[MPlayer-users] Configure script is not portable

[vext01 at gmail.com]

Hi,

On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 08:00:52PM -0400, The Wanderer wrote:
> Edd Barrett wrote:
>> ---8<---
>> blade% uname -a
>> SunOS blade 5.10 Generic_137137-09 sun4u sparc SUNW,Sun-Blade-1000
>> blade% ./configure
>> ./configure: LC_ALL=C: is not an identifier
>> ---8<---
>
> This has been specifically mentioned on the development list as being a
> result of the shell not being POSIX-compatible.

Perhaps, but the aim of autotools is to make sure your software can
build on any platform right?

>
>> b) When you run configure with bash it becomes very apparent that the
>> script assumes the system is using the GNU tool-chain. Many systems
>> do not use the GNU tools. Whilst solaris does ship with gtar, ggrep
>> (in /usr/sfw), they are not the default versions. There is no GNU
>> tail command installed by default.
>
> As far as I am aware, the configure script does not assume GNU tools; it
> does, however, assume POSIX-compatible tools.

Same again.

>  There are some
> environments - and I think Solaris may be one of them - where the
> default toolchain is not POSIX-compatible. The recommended approach in
> these cases is to add the path(s) to the POSIX-compatible tools to the
> head of your PATH before running configure.
>
> For what it's worth, I see a number of people in the -dev-eng archives
> who appear to have built MPlayer successfully on OpenSolaris...

I did some googling and it looks like people are installing the GNU bits
and bobs for the mplayer build, so yes, looks like it is possible, but I
wonder how hard it really is to write portable lowest common denominator
shell script, so you don't need to install additional software.

Maybe I will look at this some time.

I see your point with POSIX, but im pretty certain sun won't be changing
thier grep implementation any time soon.

Thanks for getting back to me.

-- 

Best Regards

Edd Barrett
(Freelance software developer / technical writer / open-source developer)

http://students.dec.bmth.ac.uk/ebarrett