Re: AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4])

[Jim Meyering <jim@meyering.net>]

Jeff Garzik wrote:
> On 12/06/2010 12:44 PM, Pete Zaitcev wrote:
>> On Mon, 06 Dec 2010 12:32:22 -0500
>> Jeff Garzik<jeff@garzik.org>  wrote:
>>
>>> Keeping the "correct libtool macros in-tree" implies adding a pointless
>>> maintenance burden.  The distro always gives us correct, up-to-date
>>> files.  Why would hail want to potentially lag upstream's version of
>>> these macros, forcing us to manually track macros that are currently
>>> updated automatically for each ./autogen.sh invocation?
>>
>> I presumed that the important part is a compatibility between the
>> syntax used in various .am files and the libtool scriptography that
>> underpins them. "Lagging" upstream has no downside in this case
>> (unlike zlib, where security fixes may exist).
>
> It does not seem optimal to run a current libtool with outdated macro
> files.  In all cases except current one, you're checking in third
> party, maintained, versioned files to hail.git where they will be
> less-well maintained, and generally out-of-date vis a vis current
> [upstream | Fedora].

Hi Jeff,

The patch that adds those two lines does not (and IMHO should not)
imply that a project would version-control those files.
Typically, those symlinks exist only in your working directory,
and not in any project's VC repository.

If you have no other files in m4/, you can simply .gitignore
the entire m4/ directory.

> Where is the value in performing this additional work, besides
> silencing a warning seen only by git repo users?

Yeah, either way it's not a big deal.