configure output summary

[Stefan Winter]

  Hi,

>> when running configure, lots of somewhat important messages scroll by,
>> like "silently disabling something you need" :-)
> ./configure --with-whatever-options | grep WARN
>
> ;-)

Yes, I can do that. I even dare say that I can spot WARNINGs while the 
scroll buffer runs by, and thus instantly see what's going wrong (at 
least on my slow-spec'd VMs). But newcomers aren't that trained yet. You 
shouldn't have to tell them "every other Linux project does "configure", 
but you have to "configure | grep WARN" - it's odd if you're not used to it.

> there are other packages that print out stuff at the end about what
> features are not enabled etc - but , being on those mailing lists too,
> noone reads that output....even if you put a whacking great big dragon
> in it  ;-)

Exactly these projects were the role model I had in mind. Granted, some 
people will even overlook the necessary information if it is in 
<blink>RED</blink>. But a summary at the end at least raises chances of 
problems being flagged by the person running configure.

Interesting discussion elsewhere in the thread... a proper solution to 
the problem would indeed be that the recursiveness of configure goes 
away. Much better than running a whacky script, of course!

Greetings,

Stefan

-- 
Stefan WINTER
Ingenieur de Recherche
Fondation RESTENA - Réseau Téléinformatique de l'Education Nationale et de la Recherche
6, rue Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi
L-1359 Luxembourg

Tel: +352 424409 1
Fax: +352 422473