On Sun, Feb 26, 2023 at 11:54:19AM +0100, Omar Polo wrote:
> While trying the update of the package for void linux to 0.84 some
> issues arised (then fixed in 0.84.1) but the biggest one (from a
> porter POV) is that it's currently impossible to tweak configure.ac
> and re-gen it with autoreconf from a distribution tarball.

In my experience, it's generally not the done thing to expect to regenerate
these files.  The whole point of the release tarball is that it already has
all the files required for compilation, without the need to regenerate
anything.

However, it's not a difficult thing to fix.

> The main issue is that util/got-portable-ver.sh is not shipped in it.
> However, I'm failing to see the benefit of it.  It just echoes back

It's one of the biggest features I rely on when I'm juggling multiple got
installations, and I look at the version string all the time to understand
where got was built, and from where.

> (there's also the point that some ancient autoconf -- still packaged,
> for e.g. on void linux -- don't understand m4_esyscmd_s and fail.)

I'm less sympathetic on this point, Omar.

I will add util/got-portable-ver.sh to EXTRA_DIST.  For those systems where
autoconf is that old that it doesn't understand m4_esyscmd_s, I consider them
broken.  This was added to autoconf-2.63 which was released a while ago.

Kindly,
Thomas