Re: [Demexp-dev] Troublesome build system modifications

[David MENTRE]

Hello Christophe,

GISQUET Christophe <address@hidden> writes:

> I find the current way of modifying the build process a bit
> bothersome. First you have to edit Makefile to test, then port changes
> to config/Makefile.inc

Or edit config/Makefile.inc and redo a configure. But you're right, this
is quite boring.

> Therefore I propose that Makefile simply includes config/Makefile.inc,
> hoping it is not a gnu-ism.

It is probably a gnu-ism but not the first one in the Makefile.


> Furthermore, this begs the question whether config/Makefile.inc should
> simply become Makefile, including Makefile.inc generated by
> configure. This sounds somewhat more logical and the way used by
> almost all software I know.

At first, I thought that we should follow all other softwares. But not
having a Makefile *force* people to do an initial configure, which is
not so bad. :-) And I'm deliberately not using autotools.

So I applied your patch.

> Last but not least, it may be interesting to:
> - have Makefile be generated on a configure change; storing the options
> passed to configure could be used when reinvoking it

This is currently done:

 1. Makefile is generated for each configure change;

 2. The configure arguments are stored in the generated Makefile:

~/pub/demexp/hg/work$ head -1 Makefile 
# generated by ./configure --prefix /tmp --for-developer

Or I haven't understood your question? 

> - a change in Makefile would cause a recompilation
> I believe that this is overkill (recompiling automatically when
> developer knows best when he should recompile), but I still wanted to
> mention it.

I think this would be a bit excessive but it would ensure that the build
is coherent with the Makefile. On the other side, we can say that doing
a 'make clean && ./configure' is part of playing with the build
system. I don't change that part for now.

Best wishes,
d.
-- 
GPG/PGP key: A3AD7A2A David MENTRE <address@hidden>
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