config/configure.py -> configure?

[Boyana Norris]

Speaking of configure and user experiences, I just noticed that PETSc 
defines top_builddir (in petscconf), which conflicts with 
automake-generated makefiles, making it impossible in some cases to 
include PETSc's petsconf file into Makefile.am (as far as I know that's 
the only thing that causes problems). I hate automake in general, but 
sometimes you are stuck with it and it's very nice to be able to include 
PETSc make snippets even in automake files and avoid a lot of pain.

Anyway, since this is in a file that gets copied to the install 
location, I think in general it would be best to avoid defining build 
tree-related variables (especially those that conflict with 
auto-generated ones from other tools). Thoughts?

Boyana

Satish Balay wrote:
> On Thu, 17 Jul 2008, Satish Balay wrote:
>
>   
>>>   If we could support the same way that this is done with autoconf packages
>>> that would improve a users experience with PETSc.
>>>       
>> I guess we don't prevent the usage from shell scripts. We just promote
>> the alternative usage of adding configure options in a python script.
>>     
>
> And we generate $PETSC_ARCH/config/configure.py - which can be rerun
> by the user. Alternative would be to generate this file in a
> shell-script notation..
>
> Satish
>
>   

-- 
Boyana Norris, Computer Scientist    |   Email: norris at mcs.anl.gov
Argonne National Laboratory          |   Phone: +1 (630) 252 7908 
http://www.mcs.anl.gov/~norris/      |   Fax:   +1 (630) 252 5986