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Hmm.. autotools work and they actually work quite well. Besides - most the replacements that have been written eventually end up even more complicated than aut

by plaes 16y ago

Hmm.. autotools work and they actually work quite well. Besides - most the replacements that have been written eventually end up even more complicated than autotools..

briansmith 16y ago
For who? The whole point of autotools is that it allows you to have a different configuration for every system the software is built on. However, this is a very undesirable property for modern software; instead, we want our builds to be exactly repeatable. If you download my software and build it, the results should be bit-for-bit identical to the results I get. If they're not, then how do you know if your build is correct? It is funny how most software today is auto-customized using autotools and then a package maintainer for the software for some OS comes in and un-does all that auto-customization to get repeatable results. It would be much better to just assume there's going to be a package manager configuring everything exactly as he wants it, and avoid autotools completely.
- jparise 16y ago
  Producing a different configuration for every system is not the whole point of autotools. Rather, autotools is generally used as a way to configure semi-standard-but-implementation-specific functionality across different platforms, such as locating <stat.h> or determining the platform's word size. It also gives users a familiar way to optionally enable features at build time, such as choosing between MySQL and PostgreSQL support, as opposed to requiring the user to edit some Makefiles and twiddle some #define's manually.
  - cperciva 16y ago
    such as locating <stat.h> POSIX says that it's <sys/stat.h>. Problem solved. determining the platform's word size sizeof(size_t). Problem solved.
    - nuxi 16y ago
      Not that I'm defending autoconf (I dislike it a lot), but POSIX is also ignorant sometimes, so it shouldn't be treated dogmatically - e.g., google for the socklen_t confusion. Other than that, the real world isn't black and white either. Although many unixen claim to be POSIX compliant, based on my experience they are mostly POSIX-ish. And there's also no guarantee for sizeof(size_t) being a platform's word size.
    - __david__ 16y ago
      > POSIX says that it's <sys/stat.h>. Problem solved. Sadly what POSIX says is cold comfort when you're trying to compile something and the computer in front of you has put stat.h somewhere else.

by plaes 16y ago

Hmm.. autotools work and they actually work quite well. Besides - most the replacements that have been written eventually end up even more complicated than autotools..

briansmith 16y ago

For who? The whole point of autotools is that it allows you to have a different configuration for every system the software is built on. However, this is a very undesirable property for modern software; instead, we want our builds to be exactly repeatable. If you download my software and build it, the results should be bit-for-bit identical to the results I get. If they're not, then how do you know if your build is correct? It is funny how most software today is auto-customized using autotools and then a package maintainer for the software for some OS comes in and un-does all that auto-customization to get repeatable results. It would be much better to just assume there's going to be a package manager configuring everything exactly as he wants it, and avoid autotools completely.

jparise 16y ago
Producing a different configuration for every system is not the whole point of autotools. Rather, autotools is generally used as a way to configure semi-standard-but-implementation-specific functionality across different platforms, such as locating <stat.h> or determining the platform's word size. It also gives users a familiar way to optionally enable features at build time, such as choosing between MySQL and PostgreSQL support, as opposed to requiring the user to edit some Makefiles and twiddle some #define's manually.
- cperciva 16y ago
  such as locating <stat.h> POSIX says that it's <sys/stat.h>. Problem solved. determining the platform's word size sizeof(size_t). Problem solved.
  - nuxi 16y ago
    Not that I'm defending autoconf (I dislike it a lot), but POSIX is also ignorant sometimes, so it shouldn't be treated dogmatically - e.g., google for the socklen_t confusion. Other than that, the real world isn't black and white either. Although many unixen claim to be POSIX compliant, based on my experience they are mostly POSIX-ish. And there's also no guarantee for sizeof(size_t) being a platform's word size.
  - __david__ 16y ago
    > POSIX says that it's <sys/stat.h>. Problem solved. Sadly what POSIX says is cold comfort when you're trying to compile something and the computer in front of you has put stat.h somewhere else.