Re: FYI: bootstrap with tests/generate.awk!

[Gary V. Vaughan]

On Wed, Aug 29, 2001 at 11:23:15AM +0200, Akim Demaille wrote:
> >>>>> "Gary" == Gary V Vaughan <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> Gary> On Tue, Aug 28, 2001 at 11:27:31AM +0200, Akim Demaille wrote:
> >> Is this really needed?  I mean, I made it a tests/Makefile target.
> 
> Gary> Good point.  Probably not.
> 
> Gary> However... I assume we will be shipping pregenerated tests?  
> 
> Correct.  We also ship Bison generated files, but we don't `bootstrap'
> them usually.

I would.  Because I want to:

        $ cvs -z3 co foo
        $ cd foo
        $ ./bootstrap
        
And have it be in the right state to do:

        $ ./configure
        $ make
        
etc.

> bootstrap is a patch, a hack, for we simply don't have
> any Makefile available at that moment, otherwise, it would be make
> bootstrap.  So I'm in favor of having boostrap as small as possible.

I do like a small bootstrap -- for example AutoGen has a bootstrap
process that has gotten way out of hand IMNSHO.  However, the easiest
way to write the smallest number of commands required to make a source
tree configurable really is to list them in the bootstrap script.

> As a matter of fact, I even wonder if we are not willing a mere:
> 
> $ cat bootstrap
> make -f Makefile.am bootstrap
> 
> and that's all.

But that would mean maintaining a bunch of make rules to fire the very
same list of cammands that can just be listed sequentially in
bootstrap.  Even though `make -f #Makefile.am' will work for simple
projects, it is not a general solution (I'd be very surprised if it
could bootstrap cvs AutoGen for example), so I don't think we should
teach it...

As always, I'm willing to be proven wrong.

Cheers,
        Gary.
-- 
  ())_. Gary V. Vaughan     gary@(oranda.demon.co.uk|gnu.org)
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