Re: enable/disable configure options for subpackages

[Stepan Kasal]

Hello,

On Tue, Jul 26, 2005 at 08:55:30PM -0400, Bob Rossi wrote:
> Does autoconf
> only pass the explicit arguments down to the lower confurations? or if I
> have a --enable-shared=no defaulted option, would that work?

it passes the options as they were given on the cmdline.
So if you don't give an option explicitely, a subconfigure can have
different default than the upper package.

> On Fri, Jul 15, 2005 at 12:14:44PM +0200, Stepan Kasal wrote:
> > Of course some hacks are possible:
> > 1) fiddle with ac_args before AC_OUTPUT.
> >    Of course this solution may easily break with future versions of 
> > autoconf.
> > 
> > 2) Read what AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS does (how it propagates the arguments), and
> >    do the same in configure.ac
> > 
> > 3) Simply call the embedded configure, and add features from
> >    AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS only when someone asks for it.
...
> These answers are all very helpful. However, I'm wondering if there is a
> simple way of sending the --disable-shared option to AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS
> in a way that will be good with future versions of autoconf.

I don't know about any documented way.  Any of the above options can be simple.

> Just wondering if this feature is supported by autoconf?

That's the hard part.
No, I don't think this is available from documented options.
Autoconf and, more importantly, its documentation would have to be enhanced
to support this.  Do you feel like writing a patch to this effect?

But a simple hack is much simpler.

And remember, the developpers run autoconf to build the tarball.  The users
should just build from this tarball, without any need for Autotools installed.
So it doesn't mind _that_ much if you are not portabale to other versions of
Autoconf.

Have a nice day,
        Stepan