Re: [bug-inetutils] [SCM] GNU Inetutils branch, master, updated. inetutils-1_9_1-168-g9aa72c7

[Simon Josefsson]

Mats Erik Andersson <address@hidden> writes:

> fredag den 14 september 2012 klockan 00:42 skrev Simon Josefsson detta:
>> Mats Erik Andersson <address@hidden> writes:
>> 
>> With AC_LIB_HAVE_LINKFLAGS I think you would deal with it in the
>> following ways:
>> 
>> 1) ./configure --with-idn (finds idna.h and libidn.so directly)
>> 
>> 2) ./configure CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/include/idn --with-idn
>>    (also search /usr/include/idn for idna.h)
>> 
>> 3) ./configure --with-idn --with-libidn-prefix=/usr/pkg
>> 
>> why wouldn't this work?
>
> It is exactly the insertion of CPPFLAGS I would like to circumvent.
> Personally, I regard the selection of options as flawed whenever
> I need to resort to the CPPFLAGS trickery.

What is "trickery" about CPPFLAGS?  It is documented by ./configure
--help:

  CPPFLAGS    (Objective) C/C++ preprocessor flags, e.g. -I<include dir> if
              you have headers in a nonstandard directory <include dir>

Finding nonstandard header files is precisely what it is for, and users
know about it since year.  If anything, nonstandard variants like two
parameters for incdir+libdir seems stranger than something which has
been documented for a long time.

>> I agree it would be a nicer symmetry if AC_LIB_HAVE_LINKFLAGS provided
>> two parameters, one for includedir and one for libdir.  But it is mostly
>> an aesthetic improvement, as the code should deal with setting CPPFLAGS
>> to the includedir and --with-libidn-prefix to the libdir.
>
> Could a reformulation with AC_LIB_HAVE_LINKFLAGS achieve the following,
> simplified use case set? My present implementation does not!
>
>   * Library and header file in system path:
>
>     ./configure --with-idn
>
>   * Library and header use common base directory, outside
>     of system path (remove need for extra --with-idn):
>
>     ./configure --with-libidn-prefix=/usr/pkg
>
>   * Header file in private directory, library in system path:
>
>     ./configure --with-idn=/usr/include/idn
>
>   * Header file tucked away, library not detectable by system:
>
>     ./configure --with-idn=/usr/local/idn --with-libidn-prefix=/usr/local
>
> In case you can achieve this, I would very much like to see that
> you commit it to our repository.

All of those variants should be possible with AC_LIB_HAVE_LINKFLAGS and
CPPFLAGS.

/Simon