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  • From: "Lowden, James K" <LowdenJK AT bernstein.com>
  • To: "'TDS Development Group'" <freetds AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: doc/Makefile (was: CygWin)
  • Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 12:19:52 -0400


> From: ZIGLIO Frediano [mailto:Frediano.Ziglio AT vodafoneomnitel.it]
> Sent: October 16, 2002 11:34 AM
>
> > We didn't write txt2man, so it shouldn't be in our source
> > repository. [...]
> > if we're not maintaining it, it doesn't belong in cvs.
>
> 1- developer must be able to build a distribution using just gnu tools
> (this mean "make dist" and also "make distcheck" work)

Fine, but this can't apply to the documentation. txt2man and openjade
aren't gnu tools, and are required to build the documentation.

> 2- user should make and install without needing txt2man

from the tarball distributions, yes.

> To accomplish this (and removing also txt2man from cvs)
>
> - doc/Makefile.am must build updated man pages automatically.
> And an error
> should be raised, not ignored (developer must have txt2man or
> compiled file
> should be there, so make do not build compiled) (point 1)

I think there should be some way for the casual cvs user (someone not
working on documentation and not building tarballs for distribution) to
"make; make install" without getting errors from doc/Makefile.

I prefer that the Makefile simply check to see if openjade and/or txt2man
are installed. If they are, build the docs, if not, don't. I would accept
an explicit configure switch "--without-docs", if you think it's important
to generate an error instead of a warning.

Perhaps a better idea would be to insist on building the documentation with
"make dist" and also "make distcheck" and generate a warning otherwise. I
don't know how to do that, but it seems to suit both our requirements.

> - we must distribute compiled man (point 2)

yes, as we currently do.

> - we must ditribute source man (so make process do not see error)

No, I think it would be better to have the Makefile be smart. If there is a
freebcp.1 and there is no freebcp.txt, then there's no need to think about
building the man page.

> - developer should install txt2man in his machine

Yes, particularly because he might have to install gawk, too (BSDs have
their own awk).

I think it's very useful (and very unfair to James Clark) to think of
txt2man and openjade in the same way. They are doc building tools.
Building the documentation with a Makefile is convenient if you're working
on documentation. Otherwise, it's a needless headache. There ought to be
some way to skip building the docs if you're not interested in that aspect.


This notion is similar to the odbc build, btw. I don't have a driver
manager installed, and never build the odbc directory. It would be a major
annoyance if I had to install something I don't care about, just to build
something I don't care about, just to get db-lib cooking.

How does that sit with you?

Regards,

--jkl


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  • doc/Makefile (was: CygWin), Lowden, James K, 10/16/2002

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