Re: BUG #5802: configure script does not check for perl devel files

On Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 2:37 PM, Greg Sabino Mullane <greg@turnstep.com> wrote:
>>> However, during the make, postgres requires perl devel. Should this
>>> not be covered in the configure script?
>>
>> No, it's not configure's job to do the job of make or the compiler.
>
> Nonsense, we should be checking everything we can. Why wait until
> a future step fails if we can rule it out as early as possible?
> We already do that for a number of other things.

I think the real problem with leaving it until compile time is that
it's often rather non-obvious to the user where things have gone
south.  At least, that's been my experience when trying to install
software from source in the past.  A configure error that says "you
need libperl" is annoying, but it's better than an incomprehensible
error during compile.  My personal top hate is when you get a
complaint that some header file you've never heard of is missing, and
you get to guess which of 3000 packages you need to install to have
it.  Or maybe you already do have it, but it's not installed quite
where it's expected to be, or it's the wrong version, or ...

But in this particular case the error message seems just as
self-explanatory as anything configure would emit, so I'm not totally
sure I see the point.  Though on the flip side I see no real reason
NOT to add a configure check, either.

--
Robert Haas
EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company