[Ffmpeg-devel] build systems

[Sam Hocevar]

On Tue, Sep 20, 2005, matthieu castet wrote:

> >>Gentoo installs lots of different versions, including very recent 
> >>ones, and
> >>uses a wrapper to figure out which version is expected.  If the detection
> >>fails, you can always call the proper version directly.
> >>
> >Cool. But debian is mandated here...
> >
> IIRC on debian, you could install all versions and use 
> update-alternative to choose the default one.

   Yes, but there are reasons why this is not exactly a good idea. Not
all Makefile.am constructs work the same with all versions of automake,
and for those who do, it is up to the upstream to allow or disallow them
in the bootstrap script. Something along these lines:

if automake-1.9 --version >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  amvers="-1.9"
elif automake-1.8 --version >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  amvers="-1.8"
else
  echo "No supported automake version"
  exit 1
fi
aclocal${amvers}
autoconf
autoheader
automake${amvers}

   Blindly calling "automake" instead of a specific version is one
of the wrong reasons people think the autotools constantly break
everything.

-- 
Sam.