Re: contrib directory and autoconf

[Michael Albinus]

Kai Grossjohann <address@hidden> writes:

> The perfect solution, IMVHO, would look like this:  When configure is
> run, it checks whether all the functions it needs are present.  If
> this is not the case, then it prints a message like this:
>
>     Couldn't find function base64-encode-region.
>     Use "--with-contrib" arg to use the implementation supplied
>     with Tramp.
>     Beware, however: After upgrading some other package, the
>     function(s) might appear, and then it is better to stop using the
>     versions supplied with Tramp.

Looks fine to me. But I still have the problem that "--with-contrib"
would be an all-or-nothing approach. Example: If somebody needs
password.el in contrib (from No Gnus), he would get format-spec.el
(from Gnus 5.8) as well.

What about this: If configure is finding that a package is missing, it
should generate just a link for the missing package lisp/password.el
-> contrib/password.el, together with the warning above.

> Kai

Best regards, Michael.