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". This kind of fixes
20 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 and deprecation, but no backward
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 * C compilation, and the AC_PROG_CC and AM_PROG_CC_C_O macros:
87 - The 'compile' script is now unconditionally required for all
88 packages that perform C compilation (note that if you are using
89 the '--add-missing' option, automake will fetch that script for
90 you, so you shouldn't need any explicit adjustment).
91 This new behaviour is needed to avoid obscure errors when the
92 'subdir-objects' option is used, and the compiler is an inferior
93 one that doesn't grasp the combined use of both the "-c -o"
94 options; see discussion about automake bug#13378 for more details:
95 <http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=13378#35>
96 <http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=13378#44>
98 - Automake will automatically enhance the AC_PROG_CC autoconf macro
99 to make it check, at configure time, that the C compiler supports
100 the combined use of both the "-c -o" options. This "rewrite" of
101 AC_PROG_CC is only meant to be temporary, since future Autoconf
102 versions should provide all the features Automake needs.
104 - The AM_PROG_CC_C_O is no longer useful, and its use is a no-op
105 now. Future Automake versions might start warning that this
106 macro is obsolete. For better backward-compatibility, this macro
107 still sets a proper 'ac_cv_prog_cc_*_c_o' cache variable, and
108 define the 'NO_MINUS_C_MINUS_O' C preprocessor symbol, but you
109 should really stop relying on that.
113 - Automake can now be instructed to place '.info' files generated from
114 Texinfo input in the builddir rather than in the srcdir; this is done
115 specifying the new automake option 'info-in-builddir'. This feature
116 was requested by the developers of GCC, GDB, GNU binutils and the GNU
117 bfd library. See the extensive discussion about automake bug#11034
120 - For quite a long time, Automake has been implementing an undocumented
121 hack which ensured that '.info' files which appeared to be cleaned
122 (by e.g. being listed in the CLEANFILES or DISTCLEANFILES variables)
123 were built in the builddir rather than in the srcdir; this hack was
124 introduced to ensure better backward-compatibility with packages such
125 as Texinfo, which did things like:
127 info_TEXINFOS = texinfo.txi info-stnd.texi info.texi
128 DISTCLEANFILES = texinfo texinfo-* info*.info*
129 # Do not create info files for distribution.
133 in order not to distribute generated '.info' files.
135 Now that we have the 'info-in-builddir' option that explicitly causes
136 generated '.info' files to be placed in the builddir, this hack should
137 be longer necessary, so we deprecate it with runtime warnings. It will
138 likely be removed altogether in Automake 2.0.
140 * Relative directory in Makefile fragments:
142 - The special Automake-time substitutions '%reldir%' and '%canon_reldir%'
143 (and their short versions, '%D%' and '%C%' respectively) can now be used
144 in an included Makefile fragment. The former is substituted with the
145 relative directory of the included fragment (compared to the top level
146 including Makefile), and the latter with the canonicalized version of
147 the same relative directory:
149 bin_PROGRAMS += %reldir%/foo
150 %canon_reldir%_foo_SOURCES = %reldir%/bar.c
152 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
156 * Documentation fixes:
158 - The long-deprecated but still supported two-arguments invocation form
159 of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is documented once again. This seems the sanest
160 thing to do, given that support for such an usage might need to remain
161 in place for a unspecified amount of time in order to cater for people
162 who want to define the version number for their package dynamically at
163 configure runtime (unfortunately, Autoconf does not yet support this
164 scenario, so we cannot delegate the work to it).
166 - The serial testsuite harness is no longer reported as "deprecated",
167 but as "discouraged". We have no plan to remove it, not to make its
168 use cause runtime warnings.
170 - The parallel testsuite is no longer reported as "experimental"; it
171 is well tested, and should be stable now.
173 - The 'shar' and 'tarZ' distribution formats and the 'dist-shar' and
174 'dist-tarZ' options are obsolescent, and their use is deprecated
175 in the documentation.
177 - Other minor miscellaneous fixes and improvements; in particular,
178 some improvements in cross-references.
180 * Obsolescent features:
182 - Use of suffix-less info files (that can be specified through the
183 '@setfilename' macro in Texinfo input files) is discouraged, and
184 its use will raise warnings in the 'obsolete' category. Simply
185 use the '.info' extension for all your info files, transforming
188 @setfilename myprogram
192 @setfilename myprogram.info
194 - Use of Texinfo input files with '.txi' or '.texinfo' extensions
195 is discouraged, and its use will raise warnings in the 'obsolete'
196 category. You are advised to simply use the '.texi' extension
201 - When the 'ustar' option is used, the generated configure script no
202 longer risks hanging during the tests for the availability of the
203 'pax' utility, even if the user running configure has a UID or GID
204 that requires more than 21 bits to be represented.
205 See automake bug#8343 and bug#13588.
207 - The obsolete macros AM_CONFIG_HEADER or AM_PROG_CC_STDC work once
208 again, as they did in Automake 1.12.x (albeit printing runtime
209 warnings in the 'obsolete' category). Removing them has turned
210 out to be a very bad idea, because it complicated distro packing
211 enormously. Making them issue fatal warnings, as we did in
212 Automake 1.13, has turned out to be a similarly very bad idea,
213 for exactly the same reason.
215 - aclocal will no longer error out if the first local m4 directory
216 (as specified by the '-I' option or the 'AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS' or
217 'AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR' macros) doesn't exist; it will merely report
218 a warning in the 'unsupported' category. This is done to support
219 some pre-existing real-world usages. See automake bug#13514.
221 - aclocal will no longer consider directories for extra m4 files more
222 than once, even if they are specified multiple times. This ensures
223 packages that specify both
225 AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4]) in configure.ac
226 ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4 in Makefile.am
228 will work correctly, even when the 'm4' directory contains no
229 package-specific files, but is used only to install third-party
230 m4 files (as can happen with e.g., "libtoolize --install").
231 See automake bug#13514.
233 - Analysis of make flags in Automake-generated rules has been made more
234 robust, and more future-proof. For example, in presence of make that
235 (like '-I') take an argument, the characters in said argument will no
236 longer be spuriously considered as a set of additional make options.
237 In particular, automake-generated rules will no longer spuriously
238 believe to be running in dry mode ("make -n") if run with an invocation
239 like "make -I noob"; nor will they believe to be running in keep-going
240 mode ("make -k") if run with an invocation like "make -I kool"
241 (automake bug#12554).
243 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
249 - Use of the obsolete macros AM_CONFIG_HEADER or AM_PROG_CC_STDC now
250 causes a clear and helpful error message, instead of obscure ones
251 (issue introduced in Automake 1.13).
253 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
259 - ylwrap renames properly header guards in generated header files
260 (*.h), instead of leaving Y_TAB_H.
262 - ylwrap now also converts header guards in implementation files
263 (*.c). Because ylwrap failed to rename properly #include in the
264 implementation files, current versions of Bison (e.g., 2.7)
265 duplicate the generated header file in the implementation file.
266 The header guard then protects the implementation file from
267 duplicate definitions from the header file.
269 * Version requirements:
271 - Autoconf 2.65 or greater is now required.
273 - The rules to build PDF and DVI output from Texinfo input now
274 require Texinfo 4.9 or later.
278 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (once enabled by the 'cygnus'
279 option) has been removed. See discussion about automake bug#11034
280 for more background: <http://debbugs.gnu.org/11034>.
282 - The deprecated aclocal option '--acdir' has been removed. You
283 should use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir'
284 instead (which have been introduced in Automake 1.11.2).
286 - The following long-obsolete m4 macros have been removed:
288 AM_PROG_CC_STDC: superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002
289 fp_PROG_CC_STDC: broken alias for AM_PROG_CC_STDC
290 fp_WITH_DMALLOC: old alias for AM_WITH_DMALLOC
291 AM_CONFIG_HEADER: superseded by AC_CONFIG_HEADERS since July 2002
292 ud_PATH_LISPDIR: old alias for AM_PATH_LISPDIR
293 jm_MAINTAINER_MODE: old alias for AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
294 ud_GNU_GETTEXT: old alias for AM_GNU_GETTEXT
295 gm_PROG_LIBTOOL: old alias for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
296 fp_C_PROTOTYPES: old alias for AM_C_PROTOTYPES (which was part
297 of the now-removed automatic de-ANSI-fication
300 - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' have been removed.
302 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
303 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is no longer documented. It's still supported
304 though (albeit with a warning in the 'obsolete' category), to cater
305 for people who want to define the version number for their package
306 dynamically (e.g., from the current VCS revision). We'll have to
307 continue this support until Autoconf itself is fixed to allow better
308 support for such dynamic version numbers.
310 * Elisp byte-compilation:
312 - The byte compilation of '.el' files into '.elc' files is now done
313 with a suffix rule. This has simplified the compilation process, and
314 more importantly made it less brittle. The downside is that emacs is
315 now invoked once for each '.el' files, which cause some noticeable
316 slowdowns. These should however be mitigated on multicore machines
317 (which are becoming the norm today) if concurrent make ("make -j")
320 - Elisp files placed in a subdirectory are now byte-compiled to '.elc'
321 files in the same subdirectory; for example, byte-compiling of file
322 'sub/foo.el' file will result in 'sub/foo.elc' rather than in
323 'foo.elc'. This behaviour is backward-incompatible with older
324 Automake versions, but it is more natural and more sane. See also
327 - The Emacs invocation performing byte-compilation of '.el' files honors
328 the $(AM_ELCFLAGS) and $(ELCFLAGS) variables; as typical, the former
329 one is developer-reserved and the latter one user-reserved.
331 - The 'elisp-comp' script, once provided by Automake, has been rendered
332 obsoleted by the just-described changes, and thus removed.
334 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
336 - The parallel testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the
337 'parallel-tests' option) is the default one; the older serial
338 testsuite harness will still be available through the use of the
339 'serial-tests' option (introduced in Automake 1.12).
341 - The 'color-tests' option is now unconditionally activated by default.
342 In particular, this means that testsuite output is now colorized by
343 default if the attached terminal seems to support ANSI escapes, and
344 that the user can force output colorization by setting the variable
345 AM_COLOR_TESTS to "always". The 'color-tests' is still recognized
346 for backward-compatibility, although it's a handled as a no-op now.
348 * Silent rules support:
350 - Support for silent rules is now always active in Automake-generated
351 Makefiles. So, although the verbose output is still the default,
352 the user can now always use "./configure --enable-silent-rules" or
353 "make V=0" to enable quieter output in the package he's building.
355 - The 'silent-rules' option has now become a no-op, preserved for
356 backward-compatibility only. In particular, its use no longer
357 disables the warnings in the 'portability-recursive' category.
361 - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now require
362 Texinfo 4.9 or later.
364 - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now use the
365 '--build-dir' option, to keep the auxiliary files used by texi2dvi
366 and texi2pdf around without cluttering the build directory, and to
367 make it possible to run the "dvi" and "pdf" recipes in parallel.
369 * Automatic remake rules and 'missing' script:
371 - The 'missing' script no longer tries to update the timestamp of
372 out-of-date files that require a maintainer-specific tool to be
373 remade, in case the user lacks such a tool (or has a too-old version
374 of it). It just gives a useful warning, and in some cases also a
375 tip about how to obtain such a tool.
377 - The missing script has thus become useless as a (poor) way to work
378 around the sketched-timestamps issues that can happen for projects
379 that keep generated files committed in their VCS repository. Such
380 projects are now encouraged to write a custom "fix-timestamps.sh"
381 script to avoid such issues; a simple example is provided in the
382 "CVS and generated files" chapter of the automake manual.
386 - The user can now define his own recursive targets that recurse
387 in the directories specified in $(SUBDIRS). This can be done by
388 specifying the name of such targets in invocations of the new
389 'AM_EXTRA_RECURSIVE_TARGETS' m4 macro.
393 - Any failure in the recipe of the "tags", "ctags", "cscope" or
394 "cscopelist" targets in a subdirectory is now propagated to the
395 top-level make invocation.
397 - Tags are correctly computed also for files in _SOURCES variables that
398 only list files with non-standard suffixes (see automake bug#12372).
400 * Improvements to aclocal and related rebuilds rules:
402 - Autoconf-provided macros AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR and AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS
403 are now traced by aclocal, and can be used to declare the local m4
404 include directories. Formerly, one had to specify it with an explicit
405 '-I' option to the 'aclocal' invocation.
407 - The special make variable ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS is deprecated; future
408 Automake versions will warn about its use, and later version will
409 remove support for it altogether.
411 * The depcomp script:
413 - Dropped support for libtool 1.4.
415 - Various internal refactorings. They should cause no visible change,
416 but the chance for regression is there anyway, so please report any
417 unexpected or suspicious behaviour.
419 - Support for pre-8.0 versions of the Intel C Compiler has been dropped.
420 This should cause no problem, since icc 8.0 has been released in
421 December 2003 -- almost nine years ago.
423 - Support for tcc (the Tiny C Compiler) has been improved, and is now
424 handled through a dedicated 'tcc' mode.
428 - ylwrap generates header guards with a single '_' for series of non
429 alphabetic characters, instead of several. This is what Bison >=
432 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
434 Bugs fixed in 1.12.6:
436 * Python-related bugs:
438 - The default installation location for python modules has been improved
439 for Python 3 on Debian and Ubuntu systems, changing from:
441 ${prefix}/lib/python3/dist-packages
445 ${prefix}/lib/python3.x/site-packages
447 This change should ensure modules installed using the default ${prefix}
448 "/usr/local" are found by default by system python 3.x installations.
449 See automake bug#10227.
451 - Python byte-compilation supports the new layout mandated by PEP-3147,
452 with its __pycache__ directory (automake bug#8847).
454 * Build system issues:
456 - The maintainer rebuild rules for Makefiles and aclocal.m4 in
457 Automake's own build system works correctly again (bug introduced
462 - The Vala-related tests has been changed to adjust to the removal of
463 the 'posix' profile in the valac compiler. See automake bug#12934
466 - Some spurious testsuite failures related to older tools and systems
469 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
475 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro has been enhanced to takes two further
476 optional arguments; it's signature now being
478 AM_PROG_VALAC([MINIMUM-VERSION], [ACTION-IF-FOUND],
479 [ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND])
481 - By default, AM_PROG_VALAC no longer aborts the configure invocation
482 if the Vala compiler found is too old, but simply prints a warning
483 messages (as it did when the Vala compiler was not found). This
484 should avoid unnecessary difficulties for end users that just want
485 to compile the unmodified, distributed Vala-generated C sources,
486 but happens to have an old Vala compiler in their PATH. This fixes
489 - If no proper Vala compiler is found at configure runtime, AM_PROG_VALAC
490 will set the AC_SUBST'd variable 'VALAC' to 'valac' rather than to ':'.
491 This is a better default, because with it a triggered makefile rule
492 invoking a Vala compilation will clearly fail with an informative error
493 message like "valac: command not found", rather than silently, with
494 the error possibly going unnoticed or triggering harder-to-diagnose
495 fallout failures in later steps.
497 * Miscellaneous changes:
499 - automake and aclocal no longer honours the 'perllibdir' environment
500 variable. That had always been intended only as an hack required in
501 the testsuite, not meant for any use beyond that.
503 Bugs fixed in 1.12.5:
505 * Long-standing bugs:
507 - Automake no longer generates spurious remake rules invoking autoheader
508 to regenerate the template corresponding to header files specified after
509 the first one in AC_CONFIG_HEADERS (automake bug#12495).
511 - When wrapping Microsoft tools, the 'compile' script falls back to
512 finding classic 'libname.a' style libraries when 'name.lib' and
513 'name.dll.lib' aren't available.
515 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
519 * Warnings and deprecations:
521 - Warnings in the 'obsolete' category are enabled by default both in
522 automake and aclocal.
524 * Miscellaneous changes:
526 - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
528 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
532 * Miscellaneous changes:
534 - The '.m4' files provided by Automake no longer define serial numbers.
535 This should cause no difference in the behaviour of aclocal though.
537 - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
539 - There is initial support for automatic dependency tracking with the
540 Portland Group C/C++ compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'pgcc'.
542 Bugs fixed in 1.12.3:
544 * Long-standing bugs:
546 - Instead of renaming only self-references of files (typically for
547 #lines), ylwrap now also renames references to the other generated
548 files. This fixes support for GLR and C++ parsers from Bison (PR
549 automake/491 and automake bug#7648): 'parser.c' now properly
550 #includes 'parser.h' instead of 'y.tab.h'.
552 - Generated files unknown to ylwrap are now preserved. This fixes
553 C++ support for Bison (automake bug#7648): location.hh and the
554 like are no longer discarded.
556 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
560 * Warnings and deprecations:
562 - Automake now issues a warning (in the 'portability' category) if
563 'configure.in' is used instead of 'configure.ac' as the Autoconf
564 input file. Such a warning will also be present in the next
565 Autoconf version (2.70).
569 - Recursive cleaning rules descends into the $(SUBDIRS) in the natural
570 order (as done by the other recursive rules), rather than in the
571 inverse order. They used to do that in order to work a round a
572 limitation in an older implementation of the automatic dependency
573 tracking support, but that limitation had been lifted years ago
574 already, when the automatic dependency tracking based on side-effects
575 of compilation had been introduced.
577 - Cleaning rules for compiled objects (both "plain" and libtool) work
578 better when subdir objects are involved, not triggering a distinct
579 'rm' invocation for each such object. They do so by removing *any*
580 compiled object file that is in the same directory of a subdir
581 object. See automake bug#10697.
583 * Silent rules support:
585 - A new predefined $(AM_V_P) make variable is provided; it expands
586 to a shell conditional that can be used in recipes to know whether
587 make is being run in silent or verbose mode.
589 Bugs fixed in 1.12.2:
591 * SECURITY VULNERABILITIES!
593 - The 'distcheck' recipe no longer grants temporary world-write
594 permissions on the extracted distdir. Even if such rights were
595 only granted for a vanishingly small time window, the implied
596 race condition proved to be enough to allow a local attacker
597 to run arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running
598 "make distcheck". This is CVE-2012-3386.
600 * Long-standing bugs:
602 - The "recheck" targets behaves better in the face of build failures
603 related to previously failed tests. For example, if a test is a
604 compiled program that must be rerun by "make recheck", and its
605 compilation fails, it will still be rerun by further "make recheck"
606 invocations. See automake bug#11791.
608 * Bugs introduced by 1.12.1:
610 - Automake provides once again the '$(mkdir_p)' make variable and the
611 '@mkdir_p@' substitution (both as simple aliases for '$(MKDIR_P)'),
612 for better backward-compatibility.
614 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
618 * New supported languages:
620 - Support for Objective C++ has been added; it should work similarly to
621 the support for Objective C.
623 * Deprecated obsolescent features:
625 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
626 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro now elicits a warning in the 'obsolete'
627 category. Starting from some future major Automake release (likely
628 post-1.13), such usages will no longer be allowed.
630 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (enabled by the 'cygnus' option) is
631 now deprecated (its use triggers a warning in the 'obsolete' category).
632 It will be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13).
634 - The long-obsolete (since 1.10) automake-provided $(mkdir_p) make
635 variable, @mkdir_p@ configure-time substitution and AM_PROG_MKDIR
636 m4 macro are deprecated, eliciting a warning in the 'obsolete'
639 * Miscellaneous changes:
641 - The Automake test cases now require a proper POSIX-conforming shell.
642 Older non-POSIX Bourne shells (like Solaris 10 /bin/sh) will no longer
643 be accepted. In most cases, the user shouldn't have to specify such
644 POSIX shell explicitly, since it will be looked up at configure time.
645 Still, when this lookup fails, or when the user wants to override its
646 conclusion, the variable 'AM_TEST_RUNNER_SHELL' can be used (pointing
647 to the shell that will be used to run the Automake test cases).
649 Bugs fixed in 1.12.1:
651 * Bugs introduced by 1.12:
653 - Several weaknesses in Automake's own build system and test suite
656 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
658 - When given non-option arguments, aclocal rejects them, instead of
659 silently ignoring them.
661 * Long-standing bugs:
663 - When the 'color-tests' option is in use, forcing of colored testsuite
664 output through "AM_COLOR_TESTS=always" works even if the terminal is
665 a non-ANSI one, i.e., if the TERM environment variable has a value of
668 - Several inefficiencies and poor performances in the implementation
669 of the parallel-tests 'check' and 'recheck' targets have been fixed.
671 - The post-processing of output "#line" directives done the ylwrap
672 script is more faithful w.r.t. files in a subdirectory; for example,
673 if the processed file is "src/grammar.y", ylwrap will correctly
674 produce directives like:
675 #line 7 "src/grammar.y"
680 * Bugs with new Perl versions:
682 - Aclocal works correctly with perl 5.16.0 (automake bug#11543).
684 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
688 * Obsolete features removed:
690 - The never documented nor truly used script 'acinstall' has been
693 - Support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been removed.
695 - The support for the "obscure" multilib feature has been removed
696 from Automake core (but remains available in the 'contrib/'
697 directory of the Automake distribution).
699 - Support for ".log -> .html" conversion and the check-html and
700 recheck-html targets has been removed from Automake core (but
701 remains available in the 'contrib/' directory of the Automake
704 - The deprecated 'lzma' compression format for distribution archives
705 has been removed, in favor of 'xz' and 'lzip'.
707 - The obsolete AM_WITH_REGEX macro has been removed.
709 - The long-deprecated options '--output-dir', '--Werror' and
710 '--Wno-error' have been removed.
712 - The chapter on the history of Automake has been moved out of the
713 reference manual, into a new dedicated Texinfo file.
717 - New 'cscope' target to build a cscope database for the source tree.
719 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
721 - The new automake option 'serial-tests' has been introduced. It can
722 be used to explicitly instruct automake to use the older serial
723 testsuite harness. This is still the default at the moment, but it
724 might change in future versions.
726 - The 'recheck' target (provided by the parallel testsuite harness) now
727 depends on the 'all' target. This allows for a better user-experience
728 in test-driven development. See automake bug#11252.
730 - Test scripts that exit with status 99 to signal an "hard error" (e.g.,
731 and unexpected or internal error, or a failure to set up the test case
732 scenario) have their outcome reported as an 'ERROR' now. Previous
733 versions of automake reported such an outcome as a 'FAIL' (the only
734 difference with normal failures being that hard errors were counted
735 as failures even when the test originating them was listed in
738 - The testsuite summary displayed by the parallel-test harness has a
739 completely new format, that always list the numbers of passed, failed,
740 xfailed, xpassed, skipped and errored tests, even when these numbers
741 are zero (but using smart coloring when the color-tests option is in
744 - The default testsuite driver offered by the 'parallel-tests' option is
745 now implemented (partly at least) with the help of automake-provided
746 auxiliary scripts (e.g., 'test-driver'), instead of relying entirely
747 on code in the generated Makefile.in.
748 This has two noteworthy implications. The first one is that projects
749 using the 'parallel-tests' option should now either run automake with
750 the '--add-missing' option, or manually copy the 'test-driver' script
751 into their tree. The second, and more important, implication is that
752 now, when the 'parallel-tests' option is in use, TESTS_ENVIRONMENT can
753 no longer be used to define a test runner, and the command specified
754 in LOG_COMPILER (and <ext>_LOG_COMPILER) must be a *real* executable
755 program or script. For example, this is still a valid usage (albeit
758 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
759 if test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS)'; then \
760 maybe_errexit='-e'; \
764 LOG_COMPILER = $(SHELL) $$maybe_errexit
766 OTOH, this is no longer a valid usage:
768 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
769 $(SHELL) `test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS_CHECKING)' && echo ' -e'`
773 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
774 run_with_perl_or_shell () \
776 if grep -q '^#!.*perl' $$1; then
782 LOG_COMPILER = run_with_perl_or_shell
784 - The package authors can now use customary testsuite drivers within
785 the framework provided by the 'parallel-tests' testsuite harness.
786 Consistently with the existing syntax, this can be done by defining
787 special makefile variables 'LOG_DRIVER' and '<ext>_LOG_DRIVER'.
789 - A new developer-reserved variable 'AM_TESTS_FD_REDIRECT' can be used
790 to redirect/define file descriptors used by the test scripts.
792 - The parallel-tests harness generates now, in addition the '.log' files
793 holding the output produced by the test scripts, a new set of '.trs'
794 files, holding "metadata" derived by the execution of the test scripts;
795 among such metadata are the outcomes of the test cases run by a script.
797 - Initial and still experimental support for the TAP test protocol is
800 * Changes to Yacc and Lex support:
802 - C source and header files derived from non-distributed Yacc and/or
803 Lex sources are now removed by a simple "make clean" (while they were
804 previously removed only by "make maintainer-clean").
806 - Slightly backward-incompatible change, relevant only for use of Yacc
807 with C++: the extensions of the header files produced by the Yacc
808 rules are now modelled after the extension of the corresponding
809 sources. For example, yacc files named "foo.y++" and "bar.yy" will
810 produce header files named "foo.h++" and "bar.hh" respectively, where
811 they would have previously produced header files named simply "foo.h"
812 and "bar.h". This change offers better compatibility with 'bison -o'.
814 * Miscellaneous changes:
816 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro now causes configure to exit with status 77,
817 rather than 1, if the vala compiler found is too old.
819 - The build system of Automake itself now avoids the use of make
820 recursion as much as possible.
822 - Automake now prefers to quote 'like this' or "like this", rather
823 than `like this', in diagnostic message and generated Makefiles,
824 to accommodate the new GNU Coding Standards recommendations.
826 - Automake has a new option '--print-libdir' that prints the path of the
827 directory containing the Automake-provided scripts and data files.
829 - The 'dist' and 'dist-all' targets now can run compressors in parallel.
831 - The rules to create pdf, dvi and ps output from Texinfo files now
832 works better with modern 'texi2dvi' script, by explicitly passing
833 it the '--clean' option to ensure stray auxiliary files are not
834 left to clutter the build directory.
836 - Automake can now generate silenced rules for texinfo outputs.
838 - Some auxiliary files that are automatically distributed by Automake
839 (e.g., 'install-sh', or the 'depcomp' script for packages compiling
840 C sources) might now be listed in the DIST_COMMON variable in many
841 Makefile.in files, rather than in the top-level one.
843 - Messages of types warning or error from 'automake' and 'aclocal'
844 are now prefixed with the respective type, and presence of -Werror
847 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now tries to avoid
848 sleeping for a second, which slowed down cached configure runs
849 noticeably. In that case, it will check back at the end of the
850 configure script to ensure that at least one second has passed, to
851 avoid time stamp issues with makefile rules rerunning autotools
854 - The warnings in the category 'extra-portability' are now enabled by
855 '-Wall'. In previous versions, one has to use '-Wextra-portability'
860 - Various minor bugfixes for recent or long-standing bugs.
862 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
864 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
865 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
867 - The automake-provided parallel testsuite harness no longer fails
868 with BSD make used in parallel mode when there are test scripts in
869 a subdirectory, like in:
871 TESTS = sub/foo.test sub/bar.test
873 * Long-standing bugs:
875 - Automake's own build system finally have a real "installcheck" target.
877 - Vala-related cleanup rules are now more complete, and work better in
880 - Files listed with the AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE macro in configure.ac are
881 now automatically distributed also if the directory of the auxiliary
882 files coincides with the top-level directory.
884 - Automake now detects the presence of the '-d' flag in the various
885 '*YFLAGS' variables even when their definitions involve indirections
886 through other variables, such as in:
888 AM_YFLAGS = $(foo_opts)
890 - Automake now complains if a '*YFLAGS' variable has any conditional
891 content, not only a conditional definition.
893 - Explicit enabling and/or disabling of Automake warning categories
894 through the '-W...' options now always takes precedence over the
895 implicit warning level implied by Automake strictness (foreign, gnu
896 or gnits), regardless of the order in which such strictness and
897 warning flags appear. For example, a setting like:
898 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = -Wall --foreign
899 will cause the warnings in category 'portability' to be enabled, even
900 if those warnings are by default disabled in 'foreign' strictness.
902 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
904 Bugs fixed in 1.11.5:
906 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
908 - Vala files with '.vapi' extension are now recognized and handled
909 correctly again. See automake bug#11222.
911 - Vala support work again for projects that contain some program
912 built from '.vala' (and possibly '.c') sources and some other
913 program built from '.c' sources *only*. See automake bug#11229.
915 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
919 * Miscellaneous changes:
921 - The 'ar-lib' script now ignores the "s" (symbol index) and "S" (no
922 symbol index) modifiers as well as the "s" action, as the symbol index
923 is created unconditionally by Microsoft lib. Also, the "q" (quick)
924 action is now a synonym for "r" (replace). Also, the script has been
925 ignoring the "v" (verbose) modifier already since Automake 1.11.3.
927 - When the 'compile' script is used to wrap MSVC, it now accepts an
928 optional space between the -I, -L and -l options and their respective
929 arguments, for better POSIX compliance.
931 - There is an initial, experimental support for automatic dependency
932 tracking with tcc (the Tiny C Compiler). Its associated depmode is
933 currently recognized as "icc" (but this and other details are likely
934 to change in future versions).
936 - Automatic dependency tracking now works also with the IBM XL C/C++
937 compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'xlc'.
939 Bugs fixed in 1.11.4:
941 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
943 - A definition of 'noinst_PYTHON' before 'python_PYTHON' (or similar)
944 no longer cause spurious failures upon "make install".
946 - The user can now instruct the 'uninstall-info' rule not to update
947 the '${infodir}/dir' file by exporting the environment variable
948 'AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no". This is done for consistency
949 with how the 'install-info' rule operates since automake 1.11.2.
951 * Long-standing bugs:
953 - It is now possible for a foo_SOURCES variable to hold Vala sources
954 together with C header files, as well as with sources and headers for
955 other supported languages (e.g., C++). Previously, only mixing C and
956 Vala sources was supported.
958 - If "aclocal --install" is used, and the first directory specified with
959 '-I' is non-existent, aclocal will now create it before trying to copy
962 - An empty declaration of a "foo_PRIMARY" no longer cause the generated
963 install rules to create an empty $(foodir) directory; for example, if
964 Makefile.am contains something like:
968 pkglibexec_SCRIPTS += bar.sh
971 the $(pkglibexec) directory will not be created upon "make install".
973 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
977 * Miscellaneous changes:
979 - Automake's own build system is more silent by default, making use of
980 the 'silent-rules' option.
982 - The master copy of the 'gnupload' script is now maintained in gnulib,
985 - The 'missing' script no longer tries to wrap calls to 'tar'.
987 - "make dist" no longer wraps 'tar' invocations with the 'missing'
988 script. Similarly, the obsolescent variable '$(AMTAR)' (which you
989 shouldn't be using BTW ;-) no longer invokes the 'missing' script
990 to wrap tar, but simply invokes the 'tar' program itself.
992 - "make dist" can now create lzip-compressed tarballs.
994 - In the Automake info documentation, the Top node and the nodes about
995 the invocation of the automake and aclocal programs have been renamed;
996 now, calling "info automake" will open the Top node, while calling
997 "info automake-invocation" and "info aclocal-invocation" will access
998 the nodes about the invocation of respectively automake and aclocal.
1000 - Automake is now distributed as a gzip-compressed and an xz-compressed
1001 tarball. Previously, bzip2 was used instead of xz.
1003 - The last relics of Python 1.5 support have been removed from the
1004 AM_PATH_PYTHON macro.
1006 - For programs and libraries, automake now detects EXTRA_foo_DEPENDENCIES
1007 and adds them to the normal list of dependencies, but without
1008 overwriting the foo_DEPENDENCIES variable, which is normally computed
1011 Bugs fixed in 1.11.3:
1013 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
1015 - Automake now correctly recognizes the prefix/primary combination
1016 'pkglibexec_SCRIPTS' as valid.
1018 - The parallel-tests harness no longer trips on sed implementations
1019 with stricter limits on the length of input lines (problem seen at
1020 least on Solaris 8).
1022 * Long-standing bugs:
1024 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.am files is avoided by stub
1025 rules. This allows 'make' to trigger a rerun of 'automake' also if
1026 some previously needed '.am' file has been removed.
1028 - The 'silent-rules' option now generates working makefiles even
1029 for the uncommon 'make' implementations that do not support the
1030 nested-variables extension to POSIX 2008. For such 'make'
1031 implementations, whether a build is silent is determined at
1032 configure time, and cannot be overridden at make time with
1033 "make V=0" or "make V=1".
1035 - Vala support now works better in VPATH setups.
1037 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1041 * Changes to aclocal:
1043 - The `--acdir' option is deprecated. Now you should use the new options
1044 `--automake-acdir' and `--system-acdir' instead.
1046 - The `ACLOCAL_PATH' environment variable is now interpreted as a
1047 colon-separated list of additional directories to search after the
1048 automake internal acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal-APIVERSION)
1049 and before the system acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal).
1051 * Miscellaneous changes:
1053 - The Automake support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been
1054 deprecated. It will probably be removed in the next major Automake
1057 - The `lzma' compression scheme and associated automake option `dist-lzma'
1058 is obsoleted by `xz' and `dist-xz' due to upstream changes.
1060 - You may adjust the compression options used in dist-xz and dist-bzip2.
1061 The default is now merely -e for xz, but still -9 for bzip; you may
1062 specify a different level via the XZ_OPT and BZIP2 envvars respectively.
1063 E.g., "make dist-xz XZ_OPT=-7" or "make dist-bzip2 BZIP2=-5"
1065 - The `compile' script now converts some options for MSVC for a better
1066 user experience. Similarly, the new `ar-lib' script wraps Microsoft lib.
1068 - The py-compile script now accepts empty arguments passed to the options
1069 `--destdir' and `--basedir', and complains about unrecognized options.
1070 Moreover, a non-option argument or a special `--' argument terminates
1071 the list of options.
1073 - A developer that needs to pass specific flags to configure at "make
1074 distcheck" time can now, and indeed is advised to, do so by defining
1075 the developer-reserved makefile variable AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS,
1076 instead of the old DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS.
1077 The DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS variable should now be reserved for the
1078 user; still, the old Makefile.am files that used to define it will
1079 still continue to work as before.
1081 - New macro AM_PROG_AR that looks for an archiver and wraps it in the new
1082 'ar-lib' auxiliary script if the selected archiver is Microsoft lib.
1083 This new macro is required for LIBRARIES and LTLIBRARIES when automake
1084 is run with -Wextra-portability and -Werror.
1086 - When using DejaGnu-based testsuites, the user can extend the `site.exp'
1087 file generated by automake-provided rules by defining the special make
1088 variable `$(EXTRA_DEJAGNU_SITE_CONFIG)'.
1090 - The `install-info' rule can now be instructed not to create/update
1091 the `${infodir}/dir' file, by exporting the new environment variable
1092 `AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no".
1094 Bugs fixed in 1.11.2:
1096 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
1098 - The parallel-tests driver no longer produces erroneous results with
1099 Tru64/OSF 5.1 sh upon unreadable log files.
1101 - The `parallel-tests' test driver does not report spurious successes
1102 when used with concurrent FreeBSD make (e.g., "make check -j3").
1104 - When the parallel-tests driver is in use, automake now explicitly
1105 rejects invalid entries and conditional contents in TEST_EXTENSIONS,
1106 instead of issuing confusing and apparently unrelated error messages
1107 (e.g., "non-POSIX variable name", "bad characters in variable name",
1108 or "redefinition of TEST_EXTENSIONS), or even, in some situations,
1109 silently producing broken `Makefile.in' files.
1111 - The `silent-rules' option now truly silences all compile rules, even
1112 when dependency tracking is disabled. Also, when `silent-rules' is
1113 not used, `make' output no longer contains spurious backslash-only
1114 lines, thus once again matching what Automake did before 1.11.
1116 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
1117 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
1119 * Long-standing bugs:
1121 - The order of Yacc and Lex flags is fixed to be consistent with other
1122 languages: $(AM_YFLAGS) comes before $(YFLAGS), and $(AM_LFLAGS) before
1123 $(LFLAGS), so that the user variables override the developer variables.
1125 - "make distcheck" now correctly complains also when "make uninstall"
1126 leaves one and only one file installed in $(prefix).
1128 - A "make uninstall" issued before a "make install", or after a mere
1129 "make install-data" or a mere "make install-exec" does not spuriously
1132 - Automake now warns about more primary/directory invalid combinations,
1133 such as "doc_LIBRARIES" or "pkglib_PROGRAMS".
1135 - Rules generated by Automake now try harder to not change any files when
1136 `make -n' is invoked. Fixes include compilation of Emacs Lisp, Vala, or
1137 Yacc source files and the rule to update config.h.
1139 - Several scripts and the parallel-tests testsuite driver now exit with
1140 the right exit status upon receiving a signal.
1142 - A per-Makefile.am setting of -Werror does not erroneously carry over
1143 to the handling of other Makefile.am files.
1145 - The code for automatic dependency tracking works around a Solaris
1146 make bug triggered by sources containing repeated slashes when the
1147 `subdir-objects' option was used.
1149 - The makedepend and hp depmodes now work better with VPATH builds.
1151 - Java sources specified with check_JAVA are no longer compiled for
1152 "make all", but only for "make check".
1154 - An usage like "java_JAVA = foo.java" will now cause Automake to warn
1155 and error out if `javadir' is undefined, instead of silently producing
1156 a broken Makefile.in.
1158 - aclocal and automake now honour the configure-time definitions of
1159 AUTOCONF and AUTOM4TE when they spawn autoconf or autom4te processes.
1161 - The `install-info' recipe no longer tries to guess whether the
1162 `install-info' program is from Debian or from GNU, and adaptively
1163 change its behaviour; this has proven to be frail and easy to
1166 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1168 Bugs fixed in 1.11.1:
1170 - Lots of minor bugfixes.
1172 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
1174 - The `parallel-tests' test driver works around a GNU make 3.80 bug with
1175 trailing white space in the test list (`TESTS = foo $(EMPTY)').
1177 * Long standing bugs:
1179 - On Darwin 9, `pythondir' and `pyexecdir' pointed below `/Library/Python'
1180 even if the `--prefix' argument pointed outside of a system directory.
1181 AM_PATH_PYTHON has been fixed to ignore the value returned from python's
1182 `get_python_lib' function if it points outside the configured prefix,
1183 unless the `--prefix' argument was either `/usr' or below `/System'.
1185 - The testsuite does not try to change the mode of `ltmain.sh' files from
1186 a Libtool installation (symlinked to test directories) any more.
1188 - AM_PROG_GCJ uses AC_CHECK_TOOLS to look for `gcj' now, so that prefixed
1189 tools are preferred in a cross-compile setup.
1191 - The distribution is tarred up with mode 755 now by the `dist*' targets.
1192 This fixes a race condition where untrusted users could modify files
1193 in the $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION) distdir before packing if the toplevel
1194 build directory was world-searchable. This is CVE-2009-4029.
1196 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1200 * Version requirements:
1202 - Autoconf 2.62 or greater is required.
1204 * Changes to aclocal:
1206 - The autoconf version check implemented by aclocal in aclocal.m4
1207 (and new in Automake 1.10) is degraded to a warning. This helps
1208 in the common case where the Autoconf versions used are compatible.
1210 * Changes to automake:
1212 - The automake program can run multiple threads for creating most
1213 Makefile.in files concurrently, if at least Perl 5.7.2 is available
1214 with interpreter-based threads enabled. Set the environment variable
1215 AUTOMAKE_JOBS to the maximum number of threads to use, in order to
1216 enable this experimental feature.
1218 * Changes to Libtool support:
1220 - Libtool generic flags are now passed to the install and uninstall
1223 - distcheck works with Libtool 2.x even when LT_OUTPUT is used, as
1224 config.lt is removed correctly now.
1226 * Languages changes:
1228 - subdir-object mode works now with Fortran (F77, FC, preprocessed
1229 Fortran, and Ratfor).
1231 - For files with extension .f90, .f95, .f03, or .f08, the flag
1232 $(FCFLAGS_f[09]x) computed by AC_FC_SRCEXT is now used in compile rules.
1234 - Files with extension .sx are also treated as preprocessed assembler.
1236 - The default source file extension (.c) can be overridden with
1237 AM_DEFAULT_SOURCE_EXT now.
1239 - Python 3.0 is supported now, Python releases prior to 2.0 are no
1242 - AM_PATH_PYTHON honors python's idea about the site directory.
1244 - There is initial support for the Vala programming language, when using
1245 Vala 0.7.0 or later.
1247 * Miscellaneous changes:
1249 - Automake development is done in a git repository on Savannah now, see
1251 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=automake.git
1253 A read-only CVS mirror is provided at
1255 cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@pserver.git.sv.gnu.org:/automake.git \
1256 checkout -d automake HEAD
1258 - "make dist" can now create xz-compressed tarballs,
1259 as well as (deprecated?) lzma-compressed tarballs.
1261 - `automake --add-missing' will by default install the GPLv3 file as
1262 COPYING if it is missing. It will also warn that the license file
1263 should be added to source control. Note that Automake will never
1264 overwrite an existing COPYING file, even when the `--force-missing'
1267 - The manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL 1.3.
1269 - Automake ships and installs man pages for automake and aclocal now.
1271 - New shorthand `$(pkglibexecdir)' for `$(libexecdir)/@PACKAGE@'.
1273 - install-sh supports -C, which does not update the installed file
1274 (and its time stamps) if the contents did not change.
1276 - The `gnupload' script has been revamped.
1278 - The `depcomp' and `compile' scripts now work with MSVC under MSYS.
1280 - The targets `install' and `uninstall' are more efficient now, in that
1281 for example multiple files from one Automake variable such as
1282 `bin_SCRIPTS' are copied in one `install' (or `libtool --mode=install')
1283 invocation if they do not have to be renamed.
1285 Both install and uninstall may sometimes enter (`cd' into) the target
1286 installation directory now, when no build-local scripts are used.
1288 Both install and uninstall do not fail anymore but do nothing if an
1289 installation directory variable like `bindir' is set to the empty string.
1291 For built-in rules, `make install' now fails reliably if installation
1292 of a file failed. Conversely, `make uninstall' even succeeds when
1293 issued multiple times.
1295 These changes may need some adjustments from users: For example,
1296 some `install' programs refuse to install multiple copies of the
1297 same file in one invocation, so you may need to remove duplicate
1298 entries from file lists.
1300 Also, within one set of files, say, nobase_data_DATA, the order of
1301 installation may be changed, or even unstable among different hosts,
1302 due to the use of associative arrays in awk. The increased use of
1303 awk matches a similar move in Autoconf to provide for better scaling.
1305 Further, most undocumented per-rule install command variables such as
1306 binSCRIPT_INSTALL have been removed because they are not needed any
1307 more. Packages which use them should be using the appropriate one of
1308 INSTALL_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT} or their install_sh_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT}
1309 counterpart, depending on the type of files and the need for automatic
1310 target directory creation.
1312 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.m4 files is avoided by
1313 stub rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `aclocal'
1314 also if some previously needed macro file has been removed.
1316 - Rebuild rules now also work for a removed `subdir/Makefile.in' in
1317 an otherwise up to date tree.
1319 - The `color-tests' option causes colored test result output on terminals.
1321 - The `parallel-tests' option enables a new test driver that allows for
1322 parallel test execution, inter-test dependencies, lazy test execution
1323 for unit-testing, re-testing only failed tests, and formatted result output
1324 as RST (reStructuredText) and HTML. Enabling this option may require some
1325 changes to your test suite setup; see the manual for details.
1327 - The `silent-rules' option enables Linux kernel-style silent build output.
1328 This option requires the widely supported but non-POSIX `make' feature
1329 of recursive variable expansion, so do not use it if your package needs
1330 to build with `make' implementations that do not support it.
1332 To enable less verbose build output, the developer has to use the Automake
1333 option `silent-rules' in `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE', or call the `AM_SILENT_RULES'
1334 macro. The user may then set the default verbosity by passing the
1335 `--enable-silent-rules' option to `configure'. At `make' run time, this
1336 default may be overridden using `make V=0' for less verbose, and `make V=1'
1337 for backward-compatible verbose output.
1339 - New prefix `notrans_' for manpages which should not be transformed
1340 by --program-transform.
1342 - New macro AM_COND_IF for conditional evaluation and conditional
1345 - For AC_CONFIG_LINKS, if source and destination are equal, do not
1346 remove the file in a non-VPATH build. Such setups work with Autoconf
1349 - AM_MAINTAINER_MODE now allows for an optional argument specifying
1350 the default setting.
1352 - AM_SUBST_NOTMAKE may prevent substitution of AC_SUBSTed variables,
1353 useful especially for multi-line values.
1355 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now diagnoses an
1356 unsafe absolute source directory name and makes configure fail.
1358 - The Automake macros and rules cope better with whitespace in the
1359 current directory name, as long as the relative path to `configure'
1360 does not contain whitespace. To this end, the values of `$(MISSING)'
1361 and `$(install_sh)' may contain suitable quoting, and their expansion
1362 might need `eval'uation if used outside of a makefile. These
1363 undocumented variables may be used in several documented macros such
1364 as $(AUTOCONF) or $(MAKEINFO).
1368 * Long-standing bugs:
1370 - Fix aix dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1372 - Work around AIX sh quoting issue in AC_PROG_CC_C_O, leading to
1373 unnecessary use of the `compile' script.
1375 - For nobase_*_LTLIBRARIES with nonempty directory components, the
1376 correct `-rpath' argument is used now.
1378 - `config.status --file=Makefile depfiles' now also works with the
1379 extra quoting used internally by Autoconf 2.62 and newer
1380 (it used to work only without the `--file=' bit).
1382 - The `missing' script works better with versioned tool names.
1384 - Semantics for `missing help2man' have been revamped:
1386 Previously, if `help2man' was not present, `missing help2man' would have
1387 the following semantics: if some man page was out of date but present, then
1388 a warning would be printed, but the exit status was 0. If the man page was
1389 not present at all, then `missing' would create a replacement man page
1390 containing an error message, and exit with a status of 2. This does not play
1391 well with `make': the next run will see this particular man page as being up
1392 to date, and will only error out on the next generated man page, if any;
1393 repeat until all pages are done. This was not desirable.
1395 These are the new semantics: if some man page is not present, and help2man
1396 is not either, then `missing' will warn and generate the replacement page
1397 containing the error message, but exit successfully. However, `make dist'
1398 will ensure that no such bogus man pages are packaged into a tarball.
1400 - Targets provided by automake behave better with `make -n', in that they
1401 take care not to create files.
1403 - `config.status Makefile... depfiles' works fine again in the presence of
1404 disabled dependency tracking.
1406 - The default no-op recursive rules for these targets also work with BSD make
1407 now: html, install-html, install-dvi, install-pdf, install-pdf, install-info.
1409 - `make distcheck' works also when both a directory and some file below it
1410 have been added to a distribution variable, such as EXTRA_DIST or *_SOURCES.
1412 - Texinfo dvi, ps, pdf, and html output files are not removed upon
1413 `make mostlyclean' any more; only the LaTeX by-products are.
1415 - Renamed objects also work with the `subdir-objects' option and
1416 source file languages which Automake does not know itself.
1418 - `automake' now correctly complains about variable assignments which are
1419 preceded by a comment, extend over multiple lines with backslash-escaped
1420 newlines, and end in a comment sign. Previous versions would silently
1421 and wrongly ignore such assignments completely.
1423 * Bugs introduced by 1.10:
1425 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
1426 Makefile.in's again, but also cope with long lines.
1428 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of XFAIL_TESTS
1429 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1430 This is for consistency with the analogous change to TESTS in 1.10.
1432 - Fix order of standard includes to again be `-I. -I$(srcdir)',
1433 followed by directories containing config headers.
1435 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1439 * Version requirements:
1441 - Autoconf 2.60 or greater is required.
1443 - Perl 5.6 or greater is required.
1445 * Changes to aclocal:
1447 - aclocal now also supports -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble options.
1449 - `dirlist' entries (for the aclocal search path) may use shell
1450 wildcards such as `*', `?', or `[...]'.
1452 - aclocal supports an --install option that will cause system-wide
1453 third-party macros to be installed in the local directory
1454 specified with the first -I flag. This option also uses #serial
1455 lines in M4 files to upgrade local macros.
1457 The new aclocal options --dry-run and --diff help to review changes
1458 before they are installed.
1460 - aclocal now outputs an autoconf version check in aclocal.m4 in
1461 projects using automake.
1463 For a few years, automake and aclocal have been calling autoconf
1464 (or its underlying engine autom4te) to accurately retrieve the
1465 data they need from configure.ac and its siblings. Doing so can
1466 only work if all autotools use the same version of autoconf. For
1467 instance a Makefile.in generated by automake for one version of
1468 autoconf may stop working if configure is regenerated with another
1469 version of autoconf, and vice versa.
1471 This new version check ensures that the whole build system has
1472 been generated using the same autoconf version.
1474 * Support for new Autoconf macros:
1476 - The new AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE Autoconf macro is supported.
1478 - If `subdir-objects' is set, and AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR is specified,
1479 $(LIBOBJS), $(LTLIBOBJS), $(ALLOCA), and $(LTALLOCA) can be used
1480 in different directories. However, only one instance of such a
1481 library objects directory is supported.
1483 * Change to Libtool support:
1485 - Libtool generic flags (those that go before the --mode=MODE option)
1486 can be specified using AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS and target_LIBTOOLFLAGS.
1488 * Yacc and Lex changes:
1490 - The rebuild rules for distributed Yacc and Lex output will avoid
1491 overwriting existing files if AM_MAINTAINER_MODE and maintainer-mode
1494 - ylwrap is now always used for lex and yacc source files,
1495 regardless of whether there is more than one source per directory.
1497 * Languages changes:
1499 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now honors CPPFLAGS,
1500 AM_CPPFLAGS and per-target _CPPFLAGS, and supports dependency
1501 tracking, unlike non-preprocessed assembler (*.s).
1503 - subdir-object mode works now with Assembler. Automake assumes
1504 that the compiler understands `-c -o'.
1506 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now also honors
1507 $(DEFS) $(DEFAULT_INCLUDES) $(INCLUDES).
1509 - Improved support for Objective C:
1510 - Autoconf's new AC_PROG_OBJC will enable automatic dependency tracking.
1511 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1513 - New support for Unified Parallel C:
1514 - AM_PROG_UPC looks for a UPC compiler.
1515 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1517 - Per-target flags are now correctly handled in link rules.
1519 For instance maude_CFLAGS correctly overrides AM_CFLAGS; likewise
1520 for maude_LDFLAGS and AM_LDFLAGS. Previous versions bogusly
1521 preferred AM_CFLAGS over maude_CFLAGS while linking, and they
1522 used both AM_LDFLAGS and maude_LDFLAGS on the same link command.
1524 The fix for compiler flags (i.e., using maude_CFLAGS instead of
1525 AM_CFLAGS) should not hurt any package since that is how _CFLAGS
1526 is expected to work (and actually works during compilation).
1528 However using maude_LDFLAGS "instead of" AM_LDFLAGS rather than
1529 "in addition to" breaks backward compatibility with older versions.
1530 If your package used both variables, as in
1532 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1533 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1534 a_LDFLAGS = more flags
1537 and assumed *_LDFLAGS would sum up, you should rewrite it as
1539 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1540 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1541 a_LDFLAGS = $(AM_LDFLAGS) more flags
1544 This new behavior of *_LDFLAGS is more coherent with other
1545 per-target variables, and the way *_LDFLAGS variables were
1546 considered internally.
1548 * New installation targets:
1550 - New targets mandated by GNU Coding Standards:
1555 By default they will only install Texinfo manuals.
1556 You can customize them with *-local variants:
1562 - The undocumented recursive target `uninstall-info' no longer exists.
1563 (`uninstall' is in charge of removing all possible documentation
1564 flavors, including optional formats such as dvi, ps, or info even
1565 when `no-installinfo' is used.)
1567 * Miscellaneous changes:
1569 - Automake no longer complains if input files for AC_CONFIG_FILES
1570 are specified using shell variables.
1572 - clean, distribution, or rebuild rules are normally disabled for
1573 inputs and outputs of AC_CONFIG_FILES, AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, and
1574 AC_CONFIG_LINK specified using shell variables. However, if these
1575 variables are used as ${VAR}, and AC_SUBSTed, then Automake will
1576 be able to output rules anyway.
1577 (See the Automake documentation for AC_CONFIG_FILES.)
1579 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of TESTS
1580 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1581 This is mostly useful when some check_PROGRAMS are listed in TESTS.
1583 - `-Wportability' has finally been turned on by default for `gnu' and
1584 `gnits' strictness. This means, automake will complain about %-rules
1585 or $(GNU Make functions) unless you switch to `foreign' strictness or
1586 use `-Wno-portability'.
1588 - Automake now uses AC_PROG_MKDIR_P (new in Autoconf 2.60), and uses
1589 $(MKDIR_P) instead of $(mkdir_p) to create directories. The
1590 $(mkdir_p) variable is still defined (to the same value as
1591 $(MKDIR_P)) but should be considered obsolete. If you are using
1592 $(mkdir_p) in some of your rules, please plan to update them to
1593 $(MKDIR_P) at some point.
1595 - AM_C_PROTOTYPES and ansi2knr are now documented as being obsolete.
1596 They still work in this release, but may be withdrawn in a future one.
1598 - Inline compilation rules for gcc3-style dependency tracking are
1601 - Automake installs a "Hello World!" example package in $(docdir).
1602 This example is used throughout the new "Autotools Introduction"
1603 chapter of the manual.
1605 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1609 * Makefile.in bloat reduction:
1611 - Inference rules are used to compile sources in subdirectories when
1612 the `subdir-objects' option is used and no per-target flags are
1613 used. This should reduce the size of some projects a lot, because
1614 Automake used to output an explicit rule for each such object in
1617 - Automake no longer outputs three rules (.o, .obj, .lo) for each
1618 object that must be built with explicit rules. It just outputs
1619 the rules required to build the kind of object considered: either
1620 the two .o and .obj rules for usual objects, or the .lo rule for
1623 * Change to Libtool support:
1625 - Libtool tags are used with libtool versions that support them.
1626 (I.e., with Libtool 1.5 or greater.)
1628 - Automake is now able to handle setups where a libtool library is
1629 conditionally installed in different directories, as in
1632 lib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1634 pkglib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1636 liba_la_SOURCES = ...
1638 * Changes to aclocal:
1640 - aclocal now ensures that AC_DEFUNs and AU_DEFUNs it discovers are
1641 really evaluated, before it decides to include them in aclocal.m4.
1642 This solves nasty problems with conditional redefinitions of
1643 Autoconf macros in /usr/share/aclocal/*.m4 files causing extraneous
1644 *.m4 files to be included in any project using these macros.
1645 (Calls to AC_PROG_EGREP causing libtool.m4 to be included is the
1646 most famous instance of this bug.)
1648 - Do not complain about missing conditionally AC_REQUIREd macros
1649 that are not actually used. In 1.8.x aclocal would correctly
1650 determine which of these macros were really needed (and include
1651 only these in the package); unfortunately it would also require
1652 all of them to be present in order to run. This created
1653 situations were aclocal would not work on a tarball distributing
1654 all the macros it uses. For instance running aclocal on a project
1655 containing only the subset of the Gettext macros in use by the
1656 project did not work, because gettext conditionally requires other
1659 * Portability improvements:
1661 - Tar format can be chosen with the new options tar-v7, tar-ustar, and
1662 tar-pax. The new option filename-length-max=99 helps diagnosing
1663 filenames that are too long for tar-v7. (PR/414)
1665 - Variables aumented with `+=' are now automatically flattened (i.e.,
1666 trailing backslashes removed) and then wrapped around 80 colummns
1667 (adding trailing backslashes). In previous versions, a long series
1673 would result in a single-line definition of VAR that could possibly
1674 exceed the maximum line length of some make implementations.
1676 Non-augmented variables are still output as they are defined in
1681 - Support Fortran 90/95 with the new "fc" and "ppfc" languages.
1682 Works the same as the old Fortran 77 implementation; just replace
1683 F77 with FC everywhere (exception: FFLAGS becomes FCFLAGS).
1684 Requires a version of autoconf which provides AC_PROG_FC (>=2.59).
1686 - Support for conditional _LISP.
1688 - Support for conditional -hook and -local rules (PR/428).
1690 - Diagnose AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR calls following AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. (PR/49)
1692 - Automake will not write any Makefile.ins after the first error it
1693 encounters. The previous Makefile.ins (if any) will be left in
1694 place. (Warnings will not prevent output, but remember they can
1695 be turned into errors with -Werror.)
1697 - The restriction that SUBDIRS must contain direct children is gone.
1700 - The manual tells more about SUBDIRS vs. DIST_SUBDIRS.
1701 It also gives an example of nested packages using AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS.
1703 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1705 Bugs fixed in 1.8.5:
1707 * Long-standing bugs:
1709 - Define DIST_SUBDIRS even when the `no-dist' or `cygnus' options are used
1710 so that `make distclean' and `make maintainer-clean' can work.
1712 - Define AR and ARFLAGS even when only EXTRA_LIBRARIES are defined.
1714 - Fix many rules to please FreeBSD make, which runs commands with `sh -e'.
1716 - Polish diagnostic when no input file is found.
1718 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1720 Bugs fixed in 1.8.4:
1722 * Long-standing bugs:
1724 - Fix AM_PATH_PYTHON to correctly display $PYTHON when it has been
1725 overridden by the user.
1727 - Honor PATH_SEPARATOR in various places of the Automake package, for
1730 - Adjust dependency tracking mode detection to ICC 8.0's new output.
1733 - Fix install-sh so it can install the `mv' binary... using `mv'.
1735 - Fix tru64 dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1737 - Work around Exuberant Ctags when creating a TAGS files in a directory
1738 without files to scan but with subdirectories to include.
1740 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1742 - Fix an "internal error" when @LIBOBJS@ is used in a variable that is
1743 not defined in the same conditions as the _LDADD that uses it.
1745 - Do not warn when JAVAROOT is overridden, this is legitimate.
1747 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1749 Bugs fixed in 1.8.3:
1751 * Long-standing bugs:
1753 - Quote filenames in installation rules, in case $DESTDIR, $prefix,
1754 or any of the other *dir variables contain a space.
1756 Please note that Automake does not and cannot support spaces in
1757 filenames that are involved during the build. This change affects
1758 only installation paths, so that `make install' does not bomb out
1759 in packages configured with
1760 ./configure --prefix '/c/Program Files'
1762 - Fix the depfiles output so it works with GNU sed (<4.1) even when
1763 POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.
1765 - Do not AC_SUBST(LIBOBJS) in AM_WITH_REGEX. This macro was unusable
1766 since Autoconf 2.54, which defines LIBOBJS itself.
1768 - Fix a potential (but unlikely) race condition in parallel elisp
1769 builds. (Introduced in 1.7.3.)
1771 - Do not assume that users override _DEPENDENCIES in all conditions
1772 where Automake will try to define them.
1774 - Do not use `mkdir -p' in mkinstalldirs, unless this is GNU mkdir.
1775 Solaris 8's `mkdir -p' is not thread-safe and can break parallel
1778 This fix also affects the $(mkdir_p) variable defined since
1779 Automake 1.8. It will be set to `mkdir -p' only if mkdir is GNU
1780 mkdir, and to `mkinstalldirs' or `install-sh -d' otherwise.
1782 - Secure temporary directory creation in `make distcheck'. (PR/413)
1784 - Do not generate two build rules for `parser.h' when the
1785 parser appears in two different conditionals.
1787 - Work around a Solaris 8 /bin/sh bug in the test for dependency
1788 checking. Usually ./configure will not pick this shell; so this
1789 fix only helps cases where the shell is forced to /bin/sh.
1791 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1793 - In some situations (hand-written `m4_include's), aclocal would
1794 call the `File::Spec->rel2abs' method, which was only introduced
1795 in Perl 5.6. This new version reestablish support Perl 5.005.
1797 It is likely that the next major Automake releases will require at
1798 least Perl 5.6. Consider upgrading your development environment
1799 if you are still using the five-year-old Perl 5.005.
1801 - Automake would sometimes fail to define rules for targets listed
1802 in variables defined in multiple conditions. For instance on
1808 it would define only the `a.$(OBJEXT): a.c' rule and omit the
1809 `b.$(OBJEXT): b.c' rule.
1811 * New sections in manual:
1813 - Third-Party Makefiles: how to interface third party Makefiles.
1814 - Upgrading: upgrading packages to newer Automake versions.
1815 - Multiple Outputs: handling tools that produce many outputs.
1817 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1821 * A (well known) portability bug slipped in the changes made to
1822 install-sh in Automake 1.8.1. The broken install-sh would refuse to
1823 install anything on Tru64.
1825 * Fix install rules for conditionally built python files. (This never
1828 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1832 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1834 - Fix Config.pm import error with old Perl versions (at least
1835 5.005_03). One symptom is that aclocal could not find its macro
1838 - Automake 1.8 used `mkdir -m 0755 -p --' to ensure that directories
1839 created by `make install' are always world readable, even if the
1840 installer happens to have an overly restrictive umask (e.g. 077).
1841 This was a mistake and has been reverted. There are at least two
1842 reasons why we must not use `-m 0755':
1843 - it causes special bits like SGID to be ignored,
1844 - it may be too restrictive (some setups expect 775 directories).
1846 - Fix aclocal to honor definitions located in files which have been
1847 m4_included manually. aclocal 1.8 had been updated to check
1848 m4_included files for new requirements, but forgot that these
1849 m4_included files can also provide new definitions.
1851 Note that if you have such a setup, we recommend you get rid of
1852 it. In the past, there was a reason to m4_include files manually:
1853 aclocal used to duplicate entire M4 files into aclocal.m4, even
1854 files that were distributed. Some packages were therefore
1855 m4_including the distributed file directly, and playing some
1856 tricks to ensure aclocal would not copy that file to aclocal.m4,
1857 in order to limit the amount of duplication. Since aclocal 1.8.x
1858 will precisely output m4_includes for local M4 files, we recommend
1859 that you clean up your setup, removing all manual m4_includes and
1860 letting aclocal output them.
1862 - Output detailed menus in the Info version if the Automake manual,
1863 so that Emacs can locate the indexes.
1865 - configure.ac and configure were listed twice in DIST_COMMON (an
1866 internal variable where Automake lists configury files to
1867 distribute). This was harmless, but unaesthetic.
1869 - Use `chmod a-w' instead of `chmod -w' as the latter honors umask.
1870 This was an issue only in the Automake package itself, not in
1873 - Automake assumed that all AC_CONFIG_LINKS arguments had the form
1874 DEST:SRC. This was wrong, as some packages do
1875 AC_CONFIG_LINKS($computedlinks). This version no longer abort in
1878 - Contrary to mkinstalldirs, $(mkdir_p) was expecting exactly one
1879 argument. This caused two kinds of failures:
1880 - Rules installing data in a conditionally defined directory
1881 failed when that directory was undefined. In this case no
1882 argument was supplied.
1883 - `make installdirs' failed, because several directories were
1884 passed to $(mkdir_p). This was an issue only on platform
1885 were $(mkdir_p) is implemented with `install-sh -d'.
1886 $(mkdir_p) as been changed to accept 0 or more arguments, as
1889 * Long-standing bugs:
1891 - Fix an unexpected diagnostic occurring when users attempt
1892 to override some internal variables that Automake appends to.
1894 - aclocal now scans configure.ac for macro definitions (PR/319).
1896 - Fix a portability issue with OSF1/Tru64 Make. If a directory
1897 distributes files which are outside itself (this usually occurs
1898 when using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([../dir]) to use auxiliary files
1899 from a parent package), then `make distcheck' fails due to an
1900 optimization performed by OSF1/Tru64 Make in its VPATH handling.
1901 (tests/subpkg2.test failure)
1903 - Fix another portability issue with Sun and OSF1/Tru64 Make.
1904 In a VPATH-build configuration, `make install' would install
1905 nobase_ files to wrong locations.
1907 - Fix a Perl `uninitialized value' diagnostic occurring when
1908 automake complains that a Texinfo file does not have a
1909 @setfilename statement.
1911 - Erase config.status.lineno during `make distclean'. This file
1912 can be created by config.status. Automake already knew about
1913 configure.lineno, but forgot config.status.lineno.
1915 - Distribute all files, even those which are built and installed
1916 conditionally. This change affects files listed in conditionally
1917 defined *_HEADERS and *_PYTHON variable (unless they are nodist_*)
1918 as well as those listed in conditionally defined dist_*_DATA,
1919 dist_*_JAVA, dist_*_LISP, and dist_*_SCRIPTS variables.
1921 - Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to avoid \? in sed regular expressions; it
1922 doesn't conform to POSIX.
1924 - Normalize help strings for configure variables and options added
1929 - Check for python2.4 in AM_PATH_PYTHON.
1931 * Spurious failures in test suite:
1933 - tests/libtool5.test, tests/ltcond.test, tests/ltcond2.test,
1934 tests/ltconv.test: fix failures with CVS Libtool.
1935 - tests/aclocal6.test: fix failure if autom4te.cache is disabled.
1936 - tests/txinfo24.test, tests/txinfo25.test, tests/txinfo28.test:
1937 fix failures with old Texinfo versions.
1939 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1945 - The NEWS file is more verbose.
1949 - Autoconf 2.58 or greater is required.
1953 - Default source file names in the absence of a _SOURCES declaration
1954 are made by removing any target extension before appending `.c', so
1955 to make the libtool module `foo.la' from `foo.c', you only need to
1958 lib_LTLIBRARIES = foo.la
1959 foo_la_LDFLAGS = -module
1961 For backward compatibility, foo_la.c will be used instead of
1962 foo.c if this file exists or is the explicit target of a rule.
1963 However -Wobsolete will warn about this deprecated naming.
1965 - AR's `cru' flags are now set in a global ARFLAGS variable instead
1966 of being hard-coded in each $(AR) invocation, so they can be
1967 substituted from configure.ac. This has been requested by people
1968 dealing with non-POSIX ar implementations.
1970 - New warning option: -Woverride. This will warn about any user
1971 target or variable definitions which override Automake
1974 - Texinfo rules back up and restore info files when makeinfo fails.
1976 - Texinfo rules now support the `html' target.
1977 Running this requires Texinfo 4.0 or greater.
1979 `html' is a new recursive target, so if your package mixes
1980 hand-crafted `Makefile.in's with Automake-generated
1981 `Makefile.in's, you should adjust the former to support (or
1982 ignore) this target so that `make html' recurses successfully. If
1983 you had a custom `html' rule in your `Makefile.am', it's better to
1984 rename it as `html-local', otherwise your rule will override
1985 Automake's new rule (you can check that by running `automake
1986 -Woverride') and that will stop the recursion to subdirectories.
1988 Last but not least, this `html' rule is declared PHONY, even when
1989 overridden. Fortunately, it appears that few packages use a
1990 non-PHONY `html' rule.
1992 - Any file which is m4_included from configure.ac will appear as a
1993 configure and Makefile.in dependency, and will be automatically
1996 - The rules for rebuilding Makefiles and Makefile.ins will now
1997 rebuild all Makefiles and all Makefile.ins at once when one of
1998 configure's dependencies has changed. This is considerably faster
1999 than previous implementations, where config.status and automake
2000 were run separately in each directory (this still happens when you
2001 change a Makefile.am locally, without touching configure.ac or
2002 friends). Doing this also solves a longstanding issue: these
2003 rebuild rules failed to work when adding new directories to the
2004 tree, forcing you to run automake manually.
2006 - For similar reasons, the rules to rebuild configure,
2007 config.status, and aclocal.m4 are now defined in all directories.
2008 Note that if you were using the CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES and
2009 CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES (formerly undocumented) variables, you
2010 should better define them in all directories. This is easily done
2011 using an AC_SUBST (make sure you prefix these dependencies with
2012 $(top_srcdir) since this variable will appear at different
2013 levels of the build tree).
2015 - aclocal will now use `m4_include' instead of copying local m4
2016 files into aclocal.m4. (Local m4 files are those you ship with
2017 your project, other files will be copied as usual.)
2019 Because m4_included files are automatically distributed, it means
2020 for most projects there is no point in EXTRA_DISTing the list of
2021 m4 files which are used. (You can probably get rid of
2022 m4/Makefile.am if you had one.)
2024 - aclocal will avoid touching aclocal.m4 when possible, so that
2025 Autom4te's cache isn't needlessly invalidated. This behavior can
2026 be switched off with the new `--force' option.
2028 - aclocal now uses Autoconf's --trace to detect macros which are
2029 actually used and will no longer include unused macros simply
2030 because they where mentioned. This was often the case for macros
2031 called conditionally.
2033 - New options no-dist and no-dist-gzip.
2035 - compile, depcomp, elisp-comp, install-sh, mdate-sh, mkinstalldirs,
2036 py-compile, and ylwrap, now all understand --version and --help.
2038 - Automake will now recognize AC_CONFIG_LINKS so far as removing created
2039 links as part of the distclean target and including source files in
2042 - AM_PATH_PYTHON now supports ACTION-IF-FOUND and ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND
2043 argument. The latter can be used to override the default behavior
2044 (which is to abort).
2046 - Automake will exit with $? = 63 on version mismatch. (So does
2047 Autoconf 2.58) missing knows this, and in this case it will
2048 emulate the tools as if they were absent. Because older versions
2049 of Automake and Autoconf did not use this exit code, this change
2050 will only be useful in projects generated with future versions of
2053 - When using AC_CONFIG_FILES with multiple input files, Automake
2054 generates the first ".in" input file for which a ".am" exists.
2055 (Former versions would try to use only the first input file.)
2057 - lisp_DATA is now allowed. If you are using the empty ELCFILES
2058 idiom to disable byte-compilation of lisp_LISP files, it is
2059 recommended that you switch to using lisp_DATA. Note that
2060 this is not strictly equivalent: lisp_DATA will install elisp
2061 files even if emacs is not installed, while *_LISP do not
2062 install anything unless emacs is found.
2064 - Makefiles will prefer `mkdir -p' over mkinstalldirs if it is
2065 available. This selection is achieved through the Makefile
2066 variable $(mkdir_p) that is set by AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE to either
2067 `mkdir -m 0755 -p --', `$(mkinstalldirs) -m 0755', or
2068 `$(install_sh) -m 0755 -d'.
2072 - Because `mkdir -p' is available on most platforms, and we can use
2073 `install-sh -d' when it is not, the use of the mkinstalldirs
2074 script is being phased out. `automake --add-missing' no longer
2075 installs it, and if you remove mkinstalldirs from your package,
2076 automake will define $(mkinstalldirs) as an alias for $(mkdir_p).
2078 Gettext 0.12.1 still requires mkinstalldirs. Fortunately
2079 gettextize and autopoint will install it when needed. Automake
2080 will continue to define the $(mkinstalldirs) and to distribute
2081 mkinstalldirs when this script is in the source tree.
2083 - AM_PROG_CC_STDC is now empty. The content of this macro was
2084 merged in AC_PROG_CC. If your code uses $am_cv_prog_cc_stdc, you
2085 should adjust it to use $ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc instead. (This
2086 renaming should be safe, even if you have to support several,
2087 versions of Automake, because AC_PROG_CC defines this variable
2088 since Autoconf 2.54.)
2090 - Some users where using the undocumented ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES
2091 variable to override the aclocal.m4 dependencies computed
2092 (inaccurately) by older versions of Automake. Because Automake
2093 now tracks configure's m4 dependencies accurately (see m4_include
2094 above), the use of ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES should be considered
2095 obsolete and will be flagged as such when running `automake
2100 - Defining programs conditionally using Automake conditionals no
2101 longer leads to a combinatorial explosion. The following
2102 construct used to be troublesome when used with dozens of
2117 Likewise for _SOURCES, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables.
2119 - Due to implementation constraints, previous versions of Automake
2120 proscribed multiple conditional definitions of some variables
2130 All _PROGRAMS, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables were affected.
2131 This restriction has been lifted, and these variables now
2132 support multiple conditional definitions as do other variables.
2134 - Cleanup the definitions of $(distdir) and $(top_distdir).
2135 $(top_distdir) now points to the root of the distribution
2136 directory created during `make dist', as it did in Automake 1.4,
2137 not to the root of the build tree as it did in intervening
2138 versions. Furthermore these two variables are now only defined in
2139 the top level Makefile, and passed to sub-directories when running
2142 - The --no-force option now correctly checks the Makefile.in's
2143 dependencies before deciding not to update it.
2145 - Do not assume that make files are called Makefile in cleaning rules.
2147 - Update .info files in the source tree, not in the build tree. This
2148 is what the GNU Coding Standard recommend. Only Automake 1.7.x
2149 used to update these files in the build tree (previous versions did
2150 it in the source tree too), and it caused several problems, varying
2151 from mere annoyance to portability issues.
2153 - COPYING, COPYING.LIB, and COPYING.LESSER are no longer overwritten
2154 when --add-missing and --force-missing are used. For backward
2155 compatibility --add-missing will continue to install COPYING (in
2156 `gnu' strictness) when none of these three files exist, but this
2157 use is deprecated: you should better choose a license yourself and
2158 install it once for all in your source tree (and in your code
2161 - Fix ylwrap so that it does not overwrite header files that haven't
2162 changed, as the inline rule already does.
2164 - User-defined rules override automake-defined rules for the same
2165 targets, even when rules do not have commands. This is not new
2166 (and was documented), however some of the automake-generated
2167 rules have escaped this principle in former Automake versions.
2168 Rules for the following targets are affected by this fix:
2170 clean, clean-am, dist-all, distclean, distclean-am, dvi, dvi-am,
2171 info, info-am, install-data-am, install-exec-am, install-info,
2172 install-info-am, install-man, installcheck-am, maintainer-clean,
2173 maintainer-clean-am, mostlyclean, mostlyclean-am, pdf, pdf-am,
2174 ps, ps-am, uninstall-am, uninstall-info, uninstall-man
2176 Practically it means that an attempt to supplement the dependencies
2177 of some target, as in
2179 clean: my-clean-rule
2181 will now *silently override* the automake definition of the
2182 rule for this target. Running `automake -Woverride' will diagnose
2183 all such overriding definitions.
2185 It should be noted that almost all of these targets support a *-local
2186 variant that is meant to supplement the automake-defined rule
2187 (See node `Extending' in the manual). The above rule should
2190 clean-local: my-clean-rule
2192 These *-local targets have been documented since at least
2193 Automake 1.2, so you should not fear the change if you have
2194 to support multiple automake versions.
2198 - The Automake manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
2200 - Targets dist-gzip, dist-bzip2, dist-tarZ, dist-zip are always defined.
2202 - core dumps are no longer removed by the cleaning rules. There are
2203 at least three reasons for this:
2204 1. These files should not be created by any build step,
2205 so their removal do not fit any of the cleaning rules.
2206 Actually, they may be precious to the developer.
2207 2. If such file is created during a build, then it's clearly a
2208 bug Automake should not hide. Not removing the file will
2209 cause `make distcheck' to complain about its presence.
2210 3. Operating systems have different naming conventions for
2211 core dump files. A core file on one system might be a
2212 completely legitimate data file on another system.
2214 - RUNTESTFLAGS, CTAGSFLAGS, ETAGSFLAGS, JAVACFLAGS are no longer
2215 defined by Automake. This means that any definition in the
2216 environment will be used, unless overridden in the Makefile.am or
2217 on the command line. The old behavior, where these variables were
2218 defined empty in each Makefile, can be obtained by AC_SUBSTing or
2219 AC_ARG_VARing each variable from configure.ac.
2221 - CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES and CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES are now
2222 documented. (The is not a new feature, these variables have
2223 been there since at least Automake 1.4.)
2225 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2227 Bugs fixed in 1.7.9:
2228 * Fix install-strip to work with nobase_ binaries.
2229 * Fix renaming of #line directives in ylwrap.
2230 * Rebuild with Autoconf 2.59. (1.7.8 was not installable with pdksh.)
2232 Bugs fixed in 1.7.8:
2233 * Remove spurious blank lines in cleaning rules introduced in 1.7.7.
2234 * Fix detection of Debian's install-info, broken since version 1.5.
2235 (Debian bug #213524).
2236 * Honor -module if it appears in AM_LDFLAGS (i.e., relax name checking)
2237 This was only done for libfoo_LDFLAGS and LDFLAGS in previous versions.
2239 Bugs fixed in 1.7.7:
2240 * The implementation of automake's --no-force option is unreliable,
2241 so this option is ignored in this version. A real fix will appear in
2242 Automake 1.8. (Debian Bug #206299)
2243 * AM_PATH_PYTHON: really check the whole list of interpreters if no
2244 argument is given. (PR/399)
2245 * Do not warn about leading `_' in variable names, even with -Wportability.
2246 * Support user redefinitions of TEXINFO_TEX.
2247 * depcomp: support AIX Compiler version 6.
2248 * Fix missing rebuilds during `make dist' with BSD make.
2249 (Could produce tarballs containing out-of-date files.)
2250 * Resurrect multilib support.
2251 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2252 - Extending aclocal: how to write m4 macros that won't trigger warnings
2254 - A Shared Library: Rewrite and split into subsections.
2256 Bugs fixed in 1.7.6:
2257 * Fix depcomp's icc mode for ICC 7.1.
2258 * Diagnose calls to AC_CONFIG_FILES and friends with not enough arguments.
2259 * Fix maintainer-clean's removal of autom4te.cache in VPATH builds.
2260 * Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to work with POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
2261 * Fix the location reported in some diagnostics related to AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
2262 * Remove Latin-1 characters from elisp-comp.
2263 * Update the manual's @dircategory to match the Free Software Directory.
2265 Bugs fixed in 1.7.5:
2266 * Update install-sh's license to remove an advertising clause.
2267 (Debian bug #191717)
2268 * Fix a bug introduced in 1.7.4, related to BUILT_SOURCE handling,
2269 that caused invalid Makefile.ins to be generated.
2270 * Make sure AM_MAKE_INCLUDE doesn't fail when a `doit' file exists.
2271 * New FAQ entry: renamed objects.
2273 Bugs fixed in 1.7.4:
2274 * Tweak the TAGS rule to support Exuberant Ctags (in addition to
2275 the Emacs implementation)
2276 * Fix output of aclocal.m4 dependencies in subdirectories.
2277 * Use `mv -f' instead of `mv' in fastdep rules.
2278 * Upgrade mdate-sh to work on OS/2.
2279 * Don't byte-compile elisp files when ELCFILES is set empty.
2280 (this documented feature was broken by 1.7.3)
2281 * Diagnose trailing backslashes on last line of Makefile.am.
2282 * Diagnose whitespace following trailing backslashes.
2283 * Multiple tests are now correctly supported in DEJATOOL. (PR/388)
2284 * Fix rebuilt rules for AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.bot])
2286 * `make install' will build `BUILT_SOURCES' first.
2287 * Minor documentation fixes.
2289 Bugs fixed in 1.7.3:
2290 * Fix stamp files numbering (when using multiple AC_CONFIG_HEADERS).
2291 * Query distutils for `pythondir' and `pythonexecdir', instead of
2292 using an hardcoded path. This should allow builds on 64-bit
2293 distributions that usually use lib64/ instead of lib/.
2294 * AM_PATH_PYTHON will also search for python2.3.
2295 * elisp files are now built all at once instead of one by one. Besides
2296 incurring a speed-up, this is required to support interdependent elisp files.
2297 * Support for DJGPP:
2298 - `make distcheck' will now work in `_inst/' and `_build' instead
2299 of `=inst/' and `=build/'
2300 - use `_dirstamp' when the file-system doesn't support `.dirstamp'
2301 - install/uninstall `*.i[0-9][0-9]'-style info files
2302 - more changes that affect only the Automake package (not its output)
2303 * Fix some incompatibilities with upcoming perl-5.10.
2304 * Properly quote AC_PACKAGE_TARNAME and AC_PACKAGE_VERSION when defining
2305 PACKAGE and VERSION.
2307 - dashmstdout and dashXmstdout modes: don't use `-o /dev/null', this
2308 is troublesome with gcc and Solaris compilers. (PR/385)
2309 - makedepend mode: work with Libtool. (PR/385 too)
2311 * better support for unusual gettext setups, such as multiple po/ directories
2313 - Flag missing po/ and intl/ directories as warnings, not errors.
2314 - Disable these warnings if po/ does not exist.
2315 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2317 - Document how AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR interacts with missing files.
2319 - Document `AM_YFLAGS = -d'. (PR/382)
2321 Bugs fixed in 1.7.2:
2322 * Fix installation and uninstallation of Info files built in subdirectories.
2323 * Do not run `./configure --with-included-gettext' during `make distcheck'
2324 if AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) is used.
2325 * Correctly uninstall renamed man pages.
2326 * Do not strip escaped newline in variables defined in one condition
2327 and augmented in another condition.
2328 * Fix ansi2knr rules for LIBOBJS sources.
2329 * Clean all known Texinfo index files, not only those which appear to
2330 be used, because we cannot know which indexes are used in included files.
2331 (PR/375, Debian Bug #168671)
2332 * Honor only the first @setfilename seen in a Texinfo file.
2333 * Treat "required file X not found" diagnostics as errors (exit status 1).
2334 * Don't complain that a required file is not found when it is a Makefile
2336 * Don't use single suffix inference rules when building `.info'-less
2337 Info files, for the sake of Solaris make.
2338 * The `check' target now depends on `$(BUILT_SOURCES)'. (PR/359)
2339 * Recognize multiple inference rules such as `.a.b .c.d:'. (PR/371)
2340 * Warn about multiple inference rules when -Wportability is used. (PR/372)
2341 * Fix building of deansified files from subdirectories. (PR/370)
2342 * Add missing `fi' in the .c->.obj rules.
2343 * Improve install-sh to work even when names contain spaces or certain
2344 (but not all) shell metachars.
2345 * Fix the following spurious failures in the test suite:
2346 depcomp2.test, gnits2.test, gnits3.test, python3.test, texinfo13.test
2347 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2348 - Augment the section about BUILT_SOURCES.
2349 - Mention that AM_PROG_CC_STDC is a relic that is better avoided today.
2351 Bugs fixed in 1.7.1:
2352 * Honor `ansi2knr' for files built in subdirectories, or using per-targets
2354 * Aclocal should now recognize macro names containing parentheses, e.g.
2355 AC_DEFUN([AC_LANG_PREPROC(Fortran 90)], [...]).
2356 * Erase *.sum and *.log files created by DejaGnu, during `make distclean'.
2358 * Install Python files even if they were built. (PR/369)
2359 * Have stamp-vti dependent upon configure instead of configure.ac, as the
2360 version might not be defined in the latter. (PR/358)
2361 * Reorder arguments passed to a couple of commands, so things works
2362 when POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
2363 * Fix a regex that can cause Perl to segfault on large input.
2365 * Fix distribution of packages that have some sources defined conditionally,
2366 as in the `Conditional compilation using Automake conditionals' example
2368 * Fix spurious test suite failures on IRIX.
2369 * Don't report a required variable as undefined if it has been
2370 defined conditionally for the "right" conditions.
2371 * Fix cleaning of the /tmp subdirectory used by `make distcheck', in case
2372 `make distcheck' fails.
2373 * Fix distribution of included Makefile fragment, so we don't create
2374 spurious directories in the distribution. (PR/366)
2375 * Don't complain that a target lacks `.$(EXEEXT)' when it has it.
2378 * Autoconf 2.54 is required.
2379 * `aclocal' and `automake' will no longer warn about obsolete
2380 configure macros. This is done by `autoconf -Wobsolete'.
2381 * AM_CONFIG_HEADER, AM_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS and
2382 AM_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ_NEEDS_SYS_IOCTL are obsolete (although still
2383 supported). You should use AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS,
2384 and AC_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ instead. `autoupdate' can upgrade
2385 `configure.ac' for you.
2386 * Support for per-program and per-library `_CPPFLAGS'.
2387 * New `ctags' target (builds CTAGS files).
2388 * Support for -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble, where mumble is a warning category
2389 (see `automake --help' or the manual for a list of them).
2390 * Honor the WARNINGS environment variable.
2391 * Omit the call to depcomp when using gcc3: call the compiler directly.
2392 * A new option, std-options, tests that programs support --help and --version
2393 when `make installcheck' is run. This is enabled by --gnits.
2394 * Texinfo rules now support the `ps' and `pdf' targets.
2395 * Info files are now created in the build directory, not the source directory.
2396 * info_TEXINFOS supports files in subdirectories (this requires Texinfo 4.1
2398 * `make distcheck' will enforce DESTDIR support by attempting
2400 * `+=' can be used in conditionals, even if the augmented variable
2401 was defined for another condition.
2402 * Makefile fragments (inserted with `include') are always distributed.
2403 * Use Autoconf's --trace interface to inspect configure.ac and get
2404 a more accurate view of it.
2405 * Add support for extending aclocal's default macro search path
2406 using a `dirlist' file within the aclocal directory.
2407 * automake --output-dir is deprecated.
2408 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether uninstall actually
2409 removes all installed files has been moved in a separate target,
2410 distuninstallcheck, so it can be overridden easily.
2414 * Support for AM_INIT_GETTEXT([external])
2415 * Bug fixes, including:
2416 - Fix Automake's own `make install' so it works even if `ln' doesn't.
2417 - nobase_ programs and scripts honor --program-transform correctly.
2418 - Erase configure.lineno during `make distclean'.
2419 - Erase YACC and LEX outputs during `make maintainer-clean'.
2422 * Many bug fixes, including:
2423 - Requiring the current version works.
2424 - Fix "$@" portability issues (for Zsh).
2425 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
2427 - Don't compute dependencies in background to avoid races with libtool.
2428 - Fix handling of _OBJECTS variables for targets sharing source variables.
2429 - Check dependency mode for Java when AM_PROG_GCJ is used.
2432 * automake --output-dir is deprecated
2433 * Many bug fixes, including:
2434 - Don't choke on AM_LDFLAGS definitions.
2435 - Clean libtool objects from subdirectories.
2436 - Allow configure variables with reserved suffix and unknown prefix
2437 (e.g. AC_SUBST(mumble_LDFLAGS) when 'mumble' is not a target).
2438 - Fix the definition of AUTOMAKE and ACLOCAL in configure.
2441 * Autoconf 2.52 is required.
2442 * automake no longer run libtoolize.
2443 This is the job of autoreconf (from GNU Autoconf).
2444 * `dist' generates all the archive flavors, as did `dist-all'.
2445 * `dist-gzip' generates the Gzip tar file only.
2446 * Combining Automake Makefile conditionals no longer lead to a combinatorial
2447 explosion. Makefile.in's keep a reasonable size.
2448 * AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_STRTOD, AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, AM_PTRDIFF_T
2449 are no longer shipped, since Autoconf 2.52 provides them (both as AM_
2451 * `#line' of Lex and Yacc files are properly set.
2452 * EXTRA_DIST can contain generated directories.
2453 * Support for dot-less extensions in suffix rules.
2454 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether distclean actually
2455 cleans all built files has been moved in a separate target, distcleancheck,
2456 so it can be overridden easily.
2457 * `make distcheck' will pass additional options defined in
2458 $(DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS) to configure.
2459 * Fixed CDPATH portability problems, in particular for MacOS X.
2460 * Fixed handling of nobase_ targets.
2461 * Fixed support of implicit rules leading to .lo objects.
2462 * Fixed late inclusion of --add-missing files (e.g. depcomp) in DIST_COMMON
2463 * Added uninstall-hook target
2464 * `AC_INIT AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(tarname,version)' is an obsolete construct.
2465 You can now use `AC_INIT(pkgname,version) AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE' instead.
2466 (Note that "pkgname" is not "tarname", see the manual for details.)
2467 It is also possible to pass a list of global Automake options as
2468 first argument to this new form of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.
2469 * Compiler-based assembler is now called `CCAS'; people expected `AS'
2470 to be a real assembler.
2471 * AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE will set STRIP itself when it needs it. Adding
2472 AC_CHECK_TOOL([STRIP], [strip]) manually is no longer required.
2473 * aclocal and automake are also installed with the version number
2474 appended, and some of the install directory names have changed.
2475 This lets you have multiple versions installed simultaneously.
2476 * Support for parsers and lexers in subdirectories.
2479 * Support for `configure.ac'.
2480 * Support for `else COND', `endif COND' and negated conditions `!COND'.
2481 * `make dist-all' is much faster.
2482 * Allows '@' AC_SUBSTs in macro names.
2483 * Faster AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE (requires update of `missing' script)
2484 * User-side dependency tracking. Developers no longer need GNU make
2486 * Uses DIST_SUBDIRS in some situations when SUBDIRS is conditional
2487 * Most files are correctly handled if they appear in subdirs
2488 For instance, a _DATA file can appear in a subdir
2489 * GNU tar is no longer required for `make dist'
2490 * Added support for `dist_' and `nodist_' prefixes
2491 * Added support for `nobase_' prefix
2492 * Compiled Java support
2493 * Support for per-executable and per-library compilation flags
2497 * Added support for the Fortran 77 programming language.
2498 * Re-indexed the Automake Texinfo manual.
2499 * Added `AM_FOOFLAGS' variable for each compiler invocation;
2500 e.g. AM_CFLAGS can be used in Makefile.am to set C compiler flags
2501 * Support for latest autoconf, including support for objext
2502 * Can now put `.' in SUBDIRS to control build order
2503 * `include' command and `+=' support for macro assignment
2504 * Dependency tracking no long susceptible to deleted header file problem
2505 * Maintainer mode now a conditional. @MAINT@ is now an anachronism.
2510 * Better Cygwin32 support
2511 * Support for suffix rules with _SOURCES variables
2512 * New options `readme-alpha' and `check-news'; Gnits mode sets these
2513 * @LEXLIB@ no longer required when lex source seen
2514 Lex support in `missing', and new lex macro. Update your missing script.
2515 * Built-in support for assembly
2516 * aclocal gives error if `AM_' macro not found
2517 * Passed YFLAGS, not YACCFLAGS, to yacc
2518 * AM_PROG_CC_STDC does not have to come before AC_PROG_CPP
2519 * Dependencies computed as a side effect of compilation
2520 * Preliminary support for Java
2521 * DESTDIR support at "make install" time
2522 * Improved ansi2knr support; you must use the latest ansi2knr.c (included)
2526 * Better DejaGnu support
2527 * Added no-installinfo option
2528 * Added Emacs Lisp support
2529 * Added --no-force option
2530 * Included `aclocal' program
2531 * Automake will now generate rules to regenerate aclocal.m4, if appropriate
2532 * Now uses `AM_' macro names everywhere
2533 * ansi2knr option can have directory prefix (eg `../lib/ansi2knr')
2534 ansi2knr now works correctly on K&R sources
2535 * Better C++, yacc, lex support
2536 * Will compute _DEPENDENCIES variables automatically if not supplied
2537 * Will interpolate $(...) and ${...} when examining contents of a variable
2538 * .deps files now in build directory, not source directory; dependency
2539 handling generally rewritten
2540 * DATA, MANS and BUILT_SOURCES no longer included in distribution
2541 * can now put config.h into a subdir
2542 * Added dist-all target
2543 * Support for install-info program (see texinfo 3.9)
2544 * Support for "yacc -d"
2545 * configure substitutions are automatically discovered and included
2546 in generated Makefile.in
2547 * Special --cygnus mode
2548 * OMIT_DEPENDENCIES can now hold list of dependencies to be omitted
2549 when making distribution. Some dependencies are auto-ignored.
2550 * Changed how libraries are specified in _LIBRARIES variable
2551 * Full libtool support, from Gord Matzigkeit
2552 * No longer have to explicitly touch stamp-h when using AC_CONFIG_HEADER;
2553 AM_CONFIG_HEADER handles it automatically
2554 * Texinfo output files no longer need .info extension
2555 * Added `missing' support
2557 * Conditionals in Makefile.am, from Ian Taylor
2561 * distcheck target runs install and installcheck targets
2562 * Added preliminary support for DejaGnu.
2567 * More libtool fixes from Gord Matzigkeit; libtool support is still
2569 * Added support for jm_MAINTAINER_MODE
2571 * New "distcheck" target
2575 * mkinstalldirs and mdate-sh now appear in directory specified by
2577 * Removed DIST_SUBDIRS, DIST_OTHER
2578 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM only required when an actual program exists
2579 * dist-hook target now run before distribution packaged up; idea from
2580 Dieter Baron. Other hooks exist, too.
2581 * Preliminary (unfinished) support for libtool
2582 * Added short option names.
2583 * Better "dist" support when gluing together multiple packages
2587 * Documentation updates (many from François Pinard)
2588 * strictness `normal' now renamed to `foreign'
2589 * Renamed --install-missing to --add-missing
2590 * Now handles AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
2591 * Now handles TESTS macro
2592 * DIST_OTHER renamed to EXTRA_DIST
2593 * DIST_SUBDIRS is deprecated
2594 * @ALLOCA@ and @LIBOBJS@ now work in _LDADD variables
2595 * Better error messages in many cases
2596 * Program names are canonicalized
2597 * Added "check" prefix; from Gord Matzigkeit
2601 * configure.in scanner knows about AC_PATH_XTRA, AC_OUTPUT ":" syntax
2602 * Beginnings of a test suite
2603 * Automatically adds -I options for $(srcdir), ".", and path to config.h
2604 * Doesn't print anything when running
2605 * Beginnings of MAINT_CHARSET support
2606 * Can specify version in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS
2607 * Most errors recognizable by Emacs' M-x next-error
2608 * Added --verbose option
2609 * All "primary" variables now obsolete; use EXTRA_PRIMARY to supply
2610 configure-generated names
2611 * Required macros now distributed in aclocal.m4
2613 * --strictness=gnu is default
2617 * More sophisticated configure.in scanning; now understands ALLOCA and
2618 LIBOBJS directly, handles AC_CONFIG_HEADER more precisely, etc.
2619 * TEXINFOS and MANS now obsolete; use info_TEXINFOS and man_MANS instead.
2620 * CONFIG_HEADER variable now obsolete
2621 * Can handle multiple Texinfo sources
2622 * Allow hierarchies deeper than 2. From Gord Matzigkeit.
2623 * HEADERS variable no longer needed; now can put .h files directly into
2624 foo_SOURCES variable.
2625 * Automake automatically rebuilds files listed in AC_OUTPUT. The
2626 corresponding ".in" files are included in the distribution.
2629 * Added --gnu and --gnits options
2630 * More standards checking
2632 * Cleaned up 'dist' targets
2633 * Added AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS variable and several options
2634 * Now scans configure.in to get some information (preliminary)
2637 * Works with Perl 4 again
2640 * Added --install-missing option.
2641 * Pretty-prints generated macros and rules
2642 * Comments in Makefile.am are placed more intelligently in Makefile.in
2643 * Generates .PHONY target
2644 * Rule or macro in Makefile.am now overrides contents of Automake file
2645 * Substantial cleanups from François Pinard
2649 * Works with Perl 4 again.
2652 * New uniform naming scheme.
2653 * --strictness option
2655 * '.c' files corresponding to '.y' or '.l' files are automatically
2657 * Many bug fixes and cleanups
2660 * Allow objects to be conditionally included in libraries via lib_LIBADD.
2663 * Bug fixes in 'clean' code.
2664 * Now generates 'installdirs' target.
2665 * man page installation reworked.
2666 * 'make dist' no longer re-creates all Makefile.in's.
2669 * Reimplemented in Perl
2670 * Added --amdir option (for debugging)
2671 * Texinfo support cleaned up.
2672 * Automatic de-ANSI-fication cleaned up.
2673 * Cleaned up 'clean' targets.
2676 * Automatic dependency tracking
2677 * More documentation
2678 * New variables DATA and PACKAGEDATA
2679 * SCRIPTS installed using $(INSTALL_SCRIPT)
2680 * No longer uses double-colon rules
2682 * Changes in advance of internationalization
2686 Copyright (C) 1995-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2688 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
2689 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2690 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
2693 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2694 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2695 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2696 GNU General Public License for more details.
2698 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2699 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.