3 * WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
5 - Automake 1.14 will require Autoconf 2.70 or later (which is still
6 unreleased at the moment of writing, but is planned to be released
7 before Automake 1.14 is).
9 - Automake 1.14 will drop support for the long-deprecated 'configure.in'
10 name for the Autoconf input file. You are advised to start using
11 recommended name 'configure.ac' instead, ASAP.
13 - The ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS special make variable will be fully deprecated
14 in Automake 1.14 (where it will raise warnings in the "obsolete"
15 category). You are advised to start relying on the new Automake
16 support for AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS instead (which was introduced in
19 - Support for IRIX and the SGI C/C++ compilers will be removed in
20 Automake 1.14: they have seen their last release in 2006, and SGI
21 is expected to retire support from them in December 2013; see
22 <http://www.sgi.com/services/support/irix_mips_support.html> for
25 - Future versions of Automake might remove support for MS-DOS and
26 Windows 95/98/ME (support for them was offered by relying on the
27 DJGPP project). Note however that both Cygwin and MSYS/MinGW on
28 modern Windows versions will continue to be fully supported.
30 - Support for the long-deprecated INCLUDES variable will be removed
31 altogether in Automake 1.14. The AM_CPPFLAGS variable should be
34 - Automake-provided scripts and makefile recipes might (finally!)
35 start assuming a POSIX shell in Automake 1.14.
37 - Starting from Automake 1.14, third-party m4 files located in the
38 system-wide aclocal directory, as well as in any directory listed
39 in the ACLOCAL_PATH environment variable, will take precedence
40 over "built-in" Automake macros. For example (assuming Automake
41 is installed in the /usr/local hierarchy), a definition of the
42 AM_PROG_VALAC macro found in '/usr/local/share/aclocal/my-vala.m4'
43 should take precedence over the same-named automake-provided macro
44 (defined in '/usr/local/share/aclocal-1.14/vala.m4').
46 * C compilation, and the AC_PROG_CC and AM_PROG_CC_C_O macros:
48 - The 'compile' script is now unconditionally required for all
49 packages that perform C compilation (note that if you are using
50 the '--add-missing' option, automake will fetch that script for
51 you, so you shouldn't need any explicit adjustment).
52 This new behaviour is needed to avoid obscure errors when the
53 'subdir-objects' option is used, and the compiler is an inferior
54 one that doesn't grasp the combined use of both the "-c -o"
55 options; see discussion about automake bug#13378 for more details:
56 <http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=13378#35>
57 <http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=13378#44>
59 - Automake will automatically enhance the AC_PROG_CC autoconf macro
60 to make it check, at configure time, that the C compiler supports
61 the combined use of both the "-c -o" options. This "rewrite" of
62 AC_PROG_CC is only meant to be temporary, since future Autoconf
63 versions should provide all the features Automake needs.
65 - The AM_PROG_CC_C_O is no longer useful, and its use is a no-op
66 now. Future Automake versions might start warning that this
67 macro is obsolete. For better backward-compatibility, this macro
68 still sets a proper 'ac_cv_prog_cc_*_c_o' cache variable, and
69 define the 'NO_MINUS_C_MINUS_O' C preprocessor symbol, but you
70 should really stop relying on that.
74 - Automake can now be instructed to place '.info' files generated from
75 Texinfo input in the builddir rather than in the srcdir; this is done
76 specifying the new automake option 'info-in-builddir'. This feature
77 was requested by the developers of GCC, GDB, GNU binutils and the GNU
78 bfd library. See the extensive discussion about automake bug#11034
81 - For quite a long time, Automake has been implementing an undocumented
82 hack which ensured that '.info' files which appeared to be cleaned
83 (by e.g. being listed in the CLEANFILES or DISTCLEANFILES variables)
84 were built in the builddir rather than in the srcdir; this hack was
85 introduced to ensure better backward-compatibility with packages such
86 as Texinfo, which did things like:
88 info_TEXINFOS = texinfo.txi info-stnd.texi info.texi
89 DISTCLEANFILES = texinfo texinfo-* info*.info*
90 # Do not create info files for distribution.
94 in order not to distribute generated '.info' files.
96 Now that we have the 'info-in-builddir' option that explicitly causes
97 generated '.info' files to be placed in the builddir, this hack should
98 be longer necessary, so we deprecate it with runtime warnings. It will
99 likely be removed altogether in Automake 1.14.
101 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
105 * Documentation fixes:
107 - The long-deprecated but still supported two-arguments invocation form
108 of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is documented once again. This seems the sanest
109 thing to do, given that support for such an usage might need to remain
110 in place for a unspecified amount of time in order to cater for people
111 who want to define the version number for their package dynamically at
112 configure runtime (unfortunately, Autoconf does not yet support this
113 scenario, so we cannot delegate the work to it).
115 - The serial testsuite harness is no longer reported as "deprecated",
116 but as "discouraged". We have no plan to remove it, not to make its
117 use cause runtime warnings.
119 - The parallel testsuite is no longer reported as "experimental"; it
120 is well tested, ans should be stable now.
122 * Obsolescent features:
124 - Use of suffix-less info files (that can be specified through the
125 '@setfilename' macro in Texinfo input files) is discouraged, and
126 its use will raise warnings in the 'obsolete' category. Simply
127 use the '.info' extension for all your info files, transforming
130 @setfilename myprogram
134 @setfilename myprogram.info
136 - Use of Texinfo input files with '.txi' or '.texinfo' extensions
137 is discouraged, and its use will raise warnings in the 'obsolete'
138 category. You are advised to simply use the '.texi' extension
144 - The obsolete macros AM_CONFIG_HEADER or AM_PROG_CC_STDC work once
145 again, as they did in Automake 1.12.x (albeit printing runtime
146 warnings in the 'obsolete' category). Removing them has turned
147 out to be a very bad idea, because it complicated distro packing
148 enormously. Making them issue fatal warnings, as we did in
149 Automake 1.13, has turned out to be a similarly very bad idea,
150 for exactly the same reason.
152 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
158 - Use of the obsolete macros AM_CONFIG_HEADER or AM_PROG_CC_STDC now
159 causes a clear and helpful error message, instead of obscure ones
160 (issue introduced in Automake 1.13).
162 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
168 - ylwrap renames properly header guards in generated header files
169 (*.h), instead of leaving Y_TAB_H.
171 - ylwrap now also converts header guards in implementation files
172 (*.c). Because ylwrap failed to rename properly #include in the
173 implementation files, current versions of Bison (e.g., 2.7)
174 duplicate the generated header file in the implementation file.
175 The header guard then protects the implementation file from
176 duplicate definitions from the header file.
178 * Version requirements:
180 - Autoconf 2.65 or greater is now required.
182 - The rules to build PDF and DVI output from Texinfo input now
183 require Texinfo 4.9 or later.
187 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (once enabled by the 'cygnus'
188 option) has been removed. See discussion about automake bug#11034
189 for more background: <http://debbugs.gnu.org/11034>.
191 - The deprecated aclocal option '--acdir' has been removed. You
192 should use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir'
193 instead (which have been introduced in Automake 1.11.2).
195 - The following long-obsolete m4 macros have been removed:
197 AM_PROG_CC_STDC: superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002
198 fp_PROG_CC_STDC: broken alias for AM_PROG_CC_STDC
199 fp_WITH_DMALLOC: old alias for AM_WITH_DMALLOC
200 AM_CONFIG_HEADER: superseded by AC_CONFIG_HEADERS since July 2002
201 ud_PATH_LISPDIR: old alias for AM_PATH_LISPDIR
202 jm_MAINTAINER_MODE: old alias for AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
203 ud_GNU_GETTEXT: old alias for AM_GNU_GETTEXT
204 gm_PROG_LIBTOOL: old alias for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
205 fp_C_PROTOTYPES: old alias for AM_C_PROTOTYPES (which was part
206 of the now-removed automatic de-ANSI-fication
209 - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' have been removed.
211 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
212 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is no longer documented. It's still supported
213 though (albeit with a warning in the 'obsolete' category), to cater
214 for people who want to define the version number for their package
215 dynamically (e.g., from the current VCS revision). We'll have to
216 continue this support until Autoconf itself is fixed to allow better
217 support for such dynamic version numbers.
219 * Elisp byte-compilation:
221 - The byte compilation of '.el' files into '.elc' files is now done
222 with a suffix rule. This has simplified the compilation process, and
223 more importantly made it less brittle. The downside is that emacs is
224 now invoked once for each '.el' files, which cause some noticeable
225 slowdowns. These should however be mitigated on multicore machines
226 (which are becoming the norm today) if concurrent make ("make -j")
229 - Elisp files placed in a subdirectory are now byte-compiled to '.elc'
230 files in the same subdirectory; for example, byte-compiling of file
231 'sub/foo.el' file will result in 'sub/foo.elc' rather than in
232 'foo.elc'. This behaviour is backward-incompatible with older
233 Automake versions, but it is more natural and more sane. See also
236 - The Emacs invocation performing byte-compilation of '.el' files honors
237 the $(AM_ELCFLAGS) and $(ELCFLAGS) variables; as typical, the former
238 one is developer-reserved and the latter one user-reserved.
240 - The 'elisp-comp' script, once provided by Automake, has been rendered
241 obsoleted by the just-described changes, and thus removed.
243 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
245 - The parallel testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the
246 'parallel-tests' option) is the default one; the older serial
247 testsuite harness will still be available through the use of the
248 'serial-tests' option (introduced in Automake 1.12).
250 - The 'color-tests' option is now unconditionally activated by default.
251 In particular, this means that testsuite output is now colorized by
252 default if the attached terminal seems to support ANSI escapes, and
253 that the user can force output colorization by setting the variable
254 AM_COLOR_TESTS to "always". The 'color-tests' is still recognized
255 for backward-compatibility, although it's a handled as a no-op now.
257 * Silent rules support:
259 - Support for silent rules is now always active in Automake-generated
260 Makefiles. So, although the verbose output is still the default,
261 the user can now always use "./configure --enable-silent-rules" or
262 "make V=0" to enable quieter output in the package he's building.
264 - The 'silent-rules' option has now become a no-op, preserved for
265 backward-compatibility only. In particular, its use no longer
266 disables the warnings in the 'portability-recursive' category.
270 - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now require
271 Texinfo 4.9 or later.
273 - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now use the
274 '--build-dir' option, to keep the auxiliary files used by texi2dvi
275 and texi2pdf around without cluttering the build directory, and to
276 make it possible to run the "dvi" and "pdf" recipes in parallel.
278 * Automatic remake rules and 'missing' script:
280 - The 'missing' script no longer tries to update the timestamp of
281 out-of-date files that require a maintainer-specific tool to be
282 remade, in case the user lacks such a tool (or has a too-old version
283 of it). It just gives a useful warning, and in some cases also a
284 tip about how to obtain such a tool.
286 - The missing script has thus become useless as a (poor) way to work
287 around the sketched-timestamps issues that can happen for projects
288 that keep generated files committed in their VCS repository. Such
289 projects are now encouraged to write a custom "fix-timestamps.sh"
290 script to avoid such issues; a simple example is provided in the
291 "CVS and generated files" chapter of the automake manual.
295 - The user can now define his own recursive targets that recurse
296 in the directories specified in $(SUBDIRS). This can be done by
297 specifying the name of such targets in invocations of the new
298 'AM_EXTRA_RECURSIVE_TARGETS' m4 macro.
302 - Any failure in the recipe of the "tags", "ctags", "cscope" or
303 "cscopelist" targets in a subdirectory is now propagated to the
304 top-level make invocation.
306 - Tags are correctly computed also for files in _SOURCES variables that
307 only list files with non-standard suffixes (see automake bug#12372).
309 * Improvements to aclocal and related rebuilds rules:
311 - Autoconf-provided macros AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR and AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS
312 are now traced by aclocal, and can be used to declare the local m4
313 include directories. Formerly, one had to specify it with an explicit
314 '-I' option to the 'aclocal' invocation.
316 - The special make variable ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS is deprecated; future
317 Automake versions will warn about its use, and later version will
318 remove support for it altogether.
320 * The depcomp script:
322 - Dropped support for libtool 1.4.
324 - Various internal refactorings. They should cause no visible change,
325 but the chance for regression is there anyway, so please report any
326 unexpected or suspicious behaviour.
328 - Support for pre-8.0 versions of the Intel C Compiler has been dropped.
329 This should cause no problem, since icc 8.0 has been released in
330 December 2003 -- almost nine years ago.
332 - Support for tcc (the Tiny C Compiler) has been improved, and is now
333 handled through a dedicated 'tcc' mode.
337 - ylwrap generates header guards with a single '_' for series of non
338 alphabetic characters, instead of several. This is what Bison >=
341 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
343 Bugs fixed in 1.12.6:
345 * Python-related bugs:
347 - The default installation location for python modules has been improved
348 for Python 3 on Debian and Ubuntu systems, changing from:
350 ${prefix}/lib/python3/dist-packages
354 ${prefix}/lib/python3.x/site-packages
356 This change should ensure modules installed using the default ${prefix}
357 "/usr/local" are found by default by system python 3.x installations.
358 See automake bug#10227.
360 - Python byte-compilation supports the new layout mandated by PEP-3147,
361 with its __pycache__ directory (automake bug#8847).
363 * Build system issues:
365 - The maintainer rebuild rules for Makefiles and aclocal.m4 in
366 Automake's own build system works correctly again (bug introduced
371 - The Vala-related tests has been changed to adjust to the removal of
372 the 'posix' profile in the valac compiler. See automake bug#12934
375 - Some spurious testsuite failures related to older tools and systems
378 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
384 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro has been enhanced to takes two further
385 optional arguments; it's signature now being
387 AM_PROG_VALAC([MINIMUM-VERSION], [ACTION-IF-FOUND],
388 [ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND])
390 - By default, AM_PROG_VALAC no longer aborts the configure invocation
391 if the Vala compiler found is too old, but simply prints a warning
392 messages (as it did when the Vala compiler was not found). This
393 should avoid unnecessary difficulties for end users that just want
394 to compile the unmodified, distributed Vala-generated C sources,
395 but happens to have an old Vala compiler in their PATH. This fixes
398 - If no proper Vala compiler is found at configure runtime, AM_PROG_VALAC
399 will set the AC_SUBST'd variable 'VALAC' to 'valac' rather than to ':'.
400 This is a better default, because with it a triggered makefile rule
401 invoking a Vala compilation will clearly fail with an informative error
402 message like "valac: command not found", rather than silently, with
403 the error possibly going unnoticed or triggering harder-to-diagnose
404 fallout failures in later steps.
406 * Miscellaneous changes:
408 - automake and aclocal no longer honours the 'perllibdir' environment
409 variable. That had always been intended only as an hack required in
410 the testsuite, not meant for any use beyond that.
412 Bugs fixed in 1.12.5:
414 * Long-standing bugs:
416 - Automake no longer generates spurious remake rules invoking autoheader
417 to regenerate the template corresponding to header files specified after
418 the first one in AC_CONFIG_HEADERS (automake bug#12495).
420 - When wrapping Microsoft tools, the 'compile' script falls back to
421 finding classic 'libname.a' style libraries when 'name.lib' and
422 'name.dll.lib' aren't available.
424 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
428 * Warnings and deprecations:
430 - Warnings in the 'obsolete' category are enabled by default both in
431 automake and aclocal.
433 * Miscellaneous changes:
435 - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
437 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
441 * Miscellaneous changes:
443 - The '.m4' files provided by Automake no longer define serial numbers.
444 This should cause no difference in the behaviour of aclocal though.
446 - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
448 - There is initial support for automatic dependency tracking with the
449 Portland Group C/C++ compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'pgcc'.
451 Bugs fixed in 1.12.3:
453 * Long-standing bugs:
455 - Instead of renaming only self-references of files (typically for
456 #lines), ylwrap now also renames references to the other generated
457 files. This fixes support for GLR and C++ parsers from Bison (PR
458 automake/491 and automake bug#7648): 'parser.c' now properly
459 #includes 'parser.h' instead of 'y.tab.h'.
461 - Generated files unknown to ylwrap are now preserved. This fixes
462 C++ support for Bison (automake bug#7648): location.hh and the
463 like are no longer discarded.
465 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
469 * Warnings and deprecations:
471 - Automake now issues a warning (in the 'portability' category) if
472 'configure.in' is used instead of 'configure.ac' as the Autoconf
473 input file. Such a warning will also be present in the next
474 Autoconf version (2.70).
478 - Recursive cleaning rules descends into the $(SUBDIRS) in the natural
479 order (as done by the other recursive rules), rather than in the
480 inverse order. They used to do that in order to work a round a
481 limitation in an older implementation of the automatic dependency
482 tracking support, but that limitation had been lifted years ago
483 already, when the automatic dependency tracking based on side-effects
484 of compilation had been introduced.
486 - Cleaning rules for compiled objects (both "plain" and libtool) work
487 better when subdir objects are involved, not triggering a distinct
488 'rm' invocation for each such object. They do so by removing *any*
489 compiled object file that is in the same directory of a subdir
490 object. See automake bug#10697.
492 * Silent rules support:
494 - A new predefined $(AM_V_P) make variable is provided; it expands
495 to a shell conditional that can be used in recipes to know whether
496 make is being run in silent or verbose mode.
498 Bugs fixed in 1.12.2:
500 * SECURITY VULNERABILITIES!
502 - The 'distcheck' recipe no longer grants temporary world-write
503 permissions on the extracted distdir. Even if such rights were
504 only granted for a vanishingly small time window, the implied
505 race condition proved to be enough to allow a local attacker
506 to run arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running
507 "make distcheck". This is CVE-2012-3386.
509 * Long-standing bugs:
511 - The "recheck" targets behaves better in the face of build failures
512 related to previously failed tests. For example, if a test is a
513 compiled program that must be rerun by "make recheck", and its
514 compilation fails, it will still be rerun by further "make recheck"
515 invocations. See automake bug#11791.
517 * Bugs introduced by 1.12.1:
519 - Automake provides once again the '$(mkdir_p)' make variable and the
520 '@mkdir_p@' substitution (both as simple aliases for '$(MKDIR_P)'),
521 for better backward-compatibility.
523 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
527 * New supported languages:
529 - Support for Objective C++ has been added; it should work similarly to
530 the support for Objective C.
532 * Deprecated obsolescent features:
534 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
535 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro now elicits a warning in the 'obsolete'
536 category. Starting from some future major Automake release (likely
537 post-1.13), such usages will no longer be allowed.
539 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (enabled by the 'cygnus' option) is
540 now deprecated (its use triggers a warning in the 'obsolete' category).
541 It will be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13).
543 - The long-obsolete (since 1.10) automake-provided $(mkdir_p) make
544 variable, @mkdir_p@ configure-time substitution and AM_PROG_MKDIR
545 m4 macro are deprecated, eliciting a warning in the 'obsolete'
548 * Miscellaneous changes:
550 - The Automake test cases now require a proper POSIX-conforming shell.
551 Older non-POSIX Bourne shells (like Solaris 10 /bin/sh) will no longer
552 be accepted. In most cases, the user shouldn't have to specify such
553 POSIX shell explicitly, since it will be looked up at configure time.
554 Still, when this lookup fails, or when the user wants to override its
555 conclusion, the variable 'AM_TEST_RUNNER_SHELL' can be used (pointing
556 to the shell that will be used to run the Automake test cases).
558 Bugs fixed in 1.12.1:
560 * Bugs introduced by 1.12:
562 - Several weaknesses in Automake's own build system and test suite
565 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
567 - When given non-option arguments, aclocal rejects them, instead of
568 silently ignoring them.
570 * Long-standing bugs:
572 - When the 'color-tests' option is in use, forcing of colored testsuite
573 output through "AM_COLOR_TESTS=always" works even if the terminal is
574 a non-ANSI one, i.e., if the TERM environment variable has a value of
577 - Several inefficiencies and poor performances in the implementation
578 of the parallel-tests 'check' and 'recheck' targets have been fixed.
580 - The post-processing of output "#line" directives done the ylwrap
581 script is more faithful w.r.t. files in a subdirectory; for example,
582 if the processed file is "src/grammar.y", ylwrap will correctly
583 produce directives like:
584 #line 7 "src/grammar.y"
589 * Bugs with new Perl versions:
591 - Aclocal works correctly with perl 5.16.0 (automake bug#11543).
593 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
597 * Obsolete features removed:
599 - The never documented nor truly used script 'acinstall' has been
602 - Support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been removed.
604 - The support for the "obscure" multilib feature has been removed
605 from Automake core (but remains available in the 'contrib/'
606 directory of the Automake distribution).
608 - Support for ".log -> .html" conversion and the check-html and
609 recheck-html targets has been removed from Automake core (but
610 remains available in the 'contrib/' directory of the Automake
613 - The deprecated 'lzma' compression format for distribution archives
614 has been removed, in favor of 'xz' and 'lzip'.
616 - The obsolete AM_WITH_REGEX macro has been removed.
618 - The long-deprecated options '--output-dir', '--Werror' and
619 '--Wno-error' have been removed.
621 - The chapter on the history of Automake has been moved out of the
622 reference manual, into a new dedicated Texinfo file.
626 - New 'cscope' target to build a cscope database for the source tree.
628 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
630 - The new automake option 'serial-tests' has been introduced. It can
631 be used to explicitly instruct automake to use the older serial
632 testsuite harness. This is still the default at the moment, but it
633 might change in future versions.
635 - The 'recheck' target (provided by the parallel testsuite harness) now
636 depends on the 'all' target. This allows for a better user-experience
637 in test-driven development. See automake bug#11252.
639 - Test scripts that exit with status 99 to signal an "hard error" (e.g.,
640 and unexpected or internal error, or a failure to set up the test case
641 scenario) have their outcome reported as an 'ERROR' now. Previous
642 versions of automake reported such an outcome as a 'FAIL' (the only
643 difference with normal failures being that hard errors were counted
644 as failures even when the test originating them was listed in
647 - The testsuite summary displayed by the parallel-test harness has a
648 completely new format, that always list the numbers of passed, failed,
649 xfailed, xpassed, skipped and errored tests, even when these numbers
650 are zero (but using smart coloring when the color-tests option is in
653 - The default testsuite driver offered by the 'parallel-tests' option is
654 now implemented (partly at least) with the help of automake-provided
655 auxiliary scripts (e.g., 'test-driver'), instead of relying entirely
656 on code in the generated Makefile.in.
657 This has two noteworthy implications. The first one is that projects
658 using the 'parallel-tests' option should now either run automake with
659 the '--add-missing' option, or manually copy the 'test-driver' script
660 into their tree. The second, and more important, implication is that
661 now, when the 'parallel-tests' option is in use, TESTS_ENVIRONMENT can
662 no longer be used to define a test runner, and the command specified
663 in LOG_COMPILER (and <ext>_LOG_COMPILER) must be a *real* executable
664 program or script. For example, this is still a valid usage (albeit
667 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
668 if test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS)'; then \
669 maybe_errexit='-e'; \
673 LOG_COMPILER = $(SHELL) $$maybe_errexit
675 OTOH, this is no longer a valid usage:
677 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
678 $(SHELL) `test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS_CHECKING)' && echo ' -e'`
682 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
683 run_with_perl_or_shell () \
685 if grep -q '^#!.*perl' $$1; then
691 LOG_COMPILER = run_with_perl_or_shell
693 - The package authors can now use customary testsuite drivers within
694 the framework provided by the 'parallel-tests' testsuite harness.
695 Consistently with the existing syntax, this can be done by defining
696 special makefile variables 'LOG_DRIVER' and '<ext>_LOG_DRIVER'.
698 - A new developer-reserved variable 'AM_TESTS_FD_REDIRECT' can be used
699 to redirect/define file descriptors used by the test scripts.
701 - The parallel-tests harness generates now, in addition the '.log' files
702 holding the output produced by the test scripts, a new set of '.trs'
703 files, holding "metadata" derived by the execution of the test scripts;
704 among such metadata are the outcomes of the test cases run by a script.
706 - Initial and still experimental support for the TAP test protocol is
709 * Changes to Yacc and Lex support:
711 - C source and header files derived from non-distributed Yacc and/or
712 Lex sources are now removed by a simple "make clean" (while they were
713 previously removed only by "make maintainer-clean").
715 - Slightly backward-incompatible change, relevant only for use of Yacc
716 with C++: the extensions of the header files produced by the Yacc
717 rules are now modelled after the extension of the corresponding
718 sources. For example, yacc files named "foo.y++" and "bar.yy" will
719 produce header files named "foo.h++" and "bar.hh" respectively, where
720 they would have previously produced header files named simply "foo.h"
721 and "bar.h". This change offers better compatibility with 'bison -o'.
723 * Miscellaneous changes:
725 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro now causes configure to exit with status 77,
726 rather than 1, if the vala compiler found is too old.
728 - The build system of Automake itself now avoids the use of make
729 recursion as much as possible.
731 - Automake now prefers to quote 'like this' or "like this", rather
732 than `like this', in diagnostic message and generated Makefiles,
733 to accommodate the new GNU Coding Standards recommendations.
735 - Automake has a new option '--print-libdir' that prints the path of the
736 directory containing the Automake-provided scripts and data files.
738 - The 'dist' and 'dist-all' targets now can run compressors in parallel.
740 - The rules to create pdf, dvi and ps output from Texinfo files now
741 works better with modern 'texi2dvi' script, by explicitly passing
742 it the '--clean' option to ensure stray auxiliary files are not
743 left to clutter the build directory.
745 - Automake can now generate silenced rules for texinfo outputs.
747 - Some auxiliary files that are automatically distributed by Automake
748 (e.g., 'install-sh', or the 'depcomp' script for packages compiling
749 C sources) might now be listed in the DIST_COMMON variable in many
750 Makefile.in files, rather than in the top-level one.
752 - Messages of types warning or error from 'automake' and 'aclocal'
753 are now prefixed with the respective type, and presence of -Werror
756 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now tries to avoid
757 sleeping for a second, which slowed down cached configure runs
758 noticeably. In that case, it will check back at the end of the
759 configure script to ensure that at least one second has passed, to
760 avoid time stamp issues with makefile rules rerunning autotools
763 - The warnings in the category 'extra-portability' are now enabled by
764 '-Wall'. In previous versions, one has to use '-Wextra-portability'
769 - Various minor bugfixes for recent or long-standing bugs.
771 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
773 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
774 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
776 - The automake-provided parallel testsuite harness no longer fails
777 with BSD make used in parallel mode when there are test scripts in
778 a subdirectory, like in:
780 TESTS = sub/foo.test sub/bar.test
782 * Long-standing bugs:
784 - Automake's own build system finally have a real "installcheck" target.
786 - Vala-related cleanup rules are now more complete, and work better in
789 - Files listed with the AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE macro in configure.ac are
790 now automatically distributed also if the directory of the auxiliary
791 files coincides with the top-level directory.
793 - Automake now detects the presence of the '-d' flag in the various
794 '*YFLAGS' variables even when their definitions involve indirections
795 through other variables, such as in:
797 AM_YFLAGS = $(foo_opts)
799 - Automake now complains if a '*YFLAGS' variable has any conditional
800 content, not only a conditional definition.
802 - Explicit enabling and/or disabling of Automake warning categories
803 through the '-W...' options now always takes precedence over the
804 implicit warning level implied by Automake strictness (foreign, gnu
805 or gnits), regardless of the order in which such strictness and
806 warning flags appear. For example, a setting like:
807 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = -Wall --foreign
808 will cause the warnings in category 'portability' to be enabled, even
809 if those warnings are by default disabled in 'foreign' strictness.
811 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
813 Bugs fixed in 1.11.5:
815 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
817 - Vala files with '.vapi' extension are now recognized and handled
818 correctly again. See automake bug#11222.
820 - Vala support work again for projects that contain some program
821 built from '.vala' (and possibly '.c') sources and some other
822 program built from '.c' sources *only*. See automake bug#11229.
824 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
828 * Miscellaneous changes:
830 - The 'ar-lib' script now ignores the "s" (symbol index) and "S" (no
831 symbol index) modifiers as well as the "s" action, as the symbol index
832 is created unconditionally by Microsoft lib. Also, the "q" (quick)
833 action is now a synonym for "r" (replace). Also, the script has been
834 ignoring the "v" (verbose) modifier already since Automake 1.11.3.
836 - When the 'compile' script is used to wrap MSVC, it now accepts an
837 optional space between the -I, -L and -l options and their respective
838 arguments, for better POSIX compliance.
840 - There is an initial, experimental support for automatic dependency
841 tracking with tcc (the Tiny C Compiler). Its associated depmode is
842 currently recognized as "icc" (but this and other details are likely
843 to change in future versions).
845 - Automatic dependency tracking now works also with the IBM XL C/C++
846 compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'xlc'.
848 Bugs fixed in 1.11.4:
850 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
852 - A definition of 'noinst_PYTHON' before 'python_PYTHON' (or similar)
853 no longer cause spurious failures upon "make install".
855 - The user can now instruct the 'uninstall-info' rule not to update
856 the '${infodir}/dir' file by exporting the environment variable
857 'AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no". This is done for consistency
858 with how the 'install-info' rule operates since automake 1.11.2.
860 * Long-standing bugs:
862 - It is now possible for a foo_SOURCES variable to hold Vala sources
863 together with C header files, as well as with sources and headers for
864 other supported languages (e.g., C++). Previously, only mixing C and
865 Vala sources was supported.
867 - If "aclocal --install" is used, and the first directory specified with
868 '-I' is non-existent, aclocal will now create it before trying to copy
871 - An empty declaration of a "foo_PRIMARY" no longer cause the generated
872 install rules to create an empty $(foodir) directory; for example, if
873 Makefile.am contains something like:
877 pkglibexec_SCRIPTS += bar.sh
880 the $(pkglibexec) directory will not be created upon "make install".
882 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
886 * Miscellaneous changes:
888 - Automake's own build system is more silent by default, making use of
889 the 'silent-rules' option.
891 - The master copy of the 'gnupload' script is now maintained in gnulib,
894 - The 'missing' script no longer tries to wrap calls to 'tar'.
896 - "make dist" no longer wraps 'tar' invocations with the 'missing'
897 script. Similarly, the obsolescent variable '$(AMTAR)' (which you
898 shouldn't be using BTW ;-) no longer invokes the 'missing' script
899 to wrap tar, but simply invokes the 'tar' program itself.
901 - "make dist" can now create lzip-compressed tarballs.
903 - In the Automake info documentation, the Top node and the nodes about
904 the invocation of the automake and aclocal programs have been renamed;
905 now, calling "info automake" will open the Top node, while calling
906 "info automake-invocation" and "info aclocal-invocation" will access
907 the nodes about the invocation of respectively automake and aclocal.
909 - Automake is now distributed as a gzip-compressed and an xz-compressed
910 tarball. Previously, bzip2 was used instead of xz.
912 - The last relics of Python 1.5 support have been removed from the
913 AM_PATH_PYTHON macro.
915 - For programs and libraries, automake now detects EXTRA_foo_DEPENDENCIES
916 and adds them to the normal list of dependencies, but without
917 overwriting the foo_DEPENDENCIES variable, which is normally computed
920 Bugs fixed in 1.11.3:
922 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
924 - Automake now correctly recognizes the prefix/primary combination
925 'pkglibexec_SCRIPTS' as valid.
927 - The parallel-tests harness no longer trips on sed implementations
928 with stricter limits on the length of input lines (problem seen at
931 * Long-standing bugs:
933 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.am files is avoided by stub
934 rules. This allows 'make' to trigger a rerun of 'automake' also if
935 some previously needed '.am' file has been removed.
937 - The 'silent-rules' option now generates working makefiles even
938 for the uncommon 'make' implementations that do not support the
939 nested-variables extension to POSIX 2008. For such 'make'
940 implementations, whether a build is silent is determined at
941 configure time, and cannot be overridden at make time with
942 "make V=0" or "make V=1".
944 - Vala support now works better in VPATH setups.
946 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
950 * Changes to aclocal:
952 - The `--acdir' option is deprecated. Now you should use the new options
953 `--automake-acdir' and `--system-acdir' instead.
955 - The `ACLOCAL_PATH' environment variable is now interpreted as a
956 colon-separated list of additional directories to search after the
957 automake internal acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal-APIVERSION)
958 and before the system acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal).
960 * Miscellaneous changes:
962 - The Automake support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been
963 deprecated. It will probably be removed in the next major Automake
966 - The `lzma' compression scheme and associated automake option `dist-lzma'
967 is obsoleted by `xz' and `dist-xz' due to upstream changes.
969 - You may adjust the compression options used in dist-xz and dist-bzip2.
970 The default is now merely -e for xz, but still -9 for bzip; you may
971 specify a different level via the XZ_OPT and BZIP2 envvars respectively.
972 E.g., "make dist-xz XZ_OPT=-7" or "make dist-bzip2 BZIP2=-5"
974 - The `compile' script now converts some options for MSVC for a better
975 user experience. Similarly, the new `ar-lib' script wraps Microsoft lib.
977 - The py-compile script now accepts empty arguments passed to the options
978 `--destdir' and `--basedir', and complains about unrecognized options.
979 Moreover, a non-option argument or a special `--' argument terminates
982 - A developer that needs to pass specific flags to configure at "make
983 distcheck" time can now, and indeed is advised to, do so by defining
984 the developer-reserved makefile variable AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS,
985 instead of the old DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS.
986 The DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS variable should now be reserved for the
987 user; still, the old Makefile.am files that used to define it will
988 still continue to work as before.
990 - New macro AM_PROG_AR that looks for an archiver and wraps it in the new
991 'ar-lib' auxiliary script if the selected archiver is Microsoft lib.
992 This new macro is required for LIBRARIES and LTLIBRARIES when automake
993 is run with -Wextra-portability and -Werror.
995 - When using DejaGnu-based testsuites, the user can extend the `site.exp'
996 file generated by automake-provided rules by defining the special make
997 variable `$(EXTRA_DEJAGNU_SITE_CONFIG)'.
999 - The `install-info' rule can now be instructed not to create/update
1000 the `${infodir}/dir' file, by exporting the new environment variable
1001 `AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no".
1003 Bugs fixed in 1.11.2:
1005 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
1007 - The parallel-tests driver no longer produces erroneous results with
1008 Tru64/OSF 5.1 sh upon unreadable log files.
1010 - The `parallel-tests' test driver does not report spurious successes
1011 when used with concurrent FreeBSD make (e.g., "make check -j3").
1013 - When the parallel-tests driver is in use, automake now explicitly
1014 rejects invalid entries and conditional contents in TEST_EXTENSIONS,
1015 instead of issuing confusing and apparently unrelated error messages
1016 (e.g., "non-POSIX variable name", "bad characters in variable name",
1017 or "redefinition of TEST_EXTENSIONS), or even, in some situations,
1018 silently producing broken `Makefile.in' files.
1020 - The `silent-rules' option now truly silences all compile rules, even
1021 when dependency tracking is disabled. Also, when `silent-rules' is
1022 not used, `make' output no longer contains spurious backslash-only
1023 lines, thus once again matching what Automake did before 1.11.
1025 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
1026 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
1028 * Long-standing bugs:
1030 - The order of Yacc and Lex flags is fixed to be consistent with other
1031 languages: $(AM_YFLAGS) comes before $(YFLAGS), and $(AM_LFLAGS) before
1032 $(LFLAGS), so that the user variables override the developer variables.
1034 - "make distcheck" now correctly complains also when "make uninstall"
1035 leaves one and only one file installed in $(prefix).
1037 - A "make uninstall" issued before a "make install", or after a mere
1038 "make install-data" or a mere "make install-exec" does not spuriously
1041 - Automake now warns about more primary/directory invalid combinations,
1042 such as "doc_LIBRARIES" or "pkglib_PROGRAMS".
1044 - Rules generated by Automake now try harder to not change any files when
1045 `make -n' is invoked. Fixes include compilation of Emacs Lisp, Vala, or
1046 Yacc source files and the rule to update config.h.
1048 - Several scripts and the parallel-tests testsuite driver now exit with
1049 the right exit status upon receiving a signal.
1051 - A per-Makefile.am setting of -Werror does not erroneously carry over
1052 to the handling of other Makefile.am files.
1054 - The code for automatic dependency tracking works around a Solaris
1055 make bug triggered by sources containing repeated slashes when the
1056 `subdir-objects' option was used.
1058 - The makedepend and hp depmodes now work better with VPATH builds.
1060 - Java sources specified with check_JAVA are no longer compiled for
1061 "make all", but only for "make check".
1063 - An usage like "java_JAVA = foo.java" will now cause Automake to warn
1064 and error out if `javadir' is undefined, instead of silently producing
1065 a broken Makefile.in.
1067 - aclocal and automake now honour the configure-time definitions of
1068 AUTOCONF and AUTOM4TE when they spawn autoconf or autom4te processes.
1070 - The `install-info' recipe no longer tries to guess whether the
1071 `install-info' program is from Debian or from GNU, and adaptively
1072 change its behaviour; this has proven to be frail and easy to
1075 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1077 Bugs fixed in 1.11.1:
1079 - Lots of minor bugfixes.
1081 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
1083 - The `parallel-tests' test driver works around a GNU make 3.80 bug with
1084 trailing white space in the test list (`TESTS = foo $(EMPTY)').
1086 * Long standing bugs:
1088 - On Darwin 9, `pythondir' and `pyexecdir' pointed below `/Library/Python'
1089 even if the `--prefix' argument pointed outside of a system directory.
1090 AM_PATH_PYTHON has been fixed to ignore the value returned from python's
1091 `get_python_lib' function if it points outside the configured prefix,
1092 unless the `--prefix' argument was either `/usr' or below `/System'.
1094 - The testsuite does not try to change the mode of `ltmain.sh' files from
1095 a Libtool installation (symlinked to test directories) any more.
1097 - AM_PROG_GCJ uses AC_CHECK_TOOLS to look for `gcj' now, so that prefixed
1098 tools are preferred in a cross-compile setup.
1100 - The distribution is tarred up with mode 755 now by the `dist*' targets.
1101 This fixes a race condition where untrusted users could modify files
1102 in the $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION) distdir before packing if the toplevel
1103 build directory was world-searchable. This is CVE-2009-4029.
1105 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1109 * Version requirements:
1111 - Autoconf 2.62 or greater is required.
1113 * Changes to aclocal:
1115 - The autoconf version check implemented by aclocal in aclocal.m4
1116 (and new in Automake 1.10) is degraded to a warning. This helps
1117 in the common case where the Autoconf versions used are compatible.
1119 * Changes to automake:
1121 - The automake program can run multiple threads for creating most
1122 Makefile.in files concurrently, if at least Perl 5.7.2 is available
1123 with interpreter-based threads enabled. Set the environment variable
1124 AUTOMAKE_JOBS to the maximum number of threads to use, in order to
1125 enable this experimental feature.
1127 * Changes to Libtool support:
1129 - Libtool generic flags are now passed to the install and uninstall
1132 - distcheck works with Libtool 2.x even when LT_OUTPUT is used, as
1133 config.lt is removed correctly now.
1135 * Languages changes:
1137 - subdir-object mode works now with Fortran (F77, FC, preprocessed
1138 Fortran, and Ratfor).
1140 - For files with extension .f90, .f95, .f03, or .f08, the flag
1141 $(FCFLAGS_f[09]x) computed by AC_FC_SRCEXT is now used in compile rules.
1143 - Files with extension .sx are also treated as preprocessed assembler.
1145 - The default source file extension (.c) can be overridden with
1146 AM_DEFAULT_SOURCE_EXT now.
1148 - Python 3.0 is supported now, Python releases prior to 2.0 are no
1151 - AM_PATH_PYTHON honors python's idea about the site directory.
1153 - There is initial support for the Vala programming language, when using
1154 Vala 0.7.0 or later.
1156 * Miscellaneous changes:
1158 - Automake development is done in a git repository on Savannah now, see
1160 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=automake.git
1162 A read-only CVS mirror is provided at
1164 cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@pserver.git.sv.gnu.org:/automake.git \
1165 checkout -d automake HEAD
1167 - "make dist" can now create xz-compressed tarballs,
1168 as well as (deprecated?) lzma-compressed tarballs.
1170 - `automake --add-missing' will by default install the GPLv3 file as
1171 COPYING if it is missing. It will also warn that the license file
1172 should be added to source control. Note that Automake will never
1173 overwrite an existing COPYING file, even when the `--force-missing'
1176 - The manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL 1.3.
1178 - Automake ships and installs man pages for automake and aclocal now.
1180 - New shorthand `$(pkglibexecdir)' for `$(libexecdir)/@PACKAGE@'.
1182 - install-sh supports -C, which does not update the installed file
1183 (and its time stamps) if the contents did not change.
1185 - The `gnupload' script has been revamped.
1187 - The `depcomp' and `compile' scripts now work with MSVC under MSYS.
1189 - The targets `install' and `uninstall' are more efficient now, in that
1190 for example multiple files from one Automake variable such as
1191 `bin_SCRIPTS' are copied in one `install' (or `libtool --mode=install')
1192 invocation if they do not have to be renamed.
1194 Both install and uninstall may sometimes enter (`cd' into) the target
1195 installation directory now, when no build-local scripts are used.
1197 Both install and uninstall do not fail anymore but do nothing if an
1198 installation directory variable like `bindir' is set to the empty string.
1200 For built-in rules, `make install' now fails reliably if installation
1201 of a file failed. Conversely, `make uninstall' even succeeds when
1202 issued multiple times.
1204 These changes may need some adjustments from users: For example,
1205 some `install' programs refuse to install multiple copies of the
1206 same file in one invocation, so you may need to remove duplicate
1207 entries from file lists.
1209 Also, within one set of files, say, nobase_data_DATA, the order of
1210 installation may be changed, or even unstable among different hosts,
1211 due to the use of associative arrays in awk. The increased use of
1212 awk matches a similar move in Autoconf to provide for better scaling.
1214 Further, most undocumented per-rule install command variables such as
1215 binSCRIPT_INSTALL have been removed because they are not needed any
1216 more. Packages which use them should be using the appropriate one of
1217 INSTALL_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT} or their install_sh_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT}
1218 counterpart, depending on the type of files and the need for automatic
1219 target directory creation.
1221 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.m4 files is avoided by
1222 stub rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `aclocal'
1223 also if some previously needed macro file has been removed.
1225 - Rebuild rules now also work for a removed `subdir/Makefile.in' in
1226 an otherwise up to date tree.
1228 - The `color-tests' option causes colored test result output on terminals.
1230 - The `parallel-tests' option enables a new test driver that allows for
1231 parallel test execution, inter-test dependencies, lazy test execution
1232 for unit-testing, re-testing only failed tests, and formatted result output
1233 as RST (reStructuredText) and HTML. Enabling this option may require some
1234 changes to your test suite setup; see the manual for details.
1236 - The `silent-rules' option enables Linux kernel-style silent build output.
1237 This option requires the widely supported but non-POSIX `make' feature
1238 of recursive variable expansion, so do not use it if your package needs
1239 to build with `make' implementations that do not support it.
1241 To enable less verbose build output, the developer has to use the Automake
1242 option `silent-rules' in `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE', or call the `AM_SILENT_RULES'
1243 macro. The user may then set the default verbosity by passing the
1244 `--enable-silent-rules' option to `configure'. At `make' run time, this
1245 default may be overridden using `make V=0' for less verbose, and `make V=1'
1246 for backward-compatible verbose output.
1248 - New prefix `notrans_' for manpages which should not be transformed
1249 by --program-transform.
1251 - New macro AM_COND_IF for conditional evaluation and conditional
1254 - For AC_CONFIG_LINKS, if source and destination are equal, do not
1255 remove the file in a non-VPATH build. Such setups work with Autoconf
1258 - AM_MAINTAINER_MODE now allows for an optional argument specifying
1259 the default setting.
1261 - AM_SUBST_NOTMAKE may prevent substitution of AC_SUBSTed variables,
1262 useful especially for multi-line values.
1264 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now diagnoses an
1265 unsafe absolute source directory name and makes configure fail.
1267 - The Automake macros and rules cope better with whitespace in the
1268 current directory name, as long as the relative path to `configure'
1269 does not contain whitespace. To this end, the values of `$(MISSING)'
1270 and `$(install_sh)' may contain suitable quoting, and their expansion
1271 might need `eval'uation if used outside of a makefile. These
1272 undocumented variables may be used in several documented macros such
1273 as $(AUTOCONF) or $(MAKEINFO).
1277 * Long-standing bugs:
1279 - Fix aix dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1281 - Work around AIX sh quoting issue in AC_PROG_CC_C_O, leading to
1282 unnecessary use of the `compile' script.
1284 - For nobase_*_LTLIBRARIES with nonempty directory components, the
1285 correct `-rpath' argument is used now.
1287 - `config.status --file=Makefile depfiles' now also works with the
1288 extra quoting used internally by Autoconf 2.62 and newer
1289 (it used to work only without the `--file=' bit).
1291 - The `missing' script works better with versioned tool names.
1293 - Semantics for `missing help2man' have been revamped:
1295 Previously, if `help2man' was not present, `missing help2man' would have
1296 the following semantics: if some man page was out of date but present, then
1297 a warning would be printed, but the exit status was 0. If the man page was
1298 not present at all, then `missing' would create a replacement man page
1299 containing an error message, and exit with a status of 2. This does not play
1300 well with `make': the next run will see this particular man page as being up
1301 to date, and will only error out on the next generated man page, if any;
1302 repeat until all pages are done. This was not desirable.
1304 These are the new semantics: if some man page is not present, and help2man
1305 is not either, then `missing' will warn and generate the replacement page
1306 containing the error message, but exit successfully. However, `make dist'
1307 will ensure that no such bogus man pages are packaged into a tarball.
1309 - Targets provided by automake behave better with `make -n', in that they
1310 take care not to create files.
1312 - `config.status Makefile... depfiles' works fine again in the presence of
1313 disabled dependency tracking.
1315 - The default no-op recursive rules for these targets also work with BSD make
1316 now: html, install-html, install-dvi, install-pdf, install-pdf, install-info.
1318 - `make distcheck' works also when both a directory and some file below it
1319 have been added to a distribution variable, such as EXTRA_DIST or *_SOURCES.
1321 - Texinfo dvi, ps, pdf, and html output files are not removed upon
1322 `make mostlyclean' any more; only the LaTeX by-products are.
1324 - Renamed objects also work with the `subdir-objects' option and
1325 source file languages which Automake does not know itself.
1327 - `automake' now correctly complains about variable assignments which are
1328 preceded by a comment, extend over multiple lines with backslash-escaped
1329 newlines, and end in a comment sign. Previous versions would silently
1330 and wrongly ignore such assignments completely.
1332 * Bugs introduced by 1.10:
1334 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
1335 Makefile.in's again, but also cope with long lines.
1337 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of XFAIL_TESTS
1338 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1339 This is for consistency with the analogous change to TESTS in 1.10.
1341 - Fix order of standard includes to again be `-I. -I$(srcdir)',
1342 followed by directories containing config headers.
1344 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1348 * Version requirements:
1350 - Autoconf 2.60 or greater is required.
1352 - Perl 5.6 or greater is required.
1354 * Changes to aclocal:
1356 - aclocal now also supports -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble options.
1358 - `dirlist' entries (for the aclocal search path) may use shell
1359 wildcards such as `*', `?', or `[...]'.
1361 - aclocal supports an --install option that will cause system-wide
1362 third-party macros to be installed in the local directory
1363 specified with the first -I flag. This option also uses #serial
1364 lines in M4 files to upgrade local macros.
1366 The new aclocal options --dry-run and --diff help to review changes
1367 before they are installed.
1369 - aclocal now outputs an autoconf version check in aclocal.m4 in
1370 projects using automake.
1372 For a few years, automake and aclocal have been calling autoconf
1373 (or its underlying engine autom4te) to accurately retrieve the
1374 data they need from configure.ac and its siblings. Doing so can
1375 only work if all autotools use the same version of autoconf. For
1376 instance a Makefile.in generated by automake for one version of
1377 autoconf may stop working if configure is regenerated with another
1378 version of autoconf, and vice versa.
1380 This new version check ensures that the whole build system has
1381 been generated using the same autoconf version.
1383 * Support for new Autoconf macros:
1385 - The new AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE Autoconf macro is supported.
1387 - If `subdir-objects' is set, and AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR is specified,
1388 $(LIBOBJS), $(LTLIBOBJS), $(ALLOCA), and $(LTALLOCA) can be used
1389 in different directories. However, only one instance of such a
1390 library objects directory is supported.
1392 * Change to Libtool support:
1394 - Libtool generic flags (those that go before the --mode=MODE option)
1395 can be specified using AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS and target_LIBTOOLFLAGS.
1397 * Yacc and Lex changes:
1399 - The rebuild rules for distributed Yacc and Lex output will avoid
1400 overwriting existing files if AM_MAINTAINER_MODE and maintainer-mode
1403 - ylwrap is now always used for lex and yacc source files,
1404 regardless of whether there is more than one source per directory.
1406 * Languages changes:
1408 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now honors CPPFLAGS,
1409 AM_CPPFLAGS and per-target _CPPFLAGS, and supports dependency
1410 tracking, unlike non-preprocessed assembler (*.s).
1412 - subdir-object mode works now with Assembler. Automake assumes
1413 that the compiler understands `-c -o'.
1415 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now also honors
1416 $(DEFS) $(DEFAULT_INCLUDES) $(INCLUDES).
1418 - Improved support for Objective C:
1419 - Autoconf's new AC_PROG_OBJC will enable automatic dependency tracking.
1420 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1422 - New support for Unified Parallel C:
1423 - AM_PROG_UPC looks for a UPC compiler.
1424 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1426 - Per-target flags are now correctly handled in link rules.
1428 For instance maude_CFLAGS correctly overrides AM_CFLAGS; likewise
1429 for maude_LDFLAGS and AM_LDFLAGS. Previous versions bogusly
1430 preferred AM_CFLAGS over maude_CFLAGS while linking, and they
1431 used both AM_LDFLAGS and maude_LDFLAGS on the same link command.
1433 The fix for compiler flags (i.e., using maude_CFLAGS instead of
1434 AM_CFLAGS) should not hurt any package since that is how _CFLAGS
1435 is expected to work (and actually works during compilation).
1437 However using maude_LDFLAGS "instead of" AM_LDFLAGS rather than
1438 "in addition to" breaks backward compatibility with older versions.
1439 If your package used both variables, as in
1441 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1442 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1443 a_LDFLAGS = more flags
1446 and assumed *_LDFLAGS would sum up, you should rewrite it as
1448 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1449 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1450 a_LDFLAGS = $(AM_LDFLAGS) more flags
1453 This new behavior of *_LDFLAGS is more coherent with other
1454 per-target variables, and the way *_LDFLAGS variables were
1455 considered internally.
1457 * New installation targets:
1459 - New targets mandated by GNU Coding Standards:
1464 By default they will only install Texinfo manuals.
1465 You can customize them with *-local variants:
1471 - The undocumented recursive target `uninstall-info' no longer exists.
1472 (`uninstall' is in charge of removing all possible documentation
1473 flavors, including optional formats such as dvi, ps, or info even
1474 when `no-installinfo' is used.)
1476 * Miscellaneous changes:
1478 - Automake no longer complains if input files for AC_CONFIG_FILES
1479 are specified using shell variables.
1481 - clean, distribution, or rebuild rules are normally disabled for
1482 inputs and outputs of AC_CONFIG_FILES, AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, and
1483 AC_CONFIG_LINK specified using shell variables. However, if these
1484 variables are used as ${VAR}, and AC_SUBSTed, then Automake will
1485 be able to output rules anyway.
1486 (See the Automake documentation for AC_CONFIG_FILES.)
1488 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of TESTS
1489 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1490 This is mostly useful when some check_PROGRAMS are listed in TESTS.
1492 - `-Wportability' has finally been turned on by default for `gnu' and
1493 `gnits' strictness. This means, automake will complain about %-rules
1494 or $(GNU Make functions) unless you switch to `foreign' strictness or
1495 use `-Wno-portability'.
1497 - Automake now uses AC_PROG_MKDIR_P (new in Autoconf 2.60), and uses
1498 $(MKDIR_P) instead of $(mkdir_p) to create directories. The
1499 $(mkdir_p) variable is still defined (to the same value as
1500 $(MKDIR_P)) but should be considered obsolete. If you are using
1501 $(mkdir_p) in some of your rules, please plan to update them to
1502 $(MKDIR_P) at some point.
1504 - AM_C_PROTOTYPES and ansi2knr are now documented as being obsolete.
1505 They still work in this release, but may be withdrawn in a future one.
1507 - Inline compilation rules for gcc3-style dependency tracking are
1510 - Automake installs a "Hello World!" example package in $(docdir).
1511 This example is used throughout the new "Autotools Introduction"
1512 chapter of the manual.
1514 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1518 * Makefile.in bloat reduction:
1520 - Inference rules are used to compile sources in subdirectories when
1521 the `subdir-objects' option is used and no per-target flags are
1522 used. This should reduce the size of some projects a lot, because
1523 Automake used to output an explicit rule for each such object in
1526 - Automake no longer outputs three rules (.o, .obj, .lo) for each
1527 object that must be built with explicit rules. It just outputs
1528 the rules required to build the kind of object considered: either
1529 the two .o and .obj rules for usual objects, or the .lo rule for
1532 * Change to Libtool support:
1534 - Libtool tags are used with libtool versions that support them.
1535 (I.e., with Libtool 1.5 or greater.)
1537 - Automake is now able to handle setups where a libtool library is
1538 conditionally installed in different directories, as in
1541 lib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1543 pkglib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1545 liba_la_SOURCES = ...
1547 * Changes to aclocal:
1549 - aclocal now ensures that AC_DEFUNs and AU_DEFUNs it discovers are
1550 really evaluated, before it decides to include them in aclocal.m4.
1551 This solves nasty problems with conditional redefinitions of
1552 Autoconf macros in /usr/share/aclocal/*.m4 files causing extraneous
1553 *.m4 files to be included in any project using these macros.
1554 (Calls to AC_PROG_EGREP causing libtool.m4 to be included is the
1555 most famous instance of this bug.)
1557 - Do not complain about missing conditionally AC_REQUIREd macros
1558 that are not actually used. In 1.8.x aclocal would correctly
1559 determine which of these macros were really needed (and include
1560 only these in the package); unfortunately it would also require
1561 all of them to be present in order to run. This created
1562 situations were aclocal would not work on a tarball distributing
1563 all the macros it uses. For instance running aclocal on a project
1564 containing only the subset of the Gettext macros in use by the
1565 project did not work, because gettext conditionally requires other
1568 * Portability improvements:
1570 - Tar format can be chosen with the new options tar-v7, tar-ustar, and
1571 tar-pax. The new option filename-length-max=99 helps diagnosing
1572 filenames that are too long for tar-v7. (PR/414)
1574 - Variables aumented with `+=' are now automatically flattened (i.e.,
1575 trailing backslashes removed) and then wrapped around 80 colummns
1576 (adding trailing backslashes). In previous versions, a long series
1582 would result in a single-line definition of VAR that could possibly
1583 exceed the maximum line length of some make implementations.
1585 Non-augmented variables are still output as they are defined in
1590 - Support Fortran 90/95 with the new "fc" and "ppfc" languages.
1591 Works the same as the old Fortran 77 implementation; just replace
1592 F77 with FC everywhere (exception: FFLAGS becomes FCFLAGS).
1593 Requires a version of autoconf which provides AC_PROG_FC (>=2.59).
1595 - Support for conditional _LISP.
1597 - Support for conditional -hook and -local rules (PR/428).
1599 - Diagnose AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR calls following AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. (PR/49)
1601 - Automake will not write any Makefile.ins after the first error it
1602 encounters. The previous Makefile.ins (if any) will be left in
1603 place. (Warnings will not prevent output, but remember they can
1604 be turned into errors with -Werror.)
1606 - The restriction that SUBDIRS must contain direct children is gone.
1609 - The manual tells more about SUBDIRS vs. DIST_SUBDIRS.
1610 It also gives an example of nested packages using AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS.
1612 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1614 Bugs fixed in 1.8.5:
1616 * Long-standing bugs:
1618 - Define DIST_SUBDIRS even when the `no-dist' or `cygnus' options are used
1619 so that `make distclean' and `make maintainer-clean' can work.
1621 - Define AR and ARFLAGS even when only EXTRA_LIBRARIES are defined.
1623 - Fix many rules to please FreeBSD make, which runs commands with `sh -e'.
1625 - Polish diagnostic when no input file is found.
1627 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1629 Bugs fixed in 1.8.4:
1631 * Long-standing bugs:
1633 - Fix AM_PATH_PYTHON to correctly display $PYTHON when it has been
1634 overridden by the user.
1636 - Honor PATH_SEPARATOR in various places of the Automake package, for
1639 - Adjust dependency tracking mode detection to ICC 8.0's new output.
1642 - Fix install-sh so it can install the `mv' binary... using `mv'.
1644 - Fix tru64 dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1646 - Work around Exuberant Ctags when creating a TAGS files in a directory
1647 without files to scan but with subdirectories to include.
1649 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1651 - Fix an "internal error" when @LIBOBJS@ is used in a variable that is
1652 not defined in the same conditions as the _LDADD that uses it.
1654 - Do not warn when JAVAROOT is overridden, this is legitimate.
1656 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1658 Bugs fixed in 1.8.3:
1660 * Long-standing bugs:
1662 - Quote filenames in installation rules, in case $DESTDIR, $prefix,
1663 or any of the other *dir variables contain a space.
1665 Please note that Automake does not and cannot support spaces in
1666 filenames that are involved during the build. This change affects
1667 only installation paths, so that `make install' does not bomb out
1668 in packages configured with
1669 ./configure --prefix '/c/Program Files'
1671 - Fix the depfiles output so it works with GNU sed (<4.1) even when
1672 POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.
1674 - Do not AC_SUBST(LIBOBJS) in AM_WITH_REGEX. This macro was unusable
1675 since Autoconf 2.54, which defines LIBOBJS itself.
1677 - Fix a potential (but unlikely) race condition in parallel elisp
1678 builds. (Introduced in 1.7.3.)
1680 - Do not assume that users override _DEPENDENCIES in all conditions
1681 where Automake will try to define them.
1683 - Do not use `mkdir -p' in mkinstalldirs, unless this is GNU mkdir.
1684 Solaris 8's `mkdir -p' is not thread-safe and can break parallel
1687 This fix also affects the $(mkdir_p) variable defined since
1688 Automake 1.8. It will be set to `mkdir -p' only if mkdir is GNU
1689 mkdir, and to `mkinstalldirs' or `install-sh -d' otherwise.
1691 - Secure temporary directory creation in `make distcheck'. (PR/413)
1693 - Do not generate two build rules for `parser.h' when the
1694 parser appears in two different conditionals.
1696 - Work around a Solaris 8 /bin/sh bug in the test for dependency
1697 checking. Usually ./configure will not pick this shell; so this
1698 fix only helps cases where the shell is forced to /bin/sh.
1700 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1702 - In some situations (hand-written `m4_include's), aclocal would
1703 call the `File::Spec->rel2abs' method, which was only introduced
1704 in Perl 5.6. This new version reestablish support Perl 5.005.
1706 It is likely that the next major Automake releases will require at
1707 least Perl 5.6. Consider upgrading your development environment
1708 if you are still using the five-year-old Perl 5.005.
1710 - Automake would sometimes fail to define rules for targets listed
1711 in variables defined in multiple conditions. For instance on
1717 it would define only the `a.$(OBJEXT): a.c' rule and omit the
1718 `b.$(OBJEXT): b.c' rule.
1720 * New sections in manual:
1722 - Third-Party Makefiles: how to interface third party Makefiles.
1723 - Upgrading: upgrading packages to newer Automake versions.
1724 - Multiple Outputs: handling tools that produce many outputs.
1726 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1730 * A (well known) portability bug slipped in the changes made to
1731 install-sh in Automake 1.8.1. The broken install-sh would refuse to
1732 install anything on Tru64.
1734 * Fix install rules for conditionally built python files. (This never
1737 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1741 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1743 - Fix Config.pm import error with old Perl versions (at least
1744 5.005_03). One symptom is that aclocal could not find its macro
1747 - Automake 1.8 used `mkdir -m 0755 -p --' to ensure that directories
1748 created by `make install' are always world readable, even if the
1749 installer happens to have an overly restrictive umask (e.g. 077).
1750 This was a mistake and has been reverted. There are at least two
1751 reasons why we must not use `-m 0755':
1752 - it causes special bits like SGID to be ignored,
1753 - it may be too restrictive (some setups expect 775 directories).
1755 - Fix aclocal to honor definitions located in files which have been
1756 m4_included manually. aclocal 1.8 had been updated to check
1757 m4_included files for new requirements, but forgot that these
1758 m4_included files can also provide new definitions.
1760 Note that if you have such a setup, we recommend you get rid of
1761 it. In the past, there was a reason to m4_include files manually:
1762 aclocal used to duplicate entire M4 files into aclocal.m4, even
1763 files that were distributed. Some packages were therefore
1764 m4_including the distributed file directly, and playing some
1765 tricks to ensure aclocal would not copy that file to aclocal.m4,
1766 in order to limit the amount of duplication. Since aclocal 1.8.x
1767 will precisely output m4_includes for local M4 files, we recommend
1768 that you clean up your setup, removing all manual m4_includes and
1769 letting aclocal output them.
1771 - Output detailed menus in the Info version if the Automake manual,
1772 so that Emacs can locate the indexes.
1774 - configure.ac and configure were listed twice in DIST_COMMON (an
1775 internal variable where Automake lists configury files to
1776 distribute). This was harmless, but unaesthetic.
1778 - Use `chmod a-w' instead of `chmod -w' as the latter honors umask.
1779 This was an issue only in the Automake package itself, not in
1782 - Automake assumed that all AC_CONFIG_LINKS arguments had the form
1783 DEST:SRC. This was wrong, as some packages do
1784 AC_CONFIG_LINKS($computedlinks). This version no longer abort in
1787 - Contrary to mkinstalldirs, $(mkdir_p) was expecting exactly one
1788 argument. This caused two kinds of failures:
1789 - Rules installing data in a conditionally defined directory
1790 failed when that directory was undefined. In this case no
1791 argument was supplied.
1792 - `make installdirs' failed, because several directories were
1793 passed to $(mkdir_p). This was an issue only on platform
1794 were $(mkdir_p) is implemented with `install-sh -d'.
1795 $(mkdir_p) as been changed to accept 0 or more arguments, as
1798 * Long-standing bugs:
1800 - Fix an unexpected diagnostic occurring when users attempt
1801 to override some internal variables that Automake appends to.
1803 - aclocal now scans configure.ac for macro definitions (PR/319).
1805 - Fix a portability issue with OSF1/Tru64 Make. If a directory
1806 distributes files which are outside itself (this usually occurs
1807 when using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([../dir]) to use auxiliary files
1808 from a parent package), then `make distcheck' fails due to an
1809 optimization performed by OSF1/Tru64 Make in its VPATH handling.
1810 (tests/subpkg2.test failure)
1812 - Fix another portability issue with Sun and OSF1/Tru64 Make.
1813 In a VPATH-build configuration, `make install' would install
1814 nobase_ files to wrong locations.
1816 - Fix a Perl `uninitialized value' diagnostic occurring when
1817 automake complains that a Texinfo file does not have a
1818 @setfilename statement.
1820 - Erase config.status.lineno during `make distclean'. This file
1821 can be created by config.status. Automake already knew about
1822 configure.lineno, but forgot config.status.lineno.
1824 - Distribute all files, even those which are built and installed
1825 conditionally. This change affects files listed in conditionally
1826 defined *_HEADERS and *_PYTHON variable (unless they are nodist_*)
1827 as well as those listed in conditionally defined dist_*_DATA,
1828 dist_*_JAVA, dist_*_LISP, and dist_*_SCRIPTS variables.
1830 - Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to avoid \? in sed regular expressions; it
1831 doesn't conform to POSIX.
1833 - Normalize help strings for configure variables and options added
1838 - Check for python2.4 in AM_PATH_PYTHON.
1840 * Spurious failures in test suite:
1842 - tests/libtool5.test, tests/ltcond.test, tests/ltcond2.test,
1843 tests/ltconv.test: fix failures with CVS Libtool.
1844 - tests/aclocal6.test: fix failure if autom4te.cache is disabled.
1845 - tests/txinfo24.test, tests/txinfo25.test, tests/txinfo28.test:
1846 fix failures with old Texinfo versions.
1848 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1854 - The NEWS file is more verbose.
1858 - Autoconf 2.58 or greater is required.
1862 - Default source file names in the absence of a _SOURCES declaration
1863 are made by removing any target extension before appending `.c', so
1864 to make the libtool module `foo.la' from `foo.c', you only need to
1867 lib_LTLIBRARIES = foo.la
1868 foo_la_LDFLAGS = -module
1870 For backward compatibility, foo_la.c will be used instead of
1871 foo.c if this file exists or is the explicit target of a rule.
1872 However -Wobsolete will warn about this deprecated naming.
1874 - AR's `cru' flags are now set in a global ARFLAGS variable instead
1875 of being hard-coded in each $(AR) invocation, so they can be
1876 substituted from configure.ac. This has been requested by people
1877 dealing with non-POSIX ar implementations.
1879 - New warning option: -Woverride. This will warn about any user
1880 target or variable definitions which override Automake
1883 - Texinfo rules back up and restore info files when makeinfo fails.
1885 - Texinfo rules now support the `html' target.
1886 Running this requires Texinfo 4.0 or greater.
1888 `html' is a new recursive target, so if your package mixes
1889 hand-crafted `Makefile.in's with Automake-generated
1890 `Makefile.in's, you should adjust the former to support (or
1891 ignore) this target so that `make html' recurses successfully. If
1892 you had a custom `html' rule in your `Makefile.am', it's better to
1893 rename it as `html-local', otherwise your rule will override
1894 Automake's new rule (you can check that by running `automake
1895 -Woverride') and that will stop the recursion to subdirectories.
1897 Last but not least, this `html' rule is declared PHONY, even when
1898 overridden. Fortunately, it appears that few packages use a
1899 non-PHONY `html' rule.
1901 - Any file which is m4_included from configure.ac will appear as a
1902 configure and Makefile.in dependency, and will be automatically
1905 - The rules for rebuilding Makefiles and Makefile.ins will now
1906 rebuild all Makefiles and all Makefile.ins at once when one of
1907 configure's dependencies has changed. This is considerably faster
1908 than previous implementations, where config.status and automake
1909 were run separately in each directory (this still happens when you
1910 change a Makefile.am locally, without touching configure.ac or
1911 friends). Doing this also solves a longstanding issue: these
1912 rebuild rules failed to work when adding new directories to the
1913 tree, forcing you to run automake manually.
1915 - For similar reasons, the rules to rebuild configure,
1916 config.status, and aclocal.m4 are now defined in all directories.
1917 Note that if you were using the CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES and
1918 CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES (formerly undocumented) variables, you
1919 should better define them in all directories. This is easily done
1920 using an AC_SUBST (make sure you prefix these dependencies with
1921 $(top_srcdir) since this variable will appear at different
1922 levels of the build tree).
1924 - aclocal will now use `m4_include' instead of copying local m4
1925 files into aclocal.m4. (Local m4 files are those you ship with
1926 your project, other files will be copied as usual.)
1928 Because m4_included files are automatically distributed, it means
1929 for most projects there is no point in EXTRA_DISTing the list of
1930 m4 files which are used. (You can probably get rid of
1931 m4/Makefile.am if you had one.)
1933 - aclocal will avoid touching aclocal.m4 when possible, so that
1934 Autom4te's cache isn't needlessly invalidated. This behavior can
1935 be switched off with the new `--force' option.
1937 - aclocal now uses Autoconf's --trace to detect macros which are
1938 actually used and will no longer include unused macros simply
1939 because they where mentioned. This was often the case for macros
1940 called conditionally.
1942 - New options no-dist and no-dist-gzip.
1944 - compile, depcomp, elisp-comp, install-sh, mdate-sh, mkinstalldirs,
1945 py-compile, and ylwrap, now all understand --version and --help.
1947 - Automake will now recognize AC_CONFIG_LINKS so far as removing created
1948 links as part of the distclean target and including source files in
1951 - AM_PATH_PYTHON now supports ACTION-IF-FOUND and ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND
1952 argument. The latter can be used to override the default behavior
1953 (which is to abort).
1955 - Automake will exit with $? = 63 on version mismatch. (So does
1956 Autoconf 2.58) missing knows this, and in this case it will
1957 emulate the tools as if they were absent. Because older versions
1958 of Automake and Autoconf did not use this exit code, this change
1959 will only be useful in projects generated with future versions of
1962 - When using AC_CONFIG_FILES with multiple input files, Automake
1963 generates the first ".in" input file for which a ".am" exists.
1964 (Former versions would try to use only the first input file.)
1966 - lisp_DATA is now allowed. If you are using the empty ELCFILES
1967 idiom to disable byte-compilation of lisp_LISP files, it is
1968 recommended that you switch to using lisp_DATA. Note that
1969 this is not strictly equivalent: lisp_DATA will install elisp
1970 files even if emacs is not installed, while *_LISP do not
1971 install anything unless emacs is found.
1973 - Makefiles will prefer `mkdir -p' over mkinstalldirs if it is
1974 available. This selection is achieved through the Makefile
1975 variable $(mkdir_p) that is set by AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE to either
1976 `mkdir -m 0755 -p --', `$(mkinstalldirs) -m 0755', or
1977 `$(install_sh) -m 0755 -d'.
1981 - Because `mkdir -p' is available on most platforms, and we can use
1982 `install-sh -d' when it is not, the use of the mkinstalldirs
1983 script is being phased out. `automake --add-missing' no longer
1984 installs it, and if you remove mkinstalldirs from your package,
1985 automake will define $(mkinstalldirs) as an alias for $(mkdir_p).
1987 Gettext 0.12.1 still requires mkinstalldirs. Fortunately
1988 gettextize and autopoint will install it when needed. Automake
1989 will continue to define the $(mkinstalldirs) and to distribute
1990 mkinstalldirs when this script is in the source tree.
1992 - AM_PROG_CC_STDC is now empty. The content of this macro was
1993 merged in AC_PROG_CC. If your code uses $am_cv_prog_cc_stdc, you
1994 should adjust it to use $ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc instead. (This
1995 renaming should be safe, even if you have to support several,
1996 versions of Automake, because AC_PROG_CC defines this variable
1997 since Autoconf 2.54.)
1999 - Some users where using the undocumented ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES
2000 variable to override the aclocal.m4 dependencies computed
2001 (inaccurately) by older versions of Automake. Because Automake
2002 now tracks configure's m4 dependencies accurately (see m4_include
2003 above), the use of ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES should be considered
2004 obsolete and will be flagged as such when running `automake
2009 - Defining programs conditionally using Automake conditionals no
2010 longer leads to a combinatorial explosion. The following
2011 construct used to be troublesome when used with dozens of
2026 Likewise for _SOURCES, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables.
2028 - Due to implementation constraints, previous versions of Automake
2029 proscribed multiple conditional definitions of some variables
2039 All _PROGRAMS, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables were affected.
2040 This restriction has been lifted, and these variables now
2041 support multiple conditional definitions as do other variables.
2043 - Cleanup the definitions of $(distdir) and $(top_distdir).
2044 $(top_distdir) now points to the root of the distribution
2045 directory created during `make dist', as it did in Automake 1.4,
2046 not to the root of the build tree as it did in intervening
2047 versions. Furthermore these two variables are now only defined in
2048 the top level Makefile, and passed to sub-directories when running
2051 - The --no-force option now correctly checks the Makefile.in's
2052 dependencies before deciding not to update it.
2054 - Do not assume that make files are called Makefile in cleaning rules.
2056 - Update .info files in the source tree, not in the build tree. This
2057 is what the GNU Coding Standard recommend. Only Automake 1.7.x
2058 used to update these files in the build tree (previous versions did
2059 it in the source tree too), and it caused several problems, varying
2060 from mere annoyance to portability issues.
2062 - COPYING, COPYING.LIB, and COPYING.LESSER are no longer overwritten
2063 when --add-missing and --force-missing are used. For backward
2064 compatibility --add-missing will continue to install COPYING (in
2065 `gnu' strictness) when none of these three files exist, but this
2066 use is deprecated: you should better choose a license yourself and
2067 install it once for all in your source tree (and in your code
2070 - Fix ylwrap so that it does not overwrite header files that haven't
2071 changed, as the inline rule already does.
2073 - User-defined rules override automake-defined rules for the same
2074 targets, even when rules do not have commands. This is not new
2075 (and was documented), however some of the automake-generated
2076 rules have escaped this principle in former Automake versions.
2077 Rules for the following targets are affected by this fix:
2079 clean, clean-am, dist-all, distclean, distclean-am, dvi, dvi-am,
2080 info, info-am, install-data-am, install-exec-am, install-info,
2081 install-info-am, install-man, installcheck-am, maintainer-clean,
2082 maintainer-clean-am, mostlyclean, mostlyclean-am, pdf, pdf-am,
2083 ps, ps-am, uninstall-am, uninstall-info, uninstall-man
2085 Practically it means that an attempt to supplement the dependencies
2086 of some target, as in
2088 clean: my-clean-rule
2090 will now *silently override* the automake definition of the
2091 rule for this target. Running `automake -Woverride' will diagnose
2092 all such overriding definitions.
2094 It should be noted that almost all of these targets support a *-local
2095 variant that is meant to supplement the automake-defined rule
2096 (See node `Extending' in the manual). The above rule should
2099 clean-local: my-clean-rule
2101 These *-local targets have been documented since at least
2102 Automake 1.2, so you should not fear the change if you have
2103 to support multiple automake versions.
2107 - The Automake manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
2109 - Targets dist-gzip, dist-bzip2, dist-tarZ, dist-zip are always defined.
2111 - core dumps are no longer removed by the cleaning rules. There are
2112 at least three reasons for this:
2113 1. These files should not be created by any build step,
2114 so their removal do not fit any of the cleaning rules.
2115 Actually, they may be precious to the developer.
2116 2. If such file is created during a build, then it's clearly a
2117 bug Automake should not hide. Not removing the file will
2118 cause `make distcheck' to complain about its presence.
2119 3. Operating systems have different naming conventions for
2120 core dump files. A core file on one system might be a
2121 completely legitimate data file on another system.
2123 - RUNTESTFLAGS, CTAGSFLAGS, ETAGSFLAGS, JAVACFLAGS are no longer
2124 defined by Automake. This means that any definition in the
2125 environment will be used, unless overridden in the Makefile.am or
2126 on the command line. The old behavior, where these variables were
2127 defined empty in each Makefile, can be obtained by AC_SUBSTing or
2128 AC_ARG_VARing each variable from configure.ac.
2130 - CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES and CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES are now
2131 documented. (The is not a new feature, these variables have
2132 been there since at least Automake 1.4.)
2134 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2136 Bugs fixed in 1.7.9:
2137 * Fix install-strip to work with nobase_ binaries.
2138 * Fix renaming of #line directives in ylwrap.
2139 * Rebuild with Autoconf 2.59. (1.7.8 was not installable with pdksh.)
2141 Bugs fixed in 1.7.8:
2142 * Remove spurious blank lines in cleaning rules introduced in 1.7.7.
2143 * Fix detection of Debian's install-info, broken since version 1.5.
2144 (Debian bug #213524).
2145 * Honor -module if it appears in AM_LDFLAGS (i.e., relax name checking)
2146 This was only done for libfoo_LDFLAGS and LDFLAGS in previous versions.
2148 Bugs fixed in 1.7.7:
2149 * The implementation of automake's --no-force option is unreliable,
2150 so this option is ignored in this version. A real fix will appear in
2151 Automake 1.8. (Debian Bug #206299)
2152 * AM_PATH_PYTHON: really check the whole list of interpreters if no
2153 argument is given. (PR/399)
2154 * Do not warn about leading `_' in variable names, even with -Wportability.
2155 * Support user redefinitions of TEXINFO_TEX.
2156 * depcomp: support AIX Compiler version 6.
2157 * Fix missing rebuilds during `make dist' with BSD make.
2158 (Could produce tarballs containing out-of-date files.)
2159 * Resurrect multilib support.
2160 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2161 - Extending aclocal: how to write m4 macros that won't trigger warnings
2163 - A Shared Library: Rewrite and split into subsections.
2165 Bugs fixed in 1.7.6:
2166 * Fix depcomp's icc mode for ICC 7.1.
2167 * Diagnose calls to AC_CONFIG_FILES and friends with not enough arguments.
2168 * Fix maintainer-clean's removal of autom4te.cache in VPATH builds.
2169 * Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to work with POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
2170 * Fix the location reported in some diagnostics related to AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
2171 * Remove Latin-1 characters from elisp-comp.
2172 * Update the manual's @dircategory to match the Free Software Directory.
2174 Bugs fixed in 1.7.5:
2175 * Update install-sh's license to remove an advertising clause.
2176 (Debian bug #191717)
2177 * Fix a bug introduced in 1.7.4, related to BUILT_SOURCE handling,
2178 that caused invalid Makefile.ins to be generated.
2179 * Make sure AM_MAKE_INCLUDE doesn't fail when a `doit' file exists.
2180 * New FAQ entry: renamed objects.
2182 Bugs fixed in 1.7.4:
2183 * Tweak the TAGS rule to support Exuberant Ctags (in addition to
2184 the Emacs implementation)
2185 * Fix output of aclocal.m4 dependencies in subdirectories.
2186 * Use `mv -f' instead of `mv' in fastdep rules.
2187 * Upgrade mdate-sh to work on OS/2.
2188 * Don't byte-compile elisp files when ELCFILES is set empty.
2189 (this documented feature was broken by 1.7.3)
2190 * Diagnose trailing backslashes on last line of Makefile.am.
2191 * Diagnose whitespace following trailing backslashes.
2192 * Multiple tests are now correctly supported in DEJATOOL. (PR/388)
2193 * Fix rebuilt rules for AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.bot])
2195 * `make install' will build `BUILT_SOURCES' first.
2196 * Minor documentation fixes.
2198 Bugs fixed in 1.7.3:
2199 * Fix stamp files numbering (when using multiple AC_CONFIG_HEADERS).
2200 * Query distutils for `pythondir' and `pythonexecdir', instead of
2201 using an hardcoded path. This should allow builds on 64-bit
2202 distributions that usually use lib64/ instead of lib/.
2203 * AM_PATH_PYTHON will also search for python2.3.
2204 * elisp files are now built all at once instead of one by one. Besides
2205 incurring a speed-up, this is required to support interdependent elisp files.
2206 * Support for DJGPP:
2207 - `make distcheck' will now work in `_inst/' and `_build' instead
2208 of `=inst/' and `=build/'
2209 - use `_dirstamp' when the file-system doesn't support `.dirstamp'
2210 - install/uninstall `*.i[0-9][0-9]'-style info files
2211 - more changes that affect only the Automake package (not its output)
2212 * Fix some incompatibilities with upcoming perl-5.10.
2213 * Properly quote AC_PACKAGE_TARNAME and AC_PACKAGE_VERSION when defining
2214 PACKAGE and VERSION.
2216 - dashmstdout and dashXmstdout modes: don't use `-o /dev/null', this
2217 is troublesome with gcc and Solaris compilers. (PR/385)
2218 - makedepend mode: work with Libtool. (PR/385 too)
2220 * better support for unusual gettext setups, such as multiple po/ directories
2222 - Flag missing po/ and intl/ directories as warnings, not errors.
2223 - Disable these warnings if po/ does not exist.
2224 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2226 - Document how AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR interacts with missing files.
2228 - Document `AM_YFLAGS = -d'. (PR/382)
2230 Bugs fixed in 1.7.2:
2231 * Fix installation and uninstallation of Info files built in subdirectories.
2232 * Do not run `./configure --with-included-gettext' during `make distcheck'
2233 if AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) is used.
2234 * Correctly uninstall renamed man pages.
2235 * Do not strip escaped newline in variables defined in one condition
2236 and augmented in another condition.
2237 * Fix ansi2knr rules for LIBOBJS sources.
2238 * Clean all known Texinfo index files, not only those which appear to
2239 be used, because we cannot know which indexes are used in included files.
2240 (PR/375, Debian Bug #168671)
2241 * Honor only the first @setfilename seen in a Texinfo file.
2242 * Treat "required file X not found" diagnostics as errors (exit status 1).
2243 * Don't complain that a required file is not found when it is a Makefile
2245 * Don't use single suffix inference rules when building `.info'-less
2246 Info files, for the sake of Solaris make.
2247 * The `check' target now depends on `$(BUILT_SOURCES)'. (PR/359)
2248 * Recognize multiple inference rules such as `.a.b .c.d:'. (PR/371)
2249 * Warn about multiple inference rules when -Wportability is used. (PR/372)
2250 * Fix building of deansified files from subdirectories. (PR/370)
2251 * Add missing `fi' in the .c->.obj rules.
2252 * Improve install-sh to work even when names contain spaces or certain
2253 (but not all) shell metachars.
2254 * Fix the following spurious failures in the test suite:
2255 depcomp2.test, gnits2.test, gnits3.test, python3.test, texinfo13.test
2256 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2257 - Augment the section about BUILT_SOURCES.
2258 - Mention that AM_PROG_CC_STDC is a relic that is better avoided today.
2260 Bugs fixed in 1.7.1:
2261 * Honor `ansi2knr' for files built in subdirectories, or using per-targets
2263 * Aclocal should now recognize macro names containing parentheses, e.g.
2264 AC_DEFUN([AC_LANG_PREPROC(Fortran 90)], [...]).
2265 * Erase *.sum and *.log files created by DejaGnu, during `make distclean'.
2267 * Install Python files even if they were built. (PR/369)
2268 * Have stamp-vti dependent upon configure instead of configure.ac, as the
2269 version might not be defined in the latter. (PR/358)
2270 * Reorder arguments passed to a couple of commands, so things works
2271 when POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
2272 * Fix a regex that can cause Perl to segfault on large input.
2274 * Fix distribution of packages that have some sources defined conditionally,
2275 as in the `Conditional compilation using Automake conditionals' example
2277 * Fix spurious test suite failures on IRIX.
2278 * Don't report a required variable as undefined if it has been
2279 defined conditionally for the "right" conditions.
2280 * Fix cleaning of the /tmp subdirectory used by `make distcheck', in case
2281 `make distcheck' fails.
2282 * Fix distribution of included Makefile fragment, so we don't create
2283 spurious directories in the distribution. (PR/366)
2284 * Don't complain that a target lacks `.$(EXEEXT)' when it has it.
2287 * Autoconf 2.54 is required.
2288 * `aclocal' and `automake' will no longer warn about obsolete
2289 configure macros. This is done by `autoconf -Wobsolete'.
2290 * AM_CONFIG_HEADER, AM_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS and
2291 AM_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ_NEEDS_SYS_IOCTL are obsolete (although still
2292 supported). You should use AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS,
2293 and AC_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ instead. `autoupdate' can upgrade
2294 `configure.ac' for you.
2295 * Support for per-program and per-library `_CPPFLAGS'.
2296 * New `ctags' target (builds CTAGS files).
2297 * Support for -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble, where mumble is a warning category
2298 (see `automake --help' or the manual for a list of them).
2299 * Honor the WARNINGS environment variable.
2300 * Omit the call to depcomp when using gcc3: call the compiler directly.
2301 * A new option, std-options, tests that programs support --help and --version
2302 when `make installcheck' is run. This is enabled by --gnits.
2303 * Texinfo rules now support the `ps' and `pdf' targets.
2304 * Info files are now created in the build directory, not the source directory.
2305 * info_TEXINFOS supports files in subdirectories (this requires Texinfo 4.1
2307 * `make distcheck' will enforce DESTDIR support by attempting
2309 * `+=' can be used in conditionals, even if the augmented variable
2310 was defined for another condition.
2311 * Makefile fragments (inserted with `include') are always distributed.
2312 * Use Autoconf's --trace interface to inspect configure.ac and get
2313 a more accurate view of it.
2314 * Add support for extending aclocal's default macro search path
2315 using a `dirlist' file within the aclocal directory.
2316 * automake --output-dir is deprecated.
2317 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether uninstall actually
2318 removes all installed files has been moved in a separate target,
2319 distuninstallcheck, so it can be overridden easily.
2323 * Support for AM_INIT_GETTEXT([external])
2324 * Bug fixes, including:
2325 - Fix Automake's own `make install' so it works even if `ln' doesn't.
2326 - nobase_ programs and scripts honor --program-transform correctly.
2327 - Erase configure.lineno during `make distclean'.
2328 - Erase YACC and LEX outputs during `make maintainer-clean'.
2331 * Many bug fixes, including:
2332 - Requiring the current version works.
2333 - Fix "$@" portability issues (for Zsh).
2334 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
2336 - Don't compute dependencies in background to avoid races with libtool.
2337 - Fix handling of _OBJECTS variables for targets sharing source variables.
2338 - Check dependency mode for Java when AM_PROG_GCJ is used.
2341 * automake --output-dir is deprecated
2342 * Many bug fixes, including:
2343 - Don't choke on AM_LDFLAGS definitions.
2344 - Clean libtool objects from subdirectories.
2345 - Allow configure variables with reserved suffix and unknown prefix
2346 (e.g. AC_SUBST(mumble_LDFLAGS) when 'mumble' is not a target).
2347 - Fix the definition of AUTOMAKE and ACLOCAL in configure.
2350 * Autoconf 2.52 is required.
2351 * automake no longer run libtoolize.
2352 This is the job of autoreconf (from GNU Autoconf).
2353 * `dist' generates all the archive flavors, as did `dist-all'.
2354 * `dist-gzip' generates the Gzip tar file only.
2355 * Combining Automake Makefile conditionals no longer lead to a combinatorial
2356 explosion. Makefile.in's keep a reasonable size.
2357 * AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_STRTOD, AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, AM_PTRDIFF_T
2358 are no longer shipped, since Autoconf 2.52 provides them (both as AM_
2360 * `#line' of Lex and Yacc files are properly set.
2361 * EXTRA_DIST can contain generated directories.
2362 * Support for dot-less extensions in suffix rules.
2363 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether distclean actually
2364 cleans all built files has been moved in a separate target, distcleancheck,
2365 so it can be overridden easily.
2366 * `make distcheck' will pass additional options defined in
2367 $(DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS) to configure.
2368 * Fixed CDPATH portability problems, in particular for MacOS X.
2369 * Fixed handling of nobase_ targets.
2370 * Fixed support of implicit rules leading to .lo objects.
2371 * Fixed late inclusion of --add-missing files (e.g. depcomp) in DIST_COMMON
2372 * Added uninstall-hook target
2373 * `AC_INIT AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(tarname,version)' is an obsolete construct.
2374 You can now use `AC_INIT(pkgname,version) AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE' instead.
2375 (Note that "pkgname" is not "tarname", see the manual for details.)
2376 It is also possible to pass a list of global Automake options as
2377 first argument to this new form of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.
2378 * Compiler-based assembler is now called `CCAS'; people expected `AS'
2379 to be a real assembler.
2380 * AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE will set STRIP itself when it needs it. Adding
2381 AC_CHECK_TOOL([STRIP], [strip]) manually is no longer required.
2382 * aclocal and automake are also installed with the version number
2383 appended, and some of the install directory names have changed.
2384 This lets you have multiple versions installed simultaneously.
2385 * Support for parsers and lexers in subdirectories.
2388 * Support for `configure.ac'.
2389 * Support for `else COND', `endif COND' and negated conditions `!COND'.
2390 * `make dist-all' is much faster.
2391 * Allows '@' AC_SUBSTs in macro names.
2392 * Faster AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE (requires update of `missing' script)
2393 * User-side dependency tracking. Developers no longer need GNU make
2395 * Uses DIST_SUBDIRS in some situations when SUBDIRS is conditional
2396 * Most files are correctly handled if they appear in subdirs
2397 For instance, a _DATA file can appear in a subdir
2398 * GNU tar is no longer required for `make dist'
2399 * Added support for `dist_' and `nodist_' prefixes
2400 * Added support for `nobase_' prefix
2401 * Compiled Java support
2402 * Support for per-executable and per-library compilation flags
2406 * Added support for the Fortran 77 programming language.
2407 * Re-indexed the Automake Texinfo manual.
2408 * Added `AM_FOOFLAGS' variable for each compiler invocation;
2409 e.g. AM_CFLAGS can be used in Makefile.am to set C compiler flags
2410 * Support for latest autoconf, including support for objext
2411 * Can now put `.' in SUBDIRS to control build order
2412 * `include' command and `+=' support for macro assignment
2413 * Dependency tracking no long susceptible to deleted header file problem
2414 * Maintainer mode now a conditional. @MAINT@ is now an anachronism.
2419 * Better Cygwin32 support
2420 * Support for suffix rules with _SOURCES variables
2421 * New options `readme-alpha' and `check-news'; Gnits mode sets these
2422 * @LEXLIB@ no longer required when lex source seen
2423 Lex support in `missing', and new lex macro. Update your missing script.
2424 * Built-in support for assembly
2425 * aclocal gives error if `AM_' macro not found
2426 * Passed YFLAGS, not YACCFLAGS, to yacc
2427 * AM_PROG_CC_STDC does not have to come before AC_PROG_CPP
2428 * Dependencies computed as a side effect of compilation
2429 * Preliminary support for Java
2430 * DESTDIR support at "make install" time
2431 * Improved ansi2knr support; you must use the latest ansi2knr.c (included)
2435 * Better DejaGnu support
2436 * Added no-installinfo option
2437 * Added Emacs Lisp support
2438 * Added --no-force option
2439 * Included `aclocal' program
2440 * Automake will now generate rules to regenerate aclocal.m4, if appropriate
2441 * Now uses `AM_' macro names everywhere
2442 * ansi2knr option can have directory prefix (eg `../lib/ansi2knr')
2443 ansi2knr now works correctly on K&R sources
2444 * Better C++, yacc, lex support
2445 * Will compute _DEPENDENCIES variables automatically if not supplied
2446 * Will interpolate $(...) and ${...} when examining contents of a variable
2447 * .deps files now in build directory, not source directory; dependency
2448 handling generally rewritten
2449 * DATA, MANS and BUILT_SOURCES no longer included in distribution
2450 * can now put config.h into a subdir
2451 * Added dist-all target
2452 * Support for install-info program (see texinfo 3.9)
2453 * Support for "yacc -d"
2454 * configure substitutions are automatically discovered and included
2455 in generated Makefile.in
2456 * Special --cygnus mode
2457 * OMIT_DEPENDENCIES can now hold list of dependencies to be omitted
2458 when making distribution. Some dependencies are auto-ignored.
2459 * Changed how libraries are specified in _LIBRARIES variable
2460 * Full libtool support, from Gord Matzigkeit
2461 * No longer have to explicitly touch stamp-h when using AC_CONFIG_HEADER;
2462 AM_CONFIG_HEADER handles it automatically
2463 * Texinfo output files no longer need .info extension
2464 * Added `missing' support
2466 * Conditionals in Makefile.am, from Ian Taylor
2470 * distcheck target runs install and installcheck targets
2471 * Added preliminary support for DejaGnu.
2476 * More libtool fixes from Gord Matzigkeit; libtool support is still
2478 * Added support for jm_MAINTAINER_MODE
2480 * New "distcheck" target
2484 * mkinstalldirs and mdate-sh now appear in directory specified by
2486 * Removed DIST_SUBDIRS, DIST_OTHER
2487 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM only required when an actual program exists
2488 * dist-hook target now run before distribution packaged up; idea from
2489 Dieter Baron. Other hooks exist, too.
2490 * Preliminary (unfinished) support for libtool
2491 * Added short option names.
2492 * Better "dist" support when gluing together multiple packages
2496 * Documentation updates (many from François Pinard)
2497 * strictness `normal' now renamed to `foreign'
2498 * Renamed --install-missing to --add-missing
2499 * Now handles AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
2500 * Now handles TESTS macro
2501 * DIST_OTHER renamed to EXTRA_DIST
2502 * DIST_SUBDIRS is deprecated
2503 * @ALLOCA@ and @LIBOBJS@ now work in _LDADD variables
2504 * Better error messages in many cases
2505 * Program names are canonicalized
2506 * Added "check" prefix; from Gord Matzigkeit
2510 * configure.in scanner knows about AC_PATH_XTRA, AC_OUTPUT ":" syntax
2511 * Beginnings of a test suite
2512 * Automatically adds -I options for $(srcdir), ".", and path to config.h
2513 * Doesn't print anything when running
2514 * Beginnings of MAINT_CHARSET support
2515 * Can specify version in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS
2516 * Most errors recognizable by Emacs' M-x next-error
2517 * Added --verbose option
2518 * All "primary" variables now obsolete; use EXTRA_PRIMARY to supply
2519 configure-generated names
2520 * Required macros now distributed in aclocal.m4
2522 * --strictness=gnu is default
2526 * More sophisticated configure.in scanning; now understands ALLOCA and
2527 LIBOBJS directly, handles AC_CONFIG_HEADER more precisely, etc.
2528 * TEXINFOS and MANS now obsolete; use info_TEXINFOS and man_MANS instead.
2529 * CONFIG_HEADER variable now obsolete
2530 * Can handle multiple Texinfo sources
2531 * Allow hierarchies deeper than 2. From Gord Matzigkeit.
2532 * HEADERS variable no longer needed; now can put .h files directly into
2533 foo_SOURCES variable.
2534 * Automake automatically rebuilds files listed in AC_OUTPUT. The
2535 corresponding ".in" files are included in the distribution.
2538 * Added --gnu and --gnits options
2539 * More standards checking
2541 * Cleaned up 'dist' targets
2542 * Added AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS variable and several options
2543 * Now scans configure.in to get some information (preliminary)
2546 * Works with Perl 4 again
2549 * Added --install-missing option.
2550 * Pretty-prints generated macros and rules
2551 * Comments in Makefile.am are placed more intelligently in Makefile.in
2552 * Generates .PHONY target
2553 * Rule or macro in Makefile.am now overrides contents of Automake file
2554 * Substantial cleanups from François Pinard
2558 * Works with Perl 4 again.
2561 * New uniform naming scheme.
2562 * --strictness option
2564 * '.c' files corresponding to '.y' or '.l' files are automatically
2566 * Many bug fixes and cleanups
2569 * Allow objects to be conditionally included in libraries via lib_LIBADD.
2572 * Bug fixes in 'clean' code.
2573 * Now generates 'installdirs' target.
2574 * man page installation reworked.
2575 * 'make dist' no longer re-creates all Makefile.in's.
2578 * Reimplemented in Perl
2579 * Added --amdir option (for debugging)
2580 * Texinfo support cleaned up.
2581 * Automatic de-ANSI-fication cleaned up.
2582 * Cleaned up 'clean' targets.
2585 * Automatic dependency tracking
2586 * More documentation
2587 * New variables DATA and PACKAGEDATA
2588 * SCRIPTS installed using $(INSTALL_SCRIPT)
2589 * No longer uses double-colon rules
2591 * Changes in advance of internationalization
2595 Copyright (C) 1995-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2597 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
2598 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2599 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
2602 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2603 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2604 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2605 GNU General Public License for more details.
2607 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2608 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.