[tex-k] bld-test-1.1

[Peter Breitenlohner]

On Wed, 28 Jan 2009, Karl Berry wrote:

>    5. There is, however, the following problem: for an uninstalled library one
>    has to AC_SUBST, e.g., FOO_INCLUDES='-I${top_srcdir}/../../libs/foo' and
>    FOO_LIBS='${top_builddir}/../../lib/foo/libfoo.la' whereas for configure
>    tests one needs FOO_INCLUDES="-I$srcdir/../../libs/foo" and
>    FOO_LIBS="../../lib/foo/libfoo.la".
>
> Can you explain why?
> Or maybe it would be easier to understand in the context of a test
> tarball.

Hi Karl,

good question, because it didn't occur to me that one could use the absolute
paths.

> Anyway, FWIW, just looking at your two choices on the face of it:
>
>    Of course, one could use different names for these two sets of variables,
>    but that might confuse the user.
>
>    Or one can arrange that the value of these variables is changed
>    immediately before configure creates config.status which in turn
>    creates Makefile et.al.
>
> Playing games with what is in config.status sounds distinctly
> unappealing.  Having different names for the variables might be ugly and
> confusing, but it sounds far less intrusive ...

Your question triggered a better idea: during configure one can set, e.g.,
FOO_INCLUDES="-I$ac_abs_confdir/../../libs/foo" and
FOO_INCLUDES="-I$ac_pwd/../../libs/foo" (with ac_abs_confdir and ac_pwd set
by configure to the absoute paths of the src and build directories).  These
values are also valid for make, nevertheless I'd like to rewrite them in
terms of ${top_srcdir} and ${top_builddir} for use in Makefile.

Regards
Peter Breitenlohner <peb at mppmu.mpg.de>