[Zlib-devel] [PATCH] configure: now accepting all gnu-style path options

[Volker Grabsch]

Mike Frysinger <vapier at gentoo.org> schrieb:
> On Friday, July 23, 2010 06:07:08 Enrico Weigelt wrote:
> > * Alon Bar-Lev <alon.barlev at gmail.com> schrieb:
> > > Easier to use autoconf, than fixing this configure script over and over
> > > :)
> > 
> > No, it's not. We already had this topic often enough.
> > 
> > Going onto the autoconf route has _a lot_ of implications we most
> > like don't want. Autoconf is very bloatet and has a long, long
> > history of ugly breaks, especially when it comes to not-so-common
> > cases like crosscompiling (which actually is the _standard_ in my
> > daily business ;-o).
> 
> this is pure fud.  autotools in general do a hell of a better job supporting 
> cross-compiling out of the box than random home grown build systems.

As the maintainer von Mingw-cross-env I can confirm this. We have
the special "strangeness" of not only cross-compiling but also
static linking.

Many packages need some tweaks, and Zlib is no exception to this.

The packages which use Autoconf usually make the _least_ trouble.
And trouble is usually the result of maintainers writing some short-
sighted shell code directly into their configure.ac, instead of
calling the appropriate macros.

However, among the hand-written configure/build scripts the one
of Zlib is by far the best, smallest and fastest. Our latest trouble
with Zlib was _not_ because of its ./configure script but because of
its Makefile (which tried to install always the static _and_ shared
lib, even if only one of them was built).

Also, Zlib has the advantage of getting feedback from a great variety
of platforms and build systems, so a lot of bundled experience went
into its configure script.

However, the "normal" project doesn't have access to that experience.
That's why I usually strongly recommend projects to use Autoconf,
_especially_ regarding portability, cross-compiling, etc.

So while I agree that Autoconf is much better than its reputation,
I'm not sure whether Autoconf would be the right way for the Zlib
project.


Gruß
Volker

-- 
Volker Grabsch
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