GnuCash build on OSX 10.8.4

[John Ralls]

On Jul 17, 2013, at 8:50 AM, Max Arai <maxarai at bfoinvestments.com> wrote:

> Hi John,
> 
> If this isn't the right way to ask questions, please redirect me.  

Please subscribe to the developer's list and post there. I've CC'd the list for your convenience. You can subscribe at https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-devel

> Up until now, I haven't done much work with open source software other than to consume it.
> 
> I am trying to build GnuCash under OSX 10.8.4 in order to build the Postgres drivers.  I was unable to find pre-built binaries which include them.
> 
> There seem to be some problems where outdated configure.in files make autoreconf unhappy.

Hmm. Yes, 2.4 does have that problem. Unfortunately some bright person decided to update GLib to require autoconf-1-13, which has caused a bit of trouble for building some older stuff.  
>  
> 
> For example, in OpenSP-1.5.2 some of the following lines seem out of date in configure.in (the red ones)
> 
> 	AC_INIT
> 	AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([pubtext])
> 	AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(OpenSP, 1.5.2, no-define)
> 	AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
> 	AC_PREREQ(2.53)
> 	AM_CONFIG_HEADER(config.h)
> 	AM_SANITY_CHECK
> 
> The following seems to enable one to autoreconf in the jhbuild shell, configure and continue along
> 
> 	AC_INIT([OpenSP], [1.5.2])
> 	AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([pubtext])
> 	AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4])
> 	AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([no-define])
> 	AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
> 	AC_PREREQ(2.53)
> 	AC_CONFIG_HEADERS(config.h)
> 	AM_SANITY_CHECK
> 
> Similar problems exist in libdbi, libdbi-drivers.
> 
> It looks there is a patch mechanism which can be used to patch files to include in gnu cash, but I wasn't sure how to use it.  
> 
> If you can direct me as to how I might best go about handling these issues, I would appreciate it.  

You don't really have to worry about patches. You can just make the changes as necessary in each package -- most don't require autoreconf anyway -- and tell jhbuild to rerun configure. 

Regards,
John Ralls