Which autoconf build features do we need for 4.0?

[Andrew Bartlett]

On Thu, 2012-05-17 at 13:42 -0700, Jeremy Allison wrote:
> On Thu, May 17, 2012 at 10:44:02AM +1000, Andrew Bartlett wrote:
> > I wanted to start a discussion about how we position and use the two
> > build systems, so that when we get to a Samba 4.0 release, our users are
> > clear on what build system provides what features, and why they should
> > use it.  
> > 
> > I'm trying to make it clear in our user's minds that we have moved past
> > having a 'file server' build and an 'AD build', and that for almost all
> > users, the top level build is the one they want.
> > 
> > I fully expect that some of you will not agree with this DRAFT statement
> > in whole, but then your constructive feedback is important:  If we do
> > not have a common position, or we have technical issues that conflict
> > with this statement, then we need to sort that out.  I want us all to
> > understand the issues and (if technical) fix them, or (if philosophical)
> > see if we can come up with something that we all agree on, so that when
> > users of Samba 4.0 ask, they get a consistent answer. 
> > 
> > I would appreciate your thoughtful feedback and comments on this.
> 
> +1 on this - I think it's really well written and a very good summary
> of where we are.

Thanks Jeremy, I really do appreciate your support. 

I wondered if you or others on the list could help me with the last part
of my draft statement, that is a survey of what features are important
to users who need to retain access to the autoconf build system.  Could
you use your contacts in our OEM community to help me understand what
their needs are?

Are these users (for example) in need of libsmbclient and libnet?  Do
they need us to publish libtdb and libtalloc for use in the system?  Is
libsmbsharemodes (which depends on both of these) important?  (I
certainly expect that due to the way nss_winbind and pam_winbind work,
that libwbclient would be important. )

Or do users who cannot run the waf build just want the suite of Samba
binaries, statically linked?

The reason I'm asking about libraries specifically is that I'm concerned
that we have unnecessary and potentially problematic duplication here.
We certainly need a way to make Samba install on a system without
libtalloc for example, but should we have two different ways that a
libtalloc could be installed onto the system, potentially for
system-wide use?

Beyond libraries, what other parts of the autoconf are used/not used by
folks who can't build with waf?  Indeed, do these systems without python
have a recent enough version of Kerberos?

Thanks,

Andrew Bartlett


-- 
Andrew Bartlett                                http://samba.org/~abartlet/
Authentication Developer, Samba Team           http://samba.org