[PATCH xorg-fonts] configure.ac: remove C compiler dependency

[Gaetan Nadon]

On 14-12-15 07:54 PM, Alan Coopersmith wrote:
> On 12/12/14 09:43 AM, Richard Tollerton wrote:
>> Font compilation does not require a C compiler, but configure will fail
>> anyway if one isn't found, because of the inclusion of
>> XORG_DEFAULT_OPTIONS. Fix this by including only those macros normally
>> in XORG_DEFAULT_OPTIONS that don't ultimately bring in AC_PROG_CC.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Richard Tollerton <rich.tollerton at ni.com>
>> ---
>>   configure.ac | 4 +++-
>>   1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
>> index 5b5b3aa..1d6874a 100644
>> --- a/configure.ac
>> +++ b/configure.ac
>> @@ -31,7 +31,9 @@ AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([foreign dist-bzip2])
>>   m4_ifndef([XORG_MACROS_VERSION],
>>         [m4_fatal([must install xorg-macros 1.3 or later before
>> running autoconf/autogen])])
>>   XORG_MACROS_VERSION(1.3)
>> -XORG_DEFAULT_OPTIONS
>> +XORG_RELEASE_VERSION
>> +XORG_CHANGELOG
>> +XORG_MANPAGE_SECTIONS
>
> I do like the idea of skipping a lot of time-consuming compiler tests
> when building those modules in a full build, but I'm not sure that's
> the best way to do it.
>
> Instead of undoing XORG_DEFAULT_OPTIONS and going back to updating every
> configure script for every global change I'd rather we introduced into
> xorg-macros either an argument to XORG_DEFAULT_OPTIONS to skip the calls
> that set up compiler flags or have new macro that's the appropriate
> subset of options for modules that don't use the compiler.
>
> For instance, the above is missing XORG_INSTALL, AC_PROG_INSTALL, &
> the setup of AM_SILENT_RULES which all are applied in current
> XORG_DEFAULT_OPTIONS and are useful for fonts & similar modules.
>
There are many modules where the compiler is not required. Other
examples are all the X protocol modules. If a computer lacks a compiler,
there will be many more modules that will not autoconf successfully.
Several years ago it was calculated that the effort to omit compiler
configuration from the modules that don't require it was not justified.

I agree that if the "no compiler" configuration was justified, it should
be done in the xorg-macros package. Richard should make a case for it.
Is there a serious real life problem or was it merely an optimization issue?

It could be more work than it first seems. The compiler autoconf process
includes other macros for example grep and awk that we don't bother
invoking in xorg-macros. These would need to be analyzed and explicitly
invoked.

I wonder if "make distcheck" has been tested. It could very well be that
having a compiler is a hidden assumption in the autoconf/automake
packages. It may also be that some distros pull in the compiler with the
autoconf automake packages.