lycos DOT co DOT uk>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
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Subject: Re: indent upgrade
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2003 12:01:10 +0200
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"Hans-Bernhard Broeker" <broeker AT physik DOT rwth-aachen DOT de> wrote in message
news:bbkcee$7v3$1 AT nets3 DOT rz DOT RWTH-Aachen DOT DE...
> deckerben <bdeck AT lycos DOT co DOT uk> wrote:
>
> > Autoconf just rebuild the configure script using a "configure.in", if
that
> > package has one. It tailors the configure script to the OS that is
running
> > it.
>
> Not really.  Or more precisely: that's not how it's supposed to work.
> Tailoring to a given system is done by the configure script, not by
> autoconf.  autoconf generates the configure script from configure.in
> and a host of templates, so you don't have to write it all yourself.


I just didn't know how to better explain it. But the result is that the
configure script more accurately understands your system. Running configure
without Autoconf sometimes produces the same results.

> > ./configure
> >
i386-pc-gnu --with-static --disable-shared --program-suffix=.exe --prefix=/d
> >
ev/env/DJDIR --without-pic --bindir=/dev/env/DJDIR/bin --datadir=/dev/env/DJ
> >
DIR/ --includedir=/dev/env/DJDIR/include --mandir=/dev/env/DJDIR/man --infod
> > ir=/dev/env/DJDIR/inf  --sysconfdir=/dev/env/DJDIR/etc
>
> Almost all of those those are superfluous.  --prefix=/dev/env/DJDIR
> will already set all those directories without you overriding each of
> them yourself, and to exactly those values you give.  And the
> --infodir setting is plain wrong, I think --- it lacks an 'o' at the

What you say is very good in THEORY, but I have seen MANY configure scripts
get it wrong without these. You can call it what you want (bad configure
script, etc), but on occassion it makes a real difference. And there is no
harm in being specific.
The infodir was a pasting error.


> I also have serious doubts about that platform specifier you use.
> Last I looked, i368-pc-gnu is *not* the correct platform name for


Wonderful if all configure scripts were willing to accept
i386-pc-msdosdjgpp, but many are *not*. ('who is msdosdjgpp??!?!'). The
configuation for 'gnu' is similar enough that it rarely creates problems in
every-day porting.


> DJGPP --- that'd have to be i386-pc-msdosdjgpp.  And configure should
> always find detect that on its own, so there's no need to override it.


Wrong. Many config.guess scripts are unable to pick this up, even when
config.site is correct. We just had a thread about that a couple weeks ago.

The basic problem seems to often be that not all packagers use the GNU
standards for writing their porting tools (or still use older versions). At
any rate, I have no desire to waste my time tearing configure apart for
every package I want to try. Believe me, after dozens of ports,
"i368-pc-gnu" works just fine.

Regards,
Ben