CentOS - Jul 2011 - More on CentOS autotools bug

Below is a repost of the message I sent about the strange error message 
I was getting when trying to build my project on CentOS. I am a software 
developer and don't have time to compare distros. I am also not an 
autotools expert. The autotools files in my project were lmade by 
others. It builds on everything except CentOS. I also don't have the 
time to build a simple test case. That would probably be time-consuming. 

The only thing I can do is explain how to reproduce the error. However, 
this would be time-consuming for anyone trying to do so. Sorry, I think 
I will just have to move to another distro, even Cygwin, for C 
development. That is a shame, because Centos is great in other respects.

----- Forwarded message from "John J. Boyer" <john.boyer at
abilitiessoft.com> -----

Subject: Strange autotools error
From: "John J. Boyer" <john.boyer at abilitiessoft.com>
Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2011 00:08:09 -0500
To: centos at centos.org

I am using CentOS 5.6, autoconf 2.59 and automake 1.9.6. I run an 
autogen script which cleans all autotools files and then installs new 
ones. If the appliction has no dependencies running configure, make and 
make install works fine. However if it has dependencies I get the 
messages "Creating Makefile" and "Could not find input file
Makefile".
I've herd that I need another development package. What is it? Or what 
causes these contradictory messages?
I must say that I have encountered this sort of problem only on CentOS. 

Thanks,
John

-- 
John J. Boyer; President, Chief Software Developer
Abilitiessoft, Inc.
http://www.abilitiessoft.com
Madison, Wisconsin USA
Developing software for people with disabilities


----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
John J. Boyer; President, Chief Software Developer
Abilitiessoft, Inc.
http://www.abilitiessoft.com
Madison, Wisconsin USA
Developing software for people with disabilities


----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
John J. Boyer; President, Chief Software Developer
Abilitiessoft, Inc.
http://www.abilitiessoft.com
Madison, Wisconsin USA
Developing software for people with disabilities

> The only thing I can do is explain how to reproduce the error. However, 
> this would be time-consuming for anyone trying to do so. Sorry, I think 
 You are already wasting everybody's time here. There are people on this
list
 willing to help but you keep waffling without providing even the minimum of
 information that enables others to reproduce the problem. Get to the point.

John J. Boyer wrote:
> Below is a repost of the message I sent about the strange error message
> I was getting when trying to build my project on CentOS. I am a software
> developer and don't have time to compare distros. I am also not an
> autotools expert. The autotools files in my project were lmade by
> others. It builds on everything except CentOS. I also don't have the
> time to build a simple test case. That would probably be time-consuming.
>
> The only thing I can do is explain how to reproduce the error. However,
> this would be time-consuming for anyone trying to do so. Sorry, I think
> I will just have to move to another distro, even Cygwin, for C
> development.
fine, move on. I doubt anybody cares. Donating time to you in order to 
help you fix your problems, which are most likely BKAC, is obviously a 
waste.

On 7/8/11, John J. Boyer <john.boyer at abilitiessoft.com>
wrote:
> Below is a repost of the message I sent about the strange error message
> I was getting when trying to build my project on CentOS. I am a software
> developer and don't have time to compare distros.
You claim to be a software developer so surely you realize the
importance of relevant information to assist in
debugging/troubleshooting. Yet what you're doing is the equivalent of
complaining "My program won't run, it just stops with an error at this
point", then refusing to provide a trace or output log, insisting that
"you can see it by writing the same program".

Mr Hodrien already demonstrated how to provide the information. Could
you not at least follow suit, copy and paste the relevant commands
leading up to the problem? If you had done so, he would had known the
problem occurred after that point and might had actually went past
when he stopped to see if he was going to get the same problem. But
because you refused to provide any information, he or anybody else
probably won't be bothered to waste time shooting blindly hoping to
reach the step where you got stuck.
>I am also not an
> autotools expert. The autotools files in my project were lmade by
> others. It builds on everything except CentOS. I also don't have the
> time to build a simple test case. That would probably be time-consuming.
"Building" a simple test case in this situation is as simple as
narrowing down the steps and changes leading to the problem. Your
refusal to provide relevant information probably wasted more time than
anything else. One is almost tempted to think this was an elaborate
troll :D