Can't configure in source dir..

[Mike A. Harris]

On Wed, 11 Oct 2000, Ben Elliston wrote:

>Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2000 07:55:15 +1100 (EST)
>From: Ben Elliston <bje@redhat.com>
>To: Mike A. Harris <mharris@opensourceadvocate.org>
>Cc: Ian Roxborough <irox@redhat.com>, sourcenav@sourceware.cygnus.com
>Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
>Subject: Re: Can't configure in source dir..
>
>   I did try once, yes and it failed with a different error so I figured
>   I did it wrong and reverted to the initial defacto standard way as
>   documented in the README.
>
>It says this in the README?  Where?

I might not have been clear enough there.  What I meant is I
tried what the README says, and it does not work.  Here is from
the SN452 top level readme:

----
It is now possible to automatically configure and build a variety
of tools with one command.  To build all of the tools contained
herein, run the ``configure'' script here, e.g.:

        ./configure
        make
----

The instructions you all gave me though seem to work, so things
are definitely looking better now.  ;o)  You guys give fast
answers!  I went to get a coffee after writing my question and
when I came back I had 3 answers!  ;o)  I like that.  ;o)


>   Ouch, my brain hurts.  ;o)  This is the first time I've ever seen a
>   package require such an oddball build method.  ;o)  I'll try it
>   though.  It might be better to patch the build process than to try to
>   come up with a convoluted RPM build method to work around it.
>   
>   Any idea _why_ it does this?  I am almost positive 451 did not require
>   this.  Looking at the configure script it appears that it is done for
>   some internal cygnus reason..  Is there a:
>
>It's a Cygnus build convention -- and it's extremely useful in a development
>environment, where it's undesirable to litter your source tree with object
>files.  Yes, it's a bit unusual, but it's better (IMHO) this way.

Right, I can see the usefulness now, especially if cross
building, however it should be documented more clearly in the
README or some other appropriate file.

Myself, I just create "clean" and "distclean" targets, or I
create the makefile to spew out .o's, and other output files into
an output dir of some kind.  I've never seen this particular
approach before though, so it threw me for a loop.  ;o)

TTYL


----------------------------------------------------------------------
      Mike A. Harris  -  Linux advocate  -  Open source advocate
              Computer Consultant - Capslock Consulting
                 Copyright 2000 all rights reserved
----------------------------------------------------------------------

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