[vlc-devel] [PATCH] configure.ac: Print a warning if xcb-keysyms is missing.

Rémi Denis-Courmont remi at remlab.net
Sat Jul 10 00:47:37 CEST 2010


----- Message d'origine -----
> 2010/7/9 Rémi Denis-Courmont <remi at remlab.net>:
> > ----- Message d'origine -----
> > > Modules xcb_window and globalhotkeys won't be compiled if the
> > > library xcb-keysyms is not installed. Rather than disabling the
> > > modules silently the configure script should print a warning so
> > > that the users know which library they need to install if the need
> > > the two vlc modules.
> >
> > I got the feeling most people do not check the configure for warnings. Given
> > the length (and speed) of the outout, I cannot blame them.
>
> I guess people who attempt to compile vlc on their own know how to
> redirect the output and use grep; speed and the length is not an issue
> here.

Empirically, I have to believe the opposite.

> > On top of that, I believe most people do not what those two modules do, and
> > why they would need them.
>
> There are so many more modules and libraries that most people don't
> need, and yet the configure script prints warnings when some of the
> depencencies are missing.

In most cases, that is just a generic message from the pkg-config, not a deliberately added message. Anyway, that _is_ the problem. There are, as you say, so many warnings, that people just ignore them. All of them. A message about some obscure plugin is unlikely to be read and taken into account in such circumstances.

> Besides, I am not proposing to halt the build process when xcb_window
> cannot be build. The patch only prints a warning when the module
> cannot be built due to missing xcb-keysyms. This give the user a
> chance to install the missing dependency if they need xcb_window.
>
> Without the warning it is not entirely easy to figure out what
> dependencies need to be satisfied if you need the xcb_window module,
> you have to dig deep into the configure or configure.ac scripts.

True. But it is hardly relevant if you do not know if/why the xcb_window plugin would be required. In other words, I find the proposed warning too cryptic.

-- 
Rémi



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