non-Makefiles and configure

[Christian Stimming]

Am Sonntag, 4. September 2005 16:51 schrieb Neil Williams:
> After changing the method of generating an internal header from
> configure/autogen in CashUtil and QOF, I came across this when I try to
> implement this in a patch for G2:
>
>           dnl # non-makefiles
>           dnl # Please read doc/build-system before adding *anything* here
>
> Only there's no doc/build-system in CVS.
>
> Can I add
> src/backend/qsf/qsf-dir.h

In fact there is no doc/build-system, but there is doc/README.build-system. 

After reading this, well, I'm sorry for being a bit harsh to you about the 
Makefile/configure issue. Obviously that README argues for some cases where 
the manual-makefile-rule gives the desired result whereas AC_OUTPUT would 
not. It could very well be the case that your header file should still be 
created by the manual makefile rule. At least that has to be checked first. 
Sorry for my argument. 

The point now is: Does the header file in question contain only variables that 
are completely defined in configure.in? Or does it contain paths relative to 
$prefix? If the former, then AC_OUTPUT probably is the cleaner solution. If 
the latter, then in contrast to my previous argument things should just stay 
as they are. Sorry for that.

Christian