[Bug gdb/20417] New: 'make install' fails when documentation tools are not available

["noloader at gmail dot com" <sourceware-bugzilla at sourceware dot org>]

https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=20417

            Bug ID: 20417
           Summary: 'make install' fails when documentation tools are not
                    available
           Product: gdb
           Version: 7.11.1
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: gdb
          Assignee: unassigned at sourceware dot org
          Reporter: noloader at gmail dot com
  Target Milestone: ---

I often have to build GDB from sources because of IoT gadgets and other lesser
used platforms. 'make install' often fails because the tools to build the
documentation is missing (and its not available in a repo).

Emacs and other packages often provide a configuration option to skip the
documentation step:

    emacs-24.5$ ./configure --help | grep -i info
      -V, --version           display version information and exit
      --infodir=DIR           info documentation [DATAROOTDIR/info]
      --without-makeinfo      don't require makeinfo for building manuals
                              don't compress some files (.el, .info, etc.) when

Rewinding a bit, Configure is supposed to configure for the platform. Its not
clear to me why GDB and Emacs is configuring to build the documentation when
the tools are not available. it does not make a lot of sense.

I'm guessing one of a few things needs to happen:

(1) GDB should not configure to build documentation when the tools are not
available
    - GDB can issue a warning in this case, but things should not fail
(2) GDB should provide an option to disable building the documentation

One of the folks on the mailing list suggested to set MAKEINFO=/bin/true during
configuration. If that's the case, then Configure should do it because that is
the tool's job - to configure the build for the platform.

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