Doc #66369 [Com]: INSTALL file (generated from Online Docs) fails to mention autoconf/buildconf

Edit report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=66369&edit=1 ID: 66369 Comment by: Rican7 at gmail dot com Reported by: Rican7 at gmail dot com Summary: INSTALL file (generated from Online Docs) fails to mention autoconf/buildconf Status: Not a bug Type: Documentation Problem Package: Documentation problem Operating System: *nix PHP Version: Irrelevant Block user comment: N Private report: N New Comment: Hmm, ok. Would you take a pull request for such a document? If so, should it be added to the recent master or merged up from 5.4? Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2013-12-31 06:36:56] bjori@php.net INSTALL docs are for our users, not contributors. That is very normal. There should be no mention of "git" in the install guide, if it is - its a bug. That is not to say there should not be a different file for contributors, such as CONTRIBUTING.md maybe? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2013-12-31 06:06:46] Rican7 at gmail dot com ... That's strange that you say that bjori@php.net: 1. Compiling a code base (of any kind) from source has similar steps, but the PHP project uses a non-standard executable for running autoconf 2. "autoconf" itself isn't the most common tool and can deter new contributors 3. Other projects that have a process using "autoconf" usually remind devs to run it to create the initial configure script. For example, Ruby: http://new.tinygrab.com/3f00c7451001759c65b39d48b4ad387fed1670500e.png (https://github.com/ruby/ruby/blob/trunk/README) 4. The INSTALL script included in the PHP project's GIT repository has literal steps to install from the git source, as if NOT expecting you to just "know what you are doing", and a "./configure" step is listed multiple times (18 counted) without ever mentioning "autoconf" or "buildconf". If its documented, it should be correct/accurate. 5. The information is available in the php.net documentation, its just hard to find and away from the useful source/codebase... so its not like its unnecessary or out of scope information. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2013-12-31 01:46:17] bjori@php.net When you compile PHP from git sources you are on your own and expected to know what you are doing. You do not need autoconf or friends when compiling from a snapshot or a release build. We only document release builds (and upcoming releases). This is done so people that are downloading the actual releases don't have to wade through weird developers-only sections. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2013-12-30 20:31:41] Rican7 at gmail dot com Yea, it would just really help to consolidate some of the information for easier contributions. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2013-12-30 20:28:36] aharvey@php.net Specifically, we need to roll in some of the verbiage at http://php.net/git, which covers buildconf and the requirements to build from git instead of tarballs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The remainder of the comments for this report are too long. To view the rest of the comments, please view the bug report online at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=66369 -- Edit this bug report at https://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=66369&edit=1