bug#9459: 24.0.50; Condigure aborts, complains about missing install.sh in build-aux.

[Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu>]

On 09/07/11 18:46, Stefan Monnier wrote:
> I much prefer a message

I tried that approach, but abandoned it because it didn't work well.
If we do something like this:

         $(srcdir)/configure: $(AUTOCONF_INPUTS)
        -       cd ${srcdir} && autoconf
        +       cd ${srcdir} && autoconf || { \
        +         echo 'Please run ./autogen.sh before reporting a bug.'; \
        +         exit 1; \
        +       }

then the "Please run autogen.sh" message is displayed all the time,
even when autoconf succeeds, because "make" always tells us what it
will do, and the message itself is in the instructions we send to
"make".  I'd rather avoid this sort of annoying chatter in the normal
case.  (The problem can be worked around with some makefile hackery,
but this minor issue isn't worth the complexity.)

> since the failure may be due to too many things.

Yes, of course.  But if the failure is something that autogen.sh can
repair (which was the case with Jan's problem), then invoking
autogen.sh is a win.  And if it's something that autogen.sh can't
repair, then we're no worse off than before.  So falling back on
autogen.sh seems to be a win overall.