AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS

[Stefan Seefeld]

hi there,

some weeks ago we discussed ways to enhance the AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS
macro, to be able to let subdir configure calls fail in a controlled
way. What happened to that feature request ? Do you plan to make
enhancements in that direction ?

The situation is this: I'm working on the build system for a big
project with a set of subprojects. I want to be able to have a single
toplevel 'configure' script that configures all the subprojects (but
I also want to be able to configure individual subprojects by hand).

The catch is that depending on the environment, I expect some 
subprojects not to compile, i.e. I expect the sub-configure to fail.
There is right now no way to tell the toplevel configure script to
accept failures for specific subprojects.

And here is another feature request: these subprojects depend on
each other, i.e. if I have projects 'X' and 'Y', I want to configure
'Y' with specific arguments such as '--with-X-prefix' pointing to
the location of 'X' (which could already be installed...).

Right now AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS doesn't accept any arguments, so I
can't pass subproject specific arguments to the configure script.
Ideally, I'd like to be able to do something like

AC_CONFIG_SUBDIR(my/subproject[, some-args][, action-if-successful][, 
action-if-failed])

Any chance to see such a macro some day ?

Thanks,
                Stefan