[odb-users] [BUG] Missing paths in Automake build system files

[Boris Kolpackov]

Hi Amr,

Amr Ali <amr.ali.cc at gmail.com> writes:

> I cloned your ODB ORM git repository into my project and added it as a
> submodule. I tried the following steps to compile it ...
> 
> [...]
> 
> After facing this error, which after I looked in the file in question
> (configure.ac) I found that most of the paths/directories/files are replaced
> with a rather weird `__file__' or `__path__'.

The source code from the repository does not contain autotools-based makefiles
(or Visual Studio project files). Rather, it contains templates for these
files as well as its own, custom build system. This build system provides
some of the features that autotools lack (e.g., non-recursive, multi-makefile
architectures, cross-project dependency tracking, massively-parallel builds,
etc). At the same time it is not as portable as autotools.

As a result, the custom build system is used internally for development as 
well as to automatically generate the autotools (and Visual Studio) files.

One drawback of this setup, as you have discovered, is that using the source
code from the repository is not as easy as bootstrap, configure, and make.
I see two ways to work around this:

1. Use the custom build system to build everything or to create the source
   distributions with the autotools build system. I have added the
   INSTALL-GIT file to each package that describes the necessary steps.

2. We can start creating source distribution snapshots that will contain
   the latest source code from the repository along with the bootstrapped
   autotools build system.

Let me know which approach will work best for you.

Boris