autoconf (was: Compatability with FreeBSD Ports)

[Andreas Hauser]

dragonfly-users wrote @ Fri, 12 Aug 2005 09:57:32 -0700:

> Maybe you can write the proper autoconf macros that can be used by
> others?

He said, auto* is bad!

> I maintain two fairly large software packages: one is configured
> by a set of include file and some build system which I must maintain
> by hand ("Hey, does anyone know whether OS z.y supports feature
> x?") and one which uses auto*.  The latter is much easier to maintain
> and use provided that I can write/find good autoconf macros that
> do the right checks (which can be a real problem, e.g., the tests
> for pthread compile/loader options are a hack, the tests for Berkeley
> DB are far from trivial, and so on).

You .include bsd.port.mk and use PTHREAD_CFLAGS and PTHREAD_LIBS ;)

I think the point is, that instead of guessing, what an OS supports,
the makers of the OS shall say, what they think they support and you
only test for their claims.


Andy