[kea-dev] Makefile.am guideline

[Francis Dupont]

Stephen Morris writes:

=> appled SUBDIRS and CPPFLAGS rephrasings.

> > Directory variables should be relative (i.e., no abs_top_builddir)
> > for efficiency.
> 
> [Question: why is this?]

=> efficiency. In fact the rule is to avoid absolute and possibly long
paths for temporary use, i.e., when the paths won't be compiled into
the code, used for installation by libtool, etc. And don't forget
that relative paths are very portable too.
(for the guidelines IMHO the "for efficiency" is enough).

> > Third (or more) levels should not be used, e.g.:
> 
> Suggest: "To make the files easier to understand, third (or more) levels
> should not be used, e.g."

=> my problem with your clarification is it is ambiguous (what are
"the files"). BTW do we need to justify rules?

> I would add a sentence explaining the difference between the "CPPFLAGS"
> and "CXXFLAGS" variables, as both end up on the C++ command line.

=> C++ compiler uses are supposed to know but I agree we should add
a guideline (:-). What about:
CXXFLAGS are for compiler specifics flags, for instance g++ -fxxx
flags, when CPPFLAGS are mainly for include paths.

> It's a good start.  Let's put it in the coding guidelines.  We can
> always add to it/modify it as needed.

=> this is now in coding guidelines (and #3911 merged).

Thanks

Francis Dupont <fdupont at isc.org>