real/configure_write —
write configuration tests
Take a portable software package you maintain or care about that already has
mdoc(7)
manuals or where you consider converting the manuals to
mdoc(7).
Design and implement configuration tests to decide whether to install mdoc,
man, or cat manuals on the target system.
The difficulty of this exercise, and the amount of work required, can vary
greatly depending on which build system is used and how it is used. You better
have a at least a rough idea what you are doing and some experience with the
build system in question, or at least with build systems in general, before
attempting this exercise.
If possible, check out a copy of the source repository of the software to work
in. Depending on the build system used, merely having a release tarball may or
may not be sufficient to do meaningful work on this exercise.
Pay attention to not edit autogenerated files, like
./configure in software using GNU
autoconf(1).
An easy test of your changes can probably be done in the checkout area by
running the tool to regenerate autogenerated files, then running the
configuration script and inspect what it detects.
The ultimate test would be to build a release tarball, than test from
that.