[asterisk-dev] autoconf version requirement increase

[Matt Fredrickson]

Hey Corey,

On Tue, Oct 31, 2017 at 3:52 PM, Corey Farrell <git at cfware.com> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> autoconf is required to run ./bootstrap.sh after changing configure.ac or
> *.m4 in any folder of the Asterisk source tree (including menuselect and
> third-party folders).  Currently we require 2.60, I'm working on a patch
> that will require 2.64.  Note autoconf is not required to run './configure',
> it is only needed to run ./bootstrap.sh.
>
> Does anyone work on these files from a distribution which cannot install
> autoconf-2.69?  Although the changes I'm working on only require autoconf
> 2.64 I see no reason to hold back at this point. Version 2.69 is from 2012
> and is the latest version.  As far as I know CentOS 6 is the only major
> currently supported distribution which has autoconf < 2.64, all others
> provide 2.69.  Requiring 2.69 would be one less thing to worry about when
> working on configure scripts, especially since I don't have access to test
> any lower version.

We discussed this on IRC a bit yesterday, but to echo my response - I
myself work on a distribution that has at least version 2.69 of
autoconf so it shouldn't be a big deal.  I believe that re-running
bootstrap.sh should be so infrequent (only when we need to add things
to detect new libraries or do system related checks) that I don't have
a huge problem with bumping up the required version on it.  Since
generation of the configure script could be done on a more modern
system as a workaround I think it shouldn't be a big deal.

Anybody have opposing thoughts?

-- 
Matthew Fredrickson
Digium, Inc. | Engineering Manager
445 Jan Davis Drive NW - Huntsville, AL 35806 - USA