On 2018-02-25 (00:37 MST), John Fawcett <j...@voipsupport.it> wrote: > > On 25/02/18 01:18, Wietse Venema wrote: >> John Fawcett: >>> .... >>> I was wondering if it might be wise to make m4 a mandatory prerequisite, >>> without which compilation would fail.? >> We could add this at the top of the script: >> >> m4 </dev/null || exit 1 >> >> but that would be a point solution. For a dependency list someone >> would have to write a tool that scrapes the scripts and enumerates >> all their dependencies, and that can be (re)run with each release. >> I am not inclined to curate the dependency list by hand. > > That would also be useful to assist in documenting dependencies. > >> >> I find it sad that systems have make but not m4. That tool has been >> around as part of the UNIX toolkit for over 30 years, on all the >> systems that I have played with. >> >> Wietse > > I normally start out with the minimal set of packages and only add > software that I need to those. While make was already there, the > compiler and m4 were missing. I installed the compiler but forgot m4, so > it was my fault really.
I used to do the same back int eh 90s where trying to slim down the OS was really worth the effort. Now though, a full base install is well under a handful of GB, or less than 1% of a small hard drive. The package that don't matter are just taking a little bit of space, and it is hardly worth building a system by hand to save a tiny amount (percentage-wise) of space. -- All he [Vimes] knew was that you couldn't hope to try for the big stuff, like world peace and happiness, but you might just about be able to achieve some tiny deed that'd make the world, in a small way, a better place. Like shooting someone.
