Re: [bug-gettext] not using sub-configure

[Vincent Torri]

On Thu, Mar 27, 2014 at 4:01 AM, Daiki Ueno <address@hidden> wrote:
> Vincent Torri <address@hidden> writes:
>
>> the build system of gettext is using the sub-configure feature of
>> autoconf, hence the configuration time takes a lot of time (especially
>> same features are checked several times).
>>
>> I would like to know if there is some work to port that build system
>> to only one configure.ac script, and even eventually to a non
>> recursive build ?
>
> I'd say no.  From maintainer's point of view, this clear separation of
> runtime/tools packages helps much, compared to a single large
> configure.ac.

What I did for a large project is

1) a single configure.ac with a clean layout
a) first I detect what is common to all the parts of the project
b) I separate the check of each part cleanly

So, it's in the end the same thing for configuration.

2) non recursive make with several "Makefile.am" files, so that
parallal compilation is the fastest

> If the configuration time really matters, you could try --cache-file
> option of the configure script.
>
> See (info "(autoconf) Cache Files"):
>
>   When `configure' calls `configure' scripts in subdirectories, it uses
>   the `--cache-file' argument so that they share the same cache.

I know that. Unfortunately :

1) not everything is cached (i've just checked that) and hence same
checks are done several times
2) I help a friend to test a Windows package manager, so I configure
gettext from scratch several times
3) I'm on Windows, using MSYS. Each configuration of gettext take
around 6 minutes

I understand your point of view, of course, I just share my point of
view and my own experience

regards

Vincent Torri