[postgis-devel] Issue 142 in postgis: 1.4 snapshot build is broken

[codesite-noreply at google.com]

Comment #8 on issue 142 by mloskot: 1.4 snapshot build is broken
http://code.google.com/p/postgis/issues/detail?id=142

I have managed to build PostGIS trunk. After I updated today, I experienced  
problems
with running ./configure. It was throwing error about missing config.sub  
script.
Strange, because the script is actually in the repository.

I use Ubuntu 8.10 with libtool 2.2.4, autoconf 2.61 and automake 1.10.1.

Anyway, I've investigated this and there are number of issues:

1. Behavior of libtoolize has changed. I was wrong saying the problem is  
not related
to versions. Paul, please accept my apology.

2. Here is what libtool NEWS [*] says:

<code>
New in 1.9b: 2004-08-29; CVS version 1.5a, Libtool team:

Like automake, libtoolize no longer installs config.guess and config.sub by
   default.  Use new --install option to get the old behaviour.
</code>

[*]  
(http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/libtool/NEWS?root=libtool&view=markup)

3. For libtool 1.9b+, option --install is required. So, it seems autogen.sh  
needs to
detect automake and libtool versions to set options properly.

4. I have attached my custom version of autogen.sh based on the one I  
prepared for
GEOS. I have used this autogen.sh to configure PostGIS successfully. See  
TODO
comment, it says what is to be done to handle variety of libtool versions.

5. It's not a good idea to keep intermediate files in repository. I'd  
suggest to
remove files like config.sub, config.guess and install-sh. All these files  
will be
properly installed by libtoolize tool.

A digression:

Frank is protecting GDAL against autotools-hell by being the only master of
configuration and keeping all autotool stuff in a repo. I don't like it.  
Many (if not
most) FOSS projects (see GNOME Foundation, Mozilla Foundation) have learned  
that it's
a bad idea. When I was helping Frank in the project, I never built GDAL  
without
--without-libtool option, unless I had to fix libtool-related configuration  
in GDAL.
There is number of projects that went further and they don't use automake  
(PostGIS
included) as well as they don't use libtool (i.e. GRASS, Mozilla). There  
reasons
reasons [**] and these projects can live without it.

[**]
http://grass.itc.it/pipermail/grass5/2002-April/005065.html
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Mozilla_Build_FAQ

*Perhaps*, it isn't a bad idea to re-think use of libtool in PostGIS too and
eventually get rid of libtool.

Attachments:
	autogen.sh  1.6 KB

--
You received this message because you are listed in the owner
or CC fields of this issue, or because you starred this issue.
You may adjust your issue notification preferences at:
http://code.google.com/hosting/settings