3 * WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
5 - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the rules to
6 build pdf, ps and dvi output from Texinfo input will use the '--tidy'
7 option by default. Since such an option was introduced in Texinfo
8 4.9, this means that Makefiles generated by future Automake versions
9 will require at least that version of Texinfo.
11 - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the parallel
12 testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the 'parallel-tests'
13 option) will become the default one; the older serial testsuite
14 harness will still be available through the use of the 'serial-tests'
17 - The following long-obsolete m4 macros will be removed in the
18 next major Automake version (1.13):
20 AM_PROG_CC_STDC: superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002
21 fp_PROG_CC_STDC: broken alias for AM_PROG_CC_STDC
22 fp_WITH_DMALLOC: old alias for AM_WITH_DMALLOC
23 AM_CONFIG_HEADER: superseded by AC_CONFIG_HEADERS since July 2002
24 ud_PATH_LISPDIR: old alias for AM_PATH_LISPDIR
25 jm_MAINTAINER_MODE: old alias for AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
26 ud_GNU_GETTEXT: old alias for AM_GNU_GETTEXT
27 gm_PROG_LIBTOOL: old alias for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
28 fp_C_PROTOTYPES: old alias for AM_C_PROTOTYPES (which was part
29 of the now-removed automatic de-ANSI-fication
32 - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' will be removed in
33 the next major Automake version (1.13).
35 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (enabled by the 'cygnus' option)
36 will be deprecated in the next minor version of Automake (1.12.1) and
37 removed in the next major version (1.13).
39 - Support for the two- and three-arguments invocation forms of the
40 AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro will be deprecated in the next minor version
41 of Automake (1.12.1) and removed in the next major version (1.13).
43 - The long-obsolete (since 1.10) automake-provided $(mkdir_p) make
44 variable, @mkdir_p@ substitution and AM_PROG_MKDIR m4 macro will
45 all be deprecated in the next minor version of Automake (1.12.1)
46 and removed in the next major version (1.13).
48 - The '--acdir' option of aclocal is deprecated, and will probably
49 be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13). You should
50 use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir' instead
51 (which have been introduced in Automake 1.11.2).
53 - The exact order in which the directories in the aclocal macro
54 search path are looked up is probably going to be changed in the
55 next Automake release (1.13).
57 * Obsolete features removed:
59 - The never documented nor truly used script 'acinstall' has been
62 - Support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been removed.
64 - The support for the "obscure" multilib feature has been removed
65 from Automake core (but remains available in the 'contrib/'
66 directory of the Automake distribution).
68 - Support for ".log -> .html" conversion and the check-html and
69 recheck-html targets has been removed from Automake core (but
70 remains available in the 'contrib/' directory of the Automake
73 - The deprecated 'lzma' compression format for distribution archives
74 has been removed, in favor of 'xz' and 'lzip'.
76 - The obsolete AM_WITH_REGEX macro has been removed.
78 - The long-deprecated options '--output-dir', '--Werror' and
79 '--Wno-error' have been removed.
81 - The chapter on the history of Automake has been moved out of the
82 reference manual, into a new dedicated Texinfo file.
86 - New 'cscope' target to build a cscope database for the source tree.
88 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
90 - The new automake option 'serial-tests' has been introduced. It can
91 be used to explicitly instruct automake to use the older serial
92 testsuite harness. This is still the default at the moment, but it
93 might change in future versions.
95 - Test scripts that exit with status 99 to signal an "hard error" (e.g.,
96 and unexpected or internal error, or a failure to set up the test case
97 scenario) have their outcome reported as an 'ERROR' now. Previous
98 versions of automake reported such an outcome as a 'FAIL' (the only
99 difference with normal failures being that hard errors were counted
100 as failures even when the test originating them was listed in
103 - The testsuite summary displayed by the parallel-test harness has a
104 completely new format, that always list the numbers of passed, failed,
105 xfailed, xpassed, skipped and errored tests, even when these numbers
106 are zero (but using smart coloring when the color-tests option is in
109 - The default testsuite driver offered by the 'parallel-tests' option is
110 now implemented (partly at least) with the help of automake-provided
111 auxiliary scripts (e.g., 'test-driver'), instead of relying entirely
112 on code in the generated Makefile.in.
113 This has two noteworthy implications. The first one is that projects
114 using the 'parallel-tests' option should now either run automake with
115 the '--add-missing' option, or manually copy the 'test-driver' script
116 into their tree. The second, and more important, implication is that
117 now, when the 'parallel-tests' option is in use, TESTS_ENVIRONMENT can
118 not be used anymore to define a test runner, and the command specified
119 in LOG_COMPILER (and <ext>_LOG_COMPILER) must be a *real* executable
120 program or script. For example, this is still a valid usage (albeit
123 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
124 if test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS)'; then \
125 maybe_errexit='-e'; \
129 LOG_COMPILER = $(SHELL) $$maybe_errexit
131 while this is not anymore:
133 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
134 $(SHELL) `test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS_CHECKING)' && echo ' -e'`
138 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
139 run_with_perl_or_shell () \
141 if grep -q '^#!.*perl' $$1; then
147 LOG_COMPILER = run_with_perl_or_shell
149 - The package authors can now use customary testsuite drivers within
150 the framework provided by the 'parallel-tests' testsuite harness.
151 Consistently with the existing syntax, this can be done by defining
152 special makefile variables 'LOG_DRIVER' and '<ext>_LOG_DRIVER'.
154 - A new developer-reserved variable 'AM_TESTS_FD_REDIRECT' can be used
155 to redirect/define file descriptors used by the test scripts.
157 - The parallel-tests harness generates now, in addition the '.log' files
158 holding the output produced by the test scripts, a new set of '.trs'
159 files, holding "metadata" derived by the execution of the test scripts;
160 among such metadata are the outcomes of the test cases run by a script.
162 - Initial and still experimental support for the TAP test protocol is
165 * Changes to Yacc and Lex support:
167 - C source and header files derived from non-distributed Yacc and/or
168 Lex sources are now removed by a simple "make clean" (while they were
169 previously removed only by "make maintainer-clean").
171 - Slightly backward-incompatible change, relevant only for use of Yacc
172 with C++: the extensions of the header files produced by the Yacc
173 rules are now modelled after the extension of the corresponding
174 sources. For example, yacc files named "foo.y++" and "bar.yy" will
175 produce header files named "foo.h++" and "bar.hh" respectively, where
176 they would have previously produced header files named simply "foo.h"
177 and "bar.h". This change offers better compatibility with 'bison -o'.
179 * Miscellaneous changes:
181 - The build system of Automake itself now avoids the use of make
182 recursion as much as possible.
184 - Automake now prefers to quote 'like this' or "like this", rather
185 than `like this', in diagnostic message and generated Makefiles,
186 to accommodate the new GNU Coding Standards recommendations.
188 - Automake has a new option '--print-libdir' that prints the path of the
189 directory containing the Automake-provided scripts and data files.
191 - The 'dist' and 'dist-all' targets now can run compressors in parallel.
193 - The rules to create pdf, dvi and ps output from Texinfo files now
194 works better with modern 'texi2dvi' script, by explicitly passing
195 it the '--clean' option to ensure stray auxiliary files are not
196 left to clutter the build directory.
198 - Automake can now generate silenced rules for texinfo outputs.
200 - Some auxiliary files that are automatically distributed by Automake
201 (e.g., 'install-sh', or the 'depcomp' script for packages compiling
202 C sources) might now be listed in the DIST_COMMON variable in many
203 Makefile.in files, rather than in the top-level one.
205 - Messages of types warning or error from 'automake' and 'aclocal'
206 are now prefixed with the respective type, and presence of -Werror
209 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now tries to avoid
210 sleeping for a second, which slowed down cached configure runs
211 noticeably. In that case, it will check back at the end of the
212 configure script to ensure that at least one second has passed, to
213 avoid time stamp issues with makefile rules rerunning autotools
216 - The warnings in the category 'extra-portability' are now enabled by
217 '-Wall'. In previous versions, one has to use '-Wextra-portability'
222 - Various minor bugfixes for recent or long-standing bugs.
224 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
226 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
227 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
229 - The automake-provided parallel testsuite harness does not fail anymore
230 with BSD make used in parallel mode when there are test scripts in a
231 subdirectory, like in:
233 TESTS = sub/foo.test sub/bar.test
235 * Long-standing bugs:
237 - Automake's own build system finally have a real "installcheck" target.
239 - Files listed with the AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE macro in configure.ac are
240 now automatically distributed also if the directory of the auxiliary
241 files coincides with the top-level directory.
243 - Automake now detects the presence of the '-d' flag in the various
244 '*YFLAGS' variables even when their definitions involve indirections
245 through other variables, such as in:
247 AM_YFLAGS = $(foo_opts)
249 - Automake now complains if a '*YFLAGS' variable has any conditional
250 content, not only a conditional definition.
252 - Explicit enabling and/or disabling of Automake warning categories
253 through the '-W...' options now always takes precedence over the
254 implicit warning level implied by Automake strictness (foreign, gnu
255 or gnits), regardless of the order in which such strictness and
256 warning flags appear. For example, a setting like:
257 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = -Wall --foreign
258 will cause the warnings in category 'portability' to be enabled, even
259 if those warnings are by default disabled in 'foreign' strictness.
261 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
263 Bugs fixed in 1.11.5:
265 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
267 - Vala files with '.vapi' extension are now recognized and handled
268 correctly again. See automake bug#11222.
270 - Vala support work again for projects that contain some program
271 built from '.vala' (and possibly '.c') sources and some other
272 program built from '.c' sources *only*. See automake bug#11229.
274 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
278 * Miscellaneous changes:
280 - The 'ar-lib' script now ignores the "s" (symbol index) and "S" (no
281 symbol index) modifiers as well as the "s" action, as the symbol index
282 is created unconditionally by Microsoft lib. Also, the "q" (quick)
283 action is now a synonym for "r" (replace). Also, the script has been
284 ignoring the "v" (verbose) modifier already since Automake 1.11.3.
286 - When the 'compile' script is used to wrap MSVC, it now accepts an
287 optional space between the -I, -L and -l options and their respective
288 arguments, for better POSIX compliance.
290 - There is an initial, experimental support for automatic dependency
291 tracking with tcc (the Tiny C Compiler). Its associated depmode is
292 currently recognized as "icc" (but this and other details are likely
293 to change in future versions).
295 - Automatic dependency tracking now works also with the IBM XL C/C++
296 compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'xlc'.
298 Bugs fixed in 1.11.4:
300 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
302 - A definition of 'noinst_PYTHON' before 'python_PYTHON' (or similar)
303 don't cause spurious failures upon "make install" anymore.
305 - The user can now instruct the 'uninstall-info' rule not to update
306 the '${infodir}/dir' file by exporting the environment variable
307 'AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no". This is done for consistency
308 with how the 'install-info' rule operates since automake 1.11.2.
310 * Long-standing bugs:
312 - It is now possible for a foo_SOURCES variable to hold Vala sources
313 together with C header files, as well as with sources and headers for
314 other supported languages (e.g., C++). Previously, only mixing C and
315 Vala sources was supported.
317 - If "aclocal --install" is used, and the first directory specified with
318 '-I' is non-existent, aclocal will now create it before trying to copy
321 - An empty declaration of a "foo_PRIMARY" don't cause anymore the
322 generated install rules to create an empty $(foodir) directory;
323 for example, if Makefile.am contains something like:
327 pkglibexec_SCRIPTS += bar.sh
330 the $(pkglibexec) directory will not be created upon "make install".
332 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
336 * Miscellaneous changes:
338 - Automake's own build system is more silent by default, making use of
339 the 'silent-rules' option.
341 - The master copy of the `gnupload' script is now maintained in gnulib,
344 - The `missing' script doesn't try to wrap calls to `tar' anymore.
346 - "make dist" doesn't wrap `tar' invocations with the `missing' script
347 anymore. Similarly, the obsolescent variable `$(AMTAR)' (which you
348 shouldn't be using BTW ;-) does not invoke the missing script anymore
349 to wrap tar, but simply invokes the `tar' program itself.
351 - "make dist" can now create lzip-compressed tarballs.
353 - In the Automake info documentation, the Top node and the nodes about
354 the invocation of the automake and aclocal programs have been renamed;
355 now, calling "info automake" will open the Top node, while calling
356 "info automake-invocation" and "info aclocal-invocation" will access
357 the nodes about the invocation of respectively automake and aclocal.
359 - Automake is now distributed as a gzip-compressed and an xz-compressed
360 tarball. Previously, bzip2 was used instead of xz.
362 - The last relics of Python 1.5 support have been removed from the
363 AM_PATH_PYTHON macro.
365 - For programs and libraries, automake now detects EXTRA_foo_DEPENDENCIES
366 and adds them to the normal list of dependencies, but without
367 overwriting the foo_DEPENDENCIES variable, which is normally computed
370 Bugs fixed in 1.11.3:
372 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
374 - Automake now correctly recognizes the prefix/primary combination
375 `pkglibexec_SCRIPTS' as valid.
377 - The parallel-tests harness doesn't trip anymore on sed implementations
378 with stricter limits on the length of input lines (problem seen at
381 * Long-standing bugs:
383 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.am files is avoided by stub
384 rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `automake' also if
385 some previously needed `.am' file has been removed.
387 - The `silent-rules' option now generates working makefiles even
388 for the uncommon `make' implementations that do not support the
389 nested-variables extension to POSIX 2008. For such `make'
390 implementations, whether a build is silent is determined at
391 configure time, and cannot be overridden at make time with
392 `make V=0' or `make V=1'.
394 - Vala support now works better in VPATH setups.
396 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
400 * Changes to aclocal:
402 - The `--acdir' option is deprecated. Now you should use the new options
403 `--automake-acdir' and `--system-acdir' instead.
405 - The `ACLOCAL_PATH' environment variable is now interpreted as a
406 colon-separated list of additional directories to search after the
407 automake internal acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal-APIVERSION)
408 and before the system acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal).
410 * Miscellaneous changes:
412 - The Automake support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been
413 deprecated. It will probably be removed in the next major Automake
416 - The `lzma' compression scheme and associated automake option `dist-lzma'
417 is obsoleted by `xz' and `dist-xz' due to upstream changes.
419 - You may adjust the compression options used in dist-xz and dist-bzip2.
420 The default is now merely -e for xz, but still -9 for bzip; you may
421 specify a different level via the XZ_OPT and BZIP2 envvars respectively.
422 E.g., "make dist-xz XZ_OPT=-7" or "make dist-bzip2 BZIP2=-5"
424 - The `compile' script now converts some options for MSVC for a better
425 user experience. Similarly, the new `ar-lib' script wraps Microsoft lib.
427 - The py-compile script now accepts empty arguments passed to the options
428 `--destdir' and `--basedir', and complains about unrecognized options.
429 Moreover, a non-option argument or a special `--' argument terminates
432 - A developer that needs to pass specific flags to configure at "make
433 distcheck" time can now, and indeed is advised to, do so by defining
434 the developer-reserved makefile variable AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS,
435 instead of the old DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS.
436 The DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS variable should now be reserved for the
437 user; still, the old Makefile.am files that used to define it will
438 still continue to work as before.
440 - New macro AM_PROG_AR that looks for an archiver and wraps it in the new
441 'ar-lib' auxiliary script if the selected archiver is Microsoft lib.
442 This new macro is required for LIBRARIES and LTLIBRARIES when automake
443 is run with -Wextra-portability and -Werror.
445 - When using DejaGnu-based testsuites, the user can extend the `site.exp'
446 file generated by automake-provided rules by defining the special make
447 variable `$(EXTRA_DEJAGNU_SITE_CONFIG)'.
449 - The `install-info' rule can now be instructed not to create/update
450 the `${infodir}/dir' file, by exporting the new environment variable
451 `AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no".
453 Bugs fixed in 1.11.2:
455 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
457 - The parallel-tests driver no longer produces erroneous results with
458 Tru64/OSF 5.1 sh upon unreadable log files.
460 - The `parallel-tests' test driver does not report spurious successes
461 when used with concurrent FreeBSD make (e.g., "make check -j3").
463 - When the parallel-tests driver is in use, automake now explicitly
464 rejects invalid entries and conditional contents in TEST_EXTENSIONS,
465 instead of issuing confusing and apparently unrelated error messages
466 (e.g., "non-POSIX variable name", "bad characters in variable name",
467 or "redefinition of TEST_EXTENSIONS), or even, in some situations,
468 silently producing broken `Makefile.in' files.
470 - The `silent-rules' option now truly silences all compile rules, even
471 when dependency tracking is disabled. Also, when `silent-rules' is
472 not used, `make' output no longer contains spurious backslash-only
473 lines, thus once again matching what Automake did before 1.11.
475 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
476 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
478 * Long-standing bugs:
480 - The order of Yacc and Lex flags is fixed to be consistent with other
481 languages: $(AM_YFLAGS) comes before $(YFLAGS), and $(AM_LFLAGS) before
482 $(LFLAGS), so that the user variables override the developer variables.
484 - "make distcheck" now correctly complains also when "make uninstall"
485 leaves one and only one file installed in $(prefix).
487 - A "make uninstall" issued before a "make install", or after a mere
488 "make install-data" or a mere "make install-exec" does not spuriously
491 - Automake now warns about more primary/directory invalid combinations,
492 such as "doc_LIBRARIES" or "pkglib_PROGRAMS".
494 - Rules generated by Automake now try harder to not change any files when
495 `make -n' is invoked. Fixes include compilation of Emacs Lisp, Vala, or
496 Yacc source files and the rule to update config.h.
498 - Several scripts and the parallel-tests testsuite driver now exit with
499 the right exit status upon receiving a signal.
501 - A per-Makefile.am setting of -Werror does not erroneously carry over
502 to the handling of other Makefile.am files.
504 - The code for automatic dependency tracking works around a Solaris
505 make bug triggered by sources containing repeated slashes when the
506 `subdir-objects' option was used.
508 - The makedepend and hp depmodes now work better with VPATH builds.
510 - Java sources specified with check_JAVA are no longer compiled for
511 "make all", but only for "make check".
513 - An usage like "java_JAVA = foo.java" will now cause Automake to warn
514 and error out if `javadir' is undefined, instead of silently producing
515 a broken Makefile.in.
517 - aclocal and automake now honour the configure-time definitions of
518 AUTOCONF and AUTOM4TE when they spawn autoconf or autom4te processes.
520 - The `install-info' recipe no longer tries to guess whether the
521 `install-info' program is from Debian or from GNU, and adaptively
522 change its behaviour; this has proven to be frail and easy to
525 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
527 Bugs fixed in 1.11.1:
529 - Lots of minor bugfixes.
531 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
533 - The `parallel-tests' test driver works around a GNU make 3.80 bug with
534 trailing white space in the test list (`TESTS = foo $(EMPTY)').
536 * Long standing bugs:
538 - On Darwin 9, `pythondir' and `pyexecdir' pointed below `/Library/Python'
539 even if the `--prefix' argument pointed outside of a system directory.
540 AM_PATH_PYTHON has been fixed to ignore the value returned from python's
541 `get_python_lib' function if it points outside the configured prefix,
542 unless the `--prefix' argument was either `/usr' or below `/System'.
544 - The testsuite does not try to change the mode of `ltmain.sh' files from
545 a Libtool installation (symlinked to test directories) any more.
547 - AM_PROG_GCJ uses AC_CHECK_TOOLS to look for `gcj' now, so that prefixed
548 tools are preferred in a cross-compile setup.
550 - The distribution is tarred up with mode 755 now by the `dist*' targets.
551 This fixes a race condition where untrusted users could modify files
552 in the $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION) distdir before packing if the toplevel
553 build directory was world-searchable. This is CVE-2009-4029.
555 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
559 * Version requirements:
561 - Autoconf 2.62 or greater is required.
563 * Changes to aclocal:
565 - The autoconf version check implemented by aclocal in aclocal.m4
566 (and new in Automake 1.10) is degraded to a warning. This helps
567 in the common case where the Autoconf versions used are compatible.
569 * Changes to automake:
571 - The automake program can run multiple threads for creating most
572 Makefile.in files concurrently, if at least Perl 5.7.2 is available
573 with interpreter-based threads enabled. Set the environment variable
574 AUTOMAKE_JOBS to the maximum number of threads to use, in order to
575 enable this experimental feature.
577 * Changes to Libtool support:
579 - Libtool generic flags are now passed to the install and uninstall
582 - distcheck works with Libtool 2.x even when LT_OUTPUT is used, as
583 config.lt is removed correctly now.
587 - subdir-object mode works now with Fortran (F77, FC, preprocessed
588 Fortran, and Ratfor).
590 - For files with extension .f90, .f95, .f03, or .f08, the flag
591 $(FCFLAGS_f[09]x) computed by AC_FC_SRCEXT is now used in compile rules.
593 - Files with extension .sx are also treated as preprocessed assembler.
595 - The default source file extension (.c) can be overridden with
596 AM_DEFAULT_SOURCE_EXT now.
598 - Python 3.0 is supported now, Python releases prior to 2.0 are no
601 - AM_PATH_PYTHON honors python's idea about the site directory.
603 - There is initial support for the Vala programming language, when using
606 * Miscellaneous changes:
608 - Automake development is done in a git repository on Savannah now, see
610 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=automake.git
612 A read-only CVS mirror is provided at
614 cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@pserver.git.sv.gnu.org:/automake.git \
615 checkout -d automake HEAD
617 - "make dist" can now create xz-compressed tarballs,
618 as well as (deprecated?) lzma-compressed tarballs.
620 - `automake --add-missing' will by default install the GPLv3 file as
621 COPYING if it is missing. It will also warn that the license file
622 should be added to source control. Note that Automake will never
623 overwrite an existing COPYING file, even when the `--force-missing'
626 - The manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL 1.3.
628 - Automake ships and installs man pages for automake and aclocal now.
630 - New shorthand `$(pkglibexecdir)' for `$(libexecdir)/@PACKAGE@'.
632 - install-sh supports -C, which does not update the installed file
633 (and its time stamps) if the contents did not change.
635 - The `gnupload' script has been revamped.
637 - The `depcomp' and `compile' scripts now work with MSVC under MSYS.
639 - The targets `install' and `uninstall' are more efficient now, in that
640 for example multiple files from one Automake variable such as
641 `bin_SCRIPTS' are copied in one `install' (or `libtool --mode=install')
642 invocation if they do not have to be renamed.
644 Both install and uninstall may sometimes enter (`cd' into) the target
645 installation directory now, when no build-local scripts are used.
647 Both install and uninstall do not fail anymore but do nothing if an
648 installation directory variable like `bindir' is set to the empty string.
650 For built-in rules, `make install' now fails reliably if installation
651 of a file failed. Conversely, `make uninstall' even succeeds when
652 issued multiple times.
654 These changes may need some adjustments from users: For example,
655 some `install' programs refuse to install multiple copies of the
656 same file in one invocation, so you may need to remove duplicate
657 entries from file lists.
659 Also, within one set of files, say, nobase_data_DATA, the order of
660 installation may be changed, or even unstable among different hosts,
661 due to the use of associative arrays in awk. The increased use of
662 awk matches a similar move in Autoconf to provide for better scaling.
664 Further, most undocumented per-rule install command variables such as
665 binSCRIPT_INSTALL have been removed because they are not needed any
666 more. Packages which use them should be using the appropriate one of
667 INSTALL_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT} or their install_sh_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT}
668 counterpart, depending on the type of files and the need for automatic
669 target directory creation.
671 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.m4 files is avoided by
672 stub rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `aclocal'
673 also if some previously needed macro file has been removed.
675 - Rebuild rules now also work for a removed `subdir/Makefile.in' in
676 an otherwise up to date tree.
678 - The `color-tests' option causes colored test result output on terminals.
680 - The `parallel-tests' option enables a new test driver that allows for
681 parallel test execution, inter-test dependencies, lazy test execution
682 for unit-testing, re-testing only failed tests, and formatted result output
683 as RST (reStructuredText) and HTML. Enabling this option may require some
684 changes to your test suite setup; see the manual for details.
686 - The `silent-rules' option enables Linux kernel-style silent build output.
687 This option requires the widely supported but non-POSIX `make' feature
688 of recursive variable expansion, so do not use it if your package needs
689 to build with `make' implementations that do not support it.
691 To enable less verbose build output, the developer has to use the Automake
692 option `silent-rules' in `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE', or call the `AM_SILENT_RULES'
693 macro. The user may then set the default verbosity by passing the
694 `--enable-silent-rules' option to `configure'. At `make' run time, this
695 default may be overridden using `make V=0' for less verbose, and `make V=1'
696 for backward-compatible verbose output.
698 - New prefix `notrans_' for manpages which should not be transformed
699 by --program-transform.
701 - New macro AM_COND_IF for conditional evaluation and conditional
704 - For AC_CONFIG_LINKS, if source and destination are equal, do not
705 remove the file in a non-VPATH build. Such setups work with Autoconf
708 - AM_MAINTAINER_MODE now allows for an optional argument specifying
711 - AM_SUBST_NOTMAKE may prevent substitution of AC_SUBSTed variables,
712 useful especially for multi-line values.
714 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now diagnoses an
715 unsafe absolute source directory name and makes configure fail.
717 - The Automake macros and rules cope better with whitespace in the
718 current directory name, as long as the relative path to `configure'
719 does not contain whitespace. To this end, the values of `$(MISSING)'
720 and `$(install_sh)' may contain suitable quoting, and their expansion
721 might need `eval'uation if used outside of a makefile. These
722 undocumented variables may be used in several documented macros such
723 as $(AUTOCONF) or $(MAKEINFO).
727 * Long-standing bugs:
729 - Fix aix dependency tracking for libtool objects.
731 - Work around AIX sh quoting issue in AC_PROG_CC_C_O, leading to
732 unnecessary use of the `compile' script.
734 - For nobase_*_LTLIBRARIES with nonempty directory components, the
735 correct `-rpath' argument is used now.
737 - `config.status --file=Makefile depfiles' now also works with the
738 extra quoting used internally by Autoconf 2.62 and newer
739 (it used to work only without the `--file=' bit).
741 - The `missing' script works better with versioned tool names.
743 - Semantics for `missing help2man' have been revamped:
745 Previously, if `help2man' was not present, `missing help2man' would have
746 the following semantics: if some man page was out of date but present, then
747 a warning would be printed, but the exit status was 0. If the man page was
748 not present at all, then `missing' would create a replacement man page
749 containing an error message, and exit with a status of 2. This does not play
750 well with `make': the next run will see this particular man page as being up
751 to date, and will only error out on the next generated man page, if any;
752 repeat until all pages are done. This was not desirable.
754 These are the new semantics: if some man page is not present, and help2man
755 is not either, then `missing' will warn and generate the replacement page
756 containing the error message, but exit successfully. However, `make dist'
757 will ensure that no such bogus man pages are packaged into a tarball.
759 - Targets provided by automake behave better with `make -n', in that they
760 take care not to create files.
762 - `config.status Makefile... depfiles' works fine again in the presence of
763 disabled dependency tracking.
765 - The default no-op recursive rules for these targets also work with BSD make
766 now: html, install-html, install-dvi, install-pdf, install-pdf, install-info.
768 - `make distcheck' works also when both a directory and some file below it
769 have been added to a distribution variable, such as EXTRA_DIST or *_SOURCES.
771 - Texinfo dvi, ps, pdf, and html output files are not removed upon
772 `make mostlyclean' any more; only the LaTeX by-products are.
774 - Renamed objects also work with the `subdir-objects' option and
775 source file languages which Automake does not know itself.
777 - `automake' now correctly complains about variable assignments which are
778 preceded by a comment, extend over multiple lines with backslash-escaped
779 newlines, and end in a comment sign. Previous versions would silently
780 and wrongly ignore such assignments completely.
782 * Bugs introduced by 1.10:
784 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
785 Makefile.in's again, but also cope with long lines.
787 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of XFAIL_TESTS
788 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
789 This is for consistency with the analogous change to TESTS in 1.10.
791 - Fix order of standard includes to again be `-I. -I$(srcdir)',
792 followed by directories containing config headers.
794 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
798 * Version requirements:
800 - Autoconf 2.60 or greater is required.
802 - Perl 5.6 or greater is required.
804 * Changes to aclocal:
806 - aclocal now also supports -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble options.
808 - `dirlist' entries (for the aclocal search path) may use shell
809 wildcards such as `*', `?', or `[...]'.
811 - aclocal supports an --install option that will cause system-wide
812 third-party macros to be installed in the local directory
813 specified with the first -I flag. This option also uses #serial
814 lines in M4 files to upgrade local macros.
816 The new aclocal options --dry-run and --diff help to review changes
817 before they are installed.
819 - aclocal now outputs an autoconf version check in aclocal.m4 in
820 projects using automake.
822 For a few years, automake and aclocal have been calling autoconf
823 (or its underlying engine autom4te) to accurately retrieve the
824 data they need from configure.ac and its siblings. Doing so can
825 only work if all autotools use the same version of autoconf. For
826 instance a Makefile.in generated by automake for one version of
827 autoconf may stop working if configure is regenerated with another
828 version of autoconf, and vice versa.
830 This new version check ensures that the whole build system has
831 been generated using the same autoconf version.
833 * Support for new Autoconf macros:
835 - The new AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE Autoconf macro is supported.
837 - If `subdir-objects' is set, and AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR is specified,
838 $(LIBOBJS), $(LTLIBOBJS), $(ALLOCA), and $(LTALLOCA) can be used
839 in different directories. However, only one instance of such a
840 library objects directory is supported.
842 * Change to Libtool support:
844 - Libtool generic flags (those that go before the --mode=MODE option)
845 can be specified using AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS and target_LIBTOOLFLAGS.
847 * Yacc and Lex changes:
849 - The rebuild rules for distributed Yacc and Lex output will avoid
850 overwriting existing files if AM_MAINTAINER_MODE and maintainer-mode
853 - ylwrap is now always used for lex and yacc source files,
854 regardless of whether there is more than one source per directory.
858 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now honors CPPFLAGS,
859 AM_CPPFLAGS and per-target _CPPFLAGS, and supports dependency
860 tracking, unlike non-preprocessed assembler (*.s).
862 - subdir-object mode works now with Assembler. Automake assumes
863 that the compiler understands `-c -o'.
865 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now also honors
866 $(DEFS) $(DEFAULT_INCLUDES) $(INCLUDES).
868 - Improved support for Objective C:
869 - Autoconf's new AC_PROG_OBJC will enable automatic dependency tracking.
870 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
872 - New support for Unified Parallel C:
873 - AM_PROG_UPC looks for a UPC compiler.
874 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
876 - Per-target flags are now correctly handled in link rules.
878 For instance maude_CFLAGS correctly overrides AM_CFLAGS; likewise
879 for maude_LDFLAGS and AM_LDFLAGS. Previous versions bogusly
880 preferred AM_CFLAGS over maude_CFLAGS while linking, and they
881 used both AM_LDFLAGS and maude_LDFLAGS on the same link command.
883 The fix for compiler flags (i.e., using maude_CFLAGS instead of
884 AM_CFLAGS) should not hurt any package since that is how _CFLAGS
885 is expected to work (and actually works during compilation).
887 However using maude_LDFLAGS "instead of" AM_LDFLAGS rather than
888 "in addition to" breaks backward compatibility with older versions.
889 If your package used both variables, as in
891 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
893 a_LDFLAGS = more flags
896 and assumed *_LDFLAGS would sum up, you should rewrite it as
898 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
900 a_LDFLAGS = $(AM_LDFLAGS) more flags
903 This new behavior of *_LDFLAGS is more coherent with other
904 per-target variables, and the way *_LDFLAGS variables were
905 considered internally.
907 * New installation targets:
909 - New targets mandated by GNU Coding Standards:
914 By default they will only install Texinfo manuals.
915 You can customize them with *-local variants:
921 - The undocumented recursive target `uninstall-info' no longer exists.
922 (`uninstall' is in charge of removing all possible documentation
923 flavors, including optional formats such as dvi, ps, or info even
924 when `no-installinfo' is used.)
926 * Miscellaneous changes:
928 - Automake no longer complains if input files for AC_CONFIG_FILES
929 are specified using shell variables.
931 - clean, distribution, or rebuild rules are normally disabled for
932 inputs and outputs of AC_CONFIG_FILES, AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, and
933 AC_CONFIG_LINK specified using shell variables. However, if these
934 variables are used as ${VAR}, and AC_SUBSTed, then Automake will
935 be able to output rules anyway.
936 (See the Automake documentation for AC_CONFIG_FILES.)
938 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of TESTS
939 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
940 This is mostly useful when some check_PROGRAMS are listed in TESTS.
942 - `-Wportability' has finally been turned on by default for `gnu' and
943 `gnits' strictness. This means, automake will complain about %-rules
944 or $(GNU Make functions) unless you switch to `foreign' strictness or
945 use `-Wno-portability'.
947 - Automake now uses AC_PROG_MKDIR_P (new in Autoconf 2.60), and uses
948 $(MKDIR_P) instead of $(mkdir_p) to create directories. The
949 $(mkdir_p) variable is still defined (to the same value as
950 $(MKDIR_P)) but should be considered obsolete. If you are using
951 $(mkdir_p) in some of your rules, please plan to update them to
952 $(MKDIR_P) at some point.
954 - AM_C_PROTOTYPES and ansi2knr are now documented as being obsolete.
955 They still work in this release, but may be withdrawn in a future one.
957 - Inline compilation rules for gcc3-style dependency tracking are
960 - Automake installs a "Hello World!" example package in $(docdir).
961 This example is used throughout the new "Autotools Introduction"
962 chapter of the manual.
964 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
968 * Makefile.in bloat reduction:
970 - Inference rules are used to compile sources in subdirectories when
971 the `subdir-objects' option is used and no per-target flags are
972 used. This should reduce the size of some projects a lot, because
973 Automake used to output an explicit rule for each such object in
976 - Automake no longer outputs three rules (.o, .obj, .lo) for each
977 object that must be built with explicit rules. It just outputs
978 the rules required to build the kind of object considered: either
979 the two .o and .obj rules for usual objects, or the .lo rule for
982 * Change to Libtool support:
984 - Libtool tags are used with libtool versions that support them.
985 (I.e., with Libtool 1.5 or greater.)
987 - Automake is now able to handle setups where a libtool library is
988 conditionally installed in different directories, as in
991 lib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
993 pkglib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
995 liba_la_SOURCES = ...
997 * Changes to aclocal:
999 - aclocal now ensures that AC_DEFUNs and AU_DEFUNs it discovers are
1000 really evaluated, before it decides to include them in aclocal.m4.
1001 This solves nasty problems with conditional redefinitions of
1002 Autoconf macros in /usr/share/aclocal/*.m4 files causing extraneous
1003 *.m4 files to be included in any project using these macros.
1004 (Calls to AC_PROG_EGREP causing libtool.m4 to be included is the
1005 most famous instance of this bug.)
1007 - Do not complain about missing conditionally AC_REQUIREd macros
1008 that are not actually used. In 1.8.x aclocal would correctly
1009 determine which of these macros were really needed (and include
1010 only these in the package); unfortunately it would also require
1011 all of them to be present in order to run. This created
1012 situations were aclocal would not work on a tarball distributing
1013 all the macros it uses. For instance running aclocal on a project
1014 containing only the subset of the Gettext macros in use by the
1015 project did not work, because gettext conditionally requires other
1018 * Portability improvements:
1020 - Tar format can be chosen with the new options tar-v7, tar-ustar, and
1021 tar-pax. The new option filename-length-max=99 helps diagnosing
1022 filenames that are too long for tar-v7. (PR/414)
1024 - Variables aumented with `+=' are now automatically flattened (i.e.,
1025 trailing backslashes removed) and then wrapped around 80 colummns
1026 (adding trailing backslashes). In previous versions, a long series
1032 would result in a single-line definition of VAR that could possibly
1033 exceed the maximum line length of some make implementations.
1035 Non-augmented variables are still output as they are defined in
1040 - Support Fortran 90/95 with the new "fc" and "ppfc" languages.
1041 Works the same as the old Fortran 77 implementation; just replace
1042 F77 with FC everywhere (exception: FFLAGS becomes FCFLAGS).
1043 Requires a version of autoconf which provides AC_PROG_FC (>=2.59).
1045 - Support for conditional _LISP.
1047 - Support for conditional -hook and -local rules (PR/428).
1049 - Diagnose AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR calls following AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. (PR/49)
1051 - Automake will not write any Makefile.ins after the first error it
1052 encounters. The previous Makefile.ins (if any) will be left in
1053 place. (Warnings will not prevent output, but remember they can
1054 be turned into errors with -Werror.)
1056 - The restriction that SUBDIRS must contain direct children is gone.
1059 - The manual tells more about SUBDIRS vs. DIST_SUBDIRS.
1060 It also gives an example of nested packages using AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS.
1062 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1064 Bugs fixed in 1.8.5:
1066 * Long-standing bugs:
1068 - Define DIST_SUBDIRS even when the `no-dist' or `cygnus' options are used
1069 so that `make distclean' and `make maintainer-clean' can work.
1071 - Define AR and ARFLAGS even when only EXTRA_LIBRARIES are defined.
1073 - Fix many rules to please FreeBSD make, which runs commands with `sh -e'.
1075 - Polish diagnostic when no input file is found.
1077 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1079 Bugs fixed in 1.8.4:
1081 * Long-standing bugs:
1083 - Fix AM_PATH_PYTHON to correctly display $PYTHON when it has been
1084 overridden by the user.
1086 - Honor PATH_SEPARATOR in various places of the Automake package, for
1089 - Adjust dependency tracking mode detection to ICC 8.0's new output.
1092 - Fix install-sh so it can install the `mv' binary... using `mv'.
1094 - Fix tru64 dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1096 - Work around Exuberant Ctags when creating a TAGS files in a directory
1097 without files to scan but with subdirectories to include.
1099 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1101 - Fix an "internal error" when @LIBOBJS@ is used in a variable that is
1102 not defined in the same conditions as the _LDADD that uses it.
1104 - Do not warn when JAVAROOT is overridden, this is legitimate.
1106 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1108 Bugs fixed in 1.8.3:
1110 * Long-standing bugs:
1112 - Quote filenames in installation rules, in case $DESTDIR, $prefix,
1113 or any of the other *dir variables contain a space.
1115 Please note that Automake does not and cannot support spaces in
1116 filenames that are involved during the build. This change affects
1117 only installation paths, so that `make install' does not bomb out
1118 in packages configured with
1119 ./configure --prefix '/c/Program Files'
1121 - Fix the depfiles output so it works with GNU sed (<4.1) even when
1122 POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.
1124 - Do not AC_SUBST(LIBOBJS) in AM_WITH_REGEX. This macro was unusable
1125 since Autoconf 2.54, which defines LIBOBJS itself.
1127 - Fix a potential (but unlikely) race condition in parallel elisp
1128 builds. (Introduced in 1.7.3.)
1130 - Do not assume that users override _DEPENDENCIES in all conditions
1131 where Automake will try to define them.
1133 - Do not use `mkdir -p' in mkinstalldirs, unless this is GNU mkdir.
1134 Solaris 8's `mkdir -p' is not thread-safe and can break parallel
1137 This fix also affects the $(mkdir_p) variable defined since
1138 Automake 1.8. It will be set to `mkdir -p' only if mkdir is GNU
1139 mkdir, and to `mkinstalldirs' or `install-sh -d' otherwise.
1141 - Secure temporary directory creation in `make distcheck'. (PR/413)
1143 - Do not generate two build rules for `parser.h' when the
1144 parser appears in two different conditionals.
1146 - Work around a Solaris 8 /bin/sh bug in the test for dependency
1147 checking. Usually ./configure will not pick this shell; so this
1148 fix only helps cases where the shell is forced to /bin/sh.
1150 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1152 - In some situations (hand-written `m4_include's), aclocal would
1153 call the `File::Spec->rel2abs' method, which was only introduced
1154 in Perl 5.6. This new version reestablish support Perl 5.005.
1156 It is likely that the next major Automake releases will require at
1157 least Perl 5.6. Consider upgrading your development environment
1158 if you are still using the five-year-old Perl 5.005.
1160 - Automake would sometimes fail to define rules for targets listed
1161 in variables defined in multiple conditions. For instance on
1167 it would define only the `a.$(OBJEXT): a.c' rule and omit the
1168 `b.$(OBJEXT): b.c' rule.
1170 * New sections in manual:
1172 - Third-Party Makefiles: how to interface third party Makefiles.
1173 - Upgrading: upgrading packages to newer Automake versions.
1174 - Multiple Outputs: handling tools that produce many outputs.
1176 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1180 * A (well known) portability bug slipped in the changes made to
1181 install-sh in Automake 1.8.1. The broken install-sh would refuse to
1182 install anything on Tru64.
1184 * Fix install rules for conditionally built python files. (This never
1187 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1191 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1193 - Fix Config.pm import error with old Perl versions (at least
1194 5.005_03). One symptom is that aclocal could not find its macro
1197 - Automake 1.8 used `mkdir -m 0755 -p --' to ensure that directories
1198 created by `make install' are always world readable, even if the
1199 installer happens to have an overly restrictive umask (e.g. 077).
1200 This was a mistake and has been reverted. There are at least two
1201 reasons why we must not use `-m 0755':
1202 - it causes special bits like SGID to be ignored,
1203 - it may be too restrictive (some setups expect 775 directories).
1205 - Fix aclocal to honor definitions located in files which have been
1206 m4_included manually. aclocal 1.8 had been updated to check
1207 m4_included files for new requirements, but forgot that these
1208 m4_included files can also provide new definitions.
1210 Note that if you have such a setup, we recommend you get rid of
1211 it. In the past, there was a reason to m4_include files manually:
1212 aclocal used to duplicate entire M4 files into aclocal.m4, even
1213 files that were distributed. Some packages were therefore
1214 m4_including the distributed file directly, and playing some
1215 tricks to ensure aclocal would not copy that file to aclocal.m4,
1216 in order to limit the amount of duplication. Since aclocal 1.8.x
1217 will precisely output m4_includes for local M4 files, we recommend
1218 that you clean up your setup, removing all manual m4_includes and
1219 letting aclocal output them.
1221 - Output detailed menus in the Info version if the Automake manual,
1222 so that Emacs can locate the indexes.
1224 - configure.ac and configure were listed twice in DIST_COMMON (an
1225 internal variable where Automake lists configury files to
1226 distribute). This was harmless, but unaesthetic.
1228 - Use `chmod a-w' instead of `chmod -w' as the latter honors umask.
1229 This was an issue only in the Automake package itself, not in
1232 - Automake assumed that all AC_CONFIG_LINKS arguments had the form
1233 DEST:SRC. This was wrong, as some packages do
1234 AC_CONFIG_LINKS($computedlinks). This version no longer abort in
1237 - Contrary to mkinstalldirs, $(mkdir_p) was expecting exactly one
1238 argument. This caused two kinds of failures:
1239 - Rules installing data in a conditionally defined directory
1240 failed when that directory was undefined. In this case no
1241 argument was supplied.
1242 - `make installdirs' failed, because several directories were
1243 passed to $(mkdir_p). This was an issue only on platform
1244 were $(mkdir_p) is implemented with `install-sh -d'.
1245 $(mkdir_p) as been changed to accept 0 or more arguments, as
1248 * Long-standing bugs:
1250 - Fix an unexpected diagnostic occurring when users attempt
1251 to override some internal variables that Automake appends to.
1253 - aclocal now scans configure.ac for macro definitions (PR/319).
1255 - Fix a portability issue with OSF1/Tru64 Make. If a directory
1256 distributes files which are outside itself (this usually occurs
1257 when using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([../dir]) to use auxiliary files
1258 from a parent package), then `make distcheck' fails due to an
1259 optimization performed by OSF1/Tru64 Make in its VPATH handling.
1260 (tests/subpkg2.test failure)
1262 - Fix another portability issue with Sun and OSF1/Tru64 Make.
1263 In a VPATH-build configuration, `make install' would install
1264 nobase_ files to wrong locations.
1266 - Fix a Perl `uninitialized value' diagnostic occurring when
1267 automake complains that a Texinfo file does not have a
1268 @setfilename statement.
1270 - Erase config.status.lineno during `make distclean'. This file
1271 can be created by config.status. Automake already knew about
1272 configure.lineno, but forgot config.status.lineno.
1274 - Distribute all files, even those which are built and installed
1275 conditionally. This change affects files listed in conditionally
1276 defined *_HEADERS and *_PYTHON variable (unless they are nodist_*)
1277 as well as those listed in conditionally defined dist_*_DATA,
1278 dist_*_JAVA, dist_*_LISP, and dist_*_SCRIPTS variables.
1280 - Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to avoid \? in sed regular expressions; it
1281 doesn't conform to POSIX.
1283 - Normalize help strings for configure variables and options added
1288 - Check for python2.4 in AM_PATH_PYTHON.
1290 * Spurious failures in test suite:
1292 - tests/libtool5.test, tests/ltcond.test, tests/ltcond2.test,
1293 tests/ltconv.test: fix failures with CVS Libtool.
1294 - tests/aclocal6.test: fix failure if autom4te.cache is disabled.
1295 - tests/txinfo24.test, tests/txinfo25.test, tests/txinfo28.test:
1296 fix failures with old Texinfo versions.
1298 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1304 - The NEWS file is more verbose.
1308 - Autoconf 2.58 or greater is required.
1312 - Default source file names in the absence of a _SOURCES declaration
1313 are made by removing any target extension before appending `.c', so
1314 to make the libtool module `foo.la' from `foo.c', you only need to
1317 lib_LTLIBRARIES = foo.la
1318 foo_la_LDFLAGS = -module
1320 For backward compatibility, foo_la.c will be used instead of
1321 foo.c if this file exists or is the explicit target of a rule.
1322 However -Wobsolete will warn about this deprecated naming.
1324 - AR's `cru' flags are now set in a global ARFLAGS variable instead
1325 of being hard-coded in each $(AR) invocation, so they can be
1326 substituted from configure.ac. This has been requested by people
1327 dealing with non-POSIX ar implementations.
1329 - New warning option: -Woverride. This will warn about any user
1330 target or variable definitions which override Automake
1333 - Texinfo rules back up and restore info files when makeinfo fails.
1335 - Texinfo rules now support the `html' target.
1336 Running this requires Texinfo 4.0 or greater.
1338 `html' is a new recursive target, so if your package mixes
1339 hand-crafted `Makefile.in's with Automake-generated
1340 `Makefile.in's, you should adjust the former to support (or
1341 ignore) this target so that `make html' recurses successfully. If
1342 you had a custom `html' rule in your `Makefile.am', it's better to
1343 rename it as `html-local', otherwise your rule will override
1344 Automake's new rule (you can check that by running `automake
1345 -Woverride') and that will stop the recursion to subdirectories.
1347 Last but not least, this `html' rule is declared PHONY, even when
1348 overridden. Fortunately, it appears that few packages use a
1349 non-PHONY `html' rule.
1351 - Any file which is m4_included from configure.ac will appear as a
1352 configure and Makefile.in dependency, and will be automatically
1355 - The rules for rebuilding Makefiles and Makefile.ins will now
1356 rebuild all Makefiles and all Makefile.ins at once when one of
1357 configure's dependencies has changed. This is considerably faster
1358 than previous implementations, where config.status and automake
1359 were run separately in each directory (this still happens when you
1360 change a Makefile.am locally, without touching configure.ac or
1361 friends). Doing this also solves a longstanding issue: these
1362 rebuild rules failed to work when adding new directories to the
1363 tree, forcing you to run automake manually.
1365 - For similar reasons, the rules to rebuild configure,
1366 config.status, and aclocal.m4 are now defined in all directories.
1367 Note that if you were using the CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES and
1368 CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES (formerly undocumented) variables, you
1369 should better define them in all directories. This is easily done
1370 using an AC_SUBST (make sure you prefix these dependencies with
1371 $(top_srcdir) since this variable will appear at different
1372 levels of the build tree).
1374 - aclocal will now use `m4_include' instead of copying local m4
1375 files into aclocal.m4. (Local m4 files are those you ship with
1376 your project, other files will be copied as usual.)
1378 Because m4_included files are automatically distributed, it means
1379 for most projects there is no point in EXTRA_DISTing the list of
1380 m4 files which are used. (You can probably get rid of
1381 m4/Makefile.am if you had one.)
1383 - aclocal will avoid touching aclocal.m4 when possible, so that
1384 Autom4te's cache isn't needlessly invalidated. This behavior can
1385 be switched off with the new `--force' option.
1387 - aclocal now uses Autoconf's --trace to detect macros which are
1388 actually used and will no longer include unused macros simply
1389 because they where mentioned. This was often the case for macros
1390 called conditionally.
1392 - New options no-dist and no-dist-gzip.
1394 - compile, depcomp, elisp-comp, install-sh, mdate-sh, mkinstalldirs,
1395 py-compile, and ylwrap, now all understand --version and --help.
1397 - Automake will now recognize AC_CONFIG_LINKS so far as removing created
1398 links as part of the distclean target and including source files in
1401 - AM_PATH_PYTHON now supports ACTION-IF-FOUND and ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND
1402 argument. The latter can be used to override the default behavior
1403 (which is to abort).
1405 - Automake will exit with $? = 63 on version mismatch. (So does
1406 Autoconf 2.58) missing knows this, and in this case it will
1407 emulate the tools as if they were absent. Because older versions
1408 of Automake and Autoconf did not use this exit code, this change
1409 will only be useful in projects generated with future versions of
1412 - When using AC_CONFIG_FILES with multiple input files, Automake
1413 generates the first ".in" input file for which a ".am" exists.
1414 (Former versions would try to use only the first input file.)
1416 - lisp_DATA is now allowed. If you are using the empty ELCFILES
1417 idiom to disable byte-compilation of lisp_LISP files, it is
1418 recommended that you switch to using lisp_DATA. Note that
1419 this is not strictly equivalent: lisp_DATA will install elisp
1420 files even if emacs is not installed, while *_LISP do not
1421 install anything unless emacs is found.
1423 - Makefiles will prefer `mkdir -p' over mkinstalldirs if it is
1424 available. This selection is achieved through the Makefile
1425 variable $(mkdir_p) that is set by AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE to either
1426 `mkdir -m 0755 -p --', `$(mkinstalldirs) -m 0755', or
1427 `$(install_sh) -m 0755 -d'.
1431 - Because `mkdir -p' is available on most platforms, and we can use
1432 `install-sh -d' when it is not, the use of the mkinstalldirs
1433 script is being phased out. `automake --add-missing' no longer
1434 installs it, and if you remove mkinstalldirs from your package,
1435 automake will define $(mkinstalldirs) as an alias for $(mkdir_p).
1437 Gettext 0.12.1 still requires mkinstalldirs. Fortunately
1438 gettextize and autopoint will install it when needed. Automake
1439 will continue to define the $(mkinstalldirs) and to distribute
1440 mkinstalldirs when this script is in the source tree.
1442 - AM_PROG_CC_STDC is now empty. The content of this macro was
1443 merged in AC_PROG_CC. If your code uses $am_cv_prog_cc_stdc, you
1444 should adjust it to use $ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc instead. (This
1445 renaming should be safe, even if you have to support several,
1446 versions of Automake, because AC_PROG_CC defines this variable
1447 since Autoconf 2.54.)
1449 - Some users where using the undocumented ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES
1450 variable to override the aclocal.m4 dependencies computed
1451 (inaccurately) by older versions of Automake. Because Automake
1452 now tracks configure's m4 dependencies accurately (see m4_include
1453 above), the use of ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES should be considered
1454 obsolete and will be flagged as such when running `automake
1459 - Defining programs conditionally using Automake conditionals no
1460 longer leads to a combinatorial explosion. The following
1461 construct used to be troublesome when used with dozens of
1476 Likewise for _SOURCES, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables.
1478 - Due to implementation constraints, previous versions of Automake
1479 proscribed multiple conditional definitions of some variables
1489 All _PROGRAMS, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables were affected.
1490 This restriction has been lifted, and these variables now
1491 support multiple conditional definitions as do other variables.
1493 - Cleanup the definitions of $(distdir) and $(top_distdir).
1494 $(top_distdir) now points to the root of the distribution
1495 directory created during `make dist', as it did in Automake 1.4,
1496 not to the root of the build tree as it did in intervening
1497 versions. Furthermore these two variables are now only defined in
1498 the top level Makefile, and passed to sub-directories when running
1501 - The --no-force option now correctly checks the Makefile.in's
1502 dependencies before deciding not to update it.
1504 - Do not assume that make files are called Makefile in cleaning rules.
1506 - Update .info files in the source tree, not in the build tree. This
1507 is what the GNU Coding Standard recommend. Only Automake 1.7.x
1508 used to update these files in the build tree (previous versions did
1509 it in the source tree too), and it caused several problems, varying
1510 from mere annoyance to portability issues.
1512 - COPYING, COPYING.LIB, and COPYING.LESSER are no longer overwritten
1513 when --add-missing and --force-missing are used. For backward
1514 compatibility --add-missing will continue to install COPYING (in
1515 `gnu' strictness) when none of these three files exist, but this
1516 use is deprecated: you should better choose a license yourself and
1517 install it once for all in your source tree (and in your code
1520 - Fix ylwrap so that it does not overwrite header files that haven't
1521 changed, as the inline rule already does.
1523 - User-defined rules override automake-defined rules for the same
1524 targets, even when rules do not have commands. This is not new
1525 (and was documented), however some of the automake-generated
1526 rules have escaped this principle in former Automake versions.
1527 Rules for the following targets are affected by this fix:
1529 clean, clean-am, dist-all, distclean, distclean-am, dvi, dvi-am,
1530 info, info-am, install-data-am, install-exec-am, install-info,
1531 install-info-am, install-man, installcheck-am, maintainer-clean,
1532 maintainer-clean-am, mostlyclean, mostlyclean-am, pdf, pdf-am,
1533 ps, ps-am, uninstall-am, uninstall-info, uninstall-man
1535 Practically it means that an attempt to supplement the dependencies
1536 of some target, as in
1538 clean: my-clean-rule
1540 will now *silently override* the automake definition of the
1541 rule for this target. Running `automake -Woverride' will diagnose
1542 all such overriding definitions.
1544 It should be noted that almost all these targets support a *-local
1545 variant that is meant to supplement the automake-defined rule
1546 (See node `Extending' in the manual). The above rule should
1549 clean-local: my-clean-rule
1551 These *-local targets have been documented since at least
1552 Automake 1.2, so you should not fear the change if you have
1553 to support multiple automake versions.
1557 - The Automake manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
1559 - Targets dist-gzip, dist-bzip2, dist-tarZ, dist-zip are always defined.
1561 - core dumps are no longer removed by the cleaning rules. There are
1562 at least three reasons for this:
1563 1. These files should not be created by any build step,
1564 so their removal do not fit any of the cleaning rules.
1565 Actually, they may be precious to the developer.
1566 2. If such file is created during a build, then it's clearly a
1567 bug Automake should not hide. Not removing the file will
1568 cause `make distcheck' to complain about its presence.
1569 3. Operating systems have different naming conventions for
1570 core dump files. A core file on one system might be a
1571 completely legitimate data file on another system.
1573 - RUNTESTFLAGS, CTAGSFLAGS, ETAGSFLAGS, JAVACFLAGS are no longer
1574 defined by Automake. This means that any definition in the
1575 environment will be used, unless overridden in the Makefile.am or
1576 on the command line. The old behavior, where these variables were
1577 defined empty in each Makefile, can be obtained by AC_SUBSTing or
1578 AC_ARG_VARing each variable from configure.ac.
1580 - CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES and CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES are now
1581 documented. (The is not a new feature, these variables have
1582 been there since at least Automake 1.4.)
1584 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1586 Bugs fixed in 1.7.9:
1587 * Fix install-strip to work with nobase_ binaries.
1588 * Fix renaming of #line directives in ylwrap.
1589 * Rebuild with Autoconf 2.59. (1.7.8 was not installable with pdksh.)
1591 Bugs fixed in 1.7.8:
1592 * Remove spurious blank lines in cleaning rules introduced in 1.7.7.
1593 * Fix detection of Debian's install-info, broken since version 1.5.
1594 (Debian bug #213524).
1595 * Honor -module if it appears in AM_LDFLAGS (i.e., relax name checking)
1596 This was only done for libfoo_LDFLAGS and LDFLAGS in previous versions.
1598 Bugs fixed in 1.7.7:
1599 * The implementation of automake's --no-force option is unreliable,
1600 so this option is ignored in this version. A real fix will appear in
1601 Automake 1.8. (Debian Bug #206299)
1602 * AM_PATH_PYTHON: really check the whole list of interpreters if no
1603 argument is given. (PR/399)
1604 * Do not warn about leading `_' in variable names, even with -Wportability.
1605 * Support user redefinitions of TEXINFO_TEX.
1606 * depcomp: support AIX Compiler version 6.
1607 * Fix missing rebuilds during `make dist' with BSD make.
1608 (Could produce tarballs containing out-of-date files.)
1609 * Resurrect multilib support.
1610 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1611 - Extending aclocal: how to write m4 macros that won't trigger warnings
1613 - A Shared Library: Rewrite and split into subsections.
1615 Bugs fixed in 1.7.6:
1616 * Fix depcomp's icc mode for ICC 7.1.
1617 * Diagnose calls to AC_CONFIG_FILES and friends with not enough arguments.
1618 * Fix maintainer-clean's removal of autom4te.cache in VPATH builds.
1619 * Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to work with POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
1620 * Fix the location reported in some diagnostics related to AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
1621 * Remove Latin-1 characters from elisp-comp.
1622 * Update the manual's @dircategory to match the Free Software Directory.
1624 Bugs fixed in 1.7.5:
1625 * Update install-sh's license to remove an advertising clause.
1626 (Debian bug #191717)
1627 * Fix a bug introduced in 1.7.4, related to BUILT_SOURCE handling,
1628 that caused invalid Makefile.ins to be generated.
1629 * Make sure AM_MAKE_INCLUDE doesn't fail when a `doit' file exists.
1630 * New FAQ entry: renamed objects.
1632 Bugs fixed in 1.7.4:
1633 * Tweak the TAGS rule to support Exuberant Ctags (in addition to
1634 the Emacs implementation)
1635 * Fix output of aclocal.m4 dependencies in subdirectories.
1636 * Use `mv -f' instead of `mv' in fastdep rules.
1637 * Upgrade mdate-sh to work on OS/2.
1638 * Don't byte-compile elisp files when ELCFILES is set empty.
1639 (this documented feature was broken by 1.7.3)
1640 * Diagnose trailing backslashes on last line of Makefile.am.
1641 * Diagnose whitespace following trailing backslashes.
1642 * Multiple tests are now correctly supported in DEJATOOL. (PR/388)
1643 * Fix rebuilt rules for AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.bot])
1645 * `make install' will build `BUILT_SOURCES' first.
1646 * Minor documentation fixes.
1648 Bugs fixed in 1.7.3:
1649 * Fix stamp files numbering (when using multiple AC_CONFIG_HEADERS).
1650 * Query distutils for `pythondir' and `pythonexecdir', instead of
1651 using an hardcoded path. This should allow builds on 64-bit
1652 distributions that usually use lib64/ instead of lib/.
1653 * AM_PATH_PYTHON will also search for python2.3.
1654 * elisp files are now built all at once instead of one by one. Besides
1655 incurring a speed-up, this is required to support interdependent elisp files.
1656 * Support for DJGPP:
1657 - `make distcheck' will now work in `_inst/' and `_build' instead
1658 of `=inst/' and `=build/'
1659 - use `_dirstamp' when the file-system doesn't support `.dirstamp'
1660 - install/uninstall `*.i[0-9][0-9]'-style info files
1661 - more changes that affect only the Automake package (not its output)
1662 * Fix some incompatibilities with upcoming perl-5.10.
1663 * Properly quote AC_PACKAGE_TARNAME and AC_PACKAGE_VERSION when defining
1664 PACKAGE and VERSION.
1666 - dashmstdout and dashXmstdout modes: don't use `-o /dev/null', this
1667 is troublesome with gcc and Solaris compilers. (PR/385)
1668 - makedepend mode: work with Libtool. (PR/385 too)
1670 * better support for unusual gettext setups, such as multiple po/ directories
1672 - Flag missing po/ and intl/ directories as warnings, not errors.
1673 - Disable these warnings if po/ does not exist.
1674 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1676 - Document how AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR interacts with missing files.
1678 - Document `AM_YFLAGS = -d'. (PR/382)
1680 Bugs fixed in 1.7.2:
1681 * Fix installation and uninstallation of Info files built in subdirectories.
1682 * Do not run `./configure --with-included-gettext' during `make distcheck'
1683 if AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) is used.
1684 * Correctly uninstall renamed man pages.
1685 * Do not strip escaped newline in variables defined in one condition
1686 and augmented in another condition.
1687 * Fix ansi2knr rules for LIBOBJS sources.
1688 * Clean all known Texinfo index files, not only those which appear to
1689 be used, because we cannot know which indexes are used in included files.
1690 (PR/375, Debian Bug #168671)
1691 * Honor only the first @setfilename seen in a Texinfo file.
1692 * Treat "required file X not found" diagnostics as errors (exit status 1).
1693 * Don't complain that a required file is not found when it is a Makefile
1695 * Don't use single suffix inference rules when building `.info'-less
1696 Info files, for the sake of Solaris make.
1697 * The `check' target now depends on `$(BUILT_SOURCES)'. (PR/359)
1698 * Recognize multiple inference rules such as `.a.b .c.d:'. (PR/371)
1699 * Warn about multiple inference rules when -Wportability is used. (PR/372)
1700 * Fix building of deansified files from subdirectories. (PR/370)
1701 * Add missing `fi' in the .c->.obj rules.
1702 * Improve install-sh to work even when names contain spaces or certain
1703 (but not all) shell metachars.
1704 * Fix the following spurious failures in the test suite:
1705 depcomp2.test, gnits2.test, gnits3.test, python3.test, texinfo13.test
1706 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1707 - Augment the section about BUILT_SOURCES.
1708 - Mention that AM_PROG_CC_STDC is a relic that is better avoided today.
1710 Bugs fixed in 1.7.1:
1711 * Honor `ansi2knr' for files built in subdirectories, or using per-targets
1713 * Aclocal should now recognize macro names containing parentheses, e.g.
1714 AC_DEFUN([AC_LANG_PREPROC(Fortran 90)], [...]).
1715 * Erase *.sum and *.log files created by DejaGnu, during `make distclean'.
1717 * Install Python files even if they were built. (PR/369)
1718 * Have stamp-vti dependent upon configure instead of configure.ac, as the
1719 version might not be defined in the latter. (PR/358)
1720 * Reorder arguments passed to a couple of commands, so things works
1721 when POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
1722 * Fix a regex that can cause Perl to segfault on large input.
1724 * Fix distribution of packages that have some sources defined conditionally,
1725 as in the `Conditional compilation using Automake conditionals' example
1727 * Fix spurious test suite failures on IRIX.
1728 * Don't report a required variable as undefined if it has been
1729 defined conditionally for the "right" conditions.
1730 * Fix cleaning of the /tmp subdirectory used by `make distcheck', in case
1731 `make distcheck' fails.
1732 * Fix distribution of included Makefile fragment, so we don't create
1733 spurious directories in the distribution. (PR/366)
1734 * Don't complain that a target lacks `.$(EXEEXT)' when it has it.
1737 * Autoconf 2.54 is required.
1738 * `aclocal' and `automake' will no longer warn about obsolete
1739 configure macros. This is done by `autoconf -Wobsolete'.
1740 * AM_CONFIG_HEADER, AM_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS and
1741 AM_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ_NEEDS_SYS_IOCTL are obsolete (although still
1742 supported). You should use AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS,
1743 and AC_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ instead. `autoupdate' can upgrade
1744 `configure.ac' for you.
1745 * Support for per-program and per-library `_CPPFLAGS'.
1746 * New `ctags' target (builds CTAGS files).
1747 * Support for -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble, where mumble is a warning category
1748 (see `automake --help' or the manual for a list of them).
1749 * Honor the WARNINGS environment variable.
1750 * Omit the call to depcomp when using gcc3: call the compiler directly.
1751 * A new option, std-options, tests that programs support --help and --version
1752 when `make installcheck' is run. This is enabled by --gnits.
1753 * Texinfo rules now support the `ps' and `pdf' targets.
1754 * Info files are now created in the build directory, not the source directory.
1755 * info_TEXINFOS supports files in subdirectories (this requires Texinfo 4.1
1757 * `make distcheck' will enforce DESTDIR support by attempting
1759 * `+=' can be used in conditionals, even if the augmented variable
1760 was defined for another condition.
1761 * Makefile fragments (inserted with `include') are always distributed.
1762 * Use Autoconf's --trace interface to inspect configure.ac and get
1763 a more accurate view of it.
1764 * Add support for extending aclocal's default macro search path
1765 using a `dirlist' file within the aclocal directory.
1766 * automake --output-dir is deprecated.
1767 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether uninstall actually
1768 removes all installed files has been moved in a separate target,
1769 distuninstallcheck, so it can be overridden easily.
1773 * Support for AM_INIT_GETTEXT([external])
1774 * Bug fixes, including:
1775 - Fix Automake's own `make install' so it works even if `ln' doesn't.
1776 - nobase_ programs and scripts honor --program-transform correctly.
1777 - Erase configure.lineno during `make distclean'.
1778 - Erase YACC and LEX outputs during `make maintainer-clean'.
1781 * Many bug fixes, including:
1782 - Requiring the current version works.
1783 - Fix "$@" portability issues (for Zsh).
1784 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
1786 - Don't compute dependencies in background to avoid races with libtool.
1787 - Fix handling of _OBJECTS variables for targets sharing source variables.
1788 - Check dependency mode for Java when AM_PROG_GCJ is used.
1791 * automake --output-dir is deprecated
1792 * Many bug fixes, including:
1793 - Don't choke on AM_LDFLAGS definitions.
1794 - Clean libtool objects from subdirectories.
1795 - Allow configure variables with reserved suffix and unknown prefix
1796 (e.g. AC_SUBST(mumble_LDFLAGS) when 'mumble' is not a target).
1797 - Fix the definition of AUTOMAKE and ACLOCAL in configure.
1800 * Autoconf 2.52 is required.
1801 * automake no longer run libtoolize.
1802 This is the job of autoreconf (from GNU Autoconf).
1803 * `dist' generates all the archive flavors, as did `dist-all'.
1804 * `dist-gzip' generates the Gzip tar file only.
1805 * Combining Automake Makefile conditionals no longer lead to a combinatorial
1806 explosion. Makefile.in's keep a reasonable size.
1807 * AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_STRTOD, AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, AM_PTRDIFF_T
1808 are no longer shipped, since Autoconf 2.52 provides them (both as AM_
1810 * `#line' of Lex and Yacc files are properly set.
1811 * EXTRA_DIST can contain generated directories.
1812 * Support for dot-less extensions in suffix rules.
1813 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether distclean actually
1814 cleans all built files has been moved in a separate target, distcleancheck,
1815 so it can be overridden easily.
1816 * `make distcheck' will pass additional options defined in
1817 $(DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS) to configure.
1818 * Fixed CDPATH portability problems, in particular for MacOS X.
1819 * Fixed handling of nobase_ targets.
1820 * Fixed support of implicit rules leading to .lo objects.
1821 * Fixed late inclusion of --add-missing files (e.g. depcomp) in DIST_COMMON
1822 * Added uninstall-hook target
1823 * `AC_INIT AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(tarname,version)' is an obsolete construct.
1824 You can now use `AC_INIT(pkgname,version) AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE' instead.
1825 (Note that "pkgname" is not "tarname", see the manual for details.)
1826 It is also possible to pass a list of global Automake options as
1827 first argument to this new form of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.
1828 * Compiler-based assembler is now called `CCAS'; people expected `AS'
1829 to be a real assembler.
1830 * AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE will set STRIP itself when it needs it. Adding
1831 AC_CHECK_TOOL([STRIP], [strip]) manually is no longer required.
1832 * aclocal and automake are also installed with the version number
1833 appended, and some of the install directory names have changed.
1834 This lets you have multiple versions installed simultaneously.
1835 * Support for parsers and lexers in subdirectories.
1838 * Support for `configure.ac'.
1839 * Support for `else COND', `endif COND' and negated conditions `!COND'.
1840 * `make dist-all' is much faster.
1841 * Allows '@' AC_SUBSTs in macro names.
1842 * Faster AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE (requires update of `missing' script)
1843 * User-side dependency tracking. Developers no longer need GNU make
1845 * Uses DIST_SUBDIRS in some situations when SUBDIRS is conditional
1846 * Most files are correctly handled if they appear in subdirs
1847 For instance, a _DATA file can appear in a subdir
1848 * GNU tar is no longer required for `make dist'
1849 * Added support for `dist_' and `nodist_' prefixes
1850 * Added support for `nobase_' prefix
1851 * Compiled Java support
1852 * Support for per-executable and per-library compilation flags
1856 * Added support for the Fortran 77 programming language.
1857 * Re-indexed the Automake Texinfo manual.
1858 * Added `AM_FOOFLAGS' variable for each compiler invocation;
1859 e.g. AM_CFLAGS can be used in Makefile.am to set C compiler flags
1860 * Support for latest autoconf, including support for objext
1861 * Can now put `.' in SUBDIRS to control build order
1862 * `include' command and `+=' support for macro assignment
1863 * Dependency tracking no long susceptible to deleted header file problem
1864 * Maintainer mode now a conditional. @MAINT@ is now an anachronism.
1869 * Better Cygwin32 support
1870 * Support for suffix rules with _SOURCES variables
1871 * New options `readme-alpha' and `check-news'; Gnits mode sets these
1872 * @LEXLIB@ no longer required when lex source seen
1873 Lex support in `missing', and new lex macro. Update your missing script.
1874 * Built-in support for assembly
1875 * aclocal gives error if `AM_' macro not found
1876 * Passed YFLAGS, not YACCFLAGS, to yacc
1877 * AM_PROG_CC_STDC does not have to come before AC_PROG_CPP
1878 * Dependencies computed as a side effect of compilation
1879 * Preliminary support for Java
1880 * DESTDIR support at "make install" time
1881 * Improved ansi2knr support; you must use the latest ansi2knr.c (included)
1885 * Better DejaGnu support
1886 * Added no-installinfo option
1887 * Added Emacs Lisp support
1888 * Added --no-force option
1889 * Included `aclocal' program
1890 * Automake will now generate rules to regenerate aclocal.m4, if appropriate
1891 * Now uses `AM_' macro names everywhere
1892 * ansi2knr option can have directory prefix (eg `../lib/ansi2knr')
1893 ansi2knr now works correctly on K&R sources
1894 * Better C++, yacc, lex support
1895 * Will compute _DEPENDENCIES variables automatically if not supplied
1896 * Will interpolate $(...) and ${...} when examining contents of a variable
1897 * .deps files now in build directory, not source directory; dependency
1898 handling generally rewritten
1899 * DATA, MANS and BUILT_SOURCES no longer included in distribution
1900 * can now put config.h into a subdir
1901 * Added dist-all target
1902 * Support for install-info program (see texinfo 3.9)
1903 * Support for "yacc -d"
1904 * configure substitutions are automatically discovered and included
1905 in generated Makefile.in
1906 * Special --cygnus mode
1907 * OMIT_DEPENDENCIES can now hold list of dependencies to be omitted
1908 when making distribution. Some dependencies are auto-ignored.
1909 * Changed how libraries are specified in _LIBRARIES variable
1910 * Full libtool support, from Gord Matzigkeit
1911 * No longer have to explicitly touch stamp-h when using AC_CONFIG_HEADER;
1912 AM_CONFIG_HEADER handles it automatically
1913 * Texinfo output files no longer need .info extension
1914 * Added `missing' support
1916 * Conditionals in Makefile.am, from Ian Taylor
1920 * distcheck target runs install and installcheck targets
1921 * Added preliminary support for DejaGnu.
1926 * More libtool fixes from Gord Matzigkeit; libtool support is still
1928 * Added support for jm_MAINTAINER_MODE
1930 * New "distcheck" target
1934 * mkinstalldirs and mdate-sh now appear in directory specified by
1936 * Removed DIST_SUBDIRS, DIST_OTHER
1937 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM only required when an actual program exists
1938 * dist-hook target now run before distribution packaged up; idea from
1939 Dieter Baron. Other hooks exist, too.
1940 * Preliminary (unfinished) support for libtool
1941 * Added short option names.
1942 * Better "dist" support when gluing together multiple packages
1946 * Documentation updates (many from François Pinard)
1947 * strictness `normal' now renamed to `foreign'
1948 * Renamed --install-missing to --add-missing
1949 * Now handles AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
1950 * Now handles TESTS macro
1951 * DIST_OTHER renamed to EXTRA_DIST
1952 * DIST_SUBDIRS is deprecated
1953 * @ALLOCA@ and @LIBOBJS@ now work in _LDADD variables
1954 * Better error messages in many cases
1955 * Program names are canonicalized
1956 * Added "check" prefix; from Gord Matzigkeit
1960 * configure.in scanner knows about AC_PATH_XTRA, AC_OUTPUT ":" syntax
1961 * Beginnings of a test suite
1962 * Automatically adds -I options for $(srcdir), ".", and path to config.h
1963 * Doesn't print anything when running
1964 * Beginnings of MAINT_CHARSET support
1965 * Can specify version in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS
1966 * Most errors recognizable by Emacs' M-x next-error
1967 * Added --verbose option
1968 * All "primary" variables now obsolete; use EXTRA_PRIMARY to supply
1969 configure-generated names
1970 * Required macros now distributed in aclocal.m4
1972 * --strictness=gnu is default
1976 * More sophisticated configure.in scanning; now understands ALLOCA and
1977 LIBOBJS directly, handles AC_CONFIG_HEADER more precisely, etc.
1978 * TEXINFOS and MANS now obsolete; use info_TEXINFOS and man_MANS instead.
1979 * CONFIG_HEADER variable now obsolete
1980 * Can handle multiple Texinfo sources
1981 * Allow hierarchies deeper than 2. From Gord Matzigkeit.
1982 * HEADERS variable no longer needed; now can put .h files directly into
1983 foo_SOURCES variable.
1984 * Automake automatically rebuilds files listed in AC_OUTPUT. The
1985 corresponding ".in" files are included in the distribution.
1988 * Added --gnu and --gnits options
1989 * More standards checking
1991 * Cleaned up 'dist' targets
1992 * Added AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS variable and several options
1993 * Now scans configure.in to get some information (preliminary)
1996 * Works with Perl 4 again
1999 * Added --install-missing option.
2000 * Pretty-prints generated macros and rules
2001 * Comments in Makefile.am are placed more intelligently in Makefile.in
2002 * Generates .PHONY target
2003 * Rule or macro in Makefile.am now overrides contents of Automake file
2004 * Substantial cleanups from François Pinard
2008 * Works with Perl 4 again.
2011 * New uniform naming scheme.
2012 * --strictness option
2014 * '.c' files corresponding to '.y' or '.l' files are automatically
2016 * Many bug fixes and cleanups
2019 * Allow objects to be conditionally included in libraries via lib_LIBADD.
2022 * Bug fixes in 'clean' code.
2023 * Now generates 'installdirs' target.
2024 * man page installation reworked.
2025 * 'make dist' no longer re-creates all Makefile.in's.
2028 * Reimplemented in Perl
2029 * Added --amdir option (for debugging)
2030 * Texinfo support cleaned up.
2031 * Automatic de-ANSI-fication cleaned up.
2032 * Cleaned up 'clean' targets.
2035 * Automatic dependency tracking
2036 * More documentation
2037 * New variables DATA and PACKAGEDATA
2038 * SCRIPTS installed using $(INSTALL_SCRIPT)
2039 * No longer uses double-colon rules
2041 * Changes in advance of internationalization
2045 Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2047 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
2048 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2049 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
2052 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2053 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2054 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2055 GNU General Public License for more details.
2057 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2058 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.