Re: [RFC PATCH] Makefile: Turn off the configure target by default

["Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason" <avarab@gmail.com>]

On Mon, Oct 11, 2010 at 07:47, Michael J Gruber
<git@drmicha.warpmail.net> wrote:

(CC-ing Jakub Narebski, who maintains configure.ac)

I don't like it. For one this would break build scripts that use `make
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.

Perhaps a @echo from the configure script itself indicating that it's
complimentary would be better.

> 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.

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.

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 the
default would make more sense than the other way around.

>    On an annecdotical note: When I decided to switch to a dvcs, I failed building
>    Git (with configure) and tried out hg instead. Imagine!

What sort of failure? Has it been fixed since then?