[Bruce Korb <bkorb@xxxxxxx>]

Guy Harris wrote:
> 
> > > autoconf/automake have an extremely irritating characteristic - they
> > > search *only* in the subtree in which they're installed, so that, for
> > > example, versions that come with the OS and that live in "/usr/bin"
> > > won't look under "/usr/local" for macros.
> >
> > That is actually reasonable in that it is distributed with
> > *highly* versioned macros.
> 
> ...except that I'm not talking about the macros with which
> autoconf/automake are distributed, I'm talkinga bout the macros with
> which *GTK+* is distributed.  Having autoconf/automake search *only* in
> "/usr/<whatever>", and not *also* in "/usr/local/<whatever>", makes life
> very painful if you've installed third-party software under
> "/usr/local", as you've discovered - obliging people to make the
> appropriate links by hand is just gross.


Sounds like a request for enhancement to autoconf folks:
viz. a macro:

  AC_SET_PREFIX( gtk )

that will set a variable a la:

  ac_gtk_prefix=/usr/local