From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Message-Id: <200311171631.hAHGVToY025874@localhost.localdomain> To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Subject: Re: [9fans] Re: configure misery In-reply-to: <20031117144214.B15012@cackle.proxima.alt.za> References: <200311160804.hAG84F7Y002284@skeeve.com> <200311170042.hAH0gTnM028044@math.Princeton.EDU> <200311171228.hAHCS9Qb030185@skeeve.com> <20031117144214.B15012@cackle.proxima.alt.za> From: John Stalker Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 11:31:28 -0500 Topicbox-Message-UUID: 8d872280-eacc-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 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