Re: "./configure: line 7058: python-config: command not found" after commit 0013245

[Ian Campbell <Ian.Campbell@citrix.com>]

On Tue, 2015-03-03 at 19:41 +0000, Julien Grall wrote:
> python-dev is not installed. Although I have libpython-dev installed.

And this used to work I suppose?

As I said in <1425404173.25940.82.camel@citrix.com>:

        m4/python_devel.m4 seems to suggest it was made optional on
        purpose, I don't know why or which versions of Python were the
        first to include the tool though.

So it appears to be deliberate that the Python checks do not require
python-config. But the new Python vs. Fortify checks _do_ require it.

So the question is: why was it optional in the first place? Then we
should know if we can make it a requirement or if we need to fix the
Fortify check.

Aha, adding --follow to my earlier git log m4/python_devel.m4 leads me
to:

commit 474a0e59d821bfb49b64c3d722a000bd9b5b7599
Author: Roger Pau Monne <roger.pau@entel.upc.edu>
Date:   Tue Apr 3 14:28:45 2012 +0100

    autoconf: fix python-dev detection on old python versions
    
    Replaced the use of python-config (that is only present in Python >= 2.5.x)
    with the distutils python module.
    
    Signed-off-by: Roger Pau Monne <roger.pau@entel.upc.edu>
    Cc: Zhang, Yang Z <yang.z.zhang@intel.com>
    Tested-by: KUWAMURA Shin'ya <kuwa@jp.fujitsu.com>
    Cc: Ian Campbell <ian.campbell@citrix.com>
    Committed-by: Ian Jackson <ian.jackson@eu.citrix.com>

So it seems like it is necessary to continue to work without
python-config present.

In my same earlier mail I said:
> Perhaps AX_CHECK_PYTHON_FORTIFY_NOOPT should be a nop unless
> python-config is available?
> 
> Or perhaps AX_CHECK_PYTHON_DEVEL should export PYTHON_CFLAGS etc which
> the fortify test should look at instead of invoking python-cofnig?

I think it would be acceptable in the first instance to simply only run
the Fortify check if python-config is present and hope that older
distros didn't have the incompatibility. If we then find such an older
distro then we can look at switching to something more complex.

Can someone cook up a patch please?

Ian.