Re: [pcre-dev] libtool

On Tue, 12 Jun 2012, Giuseppe D'Angelo wrote:

> On 11 June 2012 15:51, H.Merijn Brand <h.m.brand@???> wrote:
> > Will there be a version of the excellent pcre available that does NOT
> > require the ultimate of shit: libtool?
>
> To be honest, it's not a mandatory dependency. You can build PCRE
> "manually" following the instructions in the NON-UNIX-USE file (that's
> what I did in Qt 5, and it is really trivial), or by using CMake.

I wrote the NON-UNIX-USE instructions precisely so that those who did
not have, or did not want to use, the autotools stuff could still find a
way to build PCRE.[*] The disadvantage is that if you write your own
script to do it, you may have to maintain that script if a new file is
added or there is an extension such as the recent addition of 16-bit
support.

CMake was added to PCRE mainly for Windows users, where the autotools
have issues, but of course it can be used on Unix and other systems. So
we do offer (and support) three different building approaches.

Philip

[*] The original PCRE just used a Makefile that I wrote, using
"configure", but not automake. It got hard to maintain manually, and a
PCRE user updated it to automake, which, I have to admit, for systems
where libtool does work, makes life easier.

--
Philip Hazel