macOS build: libtool APPLE vs GNU

[albestro]

I was building on macOS via spack, which builds from source GNU libtool so it is not what the Makefile was expecting (APPLE libtool, which has a different user interface and set of options).

I don't have experience with libtool and even less about the differences between libtool APPLE vs GNU, I just checked the man pages and the documentation, and I came up with the two variants.

This would open to build on OSX using any libtool built from source on macOS.

Looking online it seems that also MacPort/Homebrew can provide the GNU libtool, but they install it with a different name (i.e. glibtool). For the moment this use case is not addressed, but if in the future there will be the need, it will be enough to manage the selection of the correct ${LIBTOOL} name in the case darwin section.

[jgaeddert]

I wonder if the check for which libtool is being used would be better put in configure.ac. This is typically where those checks go so that the makefile doesn't have any conditionals. I realize that autoconf is pretty gross and that most people prefer CMake these days, but when using auto tools it probably makes more sense to put that check in configure.ac

[albestro]

Thank you for the comment, it's a good point.

Unfortunately I'm proficient with CMake, but absolutely no experience with m4 and autotools...however, I tried to do what you suggested.

Looking forward for your feedback/comment.

[jgaeddert]

I mean, we all just fumble our way through m4 macros don't we? 😬

[albestro]

As I said, no experience at all on this side. If you have any specific hint, please tell me.

[jgaeddert]

I think I have some time this weekend to look into it!

[pfeatherstone]

I'm getting some issues with libtool on MAC i think. It's not creating a static library, just libliquid.ar and I think there's some issues with libliquid.dylib. For some reason, the linker will link to it. But at runtime, it's looking for libliquid.dylib locally, not system-wide. Odd. I don't know much about MAC, but i think this has something to do with libtool.