[petsc-dev] pkgconfig

[Matthew Knepley]

On Thu, Nov 1, 2012 at 7:01 PM, Barry Smith <bsmith at mcs.anl.gov> wrote:

>
>    Matt,
>
>    There are two things. (1) Generating one for a PETSc install that
> others can use and (2) using someone else's to build PETSc. to match the
> other package (say hypre already built)
>
>    I don't see why (1) is a bad idea.
>

I think this is always a bad idea for the reasons I gave before, namely
that due to the fragility it will
break frequently, and we will get all the breakage on petsc-maint.


>    Certainly we will ALL WAYS test any other package we use with PETSc but
> can we not use the information in that packages pkgconfig to tell us what
> compiler to use etc.?


I am not really against this. However, how would this work? It says one
compiler in pkgconfig, but we have
another from our config. Are they the same? There is no simple way to tell.
Are they compatible? Again, no
simple test. Thus, it would always have to be what the user typed in
already, so what are we saving?

   Matt


>
>    Barry
>
> On Nov 1, 2012, at 3:22 PM, Matthew Knepley <knepley at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Thu, Nov 1, 2012 at 3:56 PM, Jed Brown <jedbrown at mcs.anl.gov> wrote:
> > Bah, the problem with pkgconfig is that it doesn't handle different
> versions in different places well. We should use it in most cases, however.
> >
> > I disagree. There is only one way to be certain of a configure setting,
> and that is to test it. This will only
> > produce more mail from idiots who move their installation, or copy the
> config file, etc. There is no redeeming
> > value in this idea.
> >
> >    Matt
> >
> > On Nov 1, 2012 2:41 PM, "Matthew Knepley" <knepley at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Thu, Nov 1, 2012 at 2:59 PM, Barry Smith <bsmith at mcs.anl.gov> wrote:
> >
> >   Does, should, PETSc generate appropriate pkgconfig information for
> itself?  Does, can, it use that information from other packages?
> >
> > pkgconfig is too fragile to be of any use.
> >
> >    Matt
> >
> >
> >     Barry
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > What most experimenters take for granted before they begin their
> experiments is infinitely more interesting than any results to which their
> experiments lead.
> > -- Norbert Wiener
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > What most experimenters take for granted before they begin their
> experiments is infinitely more interesting than any results to which their
> experiments lead.
> > -- Norbert Wiener
>
>


-- 
What most experimenters take for granted before they begin their
experiments is infinitely more interesting than any results to which their
experiments lead.
-- Norbert Wiener
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.mcs.anl.gov/pipermail/petsc-dev/attachments/20121101/060146e7/attachment.html>