Products · Product
Autotools
Raised as a usability problem by 29 people on Hacker News over 15 years (2010–2024), in 28 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Configure script slowly repeats compiler tests that could be cachedUnreviewed
20102026- Rerunning configure is slow and runs repeatedly on every branch switch or new file2024-04-04
- Configure scripts often pick wrong headers and waste huge build time re-checking features2015-12-17
- Configure script runs slowly, repeating compiler tests that could be cached2012-11-14
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 32 complaints
- Cryptic configure errors and failures are hard to diagnose and fix without deep autotools expertise2024-04-07
- Autotools is complex and hard to configure compared to CMake or cargo2024-04-07
- Amending commits resets timestamps, forcing slow autoreconf reruns during editing2024-04-06
- Rerunning configure is slow and runs repeatedly on every branch switch or new file2024-04-04
- Compile checks don't distinguish syntax errors from missing symbols, and macros block working detection2024-03-31
- Build system setup is convoluted and horrifying to maintain, a turing tarpit of GNU make metaprogramming2024-03-01
- Commenter tried to learn Autotools but failed to understand how it works2023-09-07
- GNU maintainers can't handle recursive subdirs, so each subdir gets its own configure.in2022-05-02
- Build system is slow and has a hostile, copy-paste-driven syntax2022-03-15
- Hard to use as a developer; author wishes for a more user-friendly replacement2022-02-01
- Building from source requires many manual steps, dependency fixes and repeated retries2021-07-28
- Build tools are very slow and generated Makefile is hard to modify2021-03-31
- Autoconf/automake is awful to learn and understand, hard for developers to pick up2021-02-22
- Found the build system confusing to learn when first used2021-01-27
- Build system fails late, after long compile, with errors that could have been reported upfront2021-01-26
- Took as much learning to become productive as the C++ language itself2021-01-26
- Weird obfuscated syntax and m4 macros make simple build tasks hard2020-11-08
- Build setup is convoluted, slow, and needlessly complex to use2020-09-13
- Hard to find undocumented configure options and debug linker and dependency failures2020-05-03
- Tool is so easy to misuse that projects end up using it wrongly, requiring different versions to build2019-04-09
- Autotools is an absolute nightmare to use on Windows2018-12-30
- Generated configure script and makefile are massive and incomprehensible to work with2018-02-28
- Hard for developers to work with; no simple alternative found2017-03-31
- Build configuration tooling is so painful to use it deserves damnation2017-03-03
- Build errors gave no indication of how to fix backward-incompatible changes2016-02-12
- Autotools' interface is poor; needs a new UI, with M4 being painful2016-01-31
- Configure scripts often pick wrong headers and waste huge build time re-checking features2015-12-17
- Build tool experience is so painful it left lasting frustration for the commenter2012-11-16
- Configure script runs slowly, repeating compiler tests that could be cached2012-11-14
- Too many layers of generated build files; version changes break builds2012-11-14
- Build tooling is so obtuse and complex that beginners give up programming2012-06-13
- Cached config results cost hours debugging problems they cause2010-07-09