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Producing a different configuration for every system is not the whole point of autotools. Rather, autotools is generally used as a way to configure semi-standard-but-implementation-specific functionality across different platforms, such as locating <stat.h> or determining the platform's word size.

It also gives users a familiar way to optionally enable features at build time, such as choosing between MySQL and PostgreSQL support, as opposed to requiring the user to edit some Makefiles and twiddle some #define's manually.




such as locating <stat.h>

POSIX says that it's <sys/stat.h>. Problem solved.

determining the platform's word size

sizeof(size_t). Problem solved.


Not that I'm defending autoconf (I dislike it a lot), but POSIX is also ignorant sometimes, so it shouldn't be treated dogmatically - e.g., google for the socklen_t confusion.

Other than that, the real world isn't black and white either. Although many unixen claim to be POSIX compliant, based on my experience they are mostly POSIX-ish.

And there's also no guarantee for sizeof(size_t) being a platform's word size.


> POSIX says that it's <sys/stat.h>. Problem solved.

Sadly what POSIX says is cold comfort when you're trying to compile something and the computer in front of you has put stat.h somewhere else.




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