Adrian Mak wrote: > I read many spec. file from other packages, they often execute > aclocal, automake, autoconf,autoheader in the %prep stage > > I don't understand it can simply do a ./configure in the %build stage > What is the purpose they use these tools in the prep stage ? Often the upstream of a package is using an old version of the autotools. This produces a configure script which often does not work on modern systems. So the packager will recreate the configure script by rerunning the autotools on the packager's system. This gets discussed every so often on other lists. I have seen some heated discussion about how this should be handled. There are two strongly held opinions. One is that you should never do this and just beat on upstream until they fix their upstream code. Then everyone benefits. The other is that you can't always fix everything in the world and you must be pragmatic. Running the autotools in the packaging step can fix things downstream. You could always run the autotools and then maintain the differences as a patch. But the patch could be very large in some cases. One of the disadvantages of running the autotools is that now your package build depends upon a good set of autotools for the package. This has created a BuildRequires relationship with them. Bob _______________________________________________ Rpm-list mailing list Rpm-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/rpm-list
