2010/4/13 John W. Eaton
<address@hidden>
| # --- and try to build ... --- #
| ./configure # without this 'make distclean' doesnt work the first time
| make distclean
| ./configure # kind of redundant, but needs to be done :-(
Well, with "make distclean", you just wiped out all the files that are
not part of the Octave distribution and that were just generated by
the configure script...
I'm curious, where did you get the idea that you should start with
"make distclean"?
That happens when you configure and make and re-configure and re-make over and over again.
The script I posted is one that with fair certainty works from scratch.
That is because it documents everything I did between 'scratch' and the working executable.
In the case of octave "from scratch" means saving several days of depency-fiddling and huge amounts of coffee.
That is said by someone new to octave-building, I assume that it becomes easier after a few times :-)
I did not care if or if not there are any redundant operations.
The script can be copied "out of the box" to a PC (with ubuntu 9.04) that has never seen octave before and afterwards octave works.
If I change the script (for example for finding out if 'make distclean' is necessary or not) ) I would have to test that change (and only that change) first, otherwise I could never be sure that it still works out of the box.
And testing a build of octave can run for hours before you even find an error.
'make distclean' may or may not be necessary but I have no intention of taking the time to find that out.
Why start with 'make distclean' ?
Actually, there is no reason for that. But it can help if you have to rebuild.
And you always have to rebuild because something will go wrong the first time.
So, in a script that can build _and_re-build_ octave it seemed like a good idea to put the line in. It does no damage AFAIK but can be helpful later.
Stefan
jwe