Re: [Gnucap-devel] New gnucap development snapshot

[al davis]

On Thursday 07 December 2006 09:10, nbs_r wrote:
> After executing "configure;make" I've got a following build
> error:
>
> =================
> make[3]: Entering directory `/tmp/gnucap-2006-12-04/man'
> WARNING:  latex was not found on your system but
>            gnucap-man.dvi is out of date and needs to be
>            rebuilt from the LaTeX .tex files. Changes to
>            the .tex files will be ignored.
> /usr/bin/dvipdfm gnucap-man
>
> gnucap-man.dvi -> gnucap-man.pdf
>
> dvi_init:  Specified DVI file doesn't exist
>
> Output file removed.
> make[3]: *** [gnucap-man.pdf] Error 1
> make[3]: Leaving directory
> `/tmp/gnucap/gnucap-2006-12-04/man' 
> ================= 

Let me guess ...  You have dvipdfm installed, but not latex.
NBS: Please check to confirm this.
Try building with "./configure.old;make", which only builds the 
docs if you ask.
Alternatively, try "touch gnucap-man.dvi" then "touch 
gnucap-man.pdf" after ./configure, before make.  That should 
block building of gnucap-man.pdf, which should hide the 
problem.

Dan: (and others..)
I think it should not build the docs by default.  Gnu guidelines 
say not to build docs by default.  Gnu guidelines also say that 
anything built by running "make" should not be supplied.

I think some kind of readable manual is needed.  The pdf file is 
one way to do this.  Seeing how common it is to not have latex, 
it seems to me that providing the .pdf (as is done) and having 
it not built unless explicitly requested is the way to do it.  
With the old build system, you cd to man and do "make 
pdf", "make html" or whatever you want, or "make" for all of 
them.

Another point, regarding the .dvi file ...  Apparently, make 
looks at the whole chain ..  .pdf depends on .dvi, so if .dvi 
is missing, build it , etc. even if I didn't ask for .dvi .  
You might say to provide .dvi, which would stop .pdf from being 
built.  Actually a null file works as well.  I think it just 
points again to that the docs should not be built by default, 
as per Gnu recommendations.