Wireshark-bugs: [Wireshark-bugs] [Bug 3110] make dist fails

Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:34:52 -0800 (PST)
https://bugs.wireshark.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3110





--- Comment #2 from Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>  2008-12-10 18:34:51 PDT ---
The Makefile is generated by automake, which can generate two types of
Makefile.in file:

    1) files for development, which require GNU make (or a compatible make);

    2) files for distribution, which, as far as I know, are not supposed to
require GNU make to build and install the software, so that a user who wants to
build and install from source can do so without GNU make.

However, whether automake-generated Makefiles are supposed to require GNU make
to build distribution tarballs is another matter.  I would not be surprised to
find that they do, as the intent of a distribution tarball is primarily to
allow users to build and install from source, with configuration; being able to
do development, etc. from that in a simple fashion is not really the primary
goal.

The only reason to do "make dist" from a distribution tarball would be if
you're making changes; if you're doing that much development, you're probably
going to have to, at a minimum, use GNU make, and you might also have to have
the auto* tools, etc. installed (which just building and installing won't
require).

We might just fix this by noting the GNU make, etc. requirement in a README
file.


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