It would be good if the documentation (I'm looking at 1.5.6.) were clearer on the setup of libtool and its requirements. In previous discussion on this list, I've learned that autoconf is required. I've just discovered a little more is necessary too (at least install-sh, which can be produced by automake).
Also, it could be clearer that you don't actually distribute a libtool with your package, but have it generated on the build machine by configure. In particular, I found this confusing: ---------------------------------------------------- 5.3 Configuring libtool ======================= Libtool requires intimate knowledge of your compiler suite and operating system in order to be able to create shared libraries and link against them properly. When you install the libtool distribution, a system-specific libtool script is installed into your binary directory. However, when you distribute libtool with your own packages (*note Distributing::), you do not always know which compiler suite and operating system are used to compile your package. For this reason, libtool must be "configured" before it can be used. This idea should be familiar to anybody who has used a GNU `configure' script. `configure' runs a number of tests for system features, then generates the `Makefiles' (and possibly a `config.h' header file), after which you can run `make' and build the package. Libtool adds its own tests to your `configure' script in order to generate a libtool script for the installer's host machine. ------------------------------------------------------------- "when you distribute libtool with your own packages" meant, to me, that the file libtool would be part of my package. The line 'libtool must be "configured" before it can be used' also suggested there was some file that configure acted upon, rather than one that it created. The statement that "Libtool adds its own tests to your 'configure' script" similarly suggests that libtool exists before configure (I realize this is sort of true, though it applies to the maintainer machine). Now, back to the issue of required programs and packages..... Documentation section 5.4, Including libtool in your package, lists a bunch of required files, and recommends running libtoolize. (It also does say not to include libtool itself). Having done all this, I put the project on a new system and ran configure. It failed because install-sh was absent. So at least that file is necessary. I did automake --foreign --add-missing which added 3 files (though I did get some complaints from it). Things then worked. Finally, section 5.1, Writing `Makefile' rules for libtool, does say "If you want to use libtool in a regular `Makefile' (or `Makefile.in'), you are on your own." Since I am trying to use libtool without automake, this could be taken as a general warning and disclaimer. Even if that was the intent, it would be nice to add the information mentioned above for those who aren't using automake. -- Ross Boylan wk: (415) 502-4031 530 Parnassus Avenue (Library) rm 115-4 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dept of Epidemiology and Biostatistics fax: (415) 476-9856 University of California, San Francisco San Francisco, CA 94143-0840 hm: (415) 550-1062 _______________________________________________ Libtool mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/libtool
