From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Jakub Narebski Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH] Makefile: Turn off the configure target by default Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2010 10:39:58 +0200 Message-ID: <201010111039.59779.jnareb@gmail.com> References: <36e21bdafd75e95f1e13437f81067c71c7390408.1286783121.git.git@drmicha.warpmail.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE Cc: Michael J Gruber , git@vger.kernel.org, Junio C Hamano To: =?utf-8?q?=C3=86var_Arnfj=C3=B6r=C3=B0_Bjarmason?= X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Mon Oct 11 10:40:33 2010 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.180.67]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1P5Dvr-0004U6-0V for gcvg-git-2@lo.gmane.org; Mon, 11 Oct 2010 10:40:31 +0200 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1753576Ab0JKIkR convert rfc822-to-quoted-printable (ORCPT ); Mon, 11 Oct 2010 04:40:17 -0400 Received: from mail-fx0-f46.google.com ([209.85.161.46]:57953 "EHLO mail-fx0-f46.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753511Ab0JKIkP (ORCPT ); Mon, 11 Oct 2010 04:40:15 -0400 Received: by fxm4 with SMTP id 4so309512fxm.19 for ; Mon, 11 Oct 2010 01:40:14 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:from:to:subject:date :user-agent:cc:references:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type :content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:message-id; bh=ccAmeFiwMy/Ppr9n2nGyFTkvk7Tb6qfYtkc2YHRDwkQ=; b=NKUggO0eiy0V0xlGmmJ2oHx42TEy/TnnZq++VvloySL8BzKKTvzoUAy9hCVYUxX+af Wu9ExPRXnOCsRd8BQ83Df4zz1tLvhf7XypZuiaZD/XYsFc+2mOMp3YUiP2vFMvZrq1Y8 Ip+bSefd6ImdnwPJVm3wftpKkexdfN/NTCBvs= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=from:to:subject:date:user-agent:cc:references:in-reply-to :mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding :content-disposition:message-id; b=E3pMikGKqgi9UP70iKrUYp5HdQxtX+1LyElILSyHikLmIn7asfpelVPGHakHdZJdDM tEHi4YCMBaCQNqF0YEuQd5PeI45COJgCHn2f7gpqLgWfOdYwApXFTCutEb9+v8QfVDkJ j4BcxTFVmRQzvAAPjtRNcwKij2STCbSClE0O4= Received: by 10.223.123.212 with SMTP id q20mr1683193far.28.1286786414214; Mon, 11 Oct 2010 01:40:14 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [192.168.1.13] (abvy23.neoplus.adsl.tpnet.pl [83.8.222.23]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id a16sm2565558fak.19.2010.10.11.01.40.10 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Mon, 11 Oct 2010 01:40:11 -0700 (PDT) User-Agent: KMail/1.9.3 In-Reply-To: Content-Disposition: inline Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: On Mon, 11 Oct 2010, =C3=86var Arnfj=C3=B6r=C3=B0 Bjarmason wrote: > On Mon, Oct 11, 2010 at 07:47, Michael J Gruber > wrote: >=20 > (CC-ing Jakub Narebski, who maintains configure.ac) I wouldn't say that I maintain it. I was one of people who started it, and I try to keep it from being too bitrotten, by asking to provide configure test when adding new configure knob to main Makefile. I am certainly not an expert on autoconf. > I don't like it. For one this would break build scripts that use `mak= e > configure && ./configure && ...`. It's also annoying to have to set > some variable to *really* invoke a target that I just indicated I > *really* wanted by invoking it in the first place. >=20 > Perhaps a @echo from the configure script itself indicating that it's > complimentary would be better. >=20 > > For most software packages, untar-autoconf/make configure-configure= -make > > is the preferred way to build the package; not so for Git. But the > > presence of the make target makes people believe so. >=20 > Unlike in most packages autoconf is strictly complimentary for Git, > but it usually gives you much better results. Instead of the Makefile > guessing based on `uname -s` we actually check for features and set > the config.mak.autogen variables accordingly. That's why we have it, to be able to check for features, rather than guess based on operating system and its version. =20 > So it's less likely to break on odd systems, and given that (as you > point out) mostly everyone has autoconf already recommending it as th= e > default would make more sense than the other way around. But thanks to having ./configure optional step, we can build git also on platforms that doesn't have autoconf installed (though the same coul= d be achieved by bundling ./configure script with release tarballs). > > =C2=A0 =C2=A0On an annecdotical note: When I decided to switch to a= dvcs, I failed building > > =C2=A0 =C2=A0Git (with configure) and tried out hg instead. Imagine= ! >=20 > What sort of failure? Has it been fixed since then? --=20 Jakub Narebski Poland