Subject: Re: bug#2280: 23.0.90; incorrect configuration

From: Stefan Monnier <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 16 May 2012 08:42:25 -0400

> I agree with the suggestion to just remove this bit from configure.in:
>     # Use fink packages if available.
>     if test -d /sw/include && test -d /sw/lib; then
>       GCC_TEST_OPTIONS="-I/sw/include -L/sw/lib"
>       CPP_TEST_OPTIONS=${GCC_TEST_OPTIONS}
>       NON_GCC_TEST_OPTIONS=${GCC_TEST_OPTIONS}
>     fi
> It's not Emacs's business to make this kind of decision.

My motivation was to make it easy for Mac OS X users who like their Mac
to be more GNU-like (and hence install the typical GNU packages via
Fink).

I think this motivation is still valid and makes sense for a GNU package
like Emacs, so I'd rather not flat-out remove it.  It might need to be
revised/refined/improved, tho.
E.g. Chong's patch to add support for MacPorts makes sense.

Of course, there's the issue of which one to choose if both MacPorts and
Fink are found, as well as the issue of finding an old left-over Fink or
MacPorts installation.

One reason to add these lines was that stock Mac OS X was missing some
of the libraries we used commonly back then (e.g. Xaw3d).  So maybe one
way forward is to look more carefully at which libs we normally want to
get from Fink/MacPorts (because they're missing from Mac OS X) and then
check which ones of these are installed where.

        Stefan

PS: We should probably also contact the Fink and MacPorts team to see if
they could fix their respective home page to not only mention "open
source" but also "free software".