Re: Handling of sub-packages by autoconf interfaces

[SF Markus Elfring]

> A better reason is simply to save people time chasing dependencies.

I like this purpose for software bundling usually.


> I’m referring to the fact that with embedded tarballs,
> you can’t call AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS() to make the top-level configure script
> call the subpackage configure scripts.

Do you need to pass any special configuration parameters there occasionally?


> Because unpacking the tarballs is conditional,

It can happen that I need and really want to reuse an older package
so that the corresponding software version will work for a while.


> your main software package must be reinventing this wheel,

The archive can also be unpacked on a concrete demand, can't it?


> and therefore probably missing out on some of the 20 years of wisdom
> embedded within autoconf, such as how to pass along things like --prefix,
> how to handle separate build and source trees, etc.

Are there any extensions needed like they would be supported by
the macro "AC_CONFIG_SUBDIR_CUSTOM" from Christian Rössel as a contribution
to the topic "Multiple subdirectories with non-similar configure needs"?
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/autoconf/2011-04/msg00006.html

Regards,
Markus