[Asterisk-Dev] Converting the Asterisk code to autoconf

[Kevin P. Fleming]

telephony at jonjay.com wrote:

> There is one issue that I would like to see improved.  Currently
> the top level Asterisk source contains more than 100 files and
> a single static makefile.  Like so many other quality OSS packages
> this should be placed under GNU's autoconf, and a more hierarchical
> file organization should be in place.

While I agree that autoconf/automake/libtool would be valuable 
improvement, I see no purpose in saying that there is a problem just 
because there is 'more than 100 files' in the top level directory. In 
fact, there are lots of Makefiles (not a 'single static Makefile'), one 
in each subdirectory, and the one in the 'funcs' directory is dynamic 
and learns what to build from the contents of that directory.

There is no potential logical organization of the source files in the 
top level directory, other than to just place them into a subdirectory 
called 'asterisk', since they all end up built into the asterisk binary. 
  In fact, let's look at a breakdown of the top-level directory of 
Asterisk CVS HEAD:

Total entries:    103
Subdirectories:  24
Documentation:  16
Makefile:               1
------------------------
Source Files:      62

This is far from 'poor quality' because of the number of files; in fact, 
it's a good thing that the source is broken up into as many files as it 
is, it's much more clearly organized this way :-)

> In Astricon, I had the opportunity to talk about this with
> Kevin Fleming from Digium, and he was receptive to my proposal.
> I hired a programmer which has converted OSS for me in the past,
> and he estimates that it would take him about a month (he has
> other programming responsibilities).  One of the goals will be
> to have the number of build and install error messages reduced
> to zero or close to.  Plus, all the Unixes out there should
> benefit a great deal.

This is correct on all counts.

> Later on, we could work on converting the rest of the code
> (Zaptel, Libpri, Addons and Sounds).

Most of Zaptel cannot be converted, because it uses the kernel's 
'kbuild' infrastructure, and there is nothing to build in the 
asterisk-sounds directory at all.

> We don't want to replicate efforts.  So, is there anyone out
> there working on this?  Do you have concerns, suggestions
> or comments?

I'm glad someone has stepped forward to do this (again), but as Tilghman 
has already mentioned, the proof will be in the result... We'd all like 
to be there, but few of us can spare the time to do the work. If your 
person/team can get us there, we will be happy to see it!