From: Davi Arnaut
Date: November 5 2010 12:39pm
Subject: Removal of the autotools-based build system
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Hi,

As many of you probably know, starting with MySQL 5.5 and onwards, the 
build system (for all platforms) has been transitioned to cmake. As of 
the 5.5.5 release, debug and release builds are solely being built with 
cmake. At this point, our main build system is the cmake-based one. With 
this step completed, we are now gathering requirements and preparing for 
the removal [*] of the autotools-based build system.

A initial description of this task is available at:

http://forge.mysql.com/worklog/task.php?id=5665

One important aspect is that this removal will break third-party tools 
or practices that rely on autotools-specific files. For example, some 
tools parse configure.in to extract the server version. Since 
configure.in is going to be removed, those tools need to be upgraded to 
extract this information from a new and specific file (i.e. 
cmake/version.sh).

Given this potential problem, and in order to provide a smooth 
transition for those tools, we would like to know:

- Do you maintain tools/scripts that rely on autotools-specific files?

- If yes, which files and what kind of information is being extracted?

With this information at hand, we will try provide suitable alternatives 
as necessary to make those tools work (with minor adjustments) without 
the autotools-specific files.

Thanks and regards,

Davi

* Although we initially planned to keep it around a bit longer, its 
maintenance has become a unnecessary burden. The development leaders 
have agreed to proceed with the autotools removal from mysql-trunk and up.