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List:       openbsd-ports
Subject:    autoconf and portable programs: the joke
From:       Marc Espie <espie () nerim ! net>
Date:       2010-03-08 14:06:09
Message-ID: 20100308140609.GA12689 () lain ! home
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At some point in the past, autoconf was *meant* to simplify porting programs.
These days, it's more a "use gnu-linux, or die" (no wonder bsd is dying).

I'm really, really, fed up of all these EXCUSES for configure tests
(remember, a configure test is supposed to test for a *feature*) that
are solely

program --version

gnu string with required version => okay, we work.
anything else => okay, we refuse to work.

Between a "test" for mkdir -p being thread-safe, which ends up being
--version=coreutils, a "test" for tar supporting ustar archives, which ends
up being --version for gnu-tar, and numerous other examples, I'm really
becoming fed-up with that.

This is utter complacency from the part of the guys who write these tests.
They can ask *us* if they want to support other OSes, instead of silently
going over to GNU-make/GNU-bash/GNU-tar/GNU-m4/GNU-mkdir...

Since you read this mailing-list, I assume you have at least a remote interest
in BSD.

I have a simple request for you: each time you run into software that does
this idiotic kind of test, please interact with the idiots upstream for
whom all the world is linux, and try to get them to replace their "joke"
of an autoconf macro with actual genuine tests that actually CHECK FOR THE
FUCKING FEATURE.

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