[Libguestfs] [PATCH libnbd v2] README: Document additional packages

Laszlo Ersek
2023-04-17T17:29:04Z

On 4/17/23 18:44, Nir Soffer wrote:
> When building from git we need autoconf, automake and libtool.
>
> Signed-off-by: Nir Soffer <nsoffer at redhat.com>
> ---
>
> Changes sinve v1:
> - Remove `,` between package namses (Laszlo)
>
>  README.md | 7 +++++++
>  1 file changed, 7 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
> index c7166613..7eed0e31 100644
> --- a/README.md
> +++ b/README.md
> @@ -32,10 +32,17 @@ ## License
>  very liberal license.
>
>
>  ## Building from source
>
> +Building from source requires additional packages. On rpm based system
> +use:
> +
> +```
> +dnf install autoconf automake libtool
> +```
> +
>  To build from git:
>
>  ```
>  autoreconf -i
>  ./configure

Sorry, I'm looking at the existent context in README.md more closely
only now. I see sections such as:

[1]
"Requirements:"

and

[2]
"Required for building from git, optional for building from tarballs:"

I *think* autoconf is only needed for the "autoreconf" step, which is
specific to building from git; it is presumably not needed for building
from a tarball.

I believe the same applies to automake. I've checked latest tarball
<https://download.libguestfs.org/libnbd/1.15-development/libnbd-1.15.13.tar.gz>;
it contains both "Makefile.am" files and "Makefile.in"
files. According
to the comments in the "Makefile.in" files, automake generates
Makefile.in from Makefile.am, and "Makefile.in" is the input file for
./configure. So I think at least in theory we could technically drop the
"Makefile.am" files from the tarball. Either way, automake should only
be necessary when building from a git checkout, not when building from a
tarball.

I guess (?) libtool is required in both cases though.

I'm not familiar with autotools internals, so I can't say anything
definitive here; I guess I'd propose putting autoconf and automake under
[2], and libtool under [1]. Rich, Eric?

Again, sorry that I didn't think this through under v1 already.

Laszlo