Very Computer

1. autoconf and path names

I'm writing a rather complex build system using autoconf,
and I'd like to make it possible to set up the build
directory inside or outside the source tree. A particularity
is that we have subpackages, but their respective configure
scripts aren't located in their top directory, as they don't
have a top directory (they are folded into each other)...

However, I have trouble with the variables $srcdir etc.
It appears it works if I use absolute path names, but not
with relative ones. So I wonder whether there is some
simple tool (may be even a shell builtin feature), that
transforms a relative path into an absolute one.
On a related note, are there any means to 'normalize'
pathnames, i.e. for example to remove '../<bar>' which
would reduce 'a/b/c/../d' to 'a/b/d' ?

Thanks, Stefan
_______________________________________________________              

Stefan Seefeld
Departement de Physique
Universite de Montreal

_______________________________________________________

      ...ich hab' noch einen Koffer in Berlin...

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