Re: [PATCH] Makefile: check that tcl/tk is installed

Jeff King [off-list ref] writes:

I think that's the rub, though. We hit this code path by default, so
it's _not_ a sign that the builder cares about gitk.

OK.

quoted

Whether the builder wants to run the result on the same box is a
separate and irrelevant matter.  Once built and installed, a box
without "wish" may not be able to run the result, but installing it
after the fact will fix it without need to rebuild anything.

Yeah, this side-steps the "other half" of the issue that Christian's
patch addresses, which seems like the more controversial part (I don't
have a strong opinion myself, though).

Is that controversial at all?  In the sense that it is addressing a
non-issue (i.e. it is perfectly fine if installed gitk fails at
runtime complaining that it cannot find wish), it might be, but to
me, it appears there isn't any room for controversy there.

But an out-of-box build that fails _is_ a problem worth addressing
to, so I view it primarily as the "how do we do msgfmt (or its
substitute that is good enough for tcl script)" issue.  Perhaps we
can export NO_GETTEXT from the top-level Makefile and have Makefiles
in these two subdirectories to pay attention to it, in addition to
NO_MSGFMT, and build them without i18n support instead of failing,
or something?