Re: bootstrap fails for mingw build (requires git!?)

[benjamin lindner]

> On 20-Jan-2011, benjamin lindner wrote:
>
> | I tried to build octave for MinGW platform with latest tip, but
> | bootstrapping now fails, since apparently this now requires git
> | available.
> | The fail is introduced with this changeset (rev 11521)
> | http://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/rev/00fe5069b70e
> |
> | Going back to rev 11520 everything works fine.
> |
> | I used to invoke autoconf as
> | ./autogen.sh --gnulib-srcdir=path/to//gnulib --skip-po --copy
> | but this now yields the error:
> |
> |   bootstrapping...
> |   Error: 'git' not found
> |
> |   Please install the prerequisite programs
> |
> | I also tried to add the option '--no-bootstrap-sync' with no success.
> |
> | Is there a way to use gnulib *without* requiring git?
> | Or am I using the bootstrap script the wrong way around?
>
> Does your gnulib directory have a subdirectory named .git in it?  If
> so, try moving that aside and see if it works then.

No, there is no .git subdirectory

> If you'd like for there to be an option to pass to bootstrap to
> accomplish the same thing, then request that from the gnulib
> maintainers, or submit a patch for the bootstrap script to them and
> explain why it is needed.  Are you using git to pull the gnulib
> sources on another system, and using them on one that does not have
> git installed?  That seems like it could be a fairly common thing to
> do, so having an option that would not require you to remove or rename
> the .git subdirectory seems like a useful thing.

I download the gnulib sources as .tar.gz snapshot from the web interface as
  wget 
"http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=gnulib.git;a=snapshot;h=master;sf=tgz";
and then extract the tarball
I don't have git available, so I chose this way of getting the gnulib sources.
And, as I mentioned, there is no .git subdirectoy in the tarball.

benjamin