[Fedora-directory-devel] Why is there a Makefile in CVS?

[Richard Megginson]

Andrew Bartlett wrote:
> Why is there a Makefile (not Makefile.in) in CVS?
>   
Makefile is there for historical reasons and will be removed asap.
> Isn't the first thing we want to do (on a checkout) a ./configure, which
> will replace this file anyway?
>
> Likewise, I'm confused:  why do we allow prefix and exec_prefix to be
> specified at 'make' (rather than configure) time?
You can set them at configure time.  I use "configure 
--prefix=/home/rich/11srv && make install" for testing.
> This is typically at
> configure time in other open source projects.
Actually, it is a "feature" of autoconf/automake to allow you to set 
them at make time, in addition to being able to set them at configure 
time.  It is my understanding that autoconf/automake work fine, no 
matter if you set them at configure or make time.  From "info autoconf":
"Most of these variables have values that rely on `prefix' or
`exec_prefix'.  It is deliberate that the directory output variables
keep them unexpanded: typically `@datadir@' will be replaced by
`${prefix}/share', not `/usr/local/share'.

   This behavior is mandated by the GNU coding standards, so that when
the user runs:

`make'
     she can still specify a different prefix from the one specified to
     `configure', in which case, if needed, the package shall hard code
     dependencies corresponding to the make-specified prefix.

`make install'
     she can specify a different installation location, in which case
     the package _must_ still depend on the location which was compiled
     in (i.e., never recompile when `make install' is run).  This is an
     extremely important feature, as many people may decide to install
     all the files of a package grouped together, and then install
     links from the final locations to there.
...
"

There is more in the autoconf info doc about this too.
> Changing this would seem
> to remove some additional complexity from the build system...
>   
What additional complexity is introduced?
> Andrew Bartlett
>   
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>
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