John Borchardt wrote:
> AC_CHECK_LIB (library, function, [action-if-found],
> [action-if-not-found], [other-libraries])
> AC_CHECK_HEADER (header-file, [action-if-found],
> [action-if-not-found], [includes = `default-includes'])
>
> it isn't clear to me how I can use these functions to get the location
> of the library or header file.
What those macros simulate is what would happen if you tried to link a
program that uses the specified library (or compile an object that uses
the specified header), given the current setting of the variables CC,
CXX, CPPFLAGS, CXXFLAGS, CFLAGS, LIBS, LDFLAGS, etc. That is precisely
what you want to test, since that is exactly what you are trying to
ensure will work. In other words, if the test fails then you know
something is wrong, because the test is meant to simulate what will
happen in the Makefile shortly. Generally you shouldn't really care
about the actual location where the thing is found, just that the
current setting of those variables is correct.
If you are trying to support the case where headers and libs might be in
some nonstandard location, then there are generally two methods to
handle that:
A) The user is instructed to set the variables correctly, when invoking
configure, e.g.
path/to/configure CPPFLAGS=-I/some/path/include \
LDFLAGS=-L/some/path/lib
This is not really any kind of special case because in fact any
well-behaved autoconf package should allow for all of these variables
being set by the user.
B) You add an AC_ARG_WITH that looks for "--with-foobar=/some/path", and
prepends -I/some/path/include to CPPFLAGS and -L/some/path/lib to
LDFLAGS before running the check tests. This is just automating the
above.
If you want to bake in a list of possible locations to search, then you
code a loop that saves the current setting of the *FLAGS, prepends the
test argument, runs a compile or link check, and loops if it failed.
> I'm just trying to check for the files
> existence, not necessarily link against it or anything.
That's not the autoconf philosophy. Again, you really shouldn't care
what the actual location is, you should care that all of the relevant
variables are set so that the test compile or test link succeeds. This
ensures that the library is usable (e.g. on multi-arch systems that it
is finding the right flavor) and it allows for maximum user flexibility
since they can completely control what's happening by the setting of
those variables.
Brian
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