On Mon, 2026-03-09 at 19:03 +0100, Bruno Haible via Discussion list for the autoconf build system wrote: > Zack Weinberg wrote: > > > Why implement a new option for this, instead of using the > > > existing > > > environment variables which have been supported by autoreconf > > > since 2001? > > > > Discoverability. If someone's having a problem with autoreconf > > running > > something it shouldn't, and they look at autoreconf --help, the -- > > exclude > > option will be right there. The --help text does also mention the > > environment variables, but they're described as a way to control > > *what > > command* is run > > +1. The first time I saw someone use > > AUTOPOINT=true autoreconf > > as a way to tell autoreconf not to invoke 'autopoint', I found it > strange. The --exclude option definitely will lead to more > understandable shell scripts and build recipes.
I'd also add that it is easy to read AUTOPOINT=true as "enable autopoint", which is the exact opposite of what it does. Setting the utilities to true/false binaries is a clever/cute way to do it but not really very obvious/understandable and the new option is way better IMO as it is clear and obvious. Cheers, Richard
