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Re: Chicken/egg problem building from a 'git clone'

From
JEJoi Ellis <gyles19@visi.com>
Date
Mar 1, 2009, 15:56 UTC
Message-ID
<Pine.LNX.4.44.0903010945290.4675-100000@localhost.localdomain>
In-Reply-To
<7vskmr43le.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org>
On Fri, 6 Feb 2009, Junio C Hamano wrote:
Show 17 quoted lines
> Jeff King <peff@peff.net> writes:
> 
> > Now, in this case, it was only one tweak and other responders have
> > already pointed him in the right direction. So just making that tweak
> > manually is probably the sane thing to do in this situation.
> >
> > But I wanted to point out that autoconf is not totally without value
> > here.
> 
> I am not saying something that strong, either.  If autoconf generated
> configure works _for you_ without hassle, great.  Keep using it.
> 
> The original message that started this thread was what to do when it does
> NOT work for you, and my point was in general it is much nicer to point at
> the knob to tweak from the make invocation command line (or in config.mak)
> than having you spend time on upgrade autoconf, generate configure and run
> it.

Actually, guys, if you go back and re-read my original message, I was pointing out that if you use a 'git clone' to get a build tree, THERE IS NO CONFIGURE SCRIPT in the tree.

The problem is not that the configure script does not work. I pointed out in the first paragraph that the configure script in the TARBALL works just fine. What I pointed out is that the build tree DOES NOT PROVIDE THE CONFIGURE SCRIPT. All I asked you to do is to consider adding the configure script to the repository so that it gets pushed out in a clone.

Show 9 quoted lines
> Fanboys may say that autoconf generated configure is the greatest thing
> since sliced bread.  But let's face it.  Honestly, the track record of
> those people in keeping autoconf part in this project up-to-date has not
> been all that great.  There are things that the generated configure file
> does not detect nor configure correctly (we had --with-expat patch, and we
> also saw "the trailing slash in template_dir definition in config.mak.in"
> discussed fairly recently).  You are much better off tweaking known
> peculiarity of your platform in config.mak, when configure does not work
> out of box for you.

I've been building and installing multi-platform *nix software on various flavors for two decades now. "./configure && make && make install" has been the standard build process even before GNU. The whole point of autoconf/configure/make tools is to eliminate the need to manually tweak makefiles so that software is easily portable between platforms.

I got such a rash of SNOTTY messages from you folks, all directed to me privately, that I nearly deleted git from my laptop altogether. You can be sure I will not bother attempting to build git from a clone ever again. I took the time to debug and diagnose the build failures I was getting, and I tried to politely pass it along in case anyone cares.

Clearly, you don't.  I shall not waste your or my time any further.
-- 
Joi Ellis                    
gyles19@visi.com

No matter what we think of Linux versus FreeBSD, etc., the one thing I
really like about Linux is that it has Microsoft worried.  Anything
that kicks a monopoly in the pants has got to be good for something.
           - Chris Johnson
Previous: Junio C HamanoNext: Björn Steinbrink
Message 13 of 31 in “Chicken/egg problem building from a 'git clone'”
  1. Joi EllisFeb 6, 2009
  2. Johannes SchindelinFeb 6, 2009
  3. Joi EllisFeb 6, 2009
  4. Miles BaderFeb 6, 2009
  5. Junio C HamanoFeb 6, 2009
  6. Miles BaderFeb 6, 2009
  7. Junio C HamanoFeb 6, 2009
  8. Miles BaderFeb 6, 2009
  9. Junio C HamanoFeb 6, 2009
  10. Miles BaderFeb 6, 2009
  11. Jeff KingFeb 6, 2009
  12. Junio C HamanoFeb 6, 2009
  13. Joi EllisMar 1, 2009
  14. Björn SteinbrinkMar 1, 2009
  15. Andreas EricssonMar 5, 2009
  16. John TapsellMar 5, 2009
  17. Jeff KingMar 5, 2009
  18. Matthieu MoyMar 5, 2009
  19. Jeff KingMar 5, 2009
  20. Jakub NarebskiMar 6, 2009
  21. Matthieu MoyMar 6, 2009
  22. Johannes SchindelinMar 6, 2009
  23. John TapsellMar 6, 2009
  24. asciidoc, was Re: Chicken/egg problem building from a 'git clone'Johannes Schindelin, Mar 6, 2009
  25. John TapsellMar 6, 2009
  26. Jakub NarebskiMar 6, 2009
  27. John TapsellMar 6, 2009
  28. Björn SteinbrinkFeb 6, 2009
  29. Johannes SchindelinFeb 6, 2009
  30. Björn SteinbrinkFeb 6, 2009
  31. Daniel BarkalowFeb 6, 2009

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