Re: [PATCH] bootstrap: add bootstrap_sync option.

[Joel E. Denny]

Hi Paul,

On Mon, 18 Oct 2010, Paul Eggert wrote:

> How about another idea: have a very simple bootstrap script.  All it
> does is fetch gnulib, and execute gnulib's more-complicated script.

We've started down that road before, but for a different initial reason.  
The idea arises a few messages into the following thread:

  http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-coreutils/2008-04/msg00222.html

Maybe it's worth reviewing.

On Mon, 18 Oct 2010, Paul Eggert wrote:

> On 10/18/2010 08:34 PM, Gary V. Vaughan wrote:
> > I would prefer your "boot" script to be called "bootstrap", and rename
> > the current "bootstrap" to something else, maybe "autoconfiscate"
> 
> Yes, that would be even better.  "autoconfiscate" is a bit long, though.
> 
> How about "cobble" instead?  "cobble" is a nice word, since it falls
> between "bootstrap" and "make", and it has all the right connotations:
> a cobbler makes (and repairs) boots, and a programmer cobbles together a hack.

It's clever, but why not something more obvious like the following?

  bootstrap-call
  bootstrap-full

Gnulib users will see that there are two bootstrap scripts to choose from, 
and they can read the documentation to understand the difference.  I 
suspect most will want to rename the script that they select to just 
"bootstrap" when they copy it to their local project.