Upcoming changes to the BIND 9 build system - Introduction of automake

[Ondřej Surý]

Hey all,

I’ve been working on rewriting the build system from plain autoconf (+optional libtool) to
the modern toolchain that uses all the kids on the block - autoconf, automake, libtool
and pkg-config.

The work in progress can be found in 4-convert-to-modern-autotools-autoconf-automake-libtool
branch and it passes our on the set of Linux systems we have in GitLab CI.

However, if you have less common (but still supported) system[*] (check PLATFORMS.md),
and you are willing to spend a little time to test the aforementioned branch, I would like
to hear success or failure stories, so I know where to focus next. I would prefer to gather
the feedback here:
https://gitlab.isc.org/isc-projects/bind9/merge_requests/985

And/or in associated issue here (for more generic comments):
https://gitlab.isc.org/isc-projects/bind9/issues/4

The work is more of a rewrite of the whole build system than simple refactoring, so it is
crucial to get some testing from the systems we don’t really have access to.

Cheers,
Ondrej

* - In theory, even cross-compilation for Windows msys2 should be possible, but I haven’t
had yet time to do that.
--
Ondřej Surý
ondrej at isc.org