Re: ITP: autobuild

[Eric Blake <eblake at redhat dot com>]

On 09/20/2010 08:24 AM, Charles Wilson wrote:
> On 9/20/2010 4:15 AM, Peter Rosin wrote:
> > But is it really a requirement? If you are referring to libtool commit
> > v2.2.10-92-g92d24b3, then that patch adds an /optional/ dependency on
> > autobuild. If you are a maintainer doing a release of libtool, it
> > probably is a requirement, but are you not simply building the released
> > version (perhaps with a few patches)? I know that I certainly have built
> > git libtool many times when working on it, and I do not have autobuild
> > installed.
>
> cygport -- unless overridden -- always runs 'autoreconf' on a package.
> autoreconf runs aclocal, which means autobuild.m4 must be available;
> hence, *the way we routinely (re)build libtool*, autobuild is required.

No, if I understand Peter's comment correct, autobuild is NOT required 
for libtool, even with an autoreconf.  Why?  Because the original 
libtool patch at commit 92d24b3 made the use of AB_INIT optional - it 
only calls the macro _if_ autobuild.m4 could be found in the first 
place.  When AB_INIT is not found, the only change is that the generated 
./configure file no longer outputs magic strings that can be recognized 
by an autobuild daemon; missing strings merely makes it harder to submit 
build results to an autobuild daemon, but has no effect on how libtool 
itself behaves.  Reduced configure output is not a build dependency; 
that would be the case only if the act of running autoreconf on libtool 
flat-out fails if autobuild was not present.

Furthermore, I just sent a patch to libtool that avoids the need to have 
autobuild installed in the first place:
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gnu.libtool.general/11095/focus=10741

So, I still think that providing autobuild as a cygwin package makes 
sense, but since I'm arguing that it is NOT a build requirement for 
libtool, it means we need a previous distro link or the full 5 votes. 
We're at 2 now; anyone else want to chime in?

--
Eric Blake   eblake@redhat.com    +1-801-349-2682
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org