On Tue, 2010-01-05 at 09:13 +0100, Matthieu Herrb wrote: > On Mon, Jan 04, 2010 at 07:29:51PM -0500, Gaetan Nadon wrote: > > > > Let's see if we can communicate what this macro does. > > > > # XORG_WITH_XMLTO > > # ------------------- > > # Minimum version: 1.5.0 > > # > > # Check for the availability of xmlto, a front-end to the xsl toolchain. > > # Set output variable XMLTO to the full path of the xmlto program found. > > # Allows user to override the value for XMLTO > > # Define an Automake conditional HAVE_XMLTO > > # Provide a feature "--with-xmlto" where values can be: > > # auto: set HAVE_XMLTO=1 if xmlto program is present > > # yes: set HAVE_XMLTO=1 if xmlto program is present > > # no: set HAVE_XMLTO=0 > > # > > ]) # XORG_WITH_XMLTO > > > > > > I am wondering if we need the AC_ARG_VAR to supply a path to xmlto. I > > noticed only document kind of tools have this (e.g. asciidic, groff). > > All other tools in the toolchain (a total of about 32) are expected to > > be properly installed and in the PATH. > > I have no idea on this. Iirc the autoconf documentation recommends that > AC_ARG_VAR is used with any variable used by AC_PATH_PROG, and this > is how it is currently done in exiting uses cmlt.
I wasn't aware of this recommendation. > > > > The value of the XMLTO variable should not be unset when user says "no". > > The path to the tool and the decision of not using are separate issues. > > It's normal to have xmlto and not wanting to build the documentation. > > The Automake HAVE_XMLTO conditional is the variable to use for this > > decision, not a blank tool path. In addition, automake caches the value > > of XMLTO, so there could be trouble ahead. > > If I understand things correclty, unsetting XMLTO is only local to the > configure script. It may be a bad coding trick to tell that we want > to ignore its value, but it won't affect the value seen by make later on. > This will be something to watch and test for. From what I read, the value of XMLTO is cached and and saved during a reconfiguration. This is an added behaviour when declared in AC_ARG_VAR. Aside from implementation, do you see any problem in leaving XMLTO with a correct value when builder said 'no'? The HAVE_XMLTO should be used as a switch. Also there could be another line somewhere in the configure.ac file that sets XMLTO. > > > > Next I'll check the candidate users of this macro to test if it's really > > "generic" and useful. There is also the asciidoc in libXi which seems > > very similar to xmlto in usage. > > > > Thanks a lot for your help on this. I'm really not an expert in autotools, > So my initial patch was really just a Draft to start the discussion. > It looks like we can team-up on this. Care to submit the version of the patch? I have a Linux box only. I never could build the xfs pdf doc. My Linux distro doesn't have it either, I guess they couldn't build it either.
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