Re: New build process?

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

On 07/27/11 03:03, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
 
> ... the need to install,
> update, and use any additional commands before "./configure; make" is
> a nuisance whose justification is questionable at best.  It's just
> that I gave up on talking people into catering to us dinosaurs

The *real* dinosaurs just type "make".  The "./configure; make"
business is a relative latecomer.

It'd be nice if one could just type "make".

To help move in that direction, I installed the following patch.
It assumes GNU Make, but that's a reasonable assumption these
days for developers.  Developers who insist on using non-GNU "make"
can use "./autogen.sh; ./configure; make" as before.

If there are any problems with this, please feel free to back it out
or improve it.

* GNUmakefile: New file.
This is for convenience, so that one can run GNU make in an
unconfigured source tree, and get a default build.
=== added file 'GNUmakefile'
--- GNUmakefile	1970-01-01 00:00:00 +0000
+++ GNUmakefile	2011-07-27 20:22:50 +0000
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+# Build Emacs from a fresh tarball or version-control checkout.
+
+# Copyright 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+#
+# This file is part of GNU Emacs.
+#
+# GNU Emacs is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+# (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with GNU Emacs.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+#
+# written by Paul Eggert
+
+
+# This GNUmakefile is for GNU Make.  It is for convenience, so that
+# one can run 'make' in an unconfigured source tree.  In such a tree,
+# this file causes GNU Make to first create a standard configuration
+# with the default options, and then reinvokes itself on the
+# newly-built Makefile.  If the source tree is already configured,
+# this file defers to the existing Makefile.
+
+# If you are using a non-GNU 'make', or if you want non-default build
+# options, or if you want to build in an out-of-source tree, please
+# run "configure" by hand.  But run autogen.sh first, if the source
+# was checked out directly from the repository.
+
+
+# If a Makefile already exists, just use it.
+
+ifeq ($(wildcard Makefile),Makefile)
+include Makefile
+else
+
+# If cleaning and Makefile does not exist, don't bother creating it.
+# The source tree is already clean, or is in a weird state that
+# requires expert attention.
+
+ifeq ($(filter-out %clean,$(or $(MAKECMDGOALS),default)),)
+
+$(MAKECMDGOALS):
+	@echo >&2 'No Makefile; skipping $@.'
+
+else
+
+# No Makefile, and not cleaning.
+# If 'configure' does not exist, Emacs must have been checked
+# out directly from the repository; run ./autogen.sh.
+# Once 'configure' exists, run it.
+# Finally, run the actual 'make'.
+
+default $(filter-out configure Makefile,$(MAKECMDGOALS)): Makefile
+	$(MAKE) -f Makefile $(MAKECMDGOALS)
+# Execute in sequence, so that multiple user goals don't conflict.
+.NOTPARALLEL:
+
+configure:
+	@echo >&2 'There seems to be no "configure" file in this directory.'
+	@echo >&2 'Running ./autogen.sh || autogen/copy_autogen ...'
+	./autogen.sh || autogen/copy_autogen
+	@echo >&2 '"configure" file built.'
+
+Makefile: configure
+	@echo >&2 'There seems to be no Makefile in this directory.'
+	@echo >&2 'Running ./configure ...'
+	./configure
+	@echo >&2 'Makefile built.'
+
+endif
+endif