[bug-gnulib] Re: gettext sync from source?

[Simon Josefsson]

address@hidden (Karl Berry) writes:

>     AUTOPOINT=true autoreconf --force --install
>
> gnulib files are newer than autoreconf files.  Therefore --force should
> not be used.
>
> I recall having this exact problem, and for some reason thinking I
> needed --force.  It came up in a discussion with Alexandre (Duret-Lutz)
> and he said the above (don't use --force).  I haven't gotten back to it
> since.

That doesn't work either, I get:

address@hidden:~/src/base64$ autoreconf --install
autopoint: File m4/codeset.m4 has been locally modified.
autopoint: File m4/gettext.m4 has been locally modified.
autopoint: File m4/glibc21.m4 has been locally modified.
autopoint: File m4/iconv.m4 has been locally modified.
autopoint: File m4/intmax.m4 has been locally modified.
autopoint: File m4/inttypes_h.m4 has been locally modified.
autopoint: File m4/lib-ld.m4 has been locally modified.
autopoint: File m4/lib-link.m4 has been locally modified.
autopoint: File m4/lib-prefix.m4 has been locally modified.
autopoint: File m4/longdouble.m4 has been locally modified.
autopoint: File m4/longlong.m4 has been locally modified.
autopoint: File m4/signed.m4 has been locally modified.
autopoint: File m4/size_max.m4 has been locally modified.
autopoint: File m4/stdint_h.m4 has been locally modified.
autopoint: File m4/uintmax_t.m4 has been locally modified.
autopoint: File m4/ulonglong.m4 has been locally modified.
autopoint: File m4/wchar_t.m4 has been locally modified.
autopoint: File m4/wint_t.m4 has been locally modified.
autopoint: File m4/xsize.m4 has been locally modified.
autopoint: *** Some files have been locally modified. Not overwriting them 
because --force has not been specified. For your convenience, you find the 
local modifications in the file '/tmp/aroDxZia/autopoint.diff.4SpYqc'.
autopoint: *** Stop.
autoreconf: autopoint failed with exit status: 1
address@hidden:~/src/base64$

In other projects, I need --force to overwrite the gnulib provided
files, otherwise I get the same error as in this thread.  This has
worked well in the past.

> For Texinfo's bootstrap script, I'm currently doing this:
> cmd="$ACLOCAL -I m4 && $AUTOHEADER && $AUTOMAKE && $AUTOCONF"
>
> Alexandre says it would be better to use autoreconf instead, which I
> agree with in principle, but ...
>
> In general, the relationship between gnulib and auto* is not exactly
> worked out yet, so any ideas/improvements are all to the good.

Perhaps the files can be written in a style that make them less
fragile for these kind of errors.  Or either gnulib or autopoint could
make sure all files that are required are present.

Thanks.