1 * WARNING: New versioning scheme for Automake.
3 - Starting with this version onward, Automake will use an update and
4 more rational versioning scheme, one that will allow users to know
5 which kind of changes can be expected from a new version, based on
8 + Micro versions (e.g., 1.13.3, 2.0.1, 3.2.8) will introduce only
9 documentation updates and bug and regression fixes; they will
10 not introduce new features, nor any backward-incompatibility (any
11 such incompatibility would be considered a bug, to be fixed with
12 a further micro release).
14 + Minor versions (e.g., 1.14, 2.1) can introduce new backward
15 compatible features; the only backward-incompatibilities allowed
16 in such a release are new *non-fatal* deprecations and warnings,
17 and possibly fixes for old or non-trivial bugs (or even inefficient
18 behaviours) that could unfortunately have been seen, and used, by
19 some developers as "corner case features". Possible disruptions
20 caused by this kind of fixes should hopefully be quite rare.
22 + Major versions (now expected to be released every 18 or 24 months,
23 and not more often) can introduce new big features (possibly with
24 rough edges and not-fully-stabilized APIs), removal of deprecated
25 features, backward-incompatible changes of behaviour, and possibly
26 major refactorings (that, while ideally transparent to the user,
27 could introduce new bugs). Incompatibilities should however not
28 be introduced gratuitously and abruptly; a proper deprecation path
29 should be duly implemented in the preceding minor releases.
31 - According to this new scheme, the next major version of Automake
32 (the one that has until now been labelled as '1.14') will actually
33 become "Automake 2.0". Automake 1.14 will be the next minor version,
34 which will introduce new features, deprecations and bug fixes, but
35 no real backward incompatibility.
37 - See discussion about automake bug#13578 for more details and
38 background: <http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=13578>
40 * WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
42 - Automake 2.0 will require Autoconf 2.70 or later (which is still
43 unreleased at the moment of writing, but is planned to be released
44 before Automake 2.0 is).
46 - Automake 2.0 will drop support for the long-deprecated 'configure.in'
47 name for the Autoconf input file. You are advised to start using the
48 recommended name 'configure.ac' instead, ASAP.
50 - The ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS special make variable will be fully deprecated
51 in Automake 2.0 (where it will raise warnings in the "obsolete"
52 category). You are advised to start relying on the new Automake
53 support for AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS instead (which was introduced in
56 - Automake 2.0 will remove support for automatic dependency tracking
57 with the SGI C/C++ compilers on IRIX. The SGI depmode has been
58 reported broken "in the wild" already, and we don't think investing
59 time in debugging and fixing is worthwhile, especially considering
60 that SGI has last updated those compilers in 2006, and is expected
61 to retire support for them in December 2013:
62 <http://www.sgi.com/services/support/irix_mips_support.html>
64 - Future versions of Automake might remove support for MS-DOS and
65 Windows 95/98/ME (support for them was offered by relying on the
66 DJGPP project). Note however that both Cygwin and MSYS/MinGW on
67 modern Windows versions will continue to be fully supported.
69 - Automake-provided scripts and makefile recipes might (finally!)
70 start assuming a POSIX shell in Automake 2.0.
72 - Starting from Automake 2.0, third-party m4 files located in the
73 system-wide aclocal directory, as well as in any directory listed
74 in the ACLOCAL_PATH environment variable, will take precedence
75 over "built-in" Automake macros. For example (assuming Automake
76 is installed in the /usr/local hierarchy), a definition of the
77 AM_PROG_VALAC macro found in '/usr/local/share/aclocal/my-vala.m4'
78 should take precedence over the same-named automake-provided macro
79 (defined in '/usr/local/share/aclocal-2.0/vala.m4').
81 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
85 * Obsolescent features:
87 - Use of suffix-less info files (that can be specified through the
88 '@setfilename' macro in Texinfo input files) is discouraged, and
89 its use will raise warnings in the 'obsolete' category.
91 - Use of Texinfo input files with '.txi' or '.texinfo' extensions
92 is discouraged, and its use will raise warnings in the 'obsolete'
93 category. You are advised to simply use the '.texi' extension
96 * Documentation fixes:
98 - The long-deprecated but still supported two-arguments invocation form
99 of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is documented once again. This seems the sanest
100 thing to do, given that support for such an usage might need to remain
101 in place for a unspecified amount of time in order to cater for people
102 who want to define the version number for their package dynamically at
103 configure runtime (unfortunately, Autoconf does not yet support this
104 scenario, so we cannot delegate the work to it).
106 - The serial testsuite harness is no longer reported as "deprecated",
107 but as "discouraged". We have no plan to remove it, not to make its
108 use cause runtime warnings.
110 - The parallel testsuite is no longer reported as "experimental"; it
111 is well tested, and should be stable now.
113 - The 'shar' and 'tarZ' distribution formats and the 'dist-shar' and
114 'dist-tarZ' options are obsolescent, and their use is deprecated
115 in the documentation.
117 - Other minor miscellaneous fixes and improvements; in particular,
118 some improvements in cross-references.
122 - When the 'ustar' option is used, the generated configure script no
123 longer risks hanging during the tests for the availability of the
124 'pax' utility, even if the user running configure has a UID or GID
125 that requires more than 21 bits to be represented.
126 See automake bug#8343 and bug#13588.
128 - The obsolete macros AM_CONFIG_HEADER or AM_PROG_CC_STDC work once
129 again, as they did in Automake 1.12.x (albeit printing runtime
130 warnings in the 'obsolete' category). Removing them has turned
131 out to be a very bad idea, because it complicated distro packing
132 enormously. Making them issue fatal warnings, as we did in
133 Automake 1.13, has turned out to be a similarly very bad idea,
134 for exactly the same reason.
136 - aclocal will no longer error out if the first local m4 directory
137 (as specified by the '-I' option or the 'AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS' or
138 'AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR' macros) doesn't exist; it will merely report
139 a warning in the 'unsupported' category. This is done to support
140 some pre-existing real-world usages. See automake bug#13514.
142 - aclocal will no longer consider directories for extra m4 files more
143 than once, even if they are specified multiple times. This ensures
144 packages that specify both
146 AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4]) in configure.ac
147 ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4 in Makefile.am
149 will work correctly, even when the 'm4' directory contains no
150 package-specific files, but is used only to install third-party
151 m4 files (as can happen with e.g., "libtoolize --install").
152 See automake bug#13514.
154 - Analysis of make flags in Automake-generated rules has been made more
155 robust, and more future-proof. For example, in presence of make that
156 (like '-I') take an argument, the characters in said argument will no
157 longer be spuriously considered as a set of additional make options.
158 In particular, automake-generated rules will no longer spuriously
159 believe to be running in dry mode ("make -n") if run with an invocation
160 like "make -I noob"; nor will they believe to be running in keep-going
161 mode ("make -k") if run with an invocation like "make -I kool"
162 (automake bug#12554).
164 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
170 - Use of the obsolete macros AM_CONFIG_HEADER or AM_PROG_CC_STDC now
171 causes a clear and helpful error message, instead of obscure ones
172 (issue introduced in Automake 1.13).
174 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
180 - ylwrap renames properly header guards in generated header files
181 (*.h), instead of leaving Y_TAB_H.
183 - ylwrap now also converts header guards in implementation files
184 (*.c). Because ylwrap failed to rename properly #include in the
185 implementation files, current versions of Bison (e.g., 2.7)
186 duplicate the generated header file in the implementation file.
187 The header guard then protects the implementation file from
188 duplicate definitions from the header file.
190 * Version requirements:
192 - Autoconf 2.65 or greater is now required.
194 - The rules to build PDF and DVI output from Texinfo input now
195 require Texinfo 4.9 or later.
199 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (once enabled by the 'cygnus'
200 option) has been removed. See discussion about automake bug#11034
201 for more background: <http://debbugs.gnu.org/11034>.
203 - The deprecated aclocal option '--acdir' has been removed. You
204 should use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir'
205 instead (which have been introduced in Automake 1.11.2).
207 - The following long-obsolete m4 macros have been removed:
209 AM_PROG_CC_STDC: superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002
210 fp_PROG_CC_STDC: broken alias for AM_PROG_CC_STDC
211 fp_WITH_DMALLOC: old alias for AM_WITH_DMALLOC
212 AM_CONFIG_HEADER: superseded by AC_CONFIG_HEADERS since July 2002
213 ud_PATH_LISPDIR: old alias for AM_PATH_LISPDIR
214 jm_MAINTAINER_MODE: old alias for AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
215 ud_GNU_GETTEXT: old alias for AM_GNU_GETTEXT
216 gm_PROG_LIBTOOL: old alias for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
217 fp_C_PROTOTYPES: old alias for AM_C_PROTOTYPES (which was part
218 of the now-removed automatic de-ANSI-fication
221 - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' have been removed.
223 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
224 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is no longer documented. It's still supported
225 though (albeit with a warning in the 'obsolete' category), to cater
226 for people who want to define the version number for their package
227 dynamically (e.g., from the current VCS revision). We'll have to
228 continue this support until Autoconf itself is fixed to allow better
229 support for such dynamic version numbers.
231 * Elisp byte-compilation:
233 - The byte compilation of '.el' files into '.elc' files is now done
234 with a suffix rule. This has simplified the compilation process, and
235 more importantly made it less brittle. The downside is that emacs is
236 now invoked once for each '.el' files, which cause some noticeable
237 slowdowns. These should however be mitigated on multicore machines
238 (which are becoming the norm today) if concurrent make ("make -j")
241 - Elisp files placed in a subdirectory are now byte-compiled to '.elc'
242 files in the same subdirectory; for example, byte-compiling of file
243 'sub/foo.el' file will result in 'sub/foo.elc' rather than in
244 'foo.elc'. This behaviour is backward-incompatible with older
245 Automake versions, but it is more natural and more sane. See also
248 - The Emacs invocation performing byte-compilation of '.el' files honors
249 the $(AM_ELCFLAGS) and $(ELCFLAGS) variables; as typical, the former
250 one is developer-reserved and the latter one user-reserved.
252 - The 'elisp-comp' script, once provided by Automake, has been rendered
253 obsoleted by the just-described changes, and thus removed.
255 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
257 - The parallel testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the
258 'parallel-tests' option) is the default one; the older serial
259 testsuite harness will still be available through the use of the
260 'serial-tests' option (introduced in Automake 1.12).
262 - The 'color-tests' option is now unconditionally activated by default.
263 In particular, this means that testsuite output is now colorized by
264 default if the attached terminal seems to support ANSI escapes, and
265 that the user can force output colorization by setting the variable
266 AM_COLOR_TESTS to "always". The 'color-tests' is still recognized
267 for backward-compatibility, although it's a handled as a no-op now.
269 * Silent rules support:
271 - Support for silent rules is now always active in Automake-generated
272 Makefiles. So, although the verbose output is still the default,
273 the user can now always use "./configure --enable-silent-rules" or
274 "make V=0" to enable quieter output in the package he's building.
276 - The 'silent-rules' option has now become a no-op, preserved for
277 backward-compatibility only. In particular, its use no longer
278 disables the warnings in the 'portability-recursive' category.
282 - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now require
283 Texinfo 4.9 or later.
285 - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now use the
286 '--build-dir' option, to keep the auxiliary files used by texi2dvi
287 and texi2pdf around without cluttering the build directory, and to
288 make it possible to run the "dvi" and "pdf" recipes in parallel.
290 * Automatic remake rules and 'missing' script:
292 - The 'missing' script no longer tries to update the timestamp of
293 out-of-date files that require a maintainer-specific tool to be
294 remade, in case the user lacks such a tool (or has a too-old version
295 of it). It just gives a useful warning, and in some cases also a
296 tip about how to obtain such a tool.
298 - The missing script has thus become useless as a (poor) way to work
299 around the sketched-timestamps issues that can happen for projects
300 that keep generated files committed in their VCS repository. Such
301 projects are now encouraged to write a custom "fix-timestamps.sh"
302 script to avoid such issues; a simple example is provided in the
303 "CVS and generated files" chapter of the automake manual.
307 - The user can now define his own recursive targets that recurse
308 in the directories specified in $(SUBDIRS). This can be done by
309 specifying the name of such targets in invocations of the new
310 'AM_EXTRA_RECURSIVE_TARGETS' m4 macro.
314 - Any failure in the recipe of the "tags", "ctags", "cscope" or
315 "cscopelist" targets in a subdirectory is now propagated to the
316 top-level make invocation.
318 - Tags are correctly computed also for files in _SOURCES variables that
319 only list files with non-standard suffixes (see automake bug#12372).
321 * Improvements to aclocal and related rebuilds rules:
323 - Autoconf-provided macros AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR and AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS
324 are now traced by aclocal, and can be used to declare the local m4
325 include directories. Formerly, one had to specify it with an explicit
326 '-I' option to the 'aclocal' invocation.
328 - The special make variable ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS is deprecated; future
329 Automake versions will warn about its use, and later version will
330 remove support for it altogether.
332 * The depcomp script:
334 - Dropped support for libtool 1.4.
336 - Various internal refactorings. They should cause no visible change,
337 but the chance for regression is there anyway, so please report any
338 unexpected or suspicious behaviour.
340 - Support for pre-8.0 versions of the Intel C Compiler has been dropped.
341 This should cause no problem, since icc 8.0 has been released in
342 December 2003 -- almost nine years ago.
344 - Support for tcc (the Tiny C Compiler) has been improved, and is now
345 handled through a dedicated 'tcc' mode.
349 - ylwrap generates header guards with a single '_' for series of non
350 alphabetic characters, instead of several. This is what Bison >=
353 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
355 Bugs fixed in 1.12.6:
357 * Python-related bugs:
359 - The default installation location for python modules has been improved
360 for Python 3 on Debian and Ubuntu systems, changing from:
362 ${prefix}/lib/python3/dist-packages
366 ${prefix}/lib/python3.x/site-packages
368 This change should ensure modules installed using the default ${prefix}
369 "/usr/local" are found by default by system python 3.x installations.
370 See automake bug#10227.
372 - Python byte-compilation supports the new layout mandated by PEP-3147,
373 with its __pycache__ directory (automake bug#8847).
375 * Build system issues:
377 - The maintainer rebuild rules for Makefiles and aclocal.m4 in
378 Automake's own build system works correctly again (bug introduced
383 - The Vala-related tests has been changed to adjust to the removal of
384 the 'posix' profile in the valac compiler. See automake bug#12934
387 - Some spurious testsuite failures related to older tools and systems
390 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
396 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro has been enhanced to takes two further
397 optional arguments; it's signature now being
399 AM_PROG_VALAC([MINIMUM-VERSION], [ACTION-IF-FOUND],
400 [ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND])
402 - By default, AM_PROG_VALAC no longer aborts the configure invocation
403 if the Vala compiler found is too old, but simply prints a warning
404 messages (as it did when the Vala compiler was not found). This
405 should avoid unnecessary difficulties for end users that just want
406 to compile the unmodified, distributed Vala-generated C sources,
407 but happens to have an old Vala compiler in their PATH. This fixes
410 - If no proper Vala compiler is found at configure runtime, AM_PROG_VALAC
411 will set the AC_SUBST'd variable 'VALAC' to 'valac' rather than to ':'.
412 This is a better default, because with it a triggered makefile rule
413 invoking a Vala compilation will clearly fail with an informative error
414 message like "valac: command not found", rather than silently, with
415 the error possibly going unnoticed or triggering harder-to-diagnose
416 fallout failures in later steps.
418 * Miscellaneous changes:
420 - automake and aclocal no longer honours the 'perllibdir' environment
421 variable. That had always been intended only as an hack required in
422 the testsuite, not meant for any use beyond that.
424 Bugs fixed in 1.12.5:
426 * Long-standing bugs:
428 - Automake no longer generates spurious remake rules invoking autoheader
429 to regenerate the template corresponding to header files specified after
430 the first one in AC_CONFIG_HEADERS (automake bug#12495).
432 - When wrapping Microsoft tools, the 'compile' script falls back to
433 finding classic 'libname.a' style libraries when 'name.lib' and
434 'name.dll.lib' aren't available.
436 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
440 * Warnings and deprecations:
442 - Warnings in the 'obsolete' category are enabled by default both in
443 automake and aclocal.
445 * Miscellaneous changes:
447 - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
449 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
453 * Miscellaneous changes:
455 - The '.m4' files provided by Automake no longer define serial numbers.
456 This should cause no difference in the behaviour of aclocal though.
458 - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
460 - There is initial support for automatic dependency tracking with the
461 Portland Group C/C++ compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'pgcc'.
463 Bugs fixed in 1.12.3:
465 * Long-standing bugs:
467 - Instead of renaming only self-references of files (typically for
468 #lines), ylwrap now also renames references to the other generated
469 files. This fixes support for GLR and C++ parsers from Bison (PR
470 automake/491 and automake bug#7648): 'parser.c' now properly
471 #includes 'parser.h' instead of 'y.tab.h'.
473 - Generated files unknown to ylwrap are now preserved. This fixes
474 C++ support for Bison (automake bug#7648): location.hh and the
475 like are no longer discarded.
477 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
481 * Warnings and deprecations:
483 - Automake now issues a warning (in the 'portability' category) if
484 'configure.in' is used instead of 'configure.ac' as the Autoconf
485 input file. Such a warning will also be present in the next
486 Autoconf version (2.70).
490 - Recursive cleaning rules descends into the $(SUBDIRS) in the natural
491 order (as done by the other recursive rules), rather than in the
492 inverse order. They used to do that in order to work a round a
493 limitation in an older implementation of the automatic dependency
494 tracking support, but that limitation had been lifted years ago
495 already, when the automatic dependency tracking based on side-effects
496 of compilation had been introduced.
498 - Cleaning rules for compiled objects (both "plain" and libtool) work
499 better when subdir objects are involved, not triggering a distinct
500 'rm' invocation for each such object. They do so by removing *any*
501 compiled object file that is in the same directory of a subdir
502 object. See automake bug#10697.
504 * Silent rules support:
506 - A new predefined $(AM_V_P) make variable is provided; it expands
507 to a shell conditional that can be used in recipes to know whether
508 make is being run in silent or verbose mode.
510 Bugs fixed in 1.12.2:
512 * SECURITY VULNERABILITIES!
514 - The 'distcheck' recipe no longer grants temporary world-write
515 permissions on the extracted distdir. Even if such rights were
516 only granted for a vanishingly small time window, the implied
517 race condition proved to be enough to allow a local attacker
518 to run arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running
519 "make distcheck". This is CVE-2012-3386.
521 * Long-standing bugs:
523 - The "recheck" targets behaves better in the face of build failures
524 related to previously failed tests. For example, if a test is a
525 compiled program that must be rerun by "make recheck", and its
526 compilation fails, it will still be rerun by further "make recheck"
527 invocations. See automake bug#11791.
529 * Bugs introduced by 1.12.1:
531 - Automake provides once again the '$(mkdir_p)' make variable and the
532 '@mkdir_p@' substitution (both as simple aliases for '$(MKDIR_P)'),
533 for better backward-compatibility.
535 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
539 * New supported languages:
541 - Support for Objective C++ has been added; it should work similarly to
542 the support for Objective C.
544 * Deprecated obsolescent features:
546 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
547 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro now elicits a warning in the 'obsolete'
548 category. Starting from some future major Automake release (likely
549 post-1.13), such usages will no longer be allowed.
551 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (enabled by the 'cygnus' option) is
552 now deprecated (its use triggers a warning in the 'obsolete' category).
553 It will be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13).
555 - The long-obsolete (since 1.10) automake-provided $(mkdir_p) make
556 variable, @mkdir_p@ configure-time substitution and AM_PROG_MKDIR
557 m4 macro are deprecated, eliciting a warning in the 'obsolete'
560 * Miscellaneous changes:
562 - The Automake test cases now require a proper POSIX-conforming shell.
563 Older non-POSIX Bourne shells (like Solaris 10 /bin/sh) will no longer
564 be accepted. In most cases, the user shouldn't have to specify such
565 POSIX shell explicitly, since it will be looked up at configure time.
566 Still, when this lookup fails, or when the user wants to override its
567 conclusion, the variable 'AM_TEST_RUNNER_SHELL' can be used (pointing
568 to the shell that will be used to run the Automake test cases).
570 Bugs fixed in 1.12.1:
572 * Bugs introduced by 1.12:
574 - Several weaknesses in Automake's own build system and test suite
577 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
579 - When given non-option arguments, aclocal rejects them, instead of
580 silently ignoring them.
582 * Long-standing bugs:
584 - When the 'color-tests' option is in use, forcing of colored testsuite
585 output through "AM_COLOR_TESTS=always" works even if the terminal is
586 a non-ANSI one, i.e., if the TERM environment variable has a value of
589 - Several inefficiencies and poor performances in the implementation
590 of the parallel-tests 'check' and 'recheck' targets have been fixed.
592 - The post-processing of output "#line" directives done the ylwrap
593 script is more faithful w.r.t. files in a subdirectory; for example,
594 if the processed file is "src/grammar.y", ylwrap will correctly
595 produce directives like:
596 #line 7 "src/grammar.y"
601 * Bugs with new Perl versions:
603 - Aclocal works correctly with perl 5.16.0 (automake bug#11543).
605 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
609 * Obsolete features removed:
611 - The never documented nor truly used script 'acinstall' has been
614 - Support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been removed.
616 - The support for the "obscure" multilib feature has been removed
617 from Automake core (but remains available in the 'contrib/'
618 directory of the Automake distribution).
620 - Support for ".log -> .html" conversion and the check-html and
621 recheck-html targets has been removed from Automake core (but
622 remains available in the 'contrib/' directory of the Automake
625 - The deprecated 'lzma' compression format for distribution archives
626 has been removed, in favor of 'xz' and 'lzip'.
628 - The obsolete AM_WITH_REGEX macro has been removed.
630 - The long-deprecated options '--output-dir', '--Werror' and
631 '--Wno-error' have been removed.
633 - The chapter on the history of Automake has been moved out of the
634 reference manual, into a new dedicated Texinfo file.
638 - New 'cscope' target to build a cscope database for the source tree.
640 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
642 - The new automake option 'serial-tests' has been introduced. It can
643 be used to explicitly instruct automake to use the older serial
644 testsuite harness. This is still the default at the moment, but it
645 might change in future versions.
647 - The 'recheck' target (provided by the parallel testsuite harness) now
648 depends on the 'all' target. This allows for a better user-experience
649 in test-driven development. See automake bug#11252.
651 - Test scripts that exit with status 99 to signal an "hard error" (e.g.,
652 and unexpected or internal error, or a failure to set up the test case
653 scenario) have their outcome reported as an 'ERROR' now. Previous
654 versions of automake reported such an outcome as a 'FAIL' (the only
655 difference with normal failures being that hard errors were counted
656 as failures even when the test originating them was listed in
659 - The testsuite summary displayed by the parallel-test harness has a
660 completely new format, that always list the numbers of passed, failed,
661 xfailed, xpassed, skipped and errored tests, even when these numbers
662 are zero (but using smart coloring when the color-tests option is in
665 - The default testsuite driver offered by the 'parallel-tests' option is
666 now implemented (partly at least) with the help of automake-provided
667 auxiliary scripts (e.g., 'test-driver'), instead of relying entirely
668 on code in the generated Makefile.in.
669 This has two noteworthy implications. The first one is that projects
670 using the 'parallel-tests' option should now either run automake with
671 the '--add-missing' option, or manually copy the 'test-driver' script
672 into their tree. The second, and more important, implication is that
673 now, when the 'parallel-tests' option is in use, TESTS_ENVIRONMENT can
674 no longer be used to define a test runner, and the command specified
675 in LOG_COMPILER (and <ext>_LOG_COMPILER) must be a *real* executable
676 program or script. For example, this is still a valid usage (albeit
679 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
680 if test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS)'; then \
681 maybe_errexit='-e'; \
685 LOG_COMPILER = $(SHELL) $$maybe_errexit
687 OTOH, this is no longer a valid usage:
689 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
690 $(SHELL) `test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS_CHECKING)' && echo ' -e'`
694 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
695 run_with_perl_or_shell () \
697 if grep -q '^#!.*perl' $$1; then
703 LOG_COMPILER = run_with_perl_or_shell
705 - The package authors can now use customary testsuite drivers within
706 the framework provided by the 'parallel-tests' testsuite harness.
707 Consistently with the existing syntax, this can be done by defining
708 special makefile variables 'LOG_DRIVER' and '<ext>_LOG_DRIVER'.
710 - A new developer-reserved variable 'AM_TESTS_FD_REDIRECT' can be used
711 to redirect/define file descriptors used by the test scripts.
713 - The parallel-tests harness generates now, in addition the '.log' files
714 holding the output produced by the test scripts, a new set of '.trs'
715 files, holding "metadata" derived by the execution of the test scripts;
716 among such metadata are the outcomes of the test cases run by a script.
718 - Initial and still experimental support for the TAP test protocol is
721 * Changes to Yacc and Lex support:
723 - C source and header files derived from non-distributed Yacc and/or
724 Lex sources are now removed by a simple "make clean" (while they were
725 previously removed only by "make maintainer-clean").
727 - Slightly backward-incompatible change, relevant only for use of Yacc
728 with C++: the extensions of the header files produced by the Yacc
729 rules are now modelled after the extension of the corresponding
730 sources. For example, yacc files named "foo.y++" and "bar.yy" will
731 produce header files named "foo.h++" and "bar.hh" respectively, where
732 they would have previously produced header files named simply "foo.h"
733 and "bar.h". This change offers better compatibility with 'bison -o'.
735 * Miscellaneous changes:
737 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro now causes configure to exit with status 77,
738 rather than 1, if the vala compiler found is too old.
740 - The build system of Automake itself now avoids the use of make
741 recursion as much as possible.
743 - Automake now prefers to quote 'like this' or "like this", rather
744 than `like this', in diagnostic message and generated Makefiles,
745 to accommodate the new GNU Coding Standards recommendations.
747 - Automake has a new option '--print-libdir' that prints the path of the
748 directory containing the Automake-provided scripts and data files.
750 - The 'dist' and 'dist-all' targets now can run compressors in parallel.
752 - The rules to create pdf, dvi and ps output from Texinfo files now
753 works better with modern 'texi2dvi' script, by explicitly passing
754 it the '--clean' option to ensure stray auxiliary files are not
755 left to clutter the build directory.
757 - Automake can now generate silenced rules for texinfo outputs.
759 - Some auxiliary files that are automatically distributed by Automake
760 (e.g., 'install-sh', or the 'depcomp' script for packages compiling
761 C sources) might now be listed in the DIST_COMMON variable in many
762 Makefile.in files, rather than in the top-level one.
764 - Messages of types warning or error from 'automake' and 'aclocal'
765 are now prefixed with the respective type, and presence of -Werror
768 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now tries to avoid
769 sleeping for a second, which slowed down cached configure runs
770 noticeably. In that case, it will check back at the end of the
771 configure script to ensure that at least one second has passed, to
772 avoid time stamp issues with makefile rules rerunning autotools
775 - The warnings in the category 'extra-portability' are now enabled by
776 '-Wall'. In previous versions, one has to use '-Wextra-portability'
781 - Various minor bugfixes for recent or long-standing bugs.
783 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
785 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
786 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
788 - The automake-provided parallel testsuite harness no longer fails
789 with BSD make used in parallel mode when there are test scripts in
790 a subdirectory, like in:
792 TESTS = sub/foo.test sub/bar.test
794 * Long-standing bugs:
796 - Automake's own build system finally have a real "installcheck" target.
798 - Vala-related cleanup rules are now more complete, and work better in
801 - Files listed with the AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE macro in configure.ac are
802 now automatically distributed also if the directory of the auxiliary
803 files coincides with the top-level directory.
805 - Automake now detects the presence of the '-d' flag in the various
806 '*YFLAGS' variables even when their definitions involve indirections
807 through other variables, such as in:
809 AM_YFLAGS = $(foo_opts)
811 - Automake now complains if a '*YFLAGS' variable has any conditional
812 content, not only a conditional definition.
814 - Explicit enabling and/or disabling of Automake warning categories
815 through the '-W...' options now always takes precedence over the
816 implicit warning level implied by Automake strictness (foreign, gnu
817 or gnits), regardless of the order in which such strictness and
818 warning flags appear. For example, a setting like:
819 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = -Wall --foreign
820 will cause the warnings in category 'portability' to be enabled, even
821 if those warnings are by default disabled in 'foreign' strictness.
823 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
825 Bugs fixed in 1.11.5:
827 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
829 - Vala files with '.vapi' extension are now recognized and handled
830 correctly again. See automake bug#11222.
832 - Vala support work again for projects that contain some program
833 built from '.vala' (and possibly '.c') sources and some other
834 program built from '.c' sources *only*. See automake bug#11229.
836 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
840 * Miscellaneous changes:
842 - The 'ar-lib' script now ignores the "s" (symbol index) and "S" (no
843 symbol index) modifiers as well as the "s" action, as the symbol index
844 is created unconditionally by Microsoft lib. Also, the "q" (quick)
845 action is now a synonym for "r" (replace). Also, the script has been
846 ignoring the "v" (verbose) modifier already since Automake 1.11.3.
848 - When the 'compile' script is used to wrap MSVC, it now accepts an
849 optional space between the -I, -L and -l options and their respective
850 arguments, for better POSIX compliance.
852 - There is an initial, experimental support for automatic dependency
853 tracking with tcc (the Tiny C Compiler). Its associated depmode is
854 currently recognized as "icc" (but this and other details are likely
855 to change in future versions).
857 - Automatic dependency tracking now works also with the IBM XL C/C++
858 compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'xlc'.
860 Bugs fixed in 1.11.4:
862 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
864 - A definition of 'noinst_PYTHON' before 'python_PYTHON' (or similar)
865 no longer cause spurious failures upon "make install".
867 - The user can now instruct the 'uninstall-info' rule not to update
868 the '${infodir}/dir' file by exporting the environment variable
869 'AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no". This is done for consistency
870 with how the 'install-info' rule operates since automake 1.11.2.
872 * Long-standing bugs:
874 - It is now possible for a foo_SOURCES variable to hold Vala sources
875 together with C header files, as well as with sources and headers for
876 other supported languages (e.g., C++). Previously, only mixing C and
877 Vala sources was supported.
879 - If "aclocal --install" is used, and the first directory specified with
880 '-I' is non-existent, aclocal will now create it before trying to copy
883 - An empty declaration of a "foo_PRIMARY" no longer cause the generated
884 install rules to create an empty $(foodir) directory; for example, if
885 Makefile.am contains something like:
889 pkglibexec_SCRIPTS += bar.sh
892 the $(pkglibexec) directory will not be created upon "make install".
894 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
898 * Miscellaneous changes:
900 - Automake's own build system is more silent by default, making use of
901 the 'silent-rules' option.
903 - The master copy of the 'gnupload' script is now maintained in gnulib,
906 - The 'missing' script no longer tries to wrap calls to 'tar'.
908 - "make dist" no longer wraps 'tar' invocations with the 'missing'
909 script. Similarly, the obsolescent variable '$(AMTAR)' (which you
910 shouldn't be using BTW ;-) no longer invokes the 'missing' script
911 to wrap tar, but simply invokes the 'tar' program itself.
913 - "make dist" can now create lzip-compressed tarballs.
915 - In the Automake info documentation, the Top node and the nodes about
916 the invocation of the automake and aclocal programs have been renamed;
917 now, calling "info automake" will open the Top node, while calling
918 "info automake-invocation" and "info aclocal-invocation" will access
919 the nodes about the invocation of respectively automake and aclocal.
921 - Automake is now distributed as a gzip-compressed and an xz-compressed
922 tarball. Previously, bzip2 was used instead of xz.
924 - The last relics of Python 1.5 support have been removed from the
925 AM_PATH_PYTHON macro.
927 - For programs and libraries, automake now detects EXTRA_foo_DEPENDENCIES
928 and adds them to the normal list of dependencies, but without
929 overwriting the foo_DEPENDENCIES variable, which is normally computed
932 Bugs fixed in 1.11.3:
934 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
936 - Automake now correctly recognizes the prefix/primary combination
937 'pkglibexec_SCRIPTS' as valid.
939 - The parallel-tests harness no longer trips on sed implementations
940 with stricter limits on the length of input lines (problem seen at
943 * Long-standing bugs:
945 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.am files is avoided by stub
946 rules. This allows 'make' to trigger a rerun of 'automake' also if
947 some previously needed '.am' file has been removed.
949 - The 'silent-rules' option now generates working makefiles even
950 for the uncommon 'make' implementations that do not support the
951 nested-variables extension to POSIX 2008. For such 'make'
952 implementations, whether a build is silent is determined at
953 configure time, and cannot be overridden at make time with
954 "make V=0" or "make V=1".
956 - Vala support now works better in VPATH setups.
958 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
962 * Changes to aclocal:
964 - The `--acdir' option is deprecated. Now you should use the new options
965 `--automake-acdir' and `--system-acdir' instead.
967 - The `ACLOCAL_PATH' environment variable is now interpreted as a
968 colon-separated list of additional directories to search after the
969 automake internal acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal-APIVERSION)
970 and before the system acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal).
972 * Miscellaneous changes:
974 - The Automake support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been
975 deprecated. It will probably be removed in the next major Automake
978 - The `lzma' compression scheme and associated automake option `dist-lzma'
979 is obsoleted by `xz' and `dist-xz' due to upstream changes.
981 - You may adjust the compression options used in dist-xz and dist-bzip2.
982 The default is now merely -e for xz, but still -9 for bzip; you may
983 specify a different level via the XZ_OPT and BZIP2 envvars respectively.
984 E.g., "make dist-xz XZ_OPT=-7" or "make dist-bzip2 BZIP2=-5"
986 - The `compile' script now converts some options for MSVC for a better
987 user experience. Similarly, the new `ar-lib' script wraps Microsoft lib.
989 - The py-compile script now accepts empty arguments passed to the options
990 `--destdir' and `--basedir', and complains about unrecognized options.
991 Moreover, a non-option argument or a special `--' argument terminates
994 - A developer that needs to pass specific flags to configure at "make
995 distcheck" time can now, and indeed is advised to, do so by defining
996 the developer-reserved makefile variable AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS,
997 instead of the old DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS.
998 The DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS variable should now be reserved for the
999 user; still, the old Makefile.am files that used to define it will
1000 still continue to work as before.
1002 - New macro AM_PROG_AR that looks for an archiver and wraps it in the new
1003 'ar-lib' auxiliary script if the selected archiver is Microsoft lib.
1004 This new macro is required for LIBRARIES and LTLIBRARIES when automake
1005 is run with -Wextra-portability and -Werror.
1007 - When using DejaGnu-based testsuites, the user can extend the `site.exp'
1008 file generated by automake-provided rules by defining the special make
1009 variable `$(EXTRA_DEJAGNU_SITE_CONFIG)'.
1011 - The `install-info' rule can now be instructed not to create/update
1012 the `${infodir}/dir' file, by exporting the new environment variable
1013 `AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no".
1015 Bugs fixed in 1.11.2:
1017 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
1019 - The parallel-tests driver no longer produces erroneous results with
1020 Tru64/OSF 5.1 sh upon unreadable log files.
1022 - The `parallel-tests' test driver does not report spurious successes
1023 when used with concurrent FreeBSD make (e.g., "make check -j3").
1025 - When the parallel-tests driver is in use, automake now explicitly
1026 rejects invalid entries and conditional contents in TEST_EXTENSIONS,
1027 instead of issuing confusing and apparently unrelated error messages
1028 (e.g., "non-POSIX variable name", "bad characters in variable name",
1029 or "redefinition of TEST_EXTENSIONS), or even, in some situations,
1030 silently producing broken `Makefile.in' files.
1032 - The `silent-rules' option now truly silences all compile rules, even
1033 when dependency tracking is disabled. Also, when `silent-rules' is
1034 not used, `make' output no longer contains spurious backslash-only
1035 lines, thus once again matching what Automake did before 1.11.
1037 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
1038 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
1040 * Long-standing bugs:
1042 - The order of Yacc and Lex flags is fixed to be consistent with other
1043 languages: $(AM_YFLAGS) comes before $(YFLAGS), and $(AM_LFLAGS) before
1044 $(LFLAGS), so that the user variables override the developer variables.
1046 - "make distcheck" now correctly complains also when "make uninstall"
1047 leaves one and only one file installed in $(prefix).
1049 - A "make uninstall" issued before a "make install", or after a mere
1050 "make install-data" or a mere "make install-exec" does not spuriously
1053 - Automake now warns about more primary/directory invalid combinations,
1054 such as "doc_LIBRARIES" or "pkglib_PROGRAMS".
1056 - Rules generated by Automake now try harder to not change any files when
1057 `make -n' is invoked. Fixes include compilation of Emacs Lisp, Vala, or
1058 Yacc source files and the rule to update config.h.
1060 - Several scripts and the parallel-tests testsuite driver now exit with
1061 the right exit status upon receiving a signal.
1063 - A per-Makefile.am setting of -Werror does not erroneously carry over
1064 to the handling of other Makefile.am files.
1066 - The code for automatic dependency tracking works around a Solaris
1067 make bug triggered by sources containing repeated slashes when the
1068 `subdir-objects' option was used.
1070 - The makedepend and hp depmodes now work better with VPATH builds.
1072 - Java sources specified with check_JAVA are no longer compiled for
1073 "make all", but only for "make check".
1075 - An usage like "java_JAVA = foo.java" will now cause Automake to warn
1076 and error out if `javadir' is undefined, instead of silently producing
1077 a broken Makefile.in.
1079 - aclocal and automake now honour the configure-time definitions of
1080 AUTOCONF and AUTOM4TE when they spawn autoconf or autom4te processes.
1082 - The `install-info' recipe no longer tries to guess whether the
1083 `install-info' program is from Debian or from GNU, and adaptively
1084 change its behaviour; this has proven to be frail and easy to
1087 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1089 Bugs fixed in 1.11.1:
1091 - Lots of minor bugfixes.
1093 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
1095 - The `parallel-tests' test driver works around a GNU make 3.80 bug with
1096 trailing white space in the test list (`TESTS = foo $(EMPTY)').
1098 * Long standing bugs:
1100 - On Darwin 9, `pythondir' and `pyexecdir' pointed below `/Library/Python'
1101 even if the `--prefix' argument pointed outside of a system directory.
1102 AM_PATH_PYTHON has been fixed to ignore the value returned from python's
1103 `get_python_lib' function if it points outside the configured prefix,
1104 unless the `--prefix' argument was either `/usr' or below `/System'.
1106 - The testsuite does not try to change the mode of `ltmain.sh' files from
1107 a Libtool installation (symlinked to test directories) any more.
1109 - AM_PROG_GCJ uses AC_CHECK_TOOLS to look for `gcj' now, so that prefixed
1110 tools are preferred in a cross-compile setup.
1112 - The distribution is tarred up with mode 755 now by the `dist*' targets.
1113 This fixes a race condition where untrusted users could modify files
1114 in the $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION) distdir before packing if the toplevel
1115 build directory was world-searchable. This is CVE-2009-4029.
1117 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1121 * Version requirements:
1123 - Autoconf 2.62 or greater is required.
1125 * Changes to aclocal:
1127 - The autoconf version check implemented by aclocal in aclocal.m4
1128 (and new in Automake 1.10) is degraded to a warning. This helps
1129 in the common case where the Autoconf versions used are compatible.
1131 * Changes to automake:
1133 - The automake program can run multiple threads for creating most
1134 Makefile.in files concurrently, if at least Perl 5.7.2 is available
1135 with interpreter-based threads enabled. Set the environment variable
1136 AUTOMAKE_JOBS to the maximum number of threads to use, in order to
1137 enable this experimental feature.
1139 * Changes to Libtool support:
1141 - Libtool generic flags are now passed to the install and uninstall
1144 - distcheck works with Libtool 2.x even when LT_OUTPUT is used, as
1145 config.lt is removed correctly now.
1147 * Languages changes:
1149 - subdir-object mode works now with Fortran (F77, FC, preprocessed
1150 Fortran, and Ratfor).
1152 - For files with extension .f90, .f95, .f03, or .f08, the flag
1153 $(FCFLAGS_f[09]x) computed by AC_FC_SRCEXT is now used in compile rules.
1155 - Files with extension .sx are also treated as preprocessed assembler.
1157 - The default source file extension (.c) can be overridden with
1158 AM_DEFAULT_SOURCE_EXT now.
1160 - Python 3.0 is supported now, Python releases prior to 2.0 are no
1163 - AM_PATH_PYTHON honors python's idea about the site directory.
1165 - There is initial support for the Vala programming language, when using
1166 Vala 0.7.0 or later.
1168 * Miscellaneous changes:
1170 - Automake development is done in a git repository on Savannah now, see
1172 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=automake.git
1174 A read-only CVS mirror is provided at
1176 cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@pserver.git.sv.gnu.org:/automake.git \
1177 checkout -d automake HEAD
1179 - "make dist" can now create xz-compressed tarballs,
1180 as well as (deprecated?) lzma-compressed tarballs.
1182 - `automake --add-missing' will by default install the GPLv3 file as
1183 COPYING if it is missing. It will also warn that the license file
1184 should be added to source control. Note that Automake will never
1185 overwrite an existing COPYING file, even when the `--force-missing'
1188 - The manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL 1.3.
1190 - Automake ships and installs man pages for automake and aclocal now.
1192 - New shorthand `$(pkglibexecdir)' for `$(libexecdir)/@PACKAGE@'.
1194 - install-sh supports -C, which does not update the installed file
1195 (and its time stamps) if the contents did not change.
1197 - The `gnupload' script has been revamped.
1199 - The `depcomp' and `compile' scripts now work with MSVC under MSYS.
1201 - The targets `install' and `uninstall' are more efficient now, in that
1202 for example multiple files from one Automake variable such as
1203 `bin_SCRIPTS' are copied in one `install' (or `libtool --mode=install')
1204 invocation if they do not have to be renamed.
1206 Both install and uninstall may sometimes enter (`cd' into) the target
1207 installation directory now, when no build-local scripts are used.
1209 Both install and uninstall do not fail anymore but do nothing if an
1210 installation directory variable like `bindir' is set to the empty string.
1212 For built-in rules, `make install' now fails reliably if installation
1213 of a file failed. Conversely, `make uninstall' even succeeds when
1214 issued multiple times.
1216 These changes may need some adjustments from users: For example,
1217 some `install' programs refuse to install multiple copies of the
1218 same file in one invocation, so you may need to remove duplicate
1219 entries from file lists.
1221 Also, within one set of files, say, nobase_data_DATA, the order of
1222 installation may be changed, or even unstable among different hosts,
1223 due to the use of associative arrays in awk. The increased use of
1224 awk matches a similar move in Autoconf to provide for better scaling.
1226 Further, most undocumented per-rule install command variables such as
1227 binSCRIPT_INSTALL have been removed because they are not needed any
1228 more. Packages which use them should be using the appropriate one of
1229 INSTALL_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT} or their install_sh_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT}
1230 counterpart, depending on the type of files and the need for automatic
1231 target directory creation.
1233 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.m4 files is avoided by
1234 stub rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `aclocal'
1235 also if some previously needed macro file has been removed.
1237 - Rebuild rules now also work for a removed `subdir/Makefile.in' in
1238 an otherwise up to date tree.
1240 - The `color-tests' option causes colored test result output on terminals.
1242 - The `parallel-tests' option enables a new test driver that allows for
1243 parallel test execution, inter-test dependencies, lazy test execution
1244 for unit-testing, re-testing only failed tests, and formatted result output
1245 as RST (reStructuredText) and HTML. Enabling this option may require some
1246 changes to your test suite setup; see the manual for details.
1248 - The `silent-rules' option enables Linux kernel-style silent build output.
1249 This option requires the widely supported but non-POSIX `make' feature
1250 of recursive variable expansion, so do not use it if your package needs
1251 to build with `make' implementations that do not support it.
1253 To enable less verbose build output, the developer has to use the Automake
1254 option `silent-rules' in `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE', or call the `AM_SILENT_RULES'
1255 macro. The user may then set the default verbosity by passing the
1256 `--enable-silent-rules' option to `configure'. At `make' run time, this
1257 default may be overridden using `make V=0' for less verbose, and `make V=1'
1258 for backward-compatible verbose output.
1260 - New prefix `notrans_' for manpages which should not be transformed
1261 by --program-transform.
1263 - New macro AM_COND_IF for conditional evaluation and conditional
1266 - For AC_CONFIG_LINKS, if source and destination are equal, do not
1267 remove the file in a non-VPATH build. Such setups work with Autoconf
1270 - AM_MAINTAINER_MODE now allows for an optional argument specifying
1271 the default setting.
1273 - AM_SUBST_NOTMAKE may prevent substitution of AC_SUBSTed variables,
1274 useful especially for multi-line values.
1276 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now diagnoses an
1277 unsafe absolute source directory name and makes configure fail.
1279 - The Automake macros and rules cope better with whitespace in the
1280 current directory name, as long as the relative path to `configure'
1281 does not contain whitespace. To this end, the values of `$(MISSING)'
1282 and `$(install_sh)' may contain suitable quoting, and their expansion
1283 might need `eval'uation if used outside of a makefile. These
1284 undocumented variables may be used in several documented macros such
1285 as $(AUTOCONF) or $(MAKEINFO).
1289 * Long-standing bugs:
1291 - Fix aix dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1293 - Work around AIX sh quoting issue in AC_PROG_CC_C_O, leading to
1294 unnecessary use of the `compile' script.
1296 - For nobase_*_LTLIBRARIES with nonempty directory components, the
1297 correct `-rpath' argument is used now.
1299 - `config.status --file=Makefile depfiles' now also works with the
1300 extra quoting used internally by Autoconf 2.62 and newer
1301 (it used to work only without the `--file=' bit).
1303 - The `missing' script works better with versioned tool names.
1305 - Semantics for `missing help2man' have been revamped:
1307 Previously, if `help2man' was not present, `missing help2man' would have
1308 the following semantics: if some man page was out of date but present, then
1309 a warning would be printed, but the exit status was 0. If the man page was
1310 not present at all, then `missing' would create a replacement man page
1311 containing an error message, and exit with a status of 2. This does not play
1312 well with `make': the next run will see this particular man page as being up
1313 to date, and will only error out on the next generated man page, if any;
1314 repeat until all pages are done. This was not desirable.
1316 These are the new semantics: if some man page is not present, and help2man
1317 is not either, then `missing' will warn and generate the replacement page
1318 containing the error message, but exit successfully. However, `make dist'
1319 will ensure that no such bogus man pages are packaged into a tarball.
1321 - Targets provided by automake behave better with `make -n', in that they
1322 take care not to create files.
1324 - `config.status Makefile... depfiles' works fine again in the presence of
1325 disabled dependency tracking.
1327 - The default no-op recursive rules for these targets also work with BSD make
1328 now: html, install-html, install-dvi, install-pdf, install-pdf, install-info.
1330 - `make distcheck' works also when both a directory and some file below it
1331 have been added to a distribution variable, such as EXTRA_DIST or *_SOURCES.
1333 - Texinfo dvi, ps, pdf, and html output files are not removed upon
1334 `make mostlyclean' any more; only the LaTeX by-products are.
1336 - Renamed objects also work with the `subdir-objects' option and
1337 source file languages which Automake does not know itself.
1339 - `automake' now correctly complains about variable assignments which are
1340 preceded by a comment, extend over multiple lines with backslash-escaped
1341 newlines, and end in a comment sign. Previous versions would silently
1342 and wrongly ignore such assignments completely.
1344 * Bugs introduced by 1.10:
1346 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
1347 Makefile.in's again, but also cope with long lines.
1349 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of XFAIL_TESTS
1350 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1351 This is for consistency with the analogous change to TESTS in 1.10.
1353 - Fix order of standard includes to again be `-I. -I$(srcdir)',
1354 followed by directories containing config headers.
1356 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1360 * Version requirements:
1362 - Autoconf 2.60 or greater is required.
1364 - Perl 5.6 or greater is required.
1366 * Changes to aclocal:
1368 - aclocal now also supports -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble options.
1370 - `dirlist' entries (for the aclocal search path) may use shell
1371 wildcards such as `*', `?', or `[...]'.
1373 - aclocal supports an --install option that will cause system-wide
1374 third-party macros to be installed in the local directory
1375 specified with the first -I flag. This option also uses #serial
1376 lines in M4 files to upgrade local macros.
1378 The new aclocal options --dry-run and --diff help to review changes
1379 before they are installed.
1381 - aclocal now outputs an autoconf version check in aclocal.m4 in
1382 projects using automake.
1384 For a few years, automake and aclocal have been calling autoconf
1385 (or its underlying engine autom4te) to accurately retrieve the
1386 data they need from configure.ac and its siblings. Doing so can
1387 only work if all autotools use the same version of autoconf. For
1388 instance a Makefile.in generated by automake for one version of
1389 autoconf may stop working if configure is regenerated with another
1390 version of autoconf, and vice versa.
1392 This new version check ensures that the whole build system has
1393 been generated using the same autoconf version.
1395 * Support for new Autoconf macros:
1397 - The new AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE Autoconf macro is supported.
1399 - If `subdir-objects' is set, and AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR is specified,
1400 $(LIBOBJS), $(LTLIBOBJS), $(ALLOCA), and $(LTALLOCA) can be used
1401 in different directories. However, only one instance of such a
1402 library objects directory is supported.
1404 * Change to Libtool support:
1406 - Libtool generic flags (those that go before the --mode=MODE option)
1407 can be specified using AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS and target_LIBTOOLFLAGS.
1409 * Yacc and Lex changes:
1411 - The rebuild rules for distributed Yacc and Lex output will avoid
1412 overwriting existing files if AM_MAINTAINER_MODE and maintainer-mode
1415 - ylwrap is now always used for lex and yacc source files,
1416 regardless of whether there is more than one source per directory.
1418 * Languages changes:
1420 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now honors CPPFLAGS,
1421 AM_CPPFLAGS and per-target _CPPFLAGS, and supports dependency
1422 tracking, unlike non-preprocessed assembler (*.s).
1424 - subdir-object mode works now with Assembler. Automake assumes
1425 that the compiler understands `-c -o'.
1427 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now also honors
1428 $(DEFS) $(DEFAULT_INCLUDES) $(INCLUDES).
1430 - Improved support for Objective C:
1431 - Autoconf's new AC_PROG_OBJC will enable automatic dependency tracking.
1432 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1434 - New support for Unified Parallel C:
1435 - AM_PROG_UPC looks for a UPC compiler.
1436 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1438 - Per-target flags are now correctly handled in link rules.
1440 For instance maude_CFLAGS correctly overrides AM_CFLAGS; likewise
1441 for maude_LDFLAGS and AM_LDFLAGS. Previous versions bogusly
1442 preferred AM_CFLAGS over maude_CFLAGS while linking, and they
1443 used both AM_LDFLAGS and maude_LDFLAGS on the same link command.
1445 The fix for compiler flags (i.e., using maude_CFLAGS instead of
1446 AM_CFLAGS) should not hurt any package since that is how _CFLAGS
1447 is expected to work (and actually works during compilation).
1449 However using maude_LDFLAGS "instead of" AM_LDFLAGS rather than
1450 "in addition to" breaks backward compatibility with older versions.
1451 If your package used both variables, as in
1453 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1454 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1455 a_LDFLAGS = more flags
1458 and assumed *_LDFLAGS would sum up, you should rewrite it as
1460 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1461 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1462 a_LDFLAGS = $(AM_LDFLAGS) more flags
1465 This new behavior of *_LDFLAGS is more coherent with other
1466 per-target variables, and the way *_LDFLAGS variables were
1467 considered internally.
1469 * New installation targets:
1471 - New targets mandated by GNU Coding Standards:
1476 By default they will only install Texinfo manuals.
1477 You can customize them with *-local variants:
1483 - The undocumented recursive target `uninstall-info' no longer exists.
1484 (`uninstall' is in charge of removing all possible documentation
1485 flavors, including optional formats such as dvi, ps, or info even
1486 when `no-installinfo' is used.)
1488 * Miscellaneous changes:
1490 - Automake no longer complains if input files for AC_CONFIG_FILES
1491 are specified using shell variables.
1493 - clean, distribution, or rebuild rules are normally disabled for
1494 inputs and outputs of AC_CONFIG_FILES, AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, and
1495 AC_CONFIG_LINK specified using shell variables. However, if these
1496 variables are used as ${VAR}, and AC_SUBSTed, then Automake will
1497 be able to output rules anyway.
1498 (See the Automake documentation for AC_CONFIG_FILES.)
1500 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of TESTS
1501 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1502 This is mostly useful when some check_PROGRAMS are listed in TESTS.
1504 - `-Wportability' has finally been turned on by default for `gnu' and
1505 `gnits' strictness. This means, automake will complain about %-rules
1506 or $(GNU Make functions) unless you switch to `foreign' strictness or
1507 use `-Wno-portability'.
1509 - Automake now uses AC_PROG_MKDIR_P (new in Autoconf 2.60), and uses
1510 $(MKDIR_P) instead of $(mkdir_p) to create directories. The
1511 $(mkdir_p) variable is still defined (to the same value as
1512 $(MKDIR_P)) but should be considered obsolete. If you are using
1513 $(mkdir_p) in some of your rules, please plan to update them to
1514 $(MKDIR_P) at some point.
1516 - AM_C_PROTOTYPES and ansi2knr are now documented as being obsolete.
1517 They still work in this release, but may be withdrawn in a future one.
1519 - Inline compilation rules for gcc3-style dependency tracking are
1522 - Automake installs a "Hello World!" example package in $(docdir).
1523 This example is used throughout the new "Autotools Introduction"
1524 chapter of the manual.
1526 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1530 * Makefile.in bloat reduction:
1532 - Inference rules are used to compile sources in subdirectories when
1533 the `subdir-objects' option is used and no per-target flags are
1534 used. This should reduce the size of some projects a lot, because
1535 Automake used to output an explicit rule for each such object in
1538 - Automake no longer outputs three rules (.o, .obj, .lo) for each
1539 object that must be built with explicit rules. It just outputs
1540 the rules required to build the kind of object considered: either
1541 the two .o and .obj rules for usual objects, or the .lo rule for
1544 * Change to Libtool support:
1546 - Libtool tags are used with libtool versions that support them.
1547 (I.e., with Libtool 1.5 or greater.)
1549 - Automake is now able to handle setups where a libtool library is
1550 conditionally installed in different directories, as in
1553 lib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1555 pkglib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1557 liba_la_SOURCES = ...
1559 * Changes to aclocal:
1561 - aclocal now ensures that AC_DEFUNs and AU_DEFUNs it discovers are
1562 really evaluated, before it decides to include them in aclocal.m4.
1563 This solves nasty problems with conditional redefinitions of
1564 Autoconf macros in /usr/share/aclocal/*.m4 files causing extraneous
1565 *.m4 files to be included in any project using these macros.
1566 (Calls to AC_PROG_EGREP causing libtool.m4 to be included is the
1567 most famous instance of this bug.)
1569 - Do not complain about missing conditionally AC_REQUIREd macros
1570 that are not actually used. In 1.8.x aclocal would correctly
1571 determine which of these macros were really needed (and include
1572 only these in the package); unfortunately it would also require
1573 all of them to be present in order to run. This created
1574 situations were aclocal would not work on a tarball distributing
1575 all the macros it uses. For instance running aclocal on a project
1576 containing only the subset of the Gettext macros in use by the
1577 project did not work, because gettext conditionally requires other
1580 * Portability improvements:
1582 - Tar format can be chosen with the new options tar-v7, tar-ustar, and
1583 tar-pax. The new option filename-length-max=99 helps diagnosing
1584 filenames that are too long for tar-v7. (PR/414)
1586 - Variables aumented with `+=' are now automatically flattened (i.e.,
1587 trailing backslashes removed) and then wrapped around 80 colummns
1588 (adding trailing backslashes). In previous versions, a long series
1594 would result in a single-line definition of VAR that could possibly
1595 exceed the maximum line length of some make implementations.
1597 Non-augmented variables are still output as they are defined in
1602 - Support Fortran 90/95 with the new "fc" and "ppfc" languages.
1603 Works the same as the old Fortran 77 implementation; just replace
1604 F77 with FC everywhere (exception: FFLAGS becomes FCFLAGS).
1605 Requires a version of autoconf which provides AC_PROG_FC (>=2.59).
1607 - Support for conditional _LISP.
1609 - Support for conditional -hook and -local rules (PR/428).
1611 - Diagnose AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR calls following AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. (PR/49)
1613 - Automake will not write any Makefile.ins after the first error it
1614 encounters. The previous Makefile.ins (if any) will be left in
1615 place. (Warnings will not prevent output, but remember they can
1616 be turned into errors with -Werror.)
1618 - The restriction that SUBDIRS must contain direct children is gone.
1621 - The manual tells more about SUBDIRS vs. DIST_SUBDIRS.
1622 It also gives an example of nested packages using AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS.
1624 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1626 Bugs fixed in 1.8.5:
1628 * Long-standing bugs:
1630 - Define DIST_SUBDIRS even when the `no-dist' or `cygnus' options are used
1631 so that `make distclean' and `make maintainer-clean' can work.
1633 - Define AR and ARFLAGS even when only EXTRA_LIBRARIES are defined.
1635 - Fix many rules to please FreeBSD make, which runs commands with `sh -e'.
1637 - Polish diagnostic when no input file is found.
1639 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1641 Bugs fixed in 1.8.4:
1643 * Long-standing bugs:
1645 - Fix AM_PATH_PYTHON to correctly display $PYTHON when it has been
1646 overridden by the user.
1648 - Honor PATH_SEPARATOR in various places of the Automake package, for
1651 - Adjust dependency tracking mode detection to ICC 8.0's new output.
1654 - Fix install-sh so it can install the `mv' binary... using `mv'.
1656 - Fix tru64 dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1658 - Work around Exuberant Ctags when creating a TAGS files in a directory
1659 without files to scan but with subdirectories to include.
1661 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1663 - Fix an "internal error" when @LIBOBJS@ is used in a variable that is
1664 not defined in the same conditions as the _LDADD that uses it.
1666 - Do not warn when JAVAROOT is overridden, this is legitimate.
1668 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1670 Bugs fixed in 1.8.3:
1672 * Long-standing bugs:
1674 - Quote filenames in installation rules, in case $DESTDIR, $prefix,
1675 or any of the other *dir variables contain a space.
1677 Please note that Automake does not and cannot support spaces in
1678 filenames that are involved during the build. This change affects
1679 only installation paths, so that `make install' does not bomb out
1680 in packages configured with
1681 ./configure --prefix '/c/Program Files'
1683 - Fix the depfiles output so it works with GNU sed (<4.1) even when
1684 POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.
1686 - Do not AC_SUBST(LIBOBJS) in AM_WITH_REGEX. This macro was unusable
1687 since Autoconf 2.54, which defines LIBOBJS itself.
1689 - Fix a potential (but unlikely) race condition in parallel elisp
1690 builds. (Introduced in 1.7.3.)
1692 - Do not assume that users override _DEPENDENCIES in all conditions
1693 where Automake will try to define them.
1695 - Do not use `mkdir -p' in mkinstalldirs, unless this is GNU mkdir.
1696 Solaris 8's `mkdir -p' is not thread-safe and can break parallel
1699 This fix also affects the $(mkdir_p) variable defined since
1700 Automake 1.8. It will be set to `mkdir -p' only if mkdir is GNU
1701 mkdir, and to `mkinstalldirs' or `install-sh -d' otherwise.
1703 - Secure temporary directory creation in `make distcheck'. (PR/413)
1705 - Do not generate two build rules for `parser.h' when the
1706 parser appears in two different conditionals.
1708 - Work around a Solaris 8 /bin/sh bug in the test for dependency
1709 checking. Usually ./configure will not pick this shell; so this
1710 fix only helps cases where the shell is forced to /bin/sh.
1712 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1714 - In some situations (hand-written `m4_include's), aclocal would
1715 call the `File::Spec->rel2abs' method, which was only introduced
1716 in Perl 5.6. This new version reestablish support Perl 5.005.
1718 It is likely that the next major Automake releases will require at
1719 least Perl 5.6. Consider upgrading your development environment
1720 if you are still using the five-year-old Perl 5.005.
1722 - Automake would sometimes fail to define rules for targets listed
1723 in variables defined in multiple conditions. For instance on
1729 it would define only the `a.$(OBJEXT): a.c' rule and omit the
1730 `b.$(OBJEXT): b.c' rule.
1732 * New sections in manual:
1734 - Third-Party Makefiles: how to interface third party Makefiles.
1735 - Upgrading: upgrading packages to newer Automake versions.
1736 - Multiple Outputs: handling tools that produce many outputs.
1738 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1742 * A (well known) portability bug slipped in the changes made to
1743 install-sh in Automake 1.8.1. The broken install-sh would refuse to
1744 install anything on Tru64.
1746 * Fix install rules for conditionally built python files. (This never
1749 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1753 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1755 - Fix Config.pm import error with old Perl versions (at least
1756 5.005_03). One symptom is that aclocal could not find its macro
1759 - Automake 1.8 used `mkdir -m 0755 -p --' to ensure that directories
1760 created by `make install' are always world readable, even if the
1761 installer happens to have an overly restrictive umask (e.g. 077).
1762 This was a mistake and has been reverted. There are at least two
1763 reasons why we must not use `-m 0755':
1764 - it causes special bits like SGID to be ignored,
1765 - it may be too restrictive (some setups expect 775 directories).
1767 - Fix aclocal to honor definitions located in files which have been
1768 m4_included manually. aclocal 1.8 had been updated to check
1769 m4_included files for new requirements, but forgot that these
1770 m4_included files can also provide new definitions.
1772 Note that if you have such a setup, we recommend you get rid of
1773 it. In the past, there was a reason to m4_include files manually:
1774 aclocal used to duplicate entire M4 files into aclocal.m4, even
1775 files that were distributed. Some packages were therefore
1776 m4_including the distributed file directly, and playing some
1777 tricks to ensure aclocal would not copy that file to aclocal.m4,
1778 in order to limit the amount of duplication. Since aclocal 1.8.x
1779 will precisely output m4_includes for local M4 files, we recommend
1780 that you clean up your setup, removing all manual m4_includes and
1781 letting aclocal output them.
1783 - Output detailed menus in the Info version if the Automake manual,
1784 so that Emacs can locate the indexes.
1786 - configure.ac and configure were listed twice in DIST_COMMON (an
1787 internal variable where Automake lists configury files to
1788 distribute). This was harmless, but unaesthetic.
1790 - Use `chmod a-w' instead of `chmod -w' as the latter honors umask.
1791 This was an issue only in the Automake package itself, not in
1794 - Automake assumed that all AC_CONFIG_LINKS arguments had the form
1795 DEST:SRC. This was wrong, as some packages do
1796 AC_CONFIG_LINKS($computedlinks). This version no longer abort in
1799 - Contrary to mkinstalldirs, $(mkdir_p) was expecting exactly one
1800 argument. This caused two kinds of failures:
1801 - Rules installing data in a conditionally defined directory
1802 failed when that directory was undefined. In this case no
1803 argument was supplied.
1804 - `make installdirs' failed, because several directories were
1805 passed to $(mkdir_p). This was an issue only on platform
1806 were $(mkdir_p) is implemented with `install-sh -d'.
1807 $(mkdir_p) as been changed to accept 0 or more arguments, as
1810 * Long-standing bugs:
1812 - Fix an unexpected diagnostic occurring when users attempt
1813 to override some internal variables that Automake appends to.
1815 - aclocal now scans configure.ac for macro definitions (PR/319).
1817 - Fix a portability issue with OSF1/Tru64 Make. If a directory
1818 distributes files which are outside itself (this usually occurs
1819 when using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([../dir]) to use auxiliary files
1820 from a parent package), then `make distcheck' fails due to an
1821 optimization performed by OSF1/Tru64 Make in its VPATH handling.
1822 (tests/subpkg2.test failure)
1824 - Fix another portability issue with Sun and OSF1/Tru64 Make.
1825 In a VPATH-build configuration, `make install' would install
1826 nobase_ files to wrong locations.
1828 - Fix a Perl `uninitialized value' diagnostic occurring when
1829 automake complains that a Texinfo file does not have a
1830 @setfilename statement.
1832 - Erase config.status.lineno during `make distclean'. This file
1833 can be created by config.status. Automake already knew about
1834 configure.lineno, but forgot config.status.lineno.
1836 - Distribute all files, even those which are built and installed
1837 conditionally. This change affects files listed in conditionally
1838 defined *_HEADERS and *_PYTHON variable (unless they are nodist_*)
1839 as well as those listed in conditionally defined dist_*_DATA,
1840 dist_*_JAVA, dist_*_LISP, and dist_*_SCRIPTS variables.
1842 - Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to avoid \? in sed regular expressions; it
1843 doesn't conform to POSIX.
1845 - Normalize help strings for configure variables and options added
1850 - Check for python2.4 in AM_PATH_PYTHON.
1852 * Spurious failures in test suite:
1854 - tests/libtool5.test, tests/ltcond.test, tests/ltcond2.test,
1855 tests/ltconv.test: fix failures with CVS Libtool.
1856 - tests/aclocal6.test: fix failure if autom4te.cache is disabled.
1857 - tests/txinfo24.test, tests/txinfo25.test, tests/txinfo28.test:
1858 fix failures with old Texinfo versions.
1860 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1866 - The NEWS file is more verbose.
1870 - Autoconf 2.58 or greater is required.
1874 - Default source file names in the absence of a _SOURCES declaration
1875 are made by removing any target extension before appending `.c', so
1876 to make the libtool module `foo.la' from `foo.c', you only need to
1879 lib_LTLIBRARIES = foo.la
1880 foo_la_LDFLAGS = -module
1882 For backward compatibility, foo_la.c will be used instead of
1883 foo.c if this file exists or is the explicit target of a rule.
1884 However -Wobsolete will warn about this deprecated naming.
1886 - AR's `cru' flags are now set in a global ARFLAGS variable instead
1887 of being hard-coded in each $(AR) invocation, so they can be
1888 substituted from configure.ac. This has been requested by people
1889 dealing with non-POSIX ar implementations.
1891 - New warning option: -Woverride. This will warn about any user
1892 target or variable definitions which override Automake
1895 - Texinfo rules back up and restore info files when makeinfo fails.
1897 - Texinfo rules now support the `html' target.
1898 Running this requires Texinfo 4.0 or greater.
1900 `html' is a new recursive target, so if your package mixes
1901 hand-crafted `Makefile.in's with Automake-generated
1902 `Makefile.in's, you should adjust the former to support (or
1903 ignore) this target so that `make html' recurses successfully. If
1904 you had a custom `html' rule in your `Makefile.am', it's better to
1905 rename it as `html-local', otherwise your rule will override
1906 Automake's new rule (you can check that by running `automake
1907 -Woverride') and that will stop the recursion to subdirectories.
1909 Last but not least, this `html' rule is declared PHONY, even when
1910 overridden. Fortunately, it appears that few packages use a
1911 non-PHONY `html' rule.
1913 - Any file which is m4_included from configure.ac will appear as a
1914 configure and Makefile.in dependency, and will be automatically
1917 - The rules for rebuilding Makefiles and Makefile.ins will now
1918 rebuild all Makefiles and all Makefile.ins at once when one of
1919 configure's dependencies has changed. This is considerably faster
1920 than previous implementations, where config.status and automake
1921 were run separately in each directory (this still happens when you
1922 change a Makefile.am locally, without touching configure.ac or
1923 friends). Doing this also solves a longstanding issue: these
1924 rebuild rules failed to work when adding new directories to the
1925 tree, forcing you to run automake manually.
1927 - For similar reasons, the rules to rebuild configure,
1928 config.status, and aclocal.m4 are now defined in all directories.
1929 Note that if you were using the CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES and
1930 CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES (formerly undocumented) variables, you
1931 should better define them in all directories. This is easily done
1932 using an AC_SUBST (make sure you prefix these dependencies with
1933 $(top_srcdir) since this variable will appear at different
1934 levels of the build tree).
1936 - aclocal will now use `m4_include' instead of copying local m4
1937 files into aclocal.m4. (Local m4 files are those you ship with
1938 your project, other files will be copied as usual.)
1940 Because m4_included files are automatically distributed, it means
1941 for most projects there is no point in EXTRA_DISTing the list of
1942 m4 files which are used. (You can probably get rid of
1943 m4/Makefile.am if you had one.)
1945 - aclocal will avoid touching aclocal.m4 when possible, so that
1946 Autom4te's cache isn't needlessly invalidated. This behavior can
1947 be switched off with the new `--force' option.
1949 - aclocal now uses Autoconf's --trace to detect macros which are
1950 actually used and will no longer include unused macros simply
1951 because they where mentioned. This was often the case for macros
1952 called conditionally.
1954 - New options no-dist and no-dist-gzip.
1956 - compile, depcomp, elisp-comp, install-sh, mdate-sh, mkinstalldirs,
1957 py-compile, and ylwrap, now all understand --version and --help.
1959 - Automake will now recognize AC_CONFIG_LINKS so far as removing created
1960 links as part of the distclean target and including source files in
1963 - AM_PATH_PYTHON now supports ACTION-IF-FOUND and ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND
1964 argument. The latter can be used to override the default behavior
1965 (which is to abort).
1967 - Automake will exit with $? = 63 on version mismatch. (So does
1968 Autoconf 2.58) missing knows this, and in this case it will
1969 emulate the tools as if they were absent. Because older versions
1970 of Automake and Autoconf did not use this exit code, this change
1971 will only be useful in projects generated with future versions of
1974 - When using AC_CONFIG_FILES with multiple input files, Automake
1975 generates the first ".in" input file for which a ".am" exists.
1976 (Former versions would try to use only the first input file.)
1978 - lisp_DATA is now allowed. If you are using the empty ELCFILES
1979 idiom to disable byte-compilation of lisp_LISP files, it is
1980 recommended that you switch to using lisp_DATA. Note that
1981 this is not strictly equivalent: lisp_DATA will install elisp
1982 files even if emacs is not installed, while *_LISP do not
1983 install anything unless emacs is found.
1985 - Makefiles will prefer `mkdir -p' over mkinstalldirs if it is
1986 available. This selection is achieved through the Makefile
1987 variable $(mkdir_p) that is set by AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE to either
1988 `mkdir -m 0755 -p --', `$(mkinstalldirs) -m 0755', or
1989 `$(install_sh) -m 0755 -d'.
1993 - Because `mkdir -p' is available on most platforms, and we can use
1994 `install-sh -d' when it is not, the use of the mkinstalldirs
1995 script is being phased out. `automake --add-missing' no longer
1996 installs it, and if you remove mkinstalldirs from your package,
1997 automake will define $(mkinstalldirs) as an alias for $(mkdir_p).
1999 Gettext 0.12.1 still requires mkinstalldirs. Fortunately
2000 gettextize and autopoint will install it when needed. Automake
2001 will continue to define the $(mkinstalldirs) and to distribute
2002 mkinstalldirs when this script is in the source tree.
2004 - AM_PROG_CC_STDC is now empty. The content of this macro was
2005 merged in AC_PROG_CC. If your code uses $am_cv_prog_cc_stdc, you
2006 should adjust it to use $ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc instead. (This
2007 renaming should be safe, even if you have to support several,
2008 versions of Automake, because AC_PROG_CC defines this variable
2009 since Autoconf 2.54.)
2011 - Some users where using the undocumented ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES
2012 variable to override the aclocal.m4 dependencies computed
2013 (inaccurately) by older versions of Automake. Because Automake
2014 now tracks configure's m4 dependencies accurately (see m4_include
2015 above), the use of ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES should be considered
2016 obsolete and will be flagged as such when running `automake
2021 - Defining programs conditionally using Automake conditionals no
2022 longer leads to a combinatorial explosion. The following
2023 construct used to be troublesome when used with dozens of
2038 Likewise for _SOURCES, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables.
2040 - Due to implementation constraints, previous versions of Automake
2041 proscribed multiple conditional definitions of some variables
2051 All _PROGRAMS, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables were affected.
2052 This restriction has been lifted, and these variables now
2053 support multiple conditional definitions as do other variables.
2055 - Cleanup the definitions of $(distdir) and $(top_distdir).
2056 $(top_distdir) now points to the root of the distribution
2057 directory created during `make dist', as it did in Automake 1.4,
2058 not to the root of the build tree as it did in intervening
2059 versions. Furthermore these two variables are now only defined in
2060 the top level Makefile, and passed to sub-directories when running
2063 - The --no-force option now correctly checks the Makefile.in's
2064 dependencies before deciding not to update it.
2066 - Do not assume that make files are called Makefile in cleaning rules.
2068 - Update .info files in the source tree, not in the build tree. This
2069 is what the GNU Coding Standard recommend. Only Automake 1.7.x
2070 used to update these files in the build tree (previous versions did
2071 it in the source tree too), and it caused several problems, varying
2072 from mere annoyance to portability issues.
2074 - COPYING, COPYING.LIB, and COPYING.LESSER are no longer overwritten
2075 when --add-missing and --force-missing are used. For backward
2076 compatibility --add-missing will continue to install COPYING (in
2077 `gnu' strictness) when none of these three files exist, but this
2078 use is deprecated: you should better choose a license yourself and
2079 install it once for all in your source tree (and in your code
2082 - Fix ylwrap so that it does not overwrite header files that haven't
2083 changed, as the inline rule already does.
2085 - User-defined rules override automake-defined rules for the same
2086 targets, even when rules do not have commands. This is not new
2087 (and was documented), however some of the automake-generated
2088 rules have escaped this principle in former Automake versions.
2089 Rules for the following targets are affected by this fix:
2091 clean, clean-am, dist-all, distclean, distclean-am, dvi, dvi-am,
2092 info, info-am, install-data-am, install-exec-am, install-info,
2093 install-info-am, install-man, installcheck-am, maintainer-clean,
2094 maintainer-clean-am, mostlyclean, mostlyclean-am, pdf, pdf-am,
2095 ps, ps-am, uninstall-am, uninstall-info, uninstall-man
2097 Practically it means that an attempt to supplement the dependencies
2098 of some target, as in
2100 clean: my-clean-rule
2102 will now *silently override* the automake definition of the
2103 rule for this target. Running `automake -Woverride' will diagnose
2104 all such overriding definitions.
2106 It should be noted that almost all of these targets support a *-local
2107 variant that is meant to supplement the automake-defined rule
2108 (See node `Extending' in the manual). The above rule should
2111 clean-local: my-clean-rule
2113 These *-local targets have been documented since at least
2114 Automake 1.2, so you should not fear the change if you have
2115 to support multiple automake versions.
2119 - The Automake manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
2121 - Targets dist-gzip, dist-bzip2, dist-tarZ, dist-zip are always defined.
2123 - core dumps are no longer removed by the cleaning rules. There are
2124 at least three reasons for this:
2125 1. These files should not be created by any build step,
2126 so their removal do not fit any of the cleaning rules.
2127 Actually, they may be precious to the developer.
2128 2. If such file is created during a build, then it's clearly a
2129 bug Automake should not hide. Not removing the file will
2130 cause `make distcheck' to complain about its presence.
2131 3. Operating systems have different naming conventions for
2132 core dump files. A core file on one system might be a
2133 completely legitimate data file on another system.
2135 - RUNTESTFLAGS, CTAGSFLAGS, ETAGSFLAGS, JAVACFLAGS are no longer
2136 defined by Automake. This means that any definition in the
2137 environment will be used, unless overridden in the Makefile.am or
2138 on the command line. The old behavior, where these variables were
2139 defined empty in each Makefile, can be obtained by AC_SUBSTing or
2140 AC_ARG_VARing each variable from configure.ac.
2142 - CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES and CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES are now
2143 documented. (The is not a new feature, these variables have
2144 been there since at least Automake 1.4.)
2146 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2148 Bugs fixed in 1.7.9:
2149 * Fix install-strip to work with nobase_ binaries.
2150 * Fix renaming of #line directives in ylwrap.
2151 * Rebuild with Autoconf 2.59. (1.7.8 was not installable with pdksh.)
2153 Bugs fixed in 1.7.8:
2154 * Remove spurious blank lines in cleaning rules introduced in 1.7.7.
2155 * Fix detection of Debian's install-info, broken since version 1.5.
2156 (Debian bug #213524).
2157 * Honor -module if it appears in AM_LDFLAGS (i.e., relax name checking)
2158 This was only done for libfoo_LDFLAGS and LDFLAGS in previous versions.
2160 Bugs fixed in 1.7.7:
2161 * The implementation of automake's --no-force option is unreliable,
2162 so this option is ignored in this version. A real fix will appear in
2163 Automake 1.8. (Debian Bug #206299)
2164 * AM_PATH_PYTHON: really check the whole list of interpreters if no
2165 argument is given. (PR/399)
2166 * Do not warn about leading `_' in variable names, even with -Wportability.
2167 * Support user redefinitions of TEXINFO_TEX.
2168 * depcomp: support AIX Compiler version 6.
2169 * Fix missing rebuilds during `make dist' with BSD make.
2170 (Could produce tarballs containing out-of-date files.)
2171 * Resurrect multilib support.
2172 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2173 - Extending aclocal: how to write m4 macros that won't trigger warnings
2175 - A Shared Library: Rewrite and split into subsections.
2177 Bugs fixed in 1.7.6:
2178 * Fix depcomp's icc mode for ICC 7.1.
2179 * Diagnose calls to AC_CONFIG_FILES and friends with not enough arguments.
2180 * Fix maintainer-clean's removal of autom4te.cache in VPATH builds.
2181 * Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to work with POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
2182 * Fix the location reported in some diagnostics related to AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
2183 * Remove Latin-1 characters from elisp-comp.
2184 * Update the manual's @dircategory to match the Free Software Directory.
2186 Bugs fixed in 1.7.5:
2187 * Update install-sh's license to remove an advertising clause.
2188 (Debian bug #191717)
2189 * Fix a bug introduced in 1.7.4, related to BUILT_SOURCE handling,
2190 that caused invalid Makefile.ins to be generated.
2191 * Make sure AM_MAKE_INCLUDE doesn't fail when a `doit' file exists.
2192 * New FAQ entry: renamed objects.
2194 Bugs fixed in 1.7.4:
2195 * Tweak the TAGS rule to support Exuberant Ctags (in addition to
2196 the Emacs implementation)
2197 * Fix output of aclocal.m4 dependencies in subdirectories.
2198 * Use `mv -f' instead of `mv' in fastdep rules.
2199 * Upgrade mdate-sh to work on OS/2.
2200 * Don't byte-compile elisp files when ELCFILES is set empty.
2201 (this documented feature was broken by 1.7.3)
2202 * Diagnose trailing backslashes on last line of Makefile.am.
2203 * Diagnose whitespace following trailing backslashes.
2204 * Multiple tests are now correctly supported in DEJATOOL. (PR/388)
2205 * Fix rebuilt rules for AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.bot])
2207 * `make install' will build `BUILT_SOURCES' first.
2208 * Minor documentation fixes.
2210 Bugs fixed in 1.7.3:
2211 * Fix stamp files numbering (when using multiple AC_CONFIG_HEADERS).
2212 * Query distutils for `pythondir' and `pythonexecdir', instead of
2213 using an hardcoded path. This should allow builds on 64-bit
2214 distributions that usually use lib64/ instead of lib/.
2215 * AM_PATH_PYTHON will also search for python2.3.
2216 * elisp files are now built all at once instead of one by one. Besides
2217 incurring a speed-up, this is required to support interdependent elisp files.
2218 * Support for DJGPP:
2219 - `make distcheck' will now work in `_inst/' and `_build' instead
2220 of `=inst/' and `=build/'
2221 - use `_dirstamp' when the file-system doesn't support `.dirstamp'
2222 - install/uninstall `*.i[0-9][0-9]'-style info files
2223 - more changes that affect only the Automake package (not its output)
2224 * Fix some incompatibilities with upcoming perl-5.10.
2225 * Properly quote AC_PACKAGE_TARNAME and AC_PACKAGE_VERSION when defining
2226 PACKAGE and VERSION.
2228 - dashmstdout and dashXmstdout modes: don't use `-o /dev/null', this
2229 is troublesome with gcc and Solaris compilers. (PR/385)
2230 - makedepend mode: work with Libtool. (PR/385 too)
2232 * better support for unusual gettext setups, such as multiple po/ directories
2234 - Flag missing po/ and intl/ directories as warnings, not errors.
2235 - Disable these warnings if po/ does not exist.
2236 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2238 - Document how AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR interacts with missing files.
2240 - Document `AM_YFLAGS = -d'. (PR/382)
2242 Bugs fixed in 1.7.2:
2243 * Fix installation and uninstallation of Info files built in subdirectories.
2244 * Do not run `./configure --with-included-gettext' during `make distcheck'
2245 if AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) is used.
2246 * Correctly uninstall renamed man pages.
2247 * Do not strip escaped newline in variables defined in one condition
2248 and augmented in another condition.
2249 * Fix ansi2knr rules for LIBOBJS sources.
2250 * Clean all known Texinfo index files, not only those which appear to
2251 be used, because we cannot know which indexes are used in included files.
2252 (PR/375, Debian Bug #168671)
2253 * Honor only the first @setfilename seen in a Texinfo file.
2254 * Treat "required file X not found" diagnostics as errors (exit status 1).
2255 * Don't complain that a required file is not found when it is a Makefile
2257 * Don't use single suffix inference rules when building `.info'-less
2258 Info files, for the sake of Solaris make.
2259 * The `check' target now depends on `$(BUILT_SOURCES)'. (PR/359)
2260 * Recognize multiple inference rules such as `.a.b .c.d:'. (PR/371)
2261 * Warn about multiple inference rules when -Wportability is used. (PR/372)
2262 * Fix building of deansified files from subdirectories. (PR/370)
2263 * Add missing `fi' in the .c->.obj rules.
2264 * Improve install-sh to work even when names contain spaces or certain
2265 (but not all) shell metachars.
2266 * Fix the following spurious failures in the test suite:
2267 depcomp2.test, gnits2.test, gnits3.test, python3.test, texinfo13.test
2268 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2269 - Augment the section about BUILT_SOURCES.
2270 - Mention that AM_PROG_CC_STDC is a relic that is better avoided today.
2272 Bugs fixed in 1.7.1:
2273 * Honor `ansi2knr' for files built in subdirectories, or using per-targets
2275 * Aclocal should now recognize macro names containing parentheses, e.g.
2276 AC_DEFUN([AC_LANG_PREPROC(Fortran 90)], [...]).
2277 * Erase *.sum and *.log files created by DejaGnu, during `make distclean'.
2279 * Install Python files even if they were built. (PR/369)
2280 * Have stamp-vti dependent upon configure instead of configure.ac, as the
2281 version might not be defined in the latter. (PR/358)
2282 * Reorder arguments passed to a couple of commands, so things works
2283 when POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
2284 * Fix a regex that can cause Perl to segfault on large input.
2286 * Fix distribution of packages that have some sources defined conditionally,
2287 as in the `Conditional compilation using Automake conditionals' example
2289 * Fix spurious test suite failures on IRIX.
2290 * Don't report a required variable as undefined if it has been
2291 defined conditionally for the "right" conditions.
2292 * Fix cleaning of the /tmp subdirectory used by `make distcheck', in case
2293 `make distcheck' fails.
2294 * Fix distribution of included Makefile fragment, so we don't create
2295 spurious directories in the distribution. (PR/366)
2296 * Don't complain that a target lacks `.$(EXEEXT)' when it has it.
2299 * Autoconf 2.54 is required.
2300 * `aclocal' and `automake' will no longer warn about obsolete
2301 configure macros. This is done by `autoconf -Wobsolete'.
2302 * AM_CONFIG_HEADER, AM_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS and
2303 AM_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ_NEEDS_SYS_IOCTL are obsolete (although still
2304 supported). You should use AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS,
2305 and AC_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ instead. `autoupdate' can upgrade
2306 `configure.ac' for you.
2307 * Support for per-program and per-library `_CPPFLAGS'.
2308 * New `ctags' target (builds CTAGS files).
2309 * Support for -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble, where mumble is a warning category
2310 (see `automake --help' or the manual for a list of them).
2311 * Honor the WARNINGS environment variable.
2312 * Omit the call to depcomp when using gcc3: call the compiler directly.
2313 * A new option, std-options, tests that programs support --help and --version
2314 when `make installcheck' is run. This is enabled by --gnits.
2315 * Texinfo rules now support the `ps' and `pdf' targets.
2316 * Info files are now created in the build directory, not the source directory.
2317 * info_TEXINFOS supports files in subdirectories (this requires Texinfo 4.1
2319 * `make distcheck' will enforce DESTDIR support by attempting
2321 * `+=' can be used in conditionals, even if the augmented variable
2322 was defined for another condition.
2323 * Makefile fragments (inserted with `include') are always distributed.
2324 * Use Autoconf's --trace interface to inspect configure.ac and get
2325 a more accurate view of it.
2326 * Add support for extending aclocal's default macro search path
2327 using a `dirlist' file within the aclocal directory.
2328 * automake --output-dir is deprecated.
2329 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether uninstall actually
2330 removes all installed files has been moved in a separate target,
2331 distuninstallcheck, so it can be overridden easily.
2335 * Support for AM_INIT_GETTEXT([external])
2336 * Bug fixes, including:
2337 - Fix Automake's own `make install' so it works even if `ln' doesn't.
2338 - nobase_ programs and scripts honor --program-transform correctly.
2339 - Erase configure.lineno during `make distclean'.
2340 - Erase YACC and LEX outputs during `make maintainer-clean'.
2343 * Many bug fixes, including:
2344 - Requiring the current version works.
2345 - Fix "$@" portability issues (for Zsh).
2346 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
2348 - Don't compute dependencies in background to avoid races with libtool.
2349 - Fix handling of _OBJECTS variables for targets sharing source variables.
2350 - Check dependency mode for Java when AM_PROG_GCJ is used.
2353 * automake --output-dir is deprecated
2354 * Many bug fixes, including:
2355 - Don't choke on AM_LDFLAGS definitions.
2356 - Clean libtool objects from subdirectories.
2357 - Allow configure variables with reserved suffix and unknown prefix
2358 (e.g. AC_SUBST(mumble_LDFLAGS) when 'mumble' is not a target).
2359 - Fix the definition of AUTOMAKE and ACLOCAL in configure.
2362 * Autoconf 2.52 is required.
2363 * automake no longer run libtoolize.
2364 This is the job of autoreconf (from GNU Autoconf).
2365 * `dist' generates all the archive flavors, as did `dist-all'.
2366 * `dist-gzip' generates the Gzip tar file only.
2367 * Combining Automake Makefile conditionals no longer lead to a combinatorial
2368 explosion. Makefile.in's keep a reasonable size.
2369 * AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_STRTOD, AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, AM_PTRDIFF_T
2370 are no longer shipped, since Autoconf 2.52 provides them (both as AM_
2372 * `#line' of Lex and Yacc files are properly set.
2373 * EXTRA_DIST can contain generated directories.
2374 * Support for dot-less extensions in suffix rules.
2375 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether distclean actually
2376 cleans all built files has been moved in a separate target, distcleancheck,
2377 so it can be overridden easily.
2378 * `make distcheck' will pass additional options defined in
2379 $(DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS) to configure.
2380 * Fixed CDPATH portability problems, in particular for MacOS X.
2381 * Fixed handling of nobase_ targets.
2382 * Fixed support of implicit rules leading to .lo objects.
2383 * Fixed late inclusion of --add-missing files (e.g. depcomp) in DIST_COMMON
2384 * Added uninstall-hook target
2385 * `AC_INIT AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(tarname,version)' is an obsolete construct.
2386 You can now use `AC_INIT(pkgname,version) AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE' instead.
2387 (Note that "pkgname" is not "tarname", see the manual for details.)
2388 It is also possible to pass a list of global Automake options as
2389 first argument to this new form of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.
2390 * Compiler-based assembler is now called `CCAS'; people expected `AS'
2391 to be a real assembler.
2392 * AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE will set STRIP itself when it needs it. Adding
2393 AC_CHECK_TOOL([STRIP], [strip]) manually is no longer required.
2394 * aclocal and automake are also installed with the version number
2395 appended, and some of the install directory names have changed.
2396 This lets you have multiple versions installed simultaneously.
2397 * Support for parsers and lexers in subdirectories.
2400 * Support for `configure.ac'.
2401 * Support for `else COND', `endif COND' and negated conditions `!COND'.
2402 * `make dist-all' is much faster.
2403 * Allows '@' AC_SUBSTs in macro names.
2404 * Faster AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE (requires update of `missing' script)
2405 * User-side dependency tracking. Developers no longer need GNU make
2407 * Uses DIST_SUBDIRS in some situations when SUBDIRS is conditional
2408 * Most files are correctly handled if they appear in subdirs
2409 For instance, a _DATA file can appear in a subdir
2410 * GNU tar is no longer required for `make dist'
2411 * Added support for `dist_' and `nodist_' prefixes
2412 * Added support for `nobase_' prefix
2413 * Compiled Java support
2414 * Support for per-executable and per-library compilation flags
2418 * Added support for the Fortran 77 programming language.
2419 * Re-indexed the Automake Texinfo manual.
2420 * Added `AM_FOOFLAGS' variable for each compiler invocation;
2421 e.g. AM_CFLAGS can be used in Makefile.am to set C compiler flags
2422 * Support for latest autoconf, including support for objext
2423 * Can now put `.' in SUBDIRS to control build order
2424 * `include' command and `+=' support for macro assignment
2425 * Dependency tracking no long susceptible to deleted header file problem
2426 * Maintainer mode now a conditional. @MAINT@ is now an anachronism.
2431 * Better Cygwin32 support
2432 * Support for suffix rules with _SOURCES variables
2433 * New options `readme-alpha' and `check-news'; Gnits mode sets these
2434 * @LEXLIB@ no longer required when lex source seen
2435 Lex support in `missing', and new lex macro. Update your missing script.
2436 * Built-in support for assembly
2437 * aclocal gives error if `AM_' macro not found
2438 * Passed YFLAGS, not YACCFLAGS, to yacc
2439 * AM_PROG_CC_STDC does not have to come before AC_PROG_CPP
2440 * Dependencies computed as a side effect of compilation
2441 * Preliminary support for Java
2442 * DESTDIR support at "make install" time
2443 * Improved ansi2knr support; you must use the latest ansi2knr.c (included)
2447 * Better DejaGnu support
2448 * Added no-installinfo option
2449 * Added Emacs Lisp support
2450 * Added --no-force option
2451 * Included `aclocal' program
2452 * Automake will now generate rules to regenerate aclocal.m4, if appropriate
2453 * Now uses `AM_' macro names everywhere
2454 * ansi2knr option can have directory prefix (eg `../lib/ansi2knr')
2455 ansi2knr now works correctly on K&R sources
2456 * Better C++, yacc, lex support
2457 * Will compute _DEPENDENCIES variables automatically if not supplied
2458 * Will interpolate $(...) and ${...} when examining contents of a variable
2459 * .deps files now in build directory, not source directory; dependency
2460 handling generally rewritten
2461 * DATA, MANS and BUILT_SOURCES no longer included in distribution
2462 * can now put config.h into a subdir
2463 * Added dist-all target
2464 * Support for install-info program (see texinfo 3.9)
2465 * Support for "yacc -d"
2466 * configure substitutions are automatically discovered and included
2467 in generated Makefile.in
2468 * Special --cygnus mode
2469 * OMIT_DEPENDENCIES can now hold list of dependencies to be omitted
2470 when making distribution. Some dependencies are auto-ignored.
2471 * Changed how libraries are specified in _LIBRARIES variable
2472 * Full libtool support, from Gord Matzigkeit
2473 * No longer have to explicitly touch stamp-h when using AC_CONFIG_HEADER;
2474 AM_CONFIG_HEADER handles it automatically
2475 * Texinfo output files no longer need .info extension
2476 * Added `missing' support
2478 * Conditionals in Makefile.am, from Ian Taylor
2482 * distcheck target runs install and installcheck targets
2483 * Added preliminary support for DejaGnu.
2488 * More libtool fixes from Gord Matzigkeit; libtool support is still
2490 * Added support for jm_MAINTAINER_MODE
2492 * New "distcheck" target
2496 * mkinstalldirs and mdate-sh now appear in directory specified by
2498 * Removed DIST_SUBDIRS, DIST_OTHER
2499 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM only required when an actual program exists
2500 * dist-hook target now run before distribution packaged up; idea from
2501 Dieter Baron. Other hooks exist, too.
2502 * Preliminary (unfinished) support for libtool
2503 * Added short option names.
2504 * Better "dist" support when gluing together multiple packages
2508 * Documentation updates (many from François Pinard)
2509 * strictness `normal' now renamed to `foreign'
2510 * Renamed --install-missing to --add-missing
2511 * Now handles AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
2512 * Now handles TESTS macro
2513 * DIST_OTHER renamed to EXTRA_DIST
2514 * DIST_SUBDIRS is deprecated
2515 * @ALLOCA@ and @LIBOBJS@ now work in _LDADD variables
2516 * Better error messages in many cases
2517 * Program names are canonicalized
2518 * Added "check" prefix; from Gord Matzigkeit
2522 * configure.in scanner knows about AC_PATH_XTRA, AC_OUTPUT ":" syntax
2523 * Beginnings of a test suite
2524 * Automatically adds -I options for $(srcdir), ".", and path to config.h
2525 * Doesn't print anything when running
2526 * Beginnings of MAINT_CHARSET support
2527 * Can specify version in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS
2528 * Most errors recognizable by Emacs' M-x next-error
2529 * Added --verbose option
2530 * All "primary" variables now obsolete; use EXTRA_PRIMARY to supply
2531 configure-generated names
2532 * Required macros now distributed in aclocal.m4
2534 * --strictness=gnu is default
2538 * More sophisticated configure.in scanning; now understands ALLOCA and
2539 LIBOBJS directly, handles AC_CONFIG_HEADER more precisely, etc.
2540 * TEXINFOS and MANS now obsolete; use info_TEXINFOS and man_MANS instead.
2541 * CONFIG_HEADER variable now obsolete
2542 * Can handle multiple Texinfo sources
2543 * Allow hierarchies deeper than 2. From Gord Matzigkeit.
2544 * HEADERS variable no longer needed; now can put .h files directly into
2545 foo_SOURCES variable.
2546 * Automake automatically rebuilds files listed in AC_OUTPUT. The
2547 corresponding ".in" files are included in the distribution.
2550 * Added --gnu and --gnits options
2551 * More standards checking
2553 * Cleaned up 'dist' targets
2554 * Added AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS variable and several options
2555 * Now scans configure.in to get some information (preliminary)
2558 * Works with Perl 4 again
2561 * Added --install-missing option.
2562 * Pretty-prints generated macros and rules
2563 * Comments in Makefile.am are placed more intelligently in Makefile.in
2564 * Generates .PHONY target
2565 * Rule or macro in Makefile.am now overrides contents of Automake file
2566 * Substantial cleanups from François Pinard
2570 * Works with Perl 4 again.
2573 * New uniform naming scheme.
2574 * --strictness option
2576 * '.c' files corresponding to '.y' or '.l' files are automatically
2578 * Many bug fixes and cleanups
2581 * Allow objects to be conditionally included in libraries via lib_LIBADD.
2584 * Bug fixes in 'clean' code.
2585 * Now generates 'installdirs' target.
2586 * man page installation reworked.
2587 * 'make dist' no longer re-creates all Makefile.in's.
2590 * Reimplemented in Perl
2591 * Added --amdir option (for debugging)
2592 * Texinfo support cleaned up.
2593 * Automatic de-ANSI-fication cleaned up.
2594 * Cleaned up 'clean' targets.
2597 * Automatic dependency tracking
2598 * More documentation
2599 * New variables DATA and PACKAGEDATA
2600 * SCRIPTS installed using $(INSTALL_SCRIPT)
2601 * No longer uses double-colon rules
2603 * Changes in advance of internationalization
2607 Copyright (C) 1995-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2609 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
2610 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2611 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
2614 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2615 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2616 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2617 GNU General Public License for more details.
2619 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2620 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.