I'd like to chime in with support for documenting a few key environment
variables in --help.
The single biggest problem I see users having when installing packages ala
autoconf is that they installed a needed library in some random directory
(e.g. if they are not root) and so of course configure doesn't find it. I
see this again and again, both in my own programs and other people's, no
matter how well I try to document it.
Because of this, I think it is a good idea to document at least LDFLAGS
("-L/somedir/lib") and CPPFLAGS ("-I/somedir/include") in the --help,
perhaps along with CC/CXX/F77 and CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS/FFLAGS. I wouldn't mind
submitting a patch for that.
Steven
Alexandre Oliva wrote:
> Personally, I like it. I think it can improve a lot the interface
> between the user and the author of configure.in. On the other hand,
> it should not help people forgetting they should README.
>
> So I'm OK with removing it.
>
> Anybody else who would have an opinion? We're talking about:
>
> | ~/src/fu % ./configure --help
> | `configure' configures this package to adapt to many kinds of systems.
> |
> | Usage: ./configure [OPTION]... [VAR=VALUE]...
> |
> | To assign environment variables (e.g., CC, CFLAGS...), specify them as
> | VAR=VALUE.
> | [......]
> | Some influent environment variables:
> | CFLAGS Extra flags for the C compiler
