Re: [9fans] Re: configure misery

[John Stalker <stalker@Math.Princeton.EDU>]

I don't know if anyone cares, but FreeBSD puts libintl and libiconv
in under /usr/local, as with everything not part of the base system.
I assume NetBSD does put them under /usr/pkg, but I am sitting at
a linux box at work, so I can't check.  I actually prefer the NetBSD
convention, but I fear straying further off topic.

What I really want to comment on is the sentence ``since gawk ships
with a copy of the gettext library, use the one in the source distribution
if it can't find one on the system.''  I think that is a recipe for
disaster.  The system has a working gettext.  I don't want each application
linked against its own version.  Yes, I know gawk is statically linked, so
it won't take up any extra space, but it is a messy solution and messy
solutions always sneak up and bite me in odd ways.  I noticed that gawk
is by no means the only program which comes with an included gettext.
Even freeciv comes with one, and a configure option to enable it.  At
least both gawk and freeciv have the decency not to link in their own
versions of libraries without being asked.  I would argue that the
fact that you need to include a private gettext with the gawk distribution
is a symptom of a wider problem, and that autoconf is part of that problem.
I do admit that the default LDPATH on FreeBSD is another part of the problem.

> On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 02:28:09PM +0200, Aharon Robbins wrote:
> >
> > That is surprising to me.  I haven't looked at FreeBSD, but this makes it
> > sound like they've put the library in some non-standard place, since the
> > machinery as distributed is supposed to be able to find it, AND, since
> > gawk ships with a copy of the gettext library, use the one in the source
> > distribution if it can't find one on the system.
> >
> > So, this is a guess only, the FreeBSD people seem to have made this work
> > for themselves.
> >
> They may have done what NetBSD did, which is to use a directory
> hierarchy for the distribution packages which is unique to them
> (/usr/pkg).  You probably know this.
--
John Stalker
Department of Mathematics
Princeton University
(609)258-6469