[powerdebug V2: 14/14] Add configure framework

[Arnd Bergmann]

On Wednesday 23 March 2011, Daniel Lezcano wrote:
> > My experience with automake is that it usually makes cross-compiling
> > harder, not easier, and more people are familiar with Makefile
> > syntax than with Makefile.am syntax, so it's harder to debug if
> > something goes wrong.
> 
> About cross compiling it is with the configure script where you setup 
> the cross compilation:
> 
> ./configure --host=arm-linux-gnueabi

Just like you can do 

make CC=arm-linux-gnueabi-gcc

to cross-build.

> > With the dependencies, you now add to the existing dependency on a
> > single package (ncurses) with multiple dependencies that typically
> > need to be there in a specific version, all for the purpose of
> > telling the user whether the first dependency is installed or not...
> 
> Yes, you add dependencies. Is supposed powerdebug to go in a distro ?
> I mean these tools help for packaging with the "make dist" command.
>  From my pov, that makes sense to rely on how a distro generates the 
> packages.
> 
> I use the autotools with my project http://lxc.sourceforge.net since 
> some years now, I don't have to complain.
> Moreover, it seems, distro maintainers were happy to have the source 
> code packaged with these tools.

It makes some sense for larger projects with lots of dependencies
and optional libraries, especially when the project is maintained
by someone who is familiar with the autotools. Well, at least
autoconf makes sense there, automake less so, and libtool (which
you thankfully did not suggest using) IMHO can only ever cause
pain.

> But anyway, if adding autoconf/automake for powerdebug is a problem, we 
> can drop the two last patches.
> Amit ?

Your other patches certainly look good to me, and I'm not going
to block your autoconf patches if Amit thinks they are ok.

I'm just suggesting to keep simple things simple.

	Arnd