[sane-devel] Thoughts on compilation

[Henning Meier-Geinitz]

Hi,

On Mon, Jan 14, 2002 at 10:21:25AM +0000, jim.george@blueyonder.co.uk wrote:
> 	Would it not be possible to have the same option in sane so that I
> didn't have to compile all back-ends and man pages but could instead enter
> ./configure --with-backends=mustek_pp,pnm,gphoto2 ?  Or have I missed the
> existing option;)?

Yes and no. You can select the backends in backend/Makefile.in (before
running configure) or backend/Makefile (after configure). See SANE FAQ:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ljm/SANE-faq.html#42

Concerning an option for configure: The absence of this option is
intentional. This was discussed quite some times in the past. If I
remember correctly, the majority was of the opinion that the
disadvantages outweigh the advantages. Not everybody knows which
scanner is supported by which backend (yes you can read in
sane-backends.html, but...). E.g. somebody owns a Mustek BearPaw 1200
and may try configure --with-backends=mustek_usb (because it's a
Mustek USB scanner). In reality, it's supported by the Plustek backend.
So when everyone starts to compile his own collection of backends, we
will probably get more question about "Why my scanner is not detected".

Bye,
  Henning