Re: [Swarm-Support] Installing under Gentoo Linux

[Bill Northcott]

On 16/04/2004, at 2:15 AM, Carlos Castillo wrote:
> > Can you please explain what you mean by 'syntax errors in the 
> > configure
> > script'?  A configure script runs very many small test programs.  Some
> > of these test programs will give syntax errors.  That is normal.
>
> I mean that when I run ./configure, it does this:
>
> checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
> checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
> checking target system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
> checking for a BSD-compatible install... /bin/install -c
> checking whether build environment is sane... yes
> checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
> checking for working aclocal-1.4... found
> checking for working autoconf... found
> checking for working automake-1.4... found
> checking for working autoheader... found
Go no further.  That version of automake is much too old.  You need 1.6 
at least.  That would explain the configure script problems.  You 
probably noticed that autogen.sh bombed out because it tests the 
autoconf/automake/libtool versions on your system.

It is usually better to investigate and fix an error message rather 
than patch it out.  Like as not patching will bite you later in the 
process.  Error messages have a purpose, and even warnings are worth 
considering.

> > If you think you have trouble with a configure script, please report 
> > it
> > here.  So we can fix the code that produced the script.  Do not try to
> > modify the scripts yourself.  They are too complex and you will just
> > waste your time.
>
> I posted the generated and the modified configure script here:
>
> http://www.gia.usb.ve/~carlos/swarm/

If that script was generated by automake 1.4.x it will NOT work.  
Please take it down.

> > This is a pain.  The name of the file was changed in BLT but not
> > documented.  If someone can tell us the BLT version at which the 
> > change
> > was made, we can fix it in configure.  If we fix it unconditionally it
> > will break on older versions of BLT :-(
>
> I don't know at what point the problem started, but I'm sure 2.4z
>   (which is the only version linked at: http://blt.sourceforge.net/)
>   has the problem. I think it might even be worth solving the problem
>   temporarily for versions >=2.4z.

What we need is a condition we can test for in the configure script.
ie if BLT version > 2.3 then use bltGraph.tcl

Unfortunately the BLT maintainer does not keep ChangeLogs or such 
housekeeping which could reveal the required information easily.  He 
also does not respond to email enquiries.  It is his software package 
so how he runs it is up to him.

I will probably lose patience and kluge it soon, but we are averse to 
including code patches we know to be wrong!

Bill Northcott