Re: hello-2.1.91 build failure on MacOS X

[Bruno Haible]

Karl Berry wrote:
> I wonder whether any test is really necessary.  As
> far as I know coreutils, texinfo, and other packages have used help2man
> for years, and I have never seen a bug report about the problem of
> help2man failing on cross compiles ...

The build failure is triggered if the user has modified a source file
while doing a cross-compile. Why it's so rarely reported? Maybe because
few people do cross-compiles at all. CLN wasn't cross-compilable for 8
years, until I noticed it.

> I don't like complicating Hello 
> (and every other package) with a theoretical "problem".  Hmm.

It's not theoretical. I invite you to install a cross-compiler and try it.

Here's a patch that is even simpler, touching only the configure.ac file.


2006-08-24  Bruno Haible  <address@hidden>

        * configure.ac: Set HELP2MAN to a dummy when cross-compiling.

*** configure.ac        23 Aug 2006 15:41:08 -0000      1.16
--- configure.ac        24 Aug 2006 12:29:09 -0000
***************
*** 33,39 ****
  
  # GNU help2man creates man pages from --help output; in many cases, this
  # is sufficient, and obviates the need to maintain man pages separately.
! AM_MISSING_PROG(HELP2MAN, help2man)
  
  # i18n support from GNU gettext.
  AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION([0.15])
--- 33,44 ----
  
  # GNU help2man creates man pages from --help output; in many cases, this
  # is sufficient, and obviates the need to maintain man pages separately.
! # The variable 'cross_compiling' is set by AC_PROG_CC.
! if test $cross_compiling = no; then
!   AM_MISSING_PROG(HELP2MAN, help2man)
! else
!   HELP2MAN=:
! fi
  
  # i18n support from GNU gettext.
  AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION([0.15])