Depending on external libraries

[Keith Packard]

Egbert asked

> - Allow to build .o files with debugging code stuff by doing
>   'make CDEBUGFLAGS=-g CXXDEBUGFLAGS=-g foo.o' (aka makeg foo.o)?

That's just 'make CFLAGS=-g'

autotools place only the true compiler options in CFLAGS, leaving all of 
the CPP stuff to various INCLUDES flags among others.

>  > Not always - look at the kernel, et al.
> 
> Right. One example where a group changed their build system without
> going to autotools.

I looked at the kernel configuration system; it has a far easier job than 
building X -- there are essentially no "system" dependencies that aren't 
well defined in advance; that's because the only thing lower than the 
kernel is the physical hardware.   It's always compiled with gcc, so there 
aren't any language issues.

So, as nice as that system appears (and, using a file to hold 
configuration options sure is nice), it just isn't up to our task.

That left me with either some way-out tool (there are various configuration
management systems and tools like jam) or a choice between imake and
autotools.  As imake cannot support modular builds, I was really left with
only a single choice.  Fortunately, the autotools are pretty workable and
lots of people know how to make it run.

By wanting a modular build, I was fairly well pushed into using autotools.
So far, it's been pretty easy to get things building; we'll see how the X 
server turns out, that's really the only remaining piece of any difficulty.

Please don't feel compelled to help switch things over to autotools; 
that's my albatross.  But, do make sure you ask questions when you are 
puzzled or stuck trying to make things work; the goal is not to torture 
anyone, but rather to help us all adapt to a system which I strongly 
believe will make our large system far more easily managed.

-keith


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