[gclist] autoconf for Boehm-Demers-Weiser gc?

[Boehm, Hans]

I would like to see this happen, ideally in a way that makes it transparent
to build procedures that just invoke "make", and definitely in a way that
doesn't break the non-Unix build procedures (at least not any more than they
already are broken).  It has been done partially as part of libgcj, which is
now part of gcc (see http://gcc.gnu.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/egcs/boehm-gc/ ).

This could potentially solve a number of problems, e.g. automatically
locating a working compiler and assembler, and providing a cleaner way to
deal with ath least the more important configuration options.  It probably
can't replace gcconfig.h, since that requires knowledge about whether
certain OS features are present on all versions, etc.

Unfortunately, it looks like previous volunteers deserted this project when
they started looking at the details.  I haven't yet found the time, and I'm
not an autoconf/automake expert.  (I think Tom Tromey did the gcj work.)

Hans

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ken MacLeod [mailto:ken@bitsko.slc.ut.us]
> Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2001 11:27 AM
> To: gclist@iecc.com
> Subject: [gclist] autoconf for Boehm-Demers-Weiser gc?
> 
> 
> Has autoconf ever been discussed for use in the Boehm-Demers-Weiser GC
> source distribution?
> 
> The project I'm working on has a dependency on GC (naturally ;-) and,
> for the most common case, will require the .so to be installed in a
> searchable path before use.
> 
> While GC has an excellent make setup, one that I found relatively
> easy, my project is geared towards users who may not find it quite so
> easy.  The "next level" that I'd like to see, that I think the user's
> of my project would be more comfortable with, is the standard autoconf
> style install: ./configure; make test; make install
> 
> Minimal usage and support of autoconf would require only minor,
> non-user visible*, changes in the Makefile at this point.  Automation
> of certain aspects of the various README.*s could evolve later.
> 
> I can create the initial patch if that's a direction that can be
> supported.
> 
>   -- Ken
> 
> (* non-user-visible means that current users of GC will not need to
> change their existing install/update procedures.)
>