Re: Still unable to build trunk

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: Jim Meyering <address@hidden>
> Cc: Paul Eggert <address@hidden>,  address@hidden,  address@hidden,  
> address@hidden
> Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2011 16:33:00 +0100
> 
> In many gnulib-using projects, we address two types of
> users who build from source:
>   - those who build from a distribution tarball
>   - those who build from upstream clone/checkout
> 
> Obviously, when building from a tarball, there are only the usual, minimal
> requirements specified in the GCS.  E.g., use of autoconf, automake, makeinfo,
> etc. are not required.
> 
> However, those who build from the latest sources, as checked out
> from version control must have tools that meet certain standards.
> [...]
> and an automated check for the presence and minimal-acceptable versions
> of build-related tools (this is from bootstrap.conf):
> 
>   # Build prerequisites
>   buildreq="\
>   autoconf   2.62
>   automake   1.11.1
>   autopoint  -
>   bison      -
>   gettext    0.17
>   git        1.4.4
>   gperf      -
>   gzip       -
>   makeinfo   -
>   patch      -
>   perl       5.5
>   rsync      -
>   tar        -
>   xz         -
>   "

It sounds harsh to me to ask every one who builds out of VCS to have
to climb such a steep curve.  If you read the reports in this forum,
you will see that many of those who do that are no more knowledgeable
in build tools than those who build distribution tarballs.  A person
who installs bzr does not necessarily know about autotools.  She is
not necessarily a "developer" of Emacs, just someone who wants the
latest and the greatest.

Even core Emacs maintainers have trouble with these prerequisites, for
any number of reasons (e.g., Autoconf installed on fencepost is too
old for what Paul added to the Emacs tree, so until the GNU admins
upgrade that at my request, I cannot build the current tree).  Imagine
what will happen to people with less experience and grey hair,
especially if they do that on systems they don't own.