[Freeciv-Dev] current CVS compiles fine on FreeBSD; a question about the .m4 files

[Reinier Post <rp@xxxxxxxxxx>]

  Installation on FreeBSD 4.2.
  A question to Per.

I just updated and configured my Freeciv CVS tree on this FreeBSD
4.2 system and some of it is failing due to the fact that Freeciv
doesn't find the stuff installed from FreeBSD ports.  That is, it
doesn't check /usr/local/include or /usr/local/lib.

This is OK.  In fact, dwp removed checking in /usr/local on my own
request.  when I was compiling Freeciv on a system with a lot of
brokenness in /usr/local.

On this FreeBSD system, /usr/local is sane, so I can just use

  env CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/local/include LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/lib \
        ./autogen.sh --disable-cvs-deps && make

and it will compile.  But it would be better to have

  --with-foo=/path/to/foo

options for individual packages.  m4/iconv.m4 and other m4 files
already supply this option.  Now I would like to have one
for GNU gettext, and I can try to provide it.

How should I do this?  Can I edit existing m4/*.m4 files
or do I need to write another?  There are two files for gettext
already.

Another question: many .m4 files seem to be lifted from other
packages without this fact beng mentioned.  Perhaps a README
should be added.

-- 
Reinier