RFR: 8344318: Enhance configure help for enabling/disabling single JVM features

[Magnus Ihse Bursie]

On Tue, 19 Nov 2024 09:25:44 GMT, Matthias Baesken <mbaesken at openjdk.org> wrote:

> The current help of OpenJDK configure could be enhanced a bit regarding enabling/disabling JVM features.

I agree that the help text is not ideal. We are very much constrained by the `autoconf` framework.

However, there **is** actually a help text already describing this, just at the top of all `--enable/disable` features.


Optional Features:
  --disable-option-checking  ignore unrecognized --enable/--with options
  --disable-FEATURE       do not include FEATURE (same as --enable-FEATURE=no)
  --enable-FEATURE[=ARG]  include FEATURE [ARG=yes]
  ```

I understand that it might be hard to spot. But in all honestly, the same can be said about this addition you are proposing. So I don't think it brings much value.

Long time ago, when I was young and naïve and thought that I was going to be able to tweak autoconf into submission, I filed https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8058090. If anything, it stands as an acknowledgement that the current help is not very good, and that it is hard to fix properly.

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PR Comment: https://git.openjdk.org/jdk/pull/22231#issuecomment-2501609938