Re: [ANNOUNCE] util-linux-ng 2.13-rc1

[Jeff Garzik <jeff@garzik.org>]

Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 04, 2007 at 12:11:56AM +0200, Karel Zak wrote:
>>  The package build system is now based on autotools. The build system
>>  supports  separate CFLAGS and LDFLAGS for suid programs (SUID_CFLAGS,
>>  SUID_LDFLAGS). For more details see the README file
> 
> And this is really dumb.  autotools is a completely pain in the ass and
> not useful at all for linux-only tools.


A myth.  It is quite useful for packagers, because of the high Just 
Works(tm) factor.  After porting an entire across several revisions of a 
distro, the autotools-based packages are the ones that work out of the 
box 90% of the time.

The other 90% of _my_ time comes from annoying people who roll their own 
Makefile/build solution, which the packager has to then learn.

It's just not scalable for people to keep building their own build 
solutions.

	Jeff