Quoth nbecker@??? on Sat, Dec 26, 1998:
> Predefined configs are fine when they're correct. The problem is,
> with an application that will last a long time, they start to suffer
> from bit rot. You know, option X works only on Blah-version 5.1, but
> only if you installed the optional package YYY. People will
> contribute configs, then fail to maintain them. That's why autoconfig
> is better.
That's why Philip releases beta-versions which some people test
on various versions of various OSes (mostly on live systems).
But people who write GNU-configured programs often fail to
deliver that Universal Compatibility they promise. I've seen
GNU-configured programs that fail to compile on various
not-so-exotic platforms (like OpenBSD, BSDI, AIX, SunOS) while
the GNU configure worked perfectly on one particular version of
DeadRat Linux.
> What defines what features are available on what systems?
> What is a system? For example, what features are available on Linux?
Exactly. Linux doesn't know what it is, which I won't way about
other systems. Everybody knows what OpenBSD 2.3 is, but what is
Linux 2.0.32?
> Which linux distribution?
I know that Linux diteribs are different, I just fail to
understand why they still think they are representing one OS.
Howeber, both on Debian and DeadRat (dunno about others) Exim
compiles with ease. And there are .deb / RPM (Rotations Per
Minute) packages of it.
> With what packages added?
Excuse me? What do you mean, what packages? If you haven't
installed perl and awk, that's your personal problem. Same about
DBM.
> Did you install
> libXpm? Is it a version > 1.0.2?
Ok, edit the Makefile, say that you have Yamamoto Technologies
libXpm 3.2.7.8.4.beta.2.3.6 or later, that's all. Some comment
like that about dbm on Linux exists somewhere in Exim doc.
> I hated the old-sytle perl configs that asked me all sorts of
> questions, which I had to research to answer. If it automatically
> figures out correct defaults, fine. If it takes a guess just based on
> the result of `uname`, that isn't so great.
Same about GNU configure, with one exception: it doesn't ask you.
If it figures it out correctly, fine. If it doesn't, oops.
Apart from that, there is a thing which GNU configure promises
but sometimes fails to deliver, which is building a package from
the same source tree on various platforms. And, of course, I'm
not sorry to repeat it, different config files for different
platforms are one hell of a feature in Exim's Makefiles. I don't
want to remember that to compile Exim on SunOS, I need to say,
among 20 different flags (no, not less),
"--with-perl=/usr/local/bin/perl" and on AIX "--without-perl".
And, of course, "--bin-directory=/usr/local/lib/exim" and
"--spool-directory-mode=0770". I've had too many half-KB
configure command lines to type in my life. Forgot --with-slang?
Reconfigure, recompile, relink! Happened to me.
Vadik.
P.S. Long Live Philip Hazel And The Guy Who Created Exim's
Makefile Structure! Hurray, Hurray, Hurray!
--
Yes, you can get an account if you promise not to wear ties
anymore.
-- Unknown sysadmin, 1998-10-27.
--
*** Exim information can be found at
http://www.exim.org/ ***
