Hi, Jens, On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 01:15:51AM +0200, Jens Vollinga wrote:
tar xaf ginac-1.6.0.tar.bz2 mkdir build cd build ../ginac-1.6.0/configure --disable-static
This fact makes me think that the check is bogus. Also,
now, at my box there is no warning. I followed the same steps, unpacking the tar, doing a vpath build, etc. But no, no warning.
If there were a warning, I would agree that the code in configure.ac needs to be fixed. I would still think it is useful to have a summary of possible problems at the end, so my approach would be to fix the configure.ac code if necessary, not remove it. But I don't get any bogus warning! Does your setup differ significantly from mine (Ubuntu 11.04, x64)?
Mine is a minimal Debian (sid) chroot on x86_64. It looks like installing flex and bison suppress the warning. I think there should be no warning even if flex and bison are not installed.
I overlooked the line in the autoconf manual:
"Be aware that, like most Autoconf macros, they test a feature of the host machine, and therefore, they die when cross-compiling."
But it just confuses me: most Autoconf macros fail when cross-compiling?
For instance, /proc/self/exe might exist on the build system (say, Linux), and it might be absent on the target system (anything non-Linux). Actually it might be absent even on Linux if the program runs in a chroot environment. That's why autoconf documentation recommends run time check instead.
Since I want to keep the extra warning, I am tempted to just replace AC_CHECK_FILE with some portable shell code.
Done. Still I doubt this warning is really useful. Most users install GiNaC from the tarball, and don't need to even know what bison or flex is. Best regards, Alexei