RFC: Changes to cygwin autotools packages

[Reini Urban]

Charles Wilson schrieb:
> It's been almost four years since I rolled out a wrapper-script solution 
> to the autotool version conflict problem.  In that time, many packages 
> have completed their migration from autoconf-2.13 to autoconf-2.5x. 
> Also, the automake team has worked hard to maintain same-system-install 
> cooperation between different versions of automake.  And finally, 
> libtool-1.4p5 has almost disappeared from use -- any package still using 
> a 1.4p5-DERIVED version of libtool has been forced to make so many 
> custom modifications that they can hardly be considered the "standard" 
> 1.4p5 release anyway.
> 
> In short, most of the needs addressed by the overly complicated wrapper 
> scripts and /usr/autotool/{devel|stable} installation have been obsoleted.
> 
> So, I'm proposing to scrap (most of) the wrappers and the 
> /usr/autotool/{devel|stable} stuff, and follow the path taken by the 
> major distributions (Red Hat, Mandrake^WMandrive, Debian) -- a path that 
> did not exist when cygwin came up with its own solution.
> 
> Features:
> (1) autoconf2.1-2.13 package installed into /usr/* but suffixed: 
> autoconf-2.13, autoheader-2.13, etc.
> (2) autoconf2.5-2.59 package installed into /usr/* but suffixed:
> autoconf-2.59, autom4te-2.59, etc.
> (3) a single wrapper script with symlinks from /usr/bin/autoconf, 
> /usr/bin/autom4te, etc, that dispatches to the correct versioned program 
> of the symlinked name, based on the contents of configure.in and/or 
> environment variables.
> 
> (4) side-by-side installs of automake1.5-1.5.x, automake1.6-1.6.x, 
> automake1.7-1.7.x, automake1.8-1.8.x, and automake1.9-1.9.x.  All 
> binaries are versioned.
> (5) an /etc/alternatives/-like symlink system for the "unversioned" 
> automake, aclocal, binaries
> 
> (6) only one installation of libtool at this time, but perhaps more when 
> the libtool team figures out how to enable side-by-side installs.  The 
> "one" installed version will be 1.5.18 with cygwin fixes.
> 
> There are a few drawbacks to this plan, but the major benefits are:
> (a) more similar to existing linux installation styles
> (b) easier to maintain for me -- which means more frequent updates
> (c) less confusing for new users and folks 'crossing over' from linux
> (c) we can stop being the red-headed-stepchild of the autotool world 
> "This works thusly, except on cygwin because of their wierd installation"
> 
> Comments?

This is almost exactly the wrapper cfg what I use. So go on.

   I just use the additional devel/stable quirks and libtool 
side-by-side installations with various symlinks and a switcher.

-- 
Reini Urban
http://xarch.tu-graz.ac.at/home/rurban/
http://phpwiki.org/