From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Glenn Morris Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Is the autogen directory still needed? Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 15:12:45 -0400 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1382814765 12658 80.91.229.3 (26 Oct 2013 19:12:45 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 19:12:45 +0000 (UTC) To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sat Oct 26 21:12:51 2013 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1Va9I2-0002I3-Gc for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 26 Oct 2013 21:12:50 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:35741 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Va9I2-0005KY-1v for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Sat, 26 Oct 2013 15:12:50 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:49198) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Va9Hz-0005KJ-5G for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 26 Oct 2013 15:12:47 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Va9Hy-0005An-97 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 26 Oct 2013 15:12:47 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::e]:49135) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Va9Hy-0005Aj-5d for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 26 Oct 2013 15:12:46 -0400 Original-Received: from rgm by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1Va9Hx-0004Yl-K1; Sat, 26 Oct 2013 15:12:45 -0400 X-Spook: nitrate HAMASMOIS 9705 Samford Road infowar beanpole X-Ran: KcvgC2XA];>g1;b>!ygE_IKx"8:(28B#X:^L7X_kf!%KJ+:/)4)'V"1vqw~.(6E5m6*6yv X-Hue: magenta X-Attribution: GM User-Agent: Gnus (www.gnus.org), GNU Emacs (www.gnu.org/software/emacs/) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Error: Malformed IPv6 address (bad octet value). X-Received-From: 2001:4830:134:3::e X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:164568 Archived-At: We added the autogen/ directory ~ 2.5 years ago, when we stopped keeping configure (at top-level) in the repository. I run a daily cron job that keeps autogen/configure etc updated. This requires no effort, but I think it has become pointless, basically just making noise commits. The main motivations for adding it, as I see it, were: 1) The developers on MS Windows needed to see any updates for src/config.h (new defines etc) that might need to be copied to nt/config.nt, and did not want to want have to run autoconf themselves. 2) People who wanted to build Emacs from bzr on POSIX platforms but were for some reason unable to install (sufficiently recent) autoconf/automake. Point 1) no longer applies. Bzr Emacs on MS Windows now requires autotools, and nt/config.nt is no longer being updated. Point 2) has never been very convincing IMO. It is very easy to install autotools. The autogen/copy_autogen alternative is not 100% reliable. The MS-DOS port is not a relevant factor AFAICS, because no-one builds it from bzr, and when building from release tarfiles there's no need to run autotools. If necessary, I could keep just autogen/config.in and whatever MS-DOS needs (not configure). I'd keep the part of the cron job that updates loaddefs files (which does not happen nearly so often), and stop doing the autotools part. Any opinions?