Re: [PATCH] Makefile: check that tcl/tk is installed

From: Todd Zullinger <tmz@pobox.com>
Date: Nov 27, 2017, 05:22 UTC
Message-ID: <20171127052254.GA3693@zaya.teonanacatl.net>
In-Reply-To: <20171127043502.GA5946@sigill>

Jeff King wrote:

> Yeah, this side-steps the "other half" of the issue that Christian's 
> patch addresses, which seems like the more controversial part (I don't 
> have a strong opinion myself, though).

I don't either. The general motivation there, as far as I understand, is that it's undesirable to have 'make install' install tools that cannot run.

Perhaps it's worth noting that there are other commands installed by default which won't work out of the box. For example, 'git svn' requires subversion at run time but not at build time.

If there aren't many such commands, then maybe checking for them in the Makefile is reasonable to make installing git from source easier for new users. Without looking closely, I can't do more than take a wild guess.

As a package maintainer and an aging sysadmin, I'd bet that there are more dependencies than one might initially guess. I also tend to think that by the time most users want something newer than their OS provides that they're a bit more able to deal with these sort of issues. But I could easily be wrong on all counts.

-- 
Todd
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Going to trial with a lawyer who considers your whole life-style a
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