[pacman-dev] libarchive version check

[Xavier]

On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 1:16 PM, Allan McRae <mcrae_allan at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Can we add a check on the libarchive version number when configuring
>  pacman.  You can run configure without a problem with a libarchive 1.x
>  version but not actually complete the build. See
>  http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=367593
>
>  I know next to nothing about libarchive so I am giving this to someone
>  else to take care of!
>

I doubt many ppl are still trying to build pacman with libarchive 1.x.
Yeah, one did but well..
But in any cases, I am curious to know how to check version number at
configure time. I don't know how to do it either.
Though I believe I know one way to prevent the specific error that
user was having. We could replace this stuff in configure.ac :
# Check for libarchive
AC_CHECK_LIB([archive], [archive_read_data], ,
  AC_MSG_ERROR([libarchive is needed to compile pacman!]))
by this :
# Check for libarchive
AC_CHECK_LIB([archive], [archive_read_open_filename], ,
  AC_MSG_ERROR([libarchive is needed to compile pacman!]))

What I don't know is when this read_open_filename function was introduced.
And also what is the oldest libarchive version with which pacman is
guaranteed to work.