Re: [PATCH] improve 'autotools-install'

[Jim Meyering]

Assaf Gordon wrote:

> Hello Stefano,
>
> Stefano Lattarini wrote, On 02/22/2013 02:30 AM:
>> On 02/22/2013 12:08 AM, Assaf Gordon wrote:
>>>
>> I think this explanation should go in the commit message of the second patch,
>> as it makes clear why such patch is needed.
>>
>
> Good idea, attached an improved patch.
>
>>>
>>> Sadly, autotools-install still doesn't complete, because gettext0.18.1
>>> fails to compile with stpncpy() related problem (exactly as solved in
>>> coreutils [2]) but that's is not a coreutil bug.
>>>
>> Is the issue still present with the latest gettext version (1.18.2)?  If not,
>> you could update the '$tarballs' definition to point to that instead.
>
> No, 0.18.2 doesn't compile either.
> Eric Blake already found the fix for this, I'll just send the gettext
> people a bug report.
>
>>
>> Also, I see that the Automake version referenced by '$tarballs' is still
>> 1.12.3; I think it should be updated to the latest available version
>> (1.13.2 at the moment of writing).
>>
>
> I can send a separate patch for that, but perhaps others would chime
> in as to whether this should be done?
> I assume changing version (1.12 vs 1.13) should be done when it's
> explicitly needed?

My policy for that script has been to use the very latest.
I suppose that if there's a perceived problem with using the
very latest, we could revise it, but I'd prefer to report
the problem, and increment the version number yet again when
a fixed release is available.

Ideally, there would be a way to automatically check for the
latest versions of these tools and warn when the script's
hard-coded versions are no longer up to date.  One might be
tempted to make the script try to find the latest ones by
itself, but imho, that is not appropriate.  A human should
vet any suggested change in recommended package versions.

Thanks for working on it.