[llvm-dev] [RFC] Deprecating autoconf: Let's do it!

[Chris Bieneman via llvm-dev]

> On Nov 9, 2015, at 8:49 AM, John Reagan via llvm-dev <llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org> wrote:
> 
> As somebody who's currently hosting LLVM on a platform (OpenVMS Itanium) that has configure but not a working CMake (we're working to fix that but there are some tricky issues), I would appreciate if you didn't scrub the existence of configure from the source or the documentation.  

Are you proposing that we keep the makefiles? I think we specifically want to get rid of those because it doesn’t make sense to have them around if they aren’t expected to work. I don’t think we will do a concerted scrub of all makefile-related code, but I do expect we’ll remove the configure script and all the makefiles themselves.

We could keep the autoconf documentation around for a release or two with a big “warning” at the top saying the autoconf system is removed in 3.9 and later.

Do you think that is sufficient?

-Chris

> Perhaps keep pointers to the older pages and link to them from the downloads pages or something with an "as-is" message?  It would at least give somebody a head start if they didn't have CMake.  Even telling me to yank the script from an older version would be sufficient.
> 
> John
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 8
> Date: Fri, 06 Nov 2015 09:56:42 -0800
> From: Chris Bieneman via llvm-dev <llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org>
> To: llvm-dev <llvm-dev at lists.llvm.org>
> Subject: [llvm-dev] [RFC] Deprecating autoconf: Let's do it!
> Message-ID: <4D17078D-A8AA-446F-8FFB-5988583628CB at apple.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
> 
> Hi LLVMDev,
> 
> Since my last update we’ve landed patches for these issues:
> * Bug 14200 - -fno-rtti not in cxxflags given by llvm-config
> * Bug 23746 - test-suite lacks CMake support
> * Bug 25059 - CMake libllvm.so.$MAJOR.$MINOR shared object name not compatible with ldconfig
> 
> On my last thread Jonathan Roelofs pointed out that there is a workaround for Bug 21568 (Cannot add rpath), so I’m making it non-blocking. Which leaves only Bug 23947, which I’m also going to move that to non-blocking because it only applies to building LLVM on MIPS64 hardware.
> 
> With those changes we have no issues left blocking deprecating autoconf. There are still some issues we should track and follow through on, but I think all major uses are covered and we can make CMake the only officially supported way to build LLVM.
> 
> My proposal at this point is that we should officially deprecate autoconf, and I would like to follow this process for removing it:
> 
> (1) Add a note to the release notes for 3.8, and a big warning at the end of the configure script telling people to use CMake
> (2) Support autoconf with bug fixes only, no new features for 3.8
> (3) After the 3.8 branch remove all the makefiles and have the configure script log a message to use CMake
> (4) After the 3.9 branch remove the configure script completely
> 
> I’ve attached a patch that handles the first step. Please let me know if this sounds like a reasonable path for the community.
> 
> Also, a big “Thank You” to everyone who has contributed patches, reviewed patches, and helped out with this work over the last year. It has been a long road, but the end is in sight!
> 
> Thanks,
> -Chris
> 
> 
> 
> 
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