Autoconf and defaults

Autoconf is based on a set of macros. these macros are put by developers into the configure.ac file, and the "autoconf" program generates a proper configure script from that. The configure script commonly accepts options such as --enable-foo and --with-foo. It is important that they behave in a sensible way.

The --with-foo argument is processed with the AC_ARG_WITH macro. It is documented as follows:

AC_ARG_WITH (package, help-string, [action-if-given], [action-if-not-given])

If the user gave configure the option --with-package or --without-package, run shell commands action-if-given. If neither option was given, run shell commands action-if-not-given. The name package indicates another software package that this program should work with. It should consist only of alphanumeric characters, dashes, plus signs, and dots.

The option's argument is available to the shell commands action-if-given in the shell variable withval, which is actually just the value of the shell variable named with_package, with any non-alphanumeric characters in package changed into ‘_’. You may use that variable instead, if you wish.

 Let's see what's wrong with this piece of configure.ac, found in lxdm-0.4.1:

AC_ARG_WITH(pam,AC_HELP_STRING([--without-pam],[build without pam]),
[],[AC_CHECK_LIB([pam], [pam_open_session])])

This does nothing if the --without-pam option is not given, and checks for the PAM library if the option is given. Looks right? No!

This also does nothing if the --with-pam option is given, thus, resulting in a build without PAM support!

Note that the documentation for AC_ARG_WITH even provides examples how to use the macro properly. Use them as a reference, and have the following checklist:

• Use the $withval or $with_package variable.
• Test it for values such as "yes", "no", "auto" and explicit path.
• Check the presence of the package unless it is explicitly disabled or the support is experimental.
• Fail if the external package is requested but not available.

Yes, this becomes verbose, but it is necessary for correctness.

The first point also applies to the AC_ARG_ENABLE macro:

AC_ARG_ENABLE(debug,         AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-debug],
                                  [Enable debugging (default: disabled)]),
                                [DEBUGGING=$enableval], [DEBUGGING=no])