Re: svn and autoconf

On Sat, 19 Nov 2011 08:32:47 +0000, tsteven4 wrote:
...
> >configure: configure.in
> > autoconf
>
> Make has a hard time deciding if it needs to build configure. It ends
> up depending on the order the files were pulled during the "svn co"
> command. My experience on other projects is that you can not count on
> the timestamp order to be consistent. It seems that after a checkout
> make sometimes thinks a target is out of date and other times it doesn't.

Correct.

...
> This seems like a general issue with subversion any time a target and a
> dependency of that target are both in the repository.

This is not subversion-specific (except that a similar quirk lurks
in the subversion sources). Putting a target under version control
is the exact opposite of 'source code control'; there will always be
issues with make (or other) dependencies, independent of what time
stamps a checkout produces..

> Does any body know of a good way to resolve this? Clearly I can touch
> configure before I make, but I am looking for a more general and
> automated solution.

Don't put 'configure' under version control. Expect people who use
a checkout to have 'autoconf' installed (yuck).

When producing a release .tar file that shall not use autoconf,
run autoconf, remove the autoconf rule from the makefile, and
tar the result (with or without configure.in).

Andreas

-- 
"Totally trivial. Famous last words."
From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@*.org>
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:29:21 -0800