On 22:08 Sun 03 Jul     , darkdefende@... wrote:
> Now I'm moving on to figure out how I should structure how the program 
> searches for possible useflag and/or optional dependecies.
> 
> I'm thinking about having it parse the makefile first and look for 
> variables that configure will supply to it in relevant areas. Like 
> variables that pull in stuff from EXTRA_…_SOURCES for example. This 
> way I can look for where those variables are defined in the autoconf 
> file and then just evaluate those parts of the autoconf file.
> 
> I don't know if this will make it easier or save me any time. But it 
> seems to me like it would be better if I could just evaluate those 
> cases as they use, as far as I've seen, the same autoconf 
> macros/functions. Which would mean that I can narrow down which macros 
> I have to implement.

I wouldn't do it that way; I would complete ignore the Makefiles on an 
autotools project, since as you've said they are fraught with 
complexity. Generated Makefiles are far more complex than handwritten 
ones, although the nice thing is that if one works, they all do.

I would check AC_ARG_WITH and AC_ARG_ENABLE, which tells you what 
features are truly optional and also give a good idea of what the USE 
flags should be. I'd use those to determine what variables and defines 
get set in an optional way, and then track them through (1) Makefile.am 
files to see how it changes what's built and how and (2) the source 
files themselves to see how it changes #ifdefs and thus what's included.

--
Thanks,
Donnie

Donnie Berkholz
Admin, Summer of Code
Gentoo Linux and X.Org
Blog: http://dberkholz.com