>> (1) If the user unpacks the tarball, the rules are not executed.
>> (2) If the user does a bootstrap from the repository to do `make
>> dist', they are needed.
>> (3) If the user changes a doc source file in the tarball and wants
>> to regenerate the documentation, the rules are needed too.
> ...
>> (b) If the tests for pandoc and pdftex fail, disable the build
>> rules or provide no-ops. This is OK for (1) and (3), but not
>> satisfactory for (2).
>
> Why is (b) unsatisfactory for (2)?
>
> I'm presuming that when pandoc/pdftex are not found, not only are
> the standard makefile rules using them disabled, but alternative
> rules enabled which just say something like:
>
> if have_pandoc
> foo.html: foo.tex
> $(PANDOC) balah blah blah
> else
> foo.html: foo.tex
> echo 1>&2 "**** OMGOMG can't generate $@!!!!"
> echo 1>&2 "**** please install pandoc and reconfigure"
> endif
Thanks for your response!
I was a bit unclear. Your solution happens at `make' time, which is
OK, and I will do what you suggest. However, my question was
primarily related to the configure script, and I think I've found the
solution: If `configure' doesn't find the documentation files, checks
for pandoc and pdftex result in fatal errors if they aren't available,
otherwise they cause warnings only.
Werner
