Re: Fixes for builddir != srcdir

[Raja R Harinath]

Hi,

Akim Demaille <address@hidden> writes:
> | The following patch makes it possible to use the testsuite in a
> | non-srcdir build. 
> 
> I don't exactly agree on the terms you use here: your changes are
> making it possible for the maintainer to keep her src/build trees
> separate, but a regular user has strictly no problems running the test
> suite with src != build.
[snip -- reordering paragraphs]
> But I'd like the opinion of other maintainers.  Personally I would
> not fight to be able to maintain Autoconf with src != build, while
> it is important on the user side, agreed.

I agree I was unclear.  But, I think the lack of clarity is justified
:-)  Afterall, any user can turn into a maintainer just by editing the
source files.  The problem then is that, if

  * I have srcdir != builddir
  * I edit configure.in to annotate local changes

the testsuite will fail.
 
> | Part 2 of solution: Put acversion.m4 in $srcdir.  (While at it, put
> | created INSTALL.txt in $srcdir too.)
> 
> It seems a lot of hair to me (new Make rules for something which is
> quite logically under the responsibility of configure etc.).  

I have to disagree somewhat.  After all, acversion.m4 does not depend
on the result of a configure.  There are no user dependent changes.
For a given version of autoconf, 'acversion.m4' is invariant.  It just
happens so that the primary location of the version information is in
'configure.in'.

- Hari
-- 
Raja R Harinath ------------------------------ address@hidden
"When all else fails, read the instructions."      -- Cahn's Axiom
"Our policy is, when in doubt, do the right thing."   -- Roy L Ash