Re: [Groff] Automake migration proposal

[Werner LEMBERG]

Hello Bertrand!


> In order to understand the overall groff architecture and the
> various binaries and tools, I first studied the current build system
> and started to migrate it to automake.

Great!

> I know this is not the priority and that even some persons in the
> mailing list would dislike such migration, [...]

Well, *I* consider it high-priority, since it makes it able to
modernize groff with little effort, namely by relying on gnulib
routines that are `bullet proof' most of the time.

> To test my work (which is still a draft): [...]

Before we can proceed with integratation of your work, it's necessary
that you sign a copyright assignment.  I'm sending you something
privately.

> - Also, it seems that some files of libgroff.a could be replaced
>   directly by gnulib, but I haven't check this point in details.

Yes, there is a lot of redundancy, which is one of the main reasons to
migrate to gnulib.

> - make dist does not work in an out-of-source build tree.

After a complete conversion to automake, this will certainly work
also.

> - When compiling on a distro that does not have an existing groff
> installed, build of font/devpdf/U-* fonts will fail because afmtodit is
> generated after the build of these fonts.

Interesting.  We have missed this until now, but I think it should be
resolvable by adding proper dependencies.


    Werner