FreeTDS Development Group

[James K. Lowden <jklowden AT speakeasy.org>]

On Sun, 13 Oct 2002 17:48:52 +0200, "Sven Köhler" <skoehler AT upb.de> wrote:
> Below is one answer on a mail i send to the autoconf-general
> mailinglist. i don't know what he's talking about, but perhaps it'll
> help
>
>  > ./configure --with-foo should fail with the message, that the option
>  > called "foo" is not available.
> 
> Look up AC_ARG_WITH or use:
> 
>    http://autogen.sf.net/conftest.html

Hi Sven, 

Thanks for the legwork.  

What he means is, It's not a bug, it's a feature.  

Please see the autoconf docs at 

        http://www.gnu.org/manual/autoconf/index.html

specifically, 

http://www.gnu.org/manual/autoconf/html_node/External-Software.html#External%20Software

where you'll find:

"`configure' scripts do not complain about `--with-PACKAGE' options
that they do not support.  This behavior permits configuring a source
tree containing multiple packages with a top-level `configure' script
when the packages support different options, without spurious error
messages about options that some of the packages support.  An
unfortunate side effect is that option spelling errors are not
diagnosed.  No better approach to this problem has been suggested so far."

Unless someone suggests a "better approach to this problem" (for some
value of "better"), it looks like we're stuck.  

(Aside.  This is another example of a free software problem that cries out
for a database.  I wish for a relational database -- something small,
specialized, with a BSD license, and understood SQL -- that could be
widely distributed in the way that, say, dbm is.  A configure script could
use such a database to track dependencies or unused options or a host of
other problems rooted in relating A to B.)

The web site you were pointed to has been relocated:

        http://autogen.sourceforge.net/conftest.html

and may turn out to be quite helpful, thank you.  It doesn't address the
invalid option problem.  It's a little web-based system to genererate
autoconf inputs by filling out a form.  I added that link as a comment in
configure.in, for future reference.