configure 7473
I do very much appreciate all the help I've gotten so far on how to cope with the inscrutable messages produced by the various configure scripts I've encountered. By way of contrast, my original request for guidance in making sense of configure scripts themselves, instead of how to cope with their oracular pronouncements, has gone so far without response.
I've now made the following infinitesimal, but important progress on my own. I did a google search for
how to write configure scripts
As I indicated in my posting, I solved the problem of locating pkg-config by setting the environment variables PKGCONFIG and PKGCONFIGPATH tohome...
and was lead to the online gnu autoconf manual. So, I checked my own system and, indeed, there is an info file for autoconf. So, now I'm reading the info on autoconf. The first thing I learned is that the configure file is produced by autoconf starting with a file named configure.in. So, now, at last, I know what I have to read to find out what the configure file is trying to do, and maybe that information will make it easier for me to give it what it wants.
More when I know more. -- Ignorantly, * Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and * comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.