Subject: Re: FVWM: installing...

From: Martin Cartwright <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 1997 15:17:12 +0100 (BST)

On Fri, 22 Aug 1997, Graeme McCaffery wrote:

->> But seriously folks.. He's got a point. But isn't it planned to switch
->> to GNU autoconf??? If this is done properly, we can run it with 
->> 
->> configure --prefix /home/imc
->> 
->
->
->does this work for all autoconf progs.
->
->ie does the above command automatically tell it to install in 
->/home/imc/whatever
->rather than /usr/local/whatever
->
->???
->
->thanks
->Graeme
->

I dunno. I've compiled all sorts of stuff using different methods.
xmkmf, configure etc.. and the ones using autoconfigure (xlockmore for
example) always have the option to set this on the command line.
I assume that this sort of set up is fairly standard, but I've only
ever compiled stuff not set things up to be compiled. I hope that made
sense? I'm not convinced I'm being coherent today....

[email-masked] --- http://star.pst.qub.ac.uk/~imc/vom.htm
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From: [email-masked] (Paul D. Smith)
Date: 22 Aug 1997 11:39:31 -0400

%% Martin Cartwright <[email-masked]> writes:

  mc> On Fri, 22 Aug 1997, Graeme McCaffery wrote:
  -> But seriously folks.. He's got a point. But isn't it planned to switch
  -> to GNU autoconf??? If this is done properly, we can run it with 
  -> 
  -> configure --prefix /home/imc

  -> does this work for all autoconf progs.

Yes, as long as they're written correctly.  This one of the most
fundamental parts of autoconf, I don't think I've ever seen a package
using autoconf that didn't support this.

  -> ie does the above command automatically tell it to install in
  -> /home/imc/whatever rather than /usr/local/whatever

The configure script converts a file called Makefile.in to Makefile by
substituting various values, including the prefix, into the makefile.

So, as long as your Makefile.in is written in the standard autoconf way,
using the standard make variables to install into like $(bindir),
etc. it all just magically works.

I strongly suggest using autoconf and the new automake.  I've just
converted GNU make to use automake and it's really cool.  It allows a
very minimal amount of work on the part of the maintainer (once it's set
up :), and gives you an ironclad consistent interface for all your make
rules, etc.  It handles subdirectories, builds distributions in a
standard way, etc. etc.

You can also use libtool, which allows you to build shared libraries on
all kinds of different systems without doing _any_ special
system-specific setup.  If you've ever tried to implement support for
building shared libraries across the myriad UNIX systems there are
today, you'll really appreciate libtool.

Autoconf/automake/libtool beats the _pants_ off of xmkmf/Imakefiles,
there is absolutely no question about it.

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Paul D. Smith <[email-masked]>         Network Management Development
 "Please remain calm...I may be mad, but I am a professional." --Mad Scientist
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     These are my opinions--Bay Networks takes no responsibility for them.
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