Automake and libtool for Samba

[Michael Sweet]

Matt Peterson wrote:
> ...
> Automake and especially libtool have proven to be very valuable
> tools for building portable open source projects.  Before we get
> too far into this, it would be interesting to know why Samba does
> not use of these tools.

I first ran across automake and libtool when doing the IRIX
distributions for GIMP and SANE; my personal opinion is that they
are evil programs that shouldn't be used.

Why?  Because they stuff object files in strange places, leaving
placeholder files in the main directory.  They don't properly
handle shared library binding in executables, so you have to use
LD_LIBRARY_PATH or put your shared libraries in common system
directories (yes, Linux allows you to configure those; Linux isn't
the whole of UNIX...)

Finally, I don't like the way that libtool hides the build commands -
it has made tracking down and fixing libtool-related bugs and
problems nearly impossible.

Under duress, I added optional support for libtool in CUPS; AFAIK
only the *BSD folks are using it (they provided the patches for
it) to build CUPS.

*Please* don't use libtool in the SAMBA code!

-- 
______________________________________________________________________
Michael Sweet, Easy Software Products                  mike at easysw.com
Printing Software for UNIX                       http://www.easysw.com