Re: [bug-inetutils] Internationalized domain names teaser

[Simon Josefsson]

"Alfred M. Szmidt" <address@hidden> writes:

>    +# Check for GNU Libidn
>    +AC_ARG_WITH(idn,
>    +  AC_HELP_STRING([--without-idn],
>    +          [don't use GNU Libidn for IDN]))
>
> Please do not use --with for features, use enable.  --with is used to
> make a program work with something, like for example with the GNU
> assembler.  From the GNU Coding Standard:
>
> `--enable-FEATURE[=PARAMETER]'
>      Configure the package to build and install an optional user-level
>      facility called FEATURE.  This allows users to choose which
>      optional features to include.  Giving an optional PARAMETER of
>      `no' should omit FEATURE, if it is built by default.

Hm, it goes on to say:

,----
| No `--enable' option should ever cause one feature to replace
| another. No `--enable' option should ever substitute one useful
| behavior for another useful behavior. The only proper use for
| `--enable' is for questions of whether to build part of the program or
| exclude it.
`----

Using or not using IDN are both useful behaviours (you don't want to
use IDN on small systems for instance), and for this patch the IDN
flag indicates whether one code path or another path should be used,
it does not merely enable or disable certain code.  The "--with"
examples given includes X11, which seems similar to a package like
libidn.

I don't have a strong opinion though, so if you like I can send a new
patch that uses AC_ARG_ENABLE -- although I think we should wait to
see if this problem is solved in libc instead, in that case a
completely different patch to inetutils will be needed instead.