[gnuastro-devel] [task #15053] Configure option to download and install dependencies

[Mohammad Akhlaghi]

URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/task/?15053>

                 Summary: Configure option to download and install
dependencies
                 Project: GNU Astronomy Utilities
            Submitted by: makhlaghi
            Submitted on: Thu 27 Sep 2018 01:11:59 PM CEST
         Should Start On: Thu 27 Sep 2018 12:00:00 AM CEST
   Should be Finished on: Thu 27 Sep 2018 12:00:00 AM CEST
                Category: Installation
                Priority: 5 - Normal
              Item Group: Enhancement
                  Status: Postponed
                 Privacy: Public
        Percent Complete: 0%
             Assigned to: None
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
                  Effort: 0.00

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Details:

The procedure to download, unpack and install Gnuastro's dependencies from
source is very standard and well known (as described in the manual). 

So to greatly simplify the necessary steps a new Gnuastro user has to take, we
can add a configure-time option like `--enable-build-dependencies'. 

When this option is called, once the configure script checks all the
dependencies, it can start downloading the tarballs of the ones that are
missing and build and install them. Afterwards it can re-do the checks to make
sure they are installed and usable and continue with its other checks. 

This will greatly simplify the installation process for new users, while also
ensuring that they get the latest packages.

All Gnuastro's dependencies are very small and basic libraries (except for
Ghostscript!). For Ghostscript we can use the user's package manager, or just
ignore it over all (it is only for generating PDF outputs in ConvertType), its
not an mandatory, or even important, dependency. 

In fact, with the various package manager commands
<https://www.gnu.org/software/gnuastro/manual/html_node/Dependencies-from-package-managers.html,>
we have gathered in the book for the dependencies, we might also be able to
simply use them (instead of downloading and building them from source). 

Probably we can implement this simpler solution first, or build from source
only when the operating system's package manager is not recognized.




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