[bug-inetutils] Re: inetutils release...

[Simon Josefsson]

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

>    >    +telnet.1: $(top_srcdir)/telnet/main.c $(top_srcdir)/configure.ac
>    >    +     $(HELP2MAN) \
>    >    +             --name="User interface to TELNET" \
>    >    +             --output=$@ $(top_builddir)/telnet/telnet$(EXEEXT)
>    >
>    > Is there no easier way to do this than duplicate each rule?
>
>    The rules aren't completely similar, several things will vary between
>    each man page:
>
>      1) the --name parameter is different for each tool (but maybe a .x
>       file is a better idea here), and
>
>      2) the dependencies will be different for each tool, and
>
>      3) the binary name to use will also be different for each tool.
>
>    Ideas for better approaches welcome, I don't see any _easy_ solution
>    that reduces redundancy, although there may be some more complex
>    solutions that would reduce redundancy.
>
>    I'm not sure if more complexity is better than less redundancy though,
>    both are unwanted properties.
>
> How about something like (depends on GNU Make, but I do not see that
> as a problem),

I think adding a dependency on GNU make for people who build InetUtils
should be avoided if we can.

However looking more at CoreUtils man/Makefile.am I think we can come up
with a generic rule that will work without GNU make.  I'll propose a new
patch later.

/Simon

> # $(call help2man-rule, TOOL-NAME, DESC, DEPEND)
> #   Target for help2man generation.
> define help2man-rule
> $1.1: $(top_srcdir)/$1/$3 $(top_srcdir)/configure.ac
>       $(HELP2MAN) \
>         --name="$2" \
>         --output=$@ $(top_builddir)/$1/$1$(EXEEXT)
> endef
>
> $(call help2man-rule, telnet, Telnet client, main.c)
> $(call help2man-rule, rsh, Remote shell client, rsh.c)
> ...