3 * WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
5 - Future versions of Automake will likely drop support for the
6 long-deprecated 'configure.in' name for the Autoconf input file.
7 You are advised to use the recommended name 'configure.ac' instead.
9 - Autoconf 2.65 or later will be required by the next major Automake
10 version (1.13). Until now, Automake has required Autoconf version
13 - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the rules to
14 build pdf, ps and dvi output from Texinfo input will use the '--tidy'
15 option by default. Since such an option was introduced in Texinfo
16 4.9, this means that Makefiles generated by future Automake versions
17 will require at least that version of Texinfo.
19 - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the parallel
20 testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the 'parallel-tests'
21 option) will become the default one; the older serial testsuite
22 harness will still be available through the use of the 'serial-tests'
25 - The following long-obsolete m4 macros will be removed in the
26 next major Automake version (1.13):
28 AM_PROG_CC_STDC: superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002
29 fp_PROG_CC_STDC: broken alias for AM_PROG_CC_STDC
30 fp_WITH_DMALLOC: old alias for AM_WITH_DMALLOC
31 AM_CONFIG_HEADER: superseded by AC_CONFIG_HEADERS since July 2002
32 ud_PATH_LISPDIR: old alias for AM_PATH_LISPDIR
33 jm_MAINTAINER_MODE: old alias for AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
34 ud_GNU_GETTEXT: old alias for AM_GNU_GETTEXT
35 gm_PROG_LIBTOOL: old alias for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
36 fp_C_PROTOTYPES: old alias for AM_C_PROTOTYPES (which was part
37 of the now-removed automatic de-ANSI-fication
40 - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' will be removed in
41 the next major Automake version (1.13).
43 - Support for the two- and three-arguments invocation forms of the
44 AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro will be deprecated in the next minor version
45 of Automake (1.12.1) and removed in the next major version (1.13).
47 - The '--acdir' option of aclocal is deprecated, and will probably
48 be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13). You should
49 use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir' instead
50 (which have been introduced in Automake 1.11.2).
52 - The exact order in which the directories in the aclocal macro
53 search path are looked up is probably going to be changed in the
54 next Automake release (1.13).
56 * Warnings and deprecations:
58 - Automake now issues a warning (in the 'portability' category) if
59 'configure.in' is used instead of 'configure.ac' as the Autoconf
60 input file. Such a warning will also be present in the next
61 Autoconf version (2.70).
65 - Recursive cleaning rules descends into the $(SUBDIRS) in the natural
66 order (as done by the other recursive rules), rather than in the
67 inverse order. They used to do that in order to work a round a
68 limitation in an older implementation of the automatic dependency
69 tracking support, but that limitation had been lifted years ago
70 already, when the automatic dependency tracking based on side-effects
71 of compilation had been introduced.
73 - Cleaning rules for compiled objects (both "plain" and libtool) work
74 better when subdir objects are involved, not triggering a distinct
75 'rm' invocation for each such object. They do so by removing *any*
76 compiled object file that is in the same directory of a subdir
77 object. See automake bug#10697.
79 * Silent rules support:
81 - A new predefined $(AM_V_P) make variable is provided; it expands
82 to a shell conditional that can be used in recipes to know whether
83 make is being run in silent or verbose mode.
89 - The "recheck" targets behaves better in the face of build failures
90 related to previously failed tests. For example, if a test is a
91 compiled program that must be rerun by "make recheck", and its
92 compilation fails, it will still be rerun by further "make recheck"
93 invocations. See automake bug#11791.
95 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
99 * New supported languages:
101 - Support for Objective C++ has been added; it should work similarly to
102 the support for Objective C.
104 * Deprecated obsolescent features:
106 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
107 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro now elicits a warning in the 'obsolete'
108 category. Starting from the next major Automake release (1.13), such
109 usages won't be allowed anymore.
111 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (enabled by the 'cygnus' option) is
112 now deprecated (its use triggers a warning in the 'obsolete' category).
113 It will be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13).
115 - The long-obsolete (since 1.10) automake-provided $(mkdir_p) make
116 variable, @mkdir_p@ configure-time substitution and AM_PROG_MKDIR
117 m4 macro are deprecated, eliciting a warning in the 'obsolete'
118 category. They will be removed in the next major version (1.13).
120 * Miscellaneous changes:
122 - The Automake test cases now require a proper POSIX-conforming shell.
123 Older non-POSIX Bourne shells (like Solaris 10 /bin/sh) won't be
124 accepted anymore. In most cases, the user shouldn't have to specify
125 such POSIX shell explicitly, since it will be looked up at configure
126 time. Still, when this lookup fails, or when the user wants to
127 override its conclusion, the variable 'AM_TEST_RUNNER_SHELL' can be
128 used (pointing to the shell that will be used to run the Automake
131 Bugs fixed in 1.12.1:
133 * Bugs introduced by 1.12:
135 - Several weaknesses in Automake's own build system and test suite
138 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
140 - When given non-option arguments, aclocal rejects them, instead of
141 silently ignoring them.
143 * Long-standing bugs:
145 - When the 'color-tests' option is in use, forcing of colored testsuite
146 output through "AM_COLOR_TESTS=always" works even if the terminal is
147 a non-ANSI one, i.e., if the TERM environment variable has a value of
150 - Several inefficiencies and poor performances in the implementation
151 of the parallel-tests 'check' and 'recheck' targets have been fixed.
153 - The post-processing of output "#line" directives done the ylwrap
154 script is more faithful w.r.t. files in a subdirectory; for example,
155 if the processed file is "src/grammar.y", ylwrap will correctly
156 produce directives like:
157 #line 7 "src/grammar.y"
162 * Bugs with new Perl versions:
164 - Aclocal works correctly with perl 5.16.0 (automake bug#11543).
166 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
170 * Obsolete features removed:
172 - The never documented nor truly used script 'acinstall' has been
175 - Support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been removed.
177 - The support for the "obscure" multilib feature has been removed
178 from Automake core (but remains available in the 'contrib/'
179 directory of the Automake distribution).
181 - Support for ".log -> .html" conversion and the check-html and
182 recheck-html targets has been removed from Automake core (but
183 remains available in the 'contrib/' directory of the Automake
186 - The deprecated 'lzma' compression format for distribution archives
187 has been removed, in favor of 'xz' and 'lzip'.
189 - The obsolete AM_WITH_REGEX macro has been removed.
191 - The long-deprecated options '--output-dir', '--Werror' and
192 '--Wno-error' have been removed.
194 - The chapter on the history of Automake has been moved out of the
195 reference manual, into a new dedicated Texinfo file.
199 - New 'cscope' target to build a cscope database for the source tree.
201 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
203 - The new automake option 'serial-tests' has been introduced. It can
204 be used to explicitly instruct automake to use the older serial
205 testsuite harness. This is still the default at the moment, but it
206 might change in future versions.
208 - The 'recheck' target (provided by the parallel testsuite harness) now
209 depends on the 'all' target. This allows for a better user-experience
210 in test-driven development. See automake bug#11252.
212 - Test scripts that exit with status 99 to signal an "hard error" (e.g.,
213 and unexpected or internal error, or a failure to set up the test case
214 scenario) have their outcome reported as an 'ERROR' now. Previous
215 versions of automake reported such an outcome as a 'FAIL' (the only
216 difference with normal failures being that hard errors were counted
217 as failures even when the test originating them was listed in
220 - The testsuite summary displayed by the parallel-test harness has a
221 completely new format, that always list the numbers of passed, failed,
222 xfailed, xpassed, skipped and errored tests, even when these numbers
223 are zero (but using smart coloring when the color-tests option is in
226 - The default testsuite driver offered by the 'parallel-tests' option is
227 now implemented (partly at least) with the help of automake-provided
228 auxiliary scripts (e.g., 'test-driver'), instead of relying entirely
229 on code in the generated Makefile.in.
230 This has two noteworthy implications. The first one is that projects
231 using the 'parallel-tests' option should now either run automake with
232 the '--add-missing' option, or manually copy the 'test-driver' script
233 into their tree. The second, and more important, implication is that
234 now, when the 'parallel-tests' option is in use, TESTS_ENVIRONMENT can
235 not be used anymore to define a test runner, and the command specified
236 in LOG_COMPILER (and <ext>_LOG_COMPILER) must be a *real* executable
237 program or script. For example, this is still a valid usage (albeit
240 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
241 if test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS)'; then \
242 maybe_errexit='-e'; \
246 LOG_COMPILER = $(SHELL) $$maybe_errexit
248 while this is not anymore:
250 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
251 $(SHELL) `test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS_CHECKING)' && echo ' -e'`
255 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
256 run_with_perl_or_shell () \
258 if grep -q '^#!.*perl' $$1; then
264 LOG_COMPILER = run_with_perl_or_shell
266 - The package authors can now use customary testsuite drivers within
267 the framework provided by the 'parallel-tests' testsuite harness.
268 Consistently with the existing syntax, this can be done by defining
269 special makefile variables 'LOG_DRIVER' and '<ext>_LOG_DRIVER'.
271 - A new developer-reserved variable 'AM_TESTS_FD_REDIRECT' can be used
272 to redirect/define file descriptors used by the test scripts.
274 - The parallel-tests harness generates now, in addition the '.log' files
275 holding the output produced by the test scripts, a new set of '.trs'
276 files, holding "metadata" derived by the execution of the test scripts;
277 among such metadata are the outcomes of the test cases run by a script.
279 - Initial and still experimental support for the TAP test protocol is
282 * Changes to Yacc and Lex support:
284 - C source and header files derived from non-distributed Yacc and/or
285 Lex sources are now removed by a simple "make clean" (while they were
286 previously removed only by "make maintainer-clean").
288 - Slightly backward-incompatible change, relevant only for use of Yacc
289 with C++: the extensions of the header files produced by the Yacc
290 rules are now modelled after the extension of the corresponding
291 sources. For example, yacc files named "foo.y++" and "bar.yy" will
292 produce header files named "foo.h++" and "bar.hh" respectively, where
293 they would have previously produced header files named simply "foo.h"
294 and "bar.h". This change offers better compatibility with 'bison -o'.
296 * Miscellaneous changes:
298 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro now causes configure to exit with status 77,
299 rather than 1, if the vala compiler found is too old.
301 - The build system of Automake itself now avoids the use of make
302 recursion as much as possible.
304 - Automake now prefers to quote 'like this' or "like this", rather
305 than `like this', in diagnostic message and generated Makefiles,
306 to accommodate the new GNU Coding Standards recommendations.
308 - Automake has a new option '--print-libdir' that prints the path of the
309 directory containing the Automake-provided scripts and data files.
311 - The 'dist' and 'dist-all' targets now can run compressors in parallel.
313 - The rules to create pdf, dvi and ps output from Texinfo files now
314 works better with modern 'texi2dvi' script, by explicitly passing
315 it the '--clean' option to ensure stray auxiliary files are not
316 left to clutter the build directory.
318 - Automake can now generate silenced rules for texinfo outputs.
320 - Some auxiliary files that are automatically distributed by Automake
321 (e.g., 'install-sh', or the 'depcomp' script for packages compiling
322 C sources) might now be listed in the DIST_COMMON variable in many
323 Makefile.in files, rather than in the top-level one.
325 - Messages of types warning or error from 'automake' and 'aclocal'
326 are now prefixed with the respective type, and presence of -Werror
329 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now tries to avoid
330 sleeping for a second, which slowed down cached configure runs
331 noticeably. In that case, it will check back at the end of the
332 configure script to ensure that at least one second has passed, to
333 avoid time stamp issues with makefile rules rerunning autotools
336 - The warnings in the category 'extra-portability' are now enabled by
337 '-Wall'. In previous versions, one has to use '-Wextra-portability'
342 - Various minor bugfixes for recent or long-standing bugs.
344 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
346 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
347 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
349 - The automake-provided parallel testsuite harness does not fail anymore
350 with BSD make used in parallel mode when there are test scripts in a
351 subdirectory, like in:
353 TESTS = sub/foo.test sub/bar.test
355 * Long-standing bugs:
357 - Automake's own build system finally have a real "installcheck" target.
359 - Vala-related cleanup rules are now more complete, and work better in
362 - Files listed with the AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE macro in configure.ac are
363 now automatically distributed also if the directory of the auxiliary
364 files coincides with the top-level directory.
366 - Automake now detects the presence of the '-d' flag in the various
367 '*YFLAGS' variables even when their definitions involve indirections
368 through other variables, such as in:
370 AM_YFLAGS = $(foo_opts)
372 - Automake now complains if a '*YFLAGS' variable has any conditional
373 content, not only a conditional definition.
375 - Explicit enabling and/or disabling of Automake warning categories
376 through the '-W...' options now always takes precedence over the
377 implicit warning level implied by Automake strictness (foreign, gnu
378 or gnits), regardless of the order in which such strictness and
379 warning flags appear. For example, a setting like:
380 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = -Wall --foreign
381 will cause the warnings in category 'portability' to be enabled, even
382 if those warnings are by default disabled in 'foreign' strictness.
384 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
386 Bugs fixed in 1.11.5:
388 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
390 - Vala files with '.vapi' extension are now recognized and handled
391 correctly again. See automake bug#11222.
393 - Vala support work again for projects that contain some program
394 built from '.vala' (and possibly '.c') sources and some other
395 program built from '.c' sources *only*. See automake bug#11229.
397 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
401 * Miscellaneous changes:
403 - The 'ar-lib' script now ignores the "s" (symbol index) and "S" (no
404 symbol index) modifiers as well as the "s" action, as the symbol index
405 is created unconditionally by Microsoft lib. Also, the "q" (quick)
406 action is now a synonym for "r" (replace). Also, the script has been
407 ignoring the "v" (verbose) modifier already since Automake 1.11.3.
409 - When the 'compile' script is used to wrap MSVC, it now accepts an
410 optional space between the -I, -L and -l options and their respective
411 arguments, for better POSIX compliance.
413 - There is an initial, experimental support for automatic dependency
414 tracking with tcc (the Tiny C Compiler). Its associated depmode is
415 currently recognized as "icc" (but this and other details are likely
416 to change in future versions).
418 - Automatic dependency tracking now works also with the IBM XL C/C++
419 compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'xlc'.
421 Bugs fixed in 1.11.4:
423 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
425 - A definition of 'noinst_PYTHON' before 'python_PYTHON' (or similar)
426 don't cause spurious failures upon "make install" anymore.
428 - The user can now instruct the 'uninstall-info' rule not to update
429 the '${infodir}/dir' file by exporting the environment variable
430 'AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no". This is done for consistency
431 with how the 'install-info' rule operates since automake 1.11.2.
433 * Long-standing bugs:
435 - It is now possible for a foo_SOURCES variable to hold Vala sources
436 together with C header files, as well as with sources and headers for
437 other supported languages (e.g., C++). Previously, only mixing C and
438 Vala sources was supported.
440 - If "aclocal --install" is used, and the first directory specified with
441 '-I' is non-existent, aclocal will now create it before trying to copy
444 - An empty declaration of a "foo_PRIMARY" don't cause anymore the
445 generated install rules to create an empty $(foodir) directory;
446 for example, if Makefile.am contains something like:
450 pkglibexec_SCRIPTS += bar.sh
453 the $(pkglibexec) directory will not be created upon "make install".
455 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
459 * Miscellaneous changes:
461 - Automake's own build system is more silent by default, making use of
462 the 'silent-rules' option.
464 - The master copy of the `gnupload' script is now maintained in gnulib,
467 - The `missing' script doesn't try to wrap calls to `tar' anymore.
469 - "make dist" doesn't wrap `tar' invocations with the `missing' script
470 anymore. Similarly, the obsolescent variable `$(AMTAR)' (which you
471 shouldn't be using BTW ;-) does not invoke the missing script anymore
472 to wrap tar, but simply invokes the `tar' program itself.
474 - "make dist" can now create lzip-compressed tarballs.
476 - In the Automake info documentation, the Top node and the nodes about
477 the invocation of the automake and aclocal programs have been renamed;
478 now, calling "info automake" will open the Top node, while calling
479 "info automake-invocation" and "info aclocal-invocation" will access
480 the nodes about the invocation of respectively automake and aclocal.
482 - Automake is now distributed as a gzip-compressed and an xz-compressed
483 tarball. Previously, bzip2 was used instead of xz.
485 - The last relics of Python 1.5 support have been removed from the
486 AM_PATH_PYTHON macro.
488 - For programs and libraries, automake now detects EXTRA_foo_DEPENDENCIES
489 and adds them to the normal list of dependencies, but without
490 overwriting the foo_DEPENDENCIES variable, which is normally computed
493 Bugs fixed in 1.11.3:
495 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
497 - Automake now correctly recognizes the prefix/primary combination
498 `pkglibexec_SCRIPTS' as valid.
500 - The parallel-tests harness doesn't trip anymore on sed implementations
501 with stricter limits on the length of input lines (problem seen at
504 * Long-standing bugs:
506 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.am files is avoided by stub
507 rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `automake' also if
508 some previously needed `.am' file has been removed.
510 - The `silent-rules' option now generates working makefiles even
511 for the uncommon `make' implementations that do not support the
512 nested-variables extension to POSIX 2008. For such `make'
513 implementations, whether a build is silent is determined at
514 configure time, and cannot be overridden at make time with
515 `make V=0' or `make V=1'.
517 - Vala support now works better in VPATH setups.
519 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
523 * Changes to aclocal:
525 - The `--acdir' option is deprecated. Now you should use the new options
526 `--automake-acdir' and `--system-acdir' instead.
528 - The `ACLOCAL_PATH' environment variable is now interpreted as a
529 colon-separated list of additional directories to search after the
530 automake internal acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal-APIVERSION)
531 and before the system acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal).
533 * Miscellaneous changes:
535 - The Automake support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been
536 deprecated. It will probably be removed in the next major Automake
539 - The `lzma' compression scheme and associated automake option `dist-lzma'
540 is obsoleted by `xz' and `dist-xz' due to upstream changes.
542 - You may adjust the compression options used in dist-xz and dist-bzip2.
543 The default is now merely -e for xz, but still -9 for bzip; you may
544 specify a different level via the XZ_OPT and BZIP2 envvars respectively.
545 E.g., "make dist-xz XZ_OPT=-7" or "make dist-bzip2 BZIP2=-5"
547 - The `compile' script now converts some options for MSVC for a better
548 user experience. Similarly, the new `ar-lib' script wraps Microsoft lib.
550 - The py-compile script now accepts empty arguments passed to the options
551 `--destdir' and `--basedir', and complains about unrecognized options.
552 Moreover, a non-option argument or a special `--' argument terminates
555 - A developer that needs to pass specific flags to configure at "make
556 distcheck" time can now, and indeed is advised to, do so by defining
557 the developer-reserved makefile variable AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS,
558 instead of the old DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS.
559 The DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS variable should now be reserved for the
560 user; still, the old Makefile.am files that used to define it will
561 still continue to work as before.
563 - New macro AM_PROG_AR that looks for an archiver and wraps it in the new
564 'ar-lib' auxiliary script if the selected archiver is Microsoft lib.
565 This new macro is required for LIBRARIES and LTLIBRARIES when automake
566 is run with -Wextra-portability and -Werror.
568 - When using DejaGnu-based testsuites, the user can extend the `site.exp'
569 file generated by automake-provided rules by defining the special make
570 variable `$(EXTRA_DEJAGNU_SITE_CONFIG)'.
572 - The `install-info' rule can now be instructed not to create/update
573 the `${infodir}/dir' file, by exporting the new environment variable
574 `AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no".
576 Bugs fixed in 1.11.2:
578 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
580 - The parallel-tests driver no longer produces erroneous results with
581 Tru64/OSF 5.1 sh upon unreadable log files.
583 - The `parallel-tests' test driver does not report spurious successes
584 when used with concurrent FreeBSD make (e.g., "make check -j3").
586 - When the parallel-tests driver is in use, automake now explicitly
587 rejects invalid entries and conditional contents in TEST_EXTENSIONS,
588 instead of issuing confusing and apparently unrelated error messages
589 (e.g., "non-POSIX variable name", "bad characters in variable name",
590 or "redefinition of TEST_EXTENSIONS), or even, in some situations,
591 silently producing broken `Makefile.in' files.
593 - The `silent-rules' option now truly silences all compile rules, even
594 when dependency tracking is disabled. Also, when `silent-rules' is
595 not used, `make' output no longer contains spurious backslash-only
596 lines, thus once again matching what Automake did before 1.11.
598 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
599 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
601 * Long-standing bugs:
603 - The order of Yacc and Lex flags is fixed to be consistent with other
604 languages: $(AM_YFLAGS) comes before $(YFLAGS), and $(AM_LFLAGS) before
605 $(LFLAGS), so that the user variables override the developer variables.
607 - "make distcheck" now correctly complains also when "make uninstall"
608 leaves one and only one file installed in $(prefix).
610 - A "make uninstall" issued before a "make install", or after a mere
611 "make install-data" or a mere "make install-exec" does not spuriously
614 - Automake now warns about more primary/directory invalid combinations,
615 such as "doc_LIBRARIES" or "pkglib_PROGRAMS".
617 - Rules generated by Automake now try harder to not change any files when
618 `make -n' is invoked. Fixes include compilation of Emacs Lisp, Vala, or
619 Yacc source files and the rule to update config.h.
621 - Several scripts and the parallel-tests testsuite driver now exit with
622 the right exit status upon receiving a signal.
624 - A per-Makefile.am setting of -Werror does not erroneously carry over
625 to the handling of other Makefile.am files.
627 - The code for automatic dependency tracking works around a Solaris
628 make bug triggered by sources containing repeated slashes when the
629 `subdir-objects' option was used.
631 - The makedepend and hp depmodes now work better with VPATH builds.
633 - Java sources specified with check_JAVA are no longer compiled for
634 "make all", but only for "make check".
636 - An usage like "java_JAVA = foo.java" will now cause Automake to warn
637 and error out if `javadir' is undefined, instead of silently producing
638 a broken Makefile.in.
640 - aclocal and automake now honour the configure-time definitions of
641 AUTOCONF and AUTOM4TE when they spawn autoconf or autom4te processes.
643 - The `install-info' recipe no longer tries to guess whether the
644 `install-info' program is from Debian or from GNU, and adaptively
645 change its behaviour; this has proven to be frail and easy to
648 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
650 Bugs fixed in 1.11.1:
652 - Lots of minor bugfixes.
654 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
656 - The `parallel-tests' test driver works around a GNU make 3.80 bug with
657 trailing white space in the test list (`TESTS = foo $(EMPTY)').
659 * Long standing bugs:
661 - On Darwin 9, `pythondir' and `pyexecdir' pointed below `/Library/Python'
662 even if the `--prefix' argument pointed outside of a system directory.
663 AM_PATH_PYTHON has been fixed to ignore the value returned from python's
664 `get_python_lib' function if it points outside the configured prefix,
665 unless the `--prefix' argument was either `/usr' or below `/System'.
667 - The testsuite does not try to change the mode of `ltmain.sh' files from
668 a Libtool installation (symlinked to test directories) any more.
670 - AM_PROG_GCJ uses AC_CHECK_TOOLS to look for `gcj' now, so that prefixed
671 tools are preferred in a cross-compile setup.
673 - The distribution is tarred up with mode 755 now by the `dist*' targets.
674 This fixes a race condition where untrusted users could modify files
675 in the $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION) distdir before packing if the toplevel
676 build directory was world-searchable. This is CVE-2009-4029.
678 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
682 * Version requirements:
684 - Autoconf 2.62 or greater is required.
686 * Changes to aclocal:
688 - The autoconf version check implemented by aclocal in aclocal.m4
689 (and new in Automake 1.10) is degraded to a warning. This helps
690 in the common case where the Autoconf versions used are compatible.
692 * Changes to automake:
694 - The automake program can run multiple threads for creating most
695 Makefile.in files concurrently, if at least Perl 5.7.2 is available
696 with interpreter-based threads enabled. Set the environment variable
697 AUTOMAKE_JOBS to the maximum number of threads to use, in order to
698 enable this experimental feature.
700 * Changes to Libtool support:
702 - Libtool generic flags are now passed to the install and uninstall
705 - distcheck works with Libtool 2.x even when LT_OUTPUT is used, as
706 config.lt is removed correctly now.
710 - subdir-object mode works now with Fortran (F77, FC, preprocessed
711 Fortran, and Ratfor).
713 - For files with extension .f90, .f95, .f03, or .f08, the flag
714 $(FCFLAGS_f[09]x) computed by AC_FC_SRCEXT is now used in compile rules.
716 - Files with extension .sx are also treated as preprocessed assembler.
718 - The default source file extension (.c) can be overridden with
719 AM_DEFAULT_SOURCE_EXT now.
721 - Python 3.0 is supported now, Python releases prior to 2.0 are no
724 - AM_PATH_PYTHON honors python's idea about the site directory.
726 - There is initial support for the Vala programming language, when using
729 * Miscellaneous changes:
731 - Automake development is done in a git repository on Savannah now, see
733 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=automake.git
735 A read-only CVS mirror is provided at
737 cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@pserver.git.sv.gnu.org:/automake.git \
738 checkout -d automake HEAD
740 - "make dist" can now create xz-compressed tarballs,
741 as well as (deprecated?) lzma-compressed tarballs.
743 - `automake --add-missing' will by default install the GPLv3 file as
744 COPYING if it is missing. It will also warn that the license file
745 should be added to source control. Note that Automake will never
746 overwrite an existing COPYING file, even when the `--force-missing'
749 - The manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL 1.3.
751 - Automake ships and installs man pages for automake and aclocal now.
753 - New shorthand `$(pkglibexecdir)' for `$(libexecdir)/@PACKAGE@'.
755 - install-sh supports -C, which does not update the installed file
756 (and its time stamps) if the contents did not change.
758 - The `gnupload' script has been revamped.
760 - The `depcomp' and `compile' scripts now work with MSVC under MSYS.
762 - The targets `install' and `uninstall' are more efficient now, in that
763 for example multiple files from one Automake variable such as
764 `bin_SCRIPTS' are copied in one `install' (or `libtool --mode=install')
765 invocation if they do not have to be renamed.
767 Both install and uninstall may sometimes enter (`cd' into) the target
768 installation directory now, when no build-local scripts are used.
770 Both install and uninstall do not fail anymore but do nothing if an
771 installation directory variable like `bindir' is set to the empty string.
773 For built-in rules, `make install' now fails reliably if installation
774 of a file failed. Conversely, `make uninstall' even succeeds when
775 issued multiple times.
777 These changes may need some adjustments from users: For example,
778 some `install' programs refuse to install multiple copies of the
779 same file in one invocation, so you may need to remove duplicate
780 entries from file lists.
782 Also, within one set of files, say, nobase_data_DATA, the order of
783 installation may be changed, or even unstable among different hosts,
784 due to the use of associative arrays in awk. The increased use of
785 awk matches a similar move in Autoconf to provide for better scaling.
787 Further, most undocumented per-rule install command variables such as
788 binSCRIPT_INSTALL have been removed because they are not needed any
789 more. Packages which use them should be using the appropriate one of
790 INSTALL_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT} or their install_sh_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT}
791 counterpart, depending on the type of files and the need for automatic
792 target directory creation.
794 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.m4 files is avoided by
795 stub rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `aclocal'
796 also if some previously needed macro file has been removed.
798 - Rebuild rules now also work for a removed `subdir/Makefile.in' in
799 an otherwise up to date tree.
801 - The `color-tests' option causes colored test result output on terminals.
803 - The `parallel-tests' option enables a new test driver that allows for
804 parallel test execution, inter-test dependencies, lazy test execution
805 for unit-testing, re-testing only failed tests, and formatted result output
806 as RST (reStructuredText) and HTML. Enabling this option may require some
807 changes to your test suite setup; see the manual for details.
809 - The `silent-rules' option enables Linux kernel-style silent build output.
810 This option requires the widely supported but non-POSIX `make' feature
811 of recursive variable expansion, so do not use it if your package needs
812 to build with `make' implementations that do not support it.
814 To enable less verbose build output, the developer has to use the Automake
815 option `silent-rules' in `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE', or call the `AM_SILENT_RULES'
816 macro. The user may then set the default verbosity by passing the
817 `--enable-silent-rules' option to `configure'. At `make' run time, this
818 default may be overridden using `make V=0' for less verbose, and `make V=1'
819 for backward-compatible verbose output.
821 - New prefix `notrans_' for manpages which should not be transformed
822 by --program-transform.
824 - New macro AM_COND_IF for conditional evaluation and conditional
827 - For AC_CONFIG_LINKS, if source and destination are equal, do not
828 remove the file in a non-VPATH build. Such setups work with Autoconf
831 - AM_MAINTAINER_MODE now allows for an optional argument specifying
834 - AM_SUBST_NOTMAKE may prevent substitution of AC_SUBSTed variables,
835 useful especially for multi-line values.
837 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now diagnoses an
838 unsafe absolute source directory name and makes configure fail.
840 - The Automake macros and rules cope better with whitespace in the
841 current directory name, as long as the relative path to `configure'
842 does not contain whitespace. To this end, the values of `$(MISSING)'
843 and `$(install_sh)' may contain suitable quoting, and their expansion
844 might need `eval'uation if used outside of a makefile. These
845 undocumented variables may be used in several documented macros such
846 as $(AUTOCONF) or $(MAKEINFO).
850 * Long-standing bugs:
852 - Fix aix dependency tracking for libtool objects.
854 - Work around AIX sh quoting issue in AC_PROG_CC_C_O, leading to
855 unnecessary use of the `compile' script.
857 - For nobase_*_LTLIBRARIES with nonempty directory components, the
858 correct `-rpath' argument is used now.
860 - `config.status --file=Makefile depfiles' now also works with the
861 extra quoting used internally by Autoconf 2.62 and newer
862 (it used to work only without the `--file=' bit).
864 - The `missing' script works better with versioned tool names.
866 - Semantics for `missing help2man' have been revamped:
868 Previously, if `help2man' was not present, `missing help2man' would have
869 the following semantics: if some man page was out of date but present, then
870 a warning would be printed, but the exit status was 0. If the man page was
871 not present at all, then `missing' would create a replacement man page
872 containing an error message, and exit with a status of 2. This does not play
873 well with `make': the next run will see this particular man page as being up
874 to date, and will only error out on the next generated man page, if any;
875 repeat until all pages are done. This was not desirable.
877 These are the new semantics: if some man page is not present, and help2man
878 is not either, then `missing' will warn and generate the replacement page
879 containing the error message, but exit successfully. However, `make dist'
880 will ensure that no such bogus man pages are packaged into a tarball.
882 - Targets provided by automake behave better with `make -n', in that they
883 take care not to create files.
885 - `config.status Makefile... depfiles' works fine again in the presence of
886 disabled dependency tracking.
888 - The default no-op recursive rules for these targets also work with BSD make
889 now: html, install-html, install-dvi, install-pdf, install-pdf, install-info.
891 - `make distcheck' works also when both a directory and some file below it
892 have been added to a distribution variable, such as EXTRA_DIST or *_SOURCES.
894 - Texinfo dvi, ps, pdf, and html output files are not removed upon
895 `make mostlyclean' any more; only the LaTeX by-products are.
897 - Renamed objects also work with the `subdir-objects' option and
898 source file languages which Automake does not know itself.
900 - `automake' now correctly complains about variable assignments which are
901 preceded by a comment, extend over multiple lines with backslash-escaped
902 newlines, and end in a comment sign. Previous versions would silently
903 and wrongly ignore such assignments completely.
905 * Bugs introduced by 1.10:
907 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
908 Makefile.in's again, but also cope with long lines.
910 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of XFAIL_TESTS
911 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
912 This is for consistency with the analogous change to TESTS in 1.10.
914 - Fix order of standard includes to again be `-I. -I$(srcdir)',
915 followed by directories containing config headers.
917 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
921 * Version requirements:
923 - Autoconf 2.60 or greater is required.
925 - Perl 5.6 or greater is required.
927 * Changes to aclocal:
929 - aclocal now also supports -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble options.
931 - `dirlist' entries (for the aclocal search path) may use shell
932 wildcards such as `*', `?', or `[...]'.
934 - aclocal supports an --install option that will cause system-wide
935 third-party macros to be installed in the local directory
936 specified with the first -I flag. This option also uses #serial
937 lines in M4 files to upgrade local macros.
939 The new aclocal options --dry-run and --diff help to review changes
940 before they are installed.
942 - aclocal now outputs an autoconf version check in aclocal.m4 in
943 projects using automake.
945 For a few years, automake and aclocal have been calling autoconf
946 (or its underlying engine autom4te) to accurately retrieve the
947 data they need from configure.ac and its siblings. Doing so can
948 only work if all autotools use the same version of autoconf. For
949 instance a Makefile.in generated by automake for one version of
950 autoconf may stop working if configure is regenerated with another
951 version of autoconf, and vice versa.
953 This new version check ensures that the whole build system has
954 been generated using the same autoconf version.
956 * Support for new Autoconf macros:
958 - The new AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE Autoconf macro is supported.
960 - If `subdir-objects' is set, and AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR is specified,
961 $(LIBOBJS), $(LTLIBOBJS), $(ALLOCA), and $(LTALLOCA) can be used
962 in different directories. However, only one instance of such a
963 library objects directory is supported.
965 * Change to Libtool support:
967 - Libtool generic flags (those that go before the --mode=MODE option)
968 can be specified using AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS and target_LIBTOOLFLAGS.
970 * Yacc and Lex changes:
972 - The rebuild rules for distributed Yacc and Lex output will avoid
973 overwriting existing files if AM_MAINTAINER_MODE and maintainer-mode
976 - ylwrap is now always used for lex and yacc source files,
977 regardless of whether there is more than one source per directory.
981 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now honors CPPFLAGS,
982 AM_CPPFLAGS and per-target _CPPFLAGS, and supports dependency
983 tracking, unlike non-preprocessed assembler (*.s).
985 - subdir-object mode works now with Assembler. Automake assumes
986 that the compiler understands `-c -o'.
988 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now also honors
989 $(DEFS) $(DEFAULT_INCLUDES) $(INCLUDES).
991 - Improved support for Objective C:
992 - Autoconf's new AC_PROG_OBJC will enable automatic dependency tracking.
993 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
995 - New support for Unified Parallel C:
996 - AM_PROG_UPC looks for a UPC compiler.
997 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
999 - Per-target flags are now correctly handled in link rules.
1001 For instance maude_CFLAGS correctly overrides AM_CFLAGS; likewise
1002 for maude_LDFLAGS and AM_LDFLAGS. Previous versions bogusly
1003 preferred AM_CFLAGS over maude_CFLAGS while linking, and they
1004 used both AM_LDFLAGS and maude_LDFLAGS on the same link command.
1006 The fix for compiler flags (i.e., using maude_CFLAGS instead of
1007 AM_CFLAGS) should not hurt any package since that is how _CFLAGS
1008 is expected to work (and actually works during compilation).
1010 However using maude_LDFLAGS "instead of" AM_LDFLAGS rather than
1011 "in addition to" breaks backward compatibility with older versions.
1012 If your package used both variables, as in
1014 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1015 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1016 a_LDFLAGS = more flags
1019 and assumed *_LDFLAGS would sum up, you should rewrite it as
1021 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1022 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1023 a_LDFLAGS = $(AM_LDFLAGS) more flags
1026 This new behavior of *_LDFLAGS is more coherent with other
1027 per-target variables, and the way *_LDFLAGS variables were
1028 considered internally.
1030 * New installation targets:
1032 - New targets mandated by GNU Coding Standards:
1037 By default they will only install Texinfo manuals.
1038 You can customize them with *-local variants:
1044 - The undocumented recursive target `uninstall-info' no longer exists.
1045 (`uninstall' is in charge of removing all possible documentation
1046 flavors, including optional formats such as dvi, ps, or info even
1047 when `no-installinfo' is used.)
1049 * Miscellaneous changes:
1051 - Automake no longer complains if input files for AC_CONFIG_FILES
1052 are specified using shell variables.
1054 - clean, distribution, or rebuild rules are normally disabled for
1055 inputs and outputs of AC_CONFIG_FILES, AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, and
1056 AC_CONFIG_LINK specified using shell variables. However, if these
1057 variables are used as ${VAR}, and AC_SUBSTed, then Automake will
1058 be able to output rules anyway.
1059 (See the Automake documentation for AC_CONFIG_FILES.)
1061 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of TESTS
1062 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1063 This is mostly useful when some check_PROGRAMS are listed in TESTS.
1065 - `-Wportability' has finally been turned on by default for `gnu' and
1066 `gnits' strictness. This means, automake will complain about %-rules
1067 or $(GNU Make functions) unless you switch to `foreign' strictness or
1068 use `-Wno-portability'.
1070 - Automake now uses AC_PROG_MKDIR_P (new in Autoconf 2.60), and uses
1071 $(MKDIR_P) instead of $(mkdir_p) to create directories. The
1072 $(mkdir_p) variable is still defined (to the same value as
1073 $(MKDIR_P)) but should be considered obsolete. If you are using
1074 $(mkdir_p) in some of your rules, please plan to update them to
1075 $(MKDIR_P) at some point.
1077 - AM_C_PROTOTYPES and ansi2knr are now documented as being obsolete.
1078 They still work in this release, but may be withdrawn in a future one.
1080 - Inline compilation rules for gcc3-style dependency tracking are
1083 - Automake installs a "Hello World!" example package in $(docdir).
1084 This example is used throughout the new "Autotools Introduction"
1085 chapter of the manual.
1087 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1091 * Makefile.in bloat reduction:
1093 - Inference rules are used to compile sources in subdirectories when
1094 the `subdir-objects' option is used and no per-target flags are
1095 used. This should reduce the size of some projects a lot, because
1096 Automake used to output an explicit rule for each such object in
1099 - Automake no longer outputs three rules (.o, .obj, .lo) for each
1100 object that must be built with explicit rules. It just outputs
1101 the rules required to build the kind of object considered: either
1102 the two .o and .obj rules for usual objects, or the .lo rule for
1105 * Change to Libtool support:
1107 - Libtool tags are used with libtool versions that support them.
1108 (I.e., with Libtool 1.5 or greater.)
1110 - Automake is now able to handle setups where a libtool library is
1111 conditionally installed in different directories, as in
1114 lib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1116 pkglib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1118 liba_la_SOURCES = ...
1120 * Changes to aclocal:
1122 - aclocal now ensures that AC_DEFUNs and AU_DEFUNs it discovers are
1123 really evaluated, before it decides to include them in aclocal.m4.
1124 This solves nasty problems with conditional redefinitions of
1125 Autoconf macros in /usr/share/aclocal/*.m4 files causing extraneous
1126 *.m4 files to be included in any project using these macros.
1127 (Calls to AC_PROG_EGREP causing libtool.m4 to be included is the
1128 most famous instance of this bug.)
1130 - Do not complain about missing conditionally AC_REQUIREd macros
1131 that are not actually used. In 1.8.x aclocal would correctly
1132 determine which of these macros were really needed (and include
1133 only these in the package); unfortunately it would also require
1134 all of them to be present in order to run. This created
1135 situations were aclocal would not work on a tarball distributing
1136 all the macros it uses. For instance running aclocal on a project
1137 containing only the subset of the Gettext macros in use by the
1138 project did not work, because gettext conditionally requires other
1141 * Portability improvements:
1143 - Tar format can be chosen with the new options tar-v7, tar-ustar, and
1144 tar-pax. The new option filename-length-max=99 helps diagnosing
1145 filenames that are too long for tar-v7. (PR/414)
1147 - Variables aumented with `+=' are now automatically flattened (i.e.,
1148 trailing backslashes removed) and then wrapped around 80 colummns
1149 (adding trailing backslashes). In previous versions, a long series
1155 would result in a single-line definition of VAR that could possibly
1156 exceed the maximum line length of some make implementations.
1158 Non-augmented variables are still output as they are defined in
1163 - Support Fortran 90/95 with the new "fc" and "ppfc" languages.
1164 Works the same as the old Fortran 77 implementation; just replace
1165 F77 with FC everywhere (exception: FFLAGS becomes FCFLAGS).
1166 Requires a version of autoconf which provides AC_PROG_FC (>=2.59).
1168 - Support for conditional _LISP.
1170 - Support for conditional -hook and -local rules (PR/428).
1172 - Diagnose AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR calls following AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. (PR/49)
1174 - Automake will not write any Makefile.ins after the first error it
1175 encounters. The previous Makefile.ins (if any) will be left in
1176 place. (Warnings will not prevent output, but remember they can
1177 be turned into errors with -Werror.)
1179 - The restriction that SUBDIRS must contain direct children is gone.
1182 - The manual tells more about SUBDIRS vs. DIST_SUBDIRS.
1183 It also gives an example of nested packages using AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS.
1185 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1187 Bugs fixed in 1.8.5:
1189 * Long-standing bugs:
1191 - Define DIST_SUBDIRS even when the `no-dist' or `cygnus' options are used
1192 so that `make distclean' and `make maintainer-clean' can work.
1194 - Define AR and ARFLAGS even when only EXTRA_LIBRARIES are defined.
1196 - Fix many rules to please FreeBSD make, which runs commands with `sh -e'.
1198 - Polish diagnostic when no input file is found.
1200 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1202 Bugs fixed in 1.8.4:
1204 * Long-standing bugs:
1206 - Fix AM_PATH_PYTHON to correctly display $PYTHON when it has been
1207 overridden by the user.
1209 - Honor PATH_SEPARATOR in various places of the Automake package, for
1212 - Adjust dependency tracking mode detection to ICC 8.0's new output.
1215 - Fix install-sh so it can install the `mv' binary... using `mv'.
1217 - Fix tru64 dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1219 - Work around Exuberant Ctags when creating a TAGS files in a directory
1220 without files to scan but with subdirectories to include.
1222 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1224 - Fix an "internal error" when @LIBOBJS@ is used in a variable that is
1225 not defined in the same conditions as the _LDADD that uses it.
1227 - Do not warn when JAVAROOT is overridden, this is legitimate.
1229 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1231 Bugs fixed in 1.8.3:
1233 * Long-standing bugs:
1235 - Quote filenames in installation rules, in case $DESTDIR, $prefix,
1236 or any of the other *dir variables contain a space.
1238 Please note that Automake does not and cannot support spaces in
1239 filenames that are involved during the build. This change affects
1240 only installation paths, so that `make install' does not bomb out
1241 in packages configured with
1242 ./configure --prefix '/c/Program Files'
1244 - Fix the depfiles output so it works with GNU sed (<4.1) even when
1245 POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.
1247 - Do not AC_SUBST(LIBOBJS) in AM_WITH_REGEX. This macro was unusable
1248 since Autoconf 2.54, which defines LIBOBJS itself.
1250 - Fix a potential (but unlikely) race condition in parallel elisp
1251 builds. (Introduced in 1.7.3.)
1253 - Do not assume that users override _DEPENDENCIES in all conditions
1254 where Automake will try to define them.
1256 - Do not use `mkdir -p' in mkinstalldirs, unless this is GNU mkdir.
1257 Solaris 8's `mkdir -p' is not thread-safe and can break parallel
1260 This fix also affects the $(mkdir_p) variable defined since
1261 Automake 1.8. It will be set to `mkdir -p' only if mkdir is GNU
1262 mkdir, and to `mkinstalldirs' or `install-sh -d' otherwise.
1264 - Secure temporary directory creation in `make distcheck'. (PR/413)
1266 - Do not generate two build rules for `parser.h' when the
1267 parser appears in two different conditionals.
1269 - Work around a Solaris 8 /bin/sh bug in the test for dependency
1270 checking. Usually ./configure will not pick this shell; so this
1271 fix only helps cases where the shell is forced to /bin/sh.
1273 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1275 - In some situations (hand-written `m4_include's), aclocal would
1276 call the `File::Spec->rel2abs' method, which was only introduced
1277 in Perl 5.6. This new version reestablish support Perl 5.005.
1279 It is likely that the next major Automake releases will require at
1280 least Perl 5.6. Consider upgrading your development environment
1281 if you are still using the five-year-old Perl 5.005.
1283 - Automake would sometimes fail to define rules for targets listed
1284 in variables defined in multiple conditions. For instance on
1290 it would define only the `a.$(OBJEXT): a.c' rule and omit the
1291 `b.$(OBJEXT): b.c' rule.
1293 * New sections in manual:
1295 - Third-Party Makefiles: how to interface third party Makefiles.
1296 - Upgrading: upgrading packages to newer Automake versions.
1297 - Multiple Outputs: handling tools that produce many outputs.
1299 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1303 * A (well known) portability bug slipped in the changes made to
1304 install-sh in Automake 1.8.1. The broken install-sh would refuse to
1305 install anything on Tru64.
1307 * Fix install rules for conditionally built python files. (This never
1310 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1314 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1316 - Fix Config.pm import error with old Perl versions (at least
1317 5.005_03). One symptom is that aclocal could not find its macro
1320 - Automake 1.8 used `mkdir -m 0755 -p --' to ensure that directories
1321 created by `make install' are always world readable, even if the
1322 installer happens to have an overly restrictive umask (e.g. 077).
1323 This was a mistake and has been reverted. There are at least two
1324 reasons why we must not use `-m 0755':
1325 - it causes special bits like SGID to be ignored,
1326 - it may be too restrictive (some setups expect 775 directories).
1328 - Fix aclocal to honor definitions located in files which have been
1329 m4_included manually. aclocal 1.8 had been updated to check
1330 m4_included files for new requirements, but forgot that these
1331 m4_included files can also provide new definitions.
1333 Note that if you have such a setup, we recommend you get rid of
1334 it. In the past, there was a reason to m4_include files manually:
1335 aclocal used to duplicate entire M4 files into aclocal.m4, even
1336 files that were distributed. Some packages were therefore
1337 m4_including the distributed file directly, and playing some
1338 tricks to ensure aclocal would not copy that file to aclocal.m4,
1339 in order to limit the amount of duplication. Since aclocal 1.8.x
1340 will precisely output m4_includes for local M4 files, we recommend
1341 that you clean up your setup, removing all manual m4_includes and
1342 letting aclocal output them.
1344 - Output detailed menus in the Info version if the Automake manual,
1345 so that Emacs can locate the indexes.
1347 - configure.ac and configure were listed twice in DIST_COMMON (an
1348 internal variable where Automake lists configury files to
1349 distribute). This was harmless, but unaesthetic.
1351 - Use `chmod a-w' instead of `chmod -w' as the latter honors umask.
1352 This was an issue only in the Automake package itself, not in
1355 - Automake assumed that all AC_CONFIG_LINKS arguments had the form
1356 DEST:SRC. This was wrong, as some packages do
1357 AC_CONFIG_LINKS($computedlinks). This version no longer abort in
1360 - Contrary to mkinstalldirs, $(mkdir_p) was expecting exactly one
1361 argument. This caused two kinds of failures:
1362 - Rules installing data in a conditionally defined directory
1363 failed when that directory was undefined. In this case no
1364 argument was supplied.
1365 - `make installdirs' failed, because several directories were
1366 passed to $(mkdir_p). This was an issue only on platform
1367 were $(mkdir_p) is implemented with `install-sh -d'.
1368 $(mkdir_p) as been changed to accept 0 or more arguments, as
1371 * Long-standing bugs:
1373 - Fix an unexpected diagnostic occurring when users attempt
1374 to override some internal variables that Automake appends to.
1376 - aclocal now scans configure.ac for macro definitions (PR/319).
1378 - Fix a portability issue with OSF1/Tru64 Make. If a directory
1379 distributes files which are outside itself (this usually occurs
1380 when using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([../dir]) to use auxiliary files
1381 from a parent package), then `make distcheck' fails due to an
1382 optimization performed by OSF1/Tru64 Make in its VPATH handling.
1383 (tests/subpkg2.test failure)
1385 - Fix another portability issue with Sun and OSF1/Tru64 Make.
1386 In a VPATH-build configuration, `make install' would install
1387 nobase_ files to wrong locations.
1389 - Fix a Perl `uninitialized value' diagnostic occurring when
1390 automake complains that a Texinfo file does not have a
1391 @setfilename statement.
1393 - Erase config.status.lineno during `make distclean'. This file
1394 can be created by config.status. Automake already knew about
1395 configure.lineno, but forgot config.status.lineno.
1397 - Distribute all files, even those which are built and installed
1398 conditionally. This change affects files listed in conditionally
1399 defined *_HEADERS and *_PYTHON variable (unless they are nodist_*)
1400 as well as those listed in conditionally defined dist_*_DATA,
1401 dist_*_JAVA, dist_*_LISP, and dist_*_SCRIPTS variables.
1403 - Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to avoid \? in sed regular expressions; it
1404 doesn't conform to POSIX.
1406 - Normalize help strings for configure variables and options added
1411 - Check for python2.4 in AM_PATH_PYTHON.
1413 * Spurious failures in test suite:
1415 - tests/libtool5.test, tests/ltcond.test, tests/ltcond2.test,
1416 tests/ltconv.test: fix failures with CVS Libtool.
1417 - tests/aclocal6.test: fix failure if autom4te.cache is disabled.
1418 - tests/txinfo24.test, tests/txinfo25.test, tests/txinfo28.test:
1419 fix failures with old Texinfo versions.
1421 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1427 - The NEWS file is more verbose.
1431 - Autoconf 2.58 or greater is required.
1435 - Default source file names in the absence of a _SOURCES declaration
1436 are made by removing any target extension before appending `.c', so
1437 to make the libtool module `foo.la' from `foo.c', you only need to
1440 lib_LTLIBRARIES = foo.la
1441 foo_la_LDFLAGS = -module
1443 For backward compatibility, foo_la.c will be used instead of
1444 foo.c if this file exists or is the explicit target of a rule.
1445 However -Wobsolete will warn about this deprecated naming.
1447 - AR's `cru' flags are now set in a global ARFLAGS variable instead
1448 of being hard-coded in each $(AR) invocation, so they can be
1449 substituted from configure.ac. This has been requested by people
1450 dealing with non-POSIX ar implementations.
1452 - New warning option: -Woverride. This will warn about any user
1453 target or variable definitions which override Automake
1456 - Texinfo rules back up and restore info files when makeinfo fails.
1458 - Texinfo rules now support the `html' target.
1459 Running this requires Texinfo 4.0 or greater.
1461 `html' is a new recursive target, so if your package mixes
1462 hand-crafted `Makefile.in's with Automake-generated
1463 `Makefile.in's, you should adjust the former to support (or
1464 ignore) this target so that `make html' recurses successfully. If
1465 you had a custom `html' rule in your `Makefile.am', it's better to
1466 rename it as `html-local', otherwise your rule will override
1467 Automake's new rule (you can check that by running `automake
1468 -Woverride') and that will stop the recursion to subdirectories.
1470 Last but not least, this `html' rule is declared PHONY, even when
1471 overridden. Fortunately, it appears that few packages use a
1472 non-PHONY `html' rule.
1474 - Any file which is m4_included from configure.ac will appear as a
1475 configure and Makefile.in dependency, and will be automatically
1478 - The rules for rebuilding Makefiles and Makefile.ins will now
1479 rebuild all Makefiles and all Makefile.ins at once when one of
1480 configure's dependencies has changed. This is considerably faster
1481 than previous implementations, where config.status and automake
1482 were run separately in each directory (this still happens when you
1483 change a Makefile.am locally, without touching configure.ac or
1484 friends). Doing this also solves a longstanding issue: these
1485 rebuild rules failed to work when adding new directories to the
1486 tree, forcing you to run automake manually.
1488 - For similar reasons, the rules to rebuild configure,
1489 config.status, and aclocal.m4 are now defined in all directories.
1490 Note that if you were using the CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES and
1491 CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES (formerly undocumented) variables, you
1492 should better define them in all directories. This is easily done
1493 using an AC_SUBST (make sure you prefix these dependencies with
1494 $(top_srcdir) since this variable will appear at different
1495 levels of the build tree).
1497 - aclocal will now use `m4_include' instead of copying local m4
1498 files into aclocal.m4. (Local m4 files are those you ship with
1499 your project, other files will be copied as usual.)
1501 Because m4_included files are automatically distributed, it means
1502 for most projects there is no point in EXTRA_DISTing the list of
1503 m4 files which are used. (You can probably get rid of
1504 m4/Makefile.am if you had one.)
1506 - aclocal will avoid touching aclocal.m4 when possible, so that
1507 Autom4te's cache isn't needlessly invalidated. This behavior can
1508 be switched off with the new `--force' option.
1510 - aclocal now uses Autoconf's --trace to detect macros which are
1511 actually used and will no longer include unused macros simply
1512 because they where mentioned. This was often the case for macros
1513 called conditionally.
1515 - New options no-dist and no-dist-gzip.
1517 - compile, depcomp, elisp-comp, install-sh, mdate-sh, mkinstalldirs,
1518 py-compile, and ylwrap, now all understand --version and --help.
1520 - Automake will now recognize AC_CONFIG_LINKS so far as removing created
1521 links as part of the distclean target and including source files in
1524 - AM_PATH_PYTHON now supports ACTION-IF-FOUND and ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND
1525 argument. The latter can be used to override the default behavior
1526 (which is to abort).
1528 - Automake will exit with $? = 63 on version mismatch. (So does
1529 Autoconf 2.58) missing knows this, and in this case it will
1530 emulate the tools as if they were absent. Because older versions
1531 of Automake and Autoconf did not use this exit code, this change
1532 will only be useful in projects generated with future versions of
1535 - When using AC_CONFIG_FILES with multiple input files, Automake
1536 generates the first ".in" input file for which a ".am" exists.
1537 (Former versions would try to use only the first input file.)
1539 - lisp_DATA is now allowed. If you are using the empty ELCFILES
1540 idiom to disable byte-compilation of lisp_LISP files, it is
1541 recommended that you switch to using lisp_DATA. Note that
1542 this is not strictly equivalent: lisp_DATA will install elisp
1543 files even if emacs is not installed, while *_LISP do not
1544 install anything unless emacs is found.
1546 - Makefiles will prefer `mkdir -p' over mkinstalldirs if it is
1547 available. This selection is achieved through the Makefile
1548 variable $(mkdir_p) that is set by AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE to either
1549 `mkdir -m 0755 -p --', `$(mkinstalldirs) -m 0755', or
1550 `$(install_sh) -m 0755 -d'.
1554 - Because `mkdir -p' is available on most platforms, and we can use
1555 `install-sh -d' when it is not, the use of the mkinstalldirs
1556 script is being phased out. `automake --add-missing' no longer
1557 installs it, and if you remove mkinstalldirs from your package,
1558 automake will define $(mkinstalldirs) as an alias for $(mkdir_p).
1560 Gettext 0.12.1 still requires mkinstalldirs. Fortunately
1561 gettextize and autopoint will install it when needed. Automake
1562 will continue to define the $(mkinstalldirs) and to distribute
1563 mkinstalldirs when this script is in the source tree.
1565 - AM_PROG_CC_STDC is now empty. The content of this macro was
1566 merged in AC_PROG_CC. If your code uses $am_cv_prog_cc_stdc, you
1567 should adjust it to use $ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc instead. (This
1568 renaming should be safe, even if you have to support several,
1569 versions of Automake, because AC_PROG_CC defines this variable
1570 since Autoconf 2.54.)
1572 - Some users where using the undocumented ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES
1573 variable to override the aclocal.m4 dependencies computed
1574 (inaccurately) by older versions of Automake. Because Automake
1575 now tracks configure's m4 dependencies accurately (see m4_include
1576 above), the use of ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES should be considered
1577 obsolete and will be flagged as such when running `automake
1582 - Defining programs conditionally using Automake conditionals no
1583 longer leads to a combinatorial explosion. The following
1584 construct used to be troublesome when used with dozens of
1599 Likewise for _SOURCES, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables.
1601 - Due to implementation constraints, previous versions of Automake
1602 proscribed multiple conditional definitions of some variables
1612 All _PROGRAMS, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables were affected.
1613 This restriction has been lifted, and these variables now
1614 support multiple conditional definitions as do other variables.
1616 - Cleanup the definitions of $(distdir) and $(top_distdir).
1617 $(top_distdir) now points to the root of the distribution
1618 directory created during `make dist', as it did in Automake 1.4,
1619 not to the root of the build tree as it did in intervening
1620 versions. Furthermore these two variables are now only defined in
1621 the top level Makefile, and passed to sub-directories when running
1624 - The --no-force option now correctly checks the Makefile.in's
1625 dependencies before deciding not to update it.
1627 - Do not assume that make files are called Makefile in cleaning rules.
1629 - Update .info files in the source tree, not in the build tree. This
1630 is what the GNU Coding Standard recommend. Only Automake 1.7.x
1631 used to update these files in the build tree (previous versions did
1632 it in the source tree too), and it caused several problems, varying
1633 from mere annoyance to portability issues.
1635 - COPYING, COPYING.LIB, and COPYING.LESSER are no longer overwritten
1636 when --add-missing and --force-missing are used. For backward
1637 compatibility --add-missing will continue to install COPYING (in
1638 `gnu' strictness) when none of these three files exist, but this
1639 use is deprecated: you should better choose a license yourself and
1640 install it once for all in your source tree (and in your code
1643 - Fix ylwrap so that it does not overwrite header files that haven't
1644 changed, as the inline rule already does.
1646 - User-defined rules override automake-defined rules for the same
1647 targets, even when rules do not have commands. This is not new
1648 (and was documented), however some of the automake-generated
1649 rules have escaped this principle in former Automake versions.
1650 Rules for the following targets are affected by this fix:
1652 clean, clean-am, dist-all, distclean, distclean-am, dvi, dvi-am,
1653 info, info-am, install-data-am, install-exec-am, install-info,
1654 install-info-am, install-man, installcheck-am, maintainer-clean,
1655 maintainer-clean-am, mostlyclean, mostlyclean-am, pdf, pdf-am,
1656 ps, ps-am, uninstall-am, uninstall-info, uninstall-man
1658 Practically it means that an attempt to supplement the dependencies
1659 of some target, as in
1661 clean: my-clean-rule
1663 will now *silently override* the automake definition of the
1664 rule for this target. Running `automake -Woverride' will diagnose
1665 all such overriding definitions.
1667 It should be noted that almost all of these targets support a *-local
1668 variant that is meant to supplement the automake-defined rule
1669 (See node `Extending' in the manual). The above rule should
1672 clean-local: my-clean-rule
1674 These *-local targets have been documented since at least
1675 Automake 1.2, so you should not fear the change if you have
1676 to support multiple automake versions.
1680 - The Automake manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
1682 - Targets dist-gzip, dist-bzip2, dist-tarZ, dist-zip are always defined.
1684 - core dumps are no longer removed by the cleaning rules. There are
1685 at least three reasons for this:
1686 1. These files should not be created by any build step,
1687 so their removal do not fit any of the cleaning rules.
1688 Actually, they may be precious to the developer.
1689 2. If such file is created during a build, then it's clearly a
1690 bug Automake should not hide. Not removing the file will
1691 cause `make distcheck' to complain about its presence.
1692 3. Operating systems have different naming conventions for
1693 core dump files. A core file on one system might be a
1694 completely legitimate data file on another system.
1696 - RUNTESTFLAGS, CTAGSFLAGS, ETAGSFLAGS, JAVACFLAGS are no longer
1697 defined by Automake. This means that any definition in the
1698 environment will be used, unless overridden in the Makefile.am or
1699 on the command line. The old behavior, where these variables were
1700 defined empty in each Makefile, can be obtained by AC_SUBSTing or
1701 AC_ARG_VARing each variable from configure.ac.
1703 - CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES and CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES are now
1704 documented. (The is not a new feature, these variables have
1705 been there since at least Automake 1.4.)
1707 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1709 Bugs fixed in 1.7.9:
1710 * Fix install-strip to work with nobase_ binaries.
1711 * Fix renaming of #line directives in ylwrap.
1712 * Rebuild with Autoconf 2.59. (1.7.8 was not installable with pdksh.)
1714 Bugs fixed in 1.7.8:
1715 * Remove spurious blank lines in cleaning rules introduced in 1.7.7.
1716 * Fix detection of Debian's install-info, broken since version 1.5.
1717 (Debian bug #213524).
1718 * Honor -module if it appears in AM_LDFLAGS (i.e., relax name checking)
1719 This was only done for libfoo_LDFLAGS and LDFLAGS in previous versions.
1721 Bugs fixed in 1.7.7:
1722 * The implementation of automake's --no-force option is unreliable,
1723 so this option is ignored in this version. A real fix will appear in
1724 Automake 1.8. (Debian Bug #206299)
1725 * AM_PATH_PYTHON: really check the whole list of interpreters if no
1726 argument is given. (PR/399)
1727 * Do not warn about leading `_' in variable names, even with -Wportability.
1728 * Support user redefinitions of TEXINFO_TEX.
1729 * depcomp: support AIX Compiler version 6.
1730 * Fix missing rebuilds during `make dist' with BSD make.
1731 (Could produce tarballs containing out-of-date files.)
1732 * Resurrect multilib support.
1733 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1734 - Extending aclocal: how to write m4 macros that won't trigger warnings
1736 - A Shared Library: Rewrite and split into subsections.
1738 Bugs fixed in 1.7.6:
1739 * Fix depcomp's icc mode for ICC 7.1.
1740 * Diagnose calls to AC_CONFIG_FILES and friends with not enough arguments.
1741 * Fix maintainer-clean's removal of autom4te.cache in VPATH builds.
1742 * Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to work with POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
1743 * Fix the location reported in some diagnostics related to AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
1744 * Remove Latin-1 characters from elisp-comp.
1745 * Update the manual's @dircategory to match the Free Software Directory.
1747 Bugs fixed in 1.7.5:
1748 * Update install-sh's license to remove an advertising clause.
1749 (Debian bug #191717)
1750 * Fix a bug introduced in 1.7.4, related to BUILT_SOURCE handling,
1751 that caused invalid Makefile.ins to be generated.
1752 * Make sure AM_MAKE_INCLUDE doesn't fail when a `doit' file exists.
1753 * New FAQ entry: renamed objects.
1755 Bugs fixed in 1.7.4:
1756 * Tweak the TAGS rule to support Exuberant Ctags (in addition to
1757 the Emacs implementation)
1758 * Fix output of aclocal.m4 dependencies in subdirectories.
1759 * Use `mv -f' instead of `mv' in fastdep rules.
1760 * Upgrade mdate-sh to work on OS/2.
1761 * Don't byte-compile elisp files when ELCFILES is set empty.
1762 (this documented feature was broken by 1.7.3)
1763 * Diagnose trailing backslashes on last line of Makefile.am.
1764 * Diagnose whitespace following trailing backslashes.
1765 * Multiple tests are now correctly supported in DEJATOOL. (PR/388)
1766 * Fix rebuilt rules for AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.bot])
1768 * `make install' will build `BUILT_SOURCES' first.
1769 * Minor documentation fixes.
1771 Bugs fixed in 1.7.3:
1772 * Fix stamp files numbering (when using multiple AC_CONFIG_HEADERS).
1773 * Query distutils for `pythondir' and `pythonexecdir', instead of
1774 using an hardcoded path. This should allow builds on 64-bit
1775 distributions that usually use lib64/ instead of lib/.
1776 * AM_PATH_PYTHON will also search for python2.3.
1777 * elisp files are now built all at once instead of one by one. Besides
1778 incurring a speed-up, this is required to support interdependent elisp files.
1779 * Support for DJGPP:
1780 - `make distcheck' will now work in `_inst/' and `_build' instead
1781 of `=inst/' and `=build/'
1782 - use `_dirstamp' when the file-system doesn't support `.dirstamp'
1783 - install/uninstall `*.i[0-9][0-9]'-style info files
1784 - more changes that affect only the Automake package (not its output)
1785 * Fix some incompatibilities with upcoming perl-5.10.
1786 * Properly quote AC_PACKAGE_TARNAME and AC_PACKAGE_VERSION when defining
1787 PACKAGE and VERSION.
1789 - dashmstdout and dashXmstdout modes: don't use `-o /dev/null', this
1790 is troublesome with gcc and Solaris compilers. (PR/385)
1791 - makedepend mode: work with Libtool. (PR/385 too)
1793 * better support for unusual gettext setups, such as multiple po/ directories
1795 - Flag missing po/ and intl/ directories as warnings, not errors.
1796 - Disable these warnings if po/ does not exist.
1797 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1799 - Document how AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR interacts with missing files.
1801 - Document `AM_YFLAGS = -d'. (PR/382)
1803 Bugs fixed in 1.7.2:
1804 * Fix installation and uninstallation of Info files built in subdirectories.
1805 * Do not run `./configure --with-included-gettext' during `make distcheck'
1806 if AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) is used.
1807 * Correctly uninstall renamed man pages.
1808 * Do not strip escaped newline in variables defined in one condition
1809 and augmented in another condition.
1810 * Fix ansi2knr rules for LIBOBJS sources.
1811 * Clean all known Texinfo index files, not only those which appear to
1812 be used, because we cannot know which indexes are used in included files.
1813 (PR/375, Debian Bug #168671)
1814 * Honor only the first @setfilename seen in a Texinfo file.
1815 * Treat "required file X not found" diagnostics as errors (exit status 1).
1816 * Don't complain that a required file is not found when it is a Makefile
1818 * Don't use single suffix inference rules when building `.info'-less
1819 Info files, for the sake of Solaris make.
1820 * The `check' target now depends on `$(BUILT_SOURCES)'. (PR/359)
1821 * Recognize multiple inference rules such as `.a.b .c.d:'. (PR/371)
1822 * Warn about multiple inference rules when -Wportability is used. (PR/372)
1823 * Fix building of deansified files from subdirectories. (PR/370)
1824 * Add missing `fi' in the .c->.obj rules.
1825 * Improve install-sh to work even when names contain spaces or certain
1826 (but not all) shell metachars.
1827 * Fix the following spurious failures in the test suite:
1828 depcomp2.test, gnits2.test, gnits3.test, python3.test, texinfo13.test
1829 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1830 - Augment the section about BUILT_SOURCES.
1831 - Mention that AM_PROG_CC_STDC is a relic that is better avoided today.
1833 Bugs fixed in 1.7.1:
1834 * Honor `ansi2knr' for files built in subdirectories, or using per-targets
1836 * Aclocal should now recognize macro names containing parentheses, e.g.
1837 AC_DEFUN([AC_LANG_PREPROC(Fortran 90)], [...]).
1838 * Erase *.sum and *.log files created by DejaGnu, during `make distclean'.
1840 * Install Python files even if they were built. (PR/369)
1841 * Have stamp-vti dependent upon configure instead of configure.ac, as the
1842 version might not be defined in the latter. (PR/358)
1843 * Reorder arguments passed to a couple of commands, so things works
1844 when POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
1845 * Fix a regex that can cause Perl to segfault on large input.
1847 * Fix distribution of packages that have some sources defined conditionally,
1848 as in the `Conditional compilation using Automake conditionals' example
1850 * Fix spurious test suite failures on IRIX.
1851 * Don't report a required variable as undefined if it has been
1852 defined conditionally for the "right" conditions.
1853 * Fix cleaning of the /tmp subdirectory used by `make distcheck', in case
1854 `make distcheck' fails.
1855 * Fix distribution of included Makefile fragment, so we don't create
1856 spurious directories in the distribution. (PR/366)
1857 * Don't complain that a target lacks `.$(EXEEXT)' when it has it.
1860 * Autoconf 2.54 is required.
1861 * `aclocal' and `automake' will no longer warn about obsolete
1862 configure macros. This is done by `autoconf -Wobsolete'.
1863 * AM_CONFIG_HEADER, AM_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS and
1864 AM_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ_NEEDS_SYS_IOCTL are obsolete (although still
1865 supported). You should use AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS,
1866 and AC_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ instead. `autoupdate' can upgrade
1867 `configure.ac' for you.
1868 * Support for per-program and per-library `_CPPFLAGS'.
1869 * New `ctags' target (builds CTAGS files).
1870 * Support for -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble, where mumble is a warning category
1871 (see `automake --help' or the manual for a list of them).
1872 * Honor the WARNINGS environment variable.
1873 * Omit the call to depcomp when using gcc3: call the compiler directly.
1874 * A new option, std-options, tests that programs support --help and --version
1875 when `make installcheck' is run. This is enabled by --gnits.
1876 * Texinfo rules now support the `ps' and `pdf' targets.
1877 * Info files are now created in the build directory, not the source directory.
1878 * info_TEXINFOS supports files in subdirectories (this requires Texinfo 4.1
1880 * `make distcheck' will enforce DESTDIR support by attempting
1882 * `+=' can be used in conditionals, even if the augmented variable
1883 was defined for another condition.
1884 * Makefile fragments (inserted with `include') are always distributed.
1885 * Use Autoconf's --trace interface to inspect configure.ac and get
1886 a more accurate view of it.
1887 * Add support for extending aclocal's default macro search path
1888 using a `dirlist' file within the aclocal directory.
1889 * automake --output-dir is deprecated.
1890 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether uninstall actually
1891 removes all installed files has been moved in a separate target,
1892 distuninstallcheck, so it can be overridden easily.
1896 * Support for AM_INIT_GETTEXT([external])
1897 * Bug fixes, including:
1898 - Fix Automake's own `make install' so it works even if `ln' doesn't.
1899 - nobase_ programs and scripts honor --program-transform correctly.
1900 - Erase configure.lineno during `make distclean'.
1901 - Erase YACC and LEX outputs during `make maintainer-clean'.
1904 * Many bug fixes, including:
1905 - Requiring the current version works.
1906 - Fix "$@" portability issues (for Zsh).
1907 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
1909 - Don't compute dependencies in background to avoid races with libtool.
1910 - Fix handling of _OBJECTS variables for targets sharing source variables.
1911 - Check dependency mode for Java when AM_PROG_GCJ is used.
1914 * automake --output-dir is deprecated
1915 * Many bug fixes, including:
1916 - Don't choke on AM_LDFLAGS definitions.
1917 - Clean libtool objects from subdirectories.
1918 - Allow configure variables with reserved suffix and unknown prefix
1919 (e.g. AC_SUBST(mumble_LDFLAGS) when 'mumble' is not a target).
1920 - Fix the definition of AUTOMAKE and ACLOCAL in configure.
1923 * Autoconf 2.52 is required.
1924 * automake no longer run libtoolize.
1925 This is the job of autoreconf (from GNU Autoconf).
1926 * `dist' generates all the archive flavors, as did `dist-all'.
1927 * `dist-gzip' generates the Gzip tar file only.
1928 * Combining Automake Makefile conditionals no longer lead to a combinatorial
1929 explosion. Makefile.in's keep a reasonable size.
1930 * AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_STRTOD, AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, AM_PTRDIFF_T
1931 are no longer shipped, since Autoconf 2.52 provides them (both as AM_
1933 * `#line' of Lex and Yacc files are properly set.
1934 * EXTRA_DIST can contain generated directories.
1935 * Support for dot-less extensions in suffix rules.
1936 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether distclean actually
1937 cleans all built files has been moved in a separate target, distcleancheck,
1938 so it can be overridden easily.
1939 * `make distcheck' will pass additional options defined in
1940 $(DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS) to configure.
1941 * Fixed CDPATH portability problems, in particular for MacOS X.
1942 * Fixed handling of nobase_ targets.
1943 * Fixed support of implicit rules leading to .lo objects.
1944 * Fixed late inclusion of --add-missing files (e.g. depcomp) in DIST_COMMON
1945 * Added uninstall-hook target
1946 * `AC_INIT AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(tarname,version)' is an obsolete construct.
1947 You can now use `AC_INIT(pkgname,version) AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE' instead.
1948 (Note that "pkgname" is not "tarname", see the manual for details.)
1949 It is also possible to pass a list of global Automake options as
1950 first argument to this new form of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.
1951 * Compiler-based assembler is now called `CCAS'; people expected `AS'
1952 to be a real assembler.
1953 * AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE will set STRIP itself when it needs it. Adding
1954 AC_CHECK_TOOL([STRIP], [strip]) manually is no longer required.
1955 * aclocal and automake are also installed with the version number
1956 appended, and some of the install directory names have changed.
1957 This lets you have multiple versions installed simultaneously.
1958 * Support for parsers and lexers in subdirectories.
1961 * Support for `configure.ac'.
1962 * Support for `else COND', `endif COND' and negated conditions `!COND'.
1963 * `make dist-all' is much faster.
1964 * Allows '@' AC_SUBSTs in macro names.
1965 * Faster AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE (requires update of `missing' script)
1966 * User-side dependency tracking. Developers no longer need GNU make
1968 * Uses DIST_SUBDIRS in some situations when SUBDIRS is conditional
1969 * Most files are correctly handled if they appear in subdirs
1970 For instance, a _DATA file can appear in a subdir
1971 * GNU tar is no longer required for `make dist'
1972 * Added support for `dist_' and `nodist_' prefixes
1973 * Added support for `nobase_' prefix
1974 * Compiled Java support
1975 * Support for per-executable and per-library compilation flags
1979 * Added support for the Fortran 77 programming language.
1980 * Re-indexed the Automake Texinfo manual.
1981 * Added `AM_FOOFLAGS' variable for each compiler invocation;
1982 e.g. AM_CFLAGS can be used in Makefile.am to set C compiler flags
1983 * Support for latest autoconf, including support for objext
1984 * Can now put `.' in SUBDIRS to control build order
1985 * `include' command and `+=' support for macro assignment
1986 * Dependency tracking no long susceptible to deleted header file problem
1987 * Maintainer mode now a conditional. @MAINT@ is now an anachronism.
1992 * Better Cygwin32 support
1993 * Support for suffix rules with _SOURCES variables
1994 * New options `readme-alpha' and `check-news'; Gnits mode sets these
1995 * @LEXLIB@ no longer required when lex source seen
1996 Lex support in `missing', and new lex macro. Update your missing script.
1997 * Built-in support for assembly
1998 * aclocal gives error if `AM_' macro not found
1999 * Passed YFLAGS, not YACCFLAGS, to yacc
2000 * AM_PROG_CC_STDC does not have to come before AC_PROG_CPP
2001 * Dependencies computed as a side effect of compilation
2002 * Preliminary support for Java
2003 * DESTDIR support at "make install" time
2004 * Improved ansi2knr support; you must use the latest ansi2knr.c (included)
2008 * Better DejaGnu support
2009 * Added no-installinfo option
2010 * Added Emacs Lisp support
2011 * Added --no-force option
2012 * Included `aclocal' program
2013 * Automake will now generate rules to regenerate aclocal.m4, if appropriate
2014 * Now uses `AM_' macro names everywhere
2015 * ansi2knr option can have directory prefix (eg `../lib/ansi2knr')
2016 ansi2knr now works correctly on K&R sources
2017 * Better C++, yacc, lex support
2018 * Will compute _DEPENDENCIES variables automatically if not supplied
2019 * Will interpolate $(...) and ${...} when examining contents of a variable
2020 * .deps files now in build directory, not source directory; dependency
2021 handling generally rewritten
2022 * DATA, MANS and BUILT_SOURCES no longer included in distribution
2023 * can now put config.h into a subdir
2024 * Added dist-all target
2025 * Support for install-info program (see texinfo 3.9)
2026 * Support for "yacc -d"
2027 * configure substitutions are automatically discovered and included
2028 in generated Makefile.in
2029 * Special --cygnus mode
2030 * OMIT_DEPENDENCIES can now hold list of dependencies to be omitted
2031 when making distribution. Some dependencies are auto-ignored.
2032 * Changed how libraries are specified in _LIBRARIES variable
2033 * Full libtool support, from Gord Matzigkeit
2034 * No longer have to explicitly touch stamp-h when using AC_CONFIG_HEADER;
2035 AM_CONFIG_HEADER handles it automatically
2036 * Texinfo output files no longer need .info extension
2037 * Added `missing' support
2039 * Conditionals in Makefile.am, from Ian Taylor
2043 * distcheck target runs install and installcheck targets
2044 * Added preliminary support for DejaGnu.
2049 * More libtool fixes from Gord Matzigkeit; libtool support is still
2051 * Added support for jm_MAINTAINER_MODE
2053 * New "distcheck" target
2057 * mkinstalldirs and mdate-sh now appear in directory specified by
2059 * Removed DIST_SUBDIRS, DIST_OTHER
2060 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM only required when an actual program exists
2061 * dist-hook target now run before distribution packaged up; idea from
2062 Dieter Baron. Other hooks exist, too.
2063 * Preliminary (unfinished) support for libtool
2064 * Added short option names.
2065 * Better "dist" support when gluing together multiple packages
2069 * Documentation updates (many from François Pinard)
2070 * strictness `normal' now renamed to `foreign'
2071 * Renamed --install-missing to --add-missing
2072 * Now handles AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
2073 * Now handles TESTS macro
2074 * DIST_OTHER renamed to EXTRA_DIST
2075 * DIST_SUBDIRS is deprecated
2076 * @ALLOCA@ and @LIBOBJS@ now work in _LDADD variables
2077 * Better error messages in many cases
2078 * Program names are canonicalized
2079 * Added "check" prefix; from Gord Matzigkeit
2083 * configure.in scanner knows about AC_PATH_XTRA, AC_OUTPUT ":" syntax
2084 * Beginnings of a test suite
2085 * Automatically adds -I options for $(srcdir), ".", and path to config.h
2086 * Doesn't print anything when running
2087 * Beginnings of MAINT_CHARSET support
2088 * Can specify version in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS
2089 * Most errors recognizable by Emacs' M-x next-error
2090 * Added --verbose option
2091 * All "primary" variables now obsolete; use EXTRA_PRIMARY to supply
2092 configure-generated names
2093 * Required macros now distributed in aclocal.m4
2095 * --strictness=gnu is default
2099 * More sophisticated configure.in scanning; now understands ALLOCA and
2100 LIBOBJS directly, handles AC_CONFIG_HEADER more precisely, etc.
2101 * TEXINFOS and MANS now obsolete; use info_TEXINFOS and man_MANS instead.
2102 * CONFIG_HEADER variable now obsolete
2103 * Can handle multiple Texinfo sources
2104 * Allow hierarchies deeper than 2. From Gord Matzigkeit.
2105 * HEADERS variable no longer needed; now can put .h files directly into
2106 foo_SOURCES variable.
2107 * Automake automatically rebuilds files listed in AC_OUTPUT. The
2108 corresponding ".in" files are included in the distribution.
2111 * Added --gnu and --gnits options
2112 * More standards checking
2114 * Cleaned up 'dist' targets
2115 * Added AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS variable and several options
2116 * Now scans configure.in to get some information (preliminary)
2119 * Works with Perl 4 again
2122 * Added --install-missing option.
2123 * Pretty-prints generated macros and rules
2124 * Comments in Makefile.am are placed more intelligently in Makefile.in
2125 * Generates .PHONY target
2126 * Rule or macro in Makefile.am now overrides contents of Automake file
2127 * Substantial cleanups from François Pinard
2131 * Works with Perl 4 again.
2134 * New uniform naming scheme.
2135 * --strictness option
2137 * '.c' files corresponding to '.y' or '.l' files are automatically
2139 * Many bug fixes and cleanups
2142 * Allow objects to be conditionally included in libraries via lib_LIBADD.
2145 * Bug fixes in 'clean' code.
2146 * Now generates 'installdirs' target.
2147 * man page installation reworked.
2148 * 'make dist' no longer re-creates all Makefile.in's.
2151 * Reimplemented in Perl
2152 * Added --amdir option (for debugging)
2153 * Texinfo support cleaned up.
2154 * Automatic de-ANSI-fication cleaned up.
2155 * Cleaned up 'clean' targets.
2158 * Automatic dependency tracking
2159 * More documentation
2160 * New variables DATA and PACKAGEDATA
2161 * SCRIPTS installed using $(INSTALL_SCRIPT)
2162 * No longer uses double-colon rules
2164 * Changes in advance of internationalization
2168 Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2170 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
2171 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2172 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
2175 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2176 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2177 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2178 GNU General Public License for more details.
2180 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2181 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.