Re: [Groff] texinfo, makeinfo and their relation to groff

[Werner LEMBERG]

> 
> While I wasa trying to get rid of texinfo for a certain system
> (runnig Gentoo Linux), I ran into the following comment inside the
> doc/Makefile.sub (and Makefile.in):
> 
> >>>>>>>
> # Since info files are distributed within the groff package, no
> # autoconf test for the makeinfo binary is done.
> MAKEINFO=makeinfo
> <<<<<<<
> 
> Can somebody explain what that means?

It means that only developers who build from the CVS need makeinfo --
the tarball comes with groff info files.

> Hard-wiring MAKEINFO to makeinfo without a test that it is really
> present is not the best practice IMHO. For systems that do not have
> texinfo installed it just breaks at compile time (in the doc
> directory).

No, it doesn't.  Assuming that your time stamps are correct, makeinfo
will never be called.

> Is there any particular reason to NOT test for makeinfo?

Lazyness.  Do you want to provide a fix?


    Werner