Re: build tools standard

[James Henstridge <james daa com au>]

Rodney Dawes wrote:

> I agree totally with this. libtool 1.4.3, automake 1.6, and autoconf
> 2.53 seem to be a good standard to use. Perhaps we should write up a
> policy to propose?
>  
Given that a lot of modules are currently using automake-1.4, this will 
involve upgrading those modules.  If we are upgrading them, why not go 
to the latest versions?  The older versions contain known bugs that have 
been fixed since then.

Automake-1.7.2 offers a number of newer features over 1.6.3, and also a 
number of bug fixes (it uses the autoconf trace functionality to parse 
the configure script, which gives much more reliable results).  I would 
also recommend going with the latest version of autoconf.

One other problem with going with the older versions is that it will be 
more difficult to get help from the autoconf/automake maintainers.  The 
first thing they will do when we ask for help is to ask if the problem 
occurs in the latest version.  We ran into that problem when using 
automake-1.4, and I don't want to repeat that mistake again for any of 
my modules.

Lastly, this whole discussion ignores the fact that some modules may in 
fact require a bug fix or new feature in an updated version of a build tool.

James.

--
Email: james daa com au
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