3 * WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
5 - Autoconf 2.65 or later will be required by the next major Automake
6 version (1.13). Until now, Automake has required Autoconf version
9 - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the rules to
10 build pdf, ps and dvi output from Texinfo input will use the '--tidy'
11 option by default. Since such an option was introduced in Texinfo
12 4.9, this means that Makefiles generated by future Automake versions
13 will require at least that version of Texinfo.
15 - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the parallel
16 testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the 'parallel-tests'
17 option) will become the default one; the older serial testsuite
18 harness will still be available through the use of the 'serial-tests'
21 - The following long-obsolete m4 macros will be removed in the
22 next major Automake version (1.13):
24 AM_PROG_CC_STDC: superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002
25 fp_PROG_CC_STDC: broken alias for AM_PROG_CC_STDC
26 fp_WITH_DMALLOC: old alias for AM_WITH_DMALLOC
27 AM_CONFIG_HEADER: superseded by AC_CONFIG_HEADERS since July 2002
28 ud_PATH_LISPDIR: old alias for AM_PATH_LISPDIR
29 jm_MAINTAINER_MODE: old alias for AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
30 ud_GNU_GETTEXT: old alias for AM_GNU_GETTEXT
31 gm_PROG_LIBTOOL: old alias for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
32 fp_C_PROTOTYPES: old alias for AM_C_PROTOTYPES (which was part
33 of the now-removed automatic de-ANSI-fication
36 - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' will be removed in
37 the next major Automake 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 '--acdir' option of aclocal is deprecated, and will probably
44 be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13). You should
45 use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir' instead
46 (which have been introduced in Automake 1.11.2).
48 - The exact order in which the directories in the aclocal macro
49 search path are looked up is probably going to be changed in the
50 next Automake release (1.13).
52 * New supported languages:
54 - Support for Objective C++ has been added; it should work similarly to
55 the support for Objective C.
57 * Deprecated obsolescent features:
59 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (enabled by the 'cygnus' option) is
60 now deprecated (its use triggers a warning in the 'obsolete' category).
61 It will be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13).
63 - The long-obsolete (since 1.10) automake-provided $(mkdir_p) make
64 variable, @mkdir_p@ configure-time substitution and AM_PROG_MKDIR
65 m4 macro are deprecated, eliciting a warning in the 'obsolete'
66 category. They will be removed in the next major version (1.13).
70 * Bugs introduced by 1.12:
72 - Several weaknesses in Automake's own build system and test suite
75 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
77 - When given non-option arguments, aclocal rejects them, instead of
78 silently ignoring them.
82 - When the 'color-tests' option is in use, forcing of colored testsuite
83 output through "AM_COLOR_TESTS=always" works even if the terminal is
84 a non-ANSI one, i.e., if the TERM environment variable has a value of
87 - Several inefficiencies and poor performances in the implementation
88 of the parallel-tests 'check' and 'recheck' targets have been fixed.
90 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
94 * Obsolete features removed:
96 - The never documented nor truly used script 'acinstall' has been
99 - Support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been removed.
101 - The support for the "obscure" multilib feature has been removed
102 from Automake core (but remains available in the 'contrib/'
103 directory of the Automake distribution).
105 - Support for ".log -> .html" conversion and the check-html and
106 recheck-html targets has been removed from Automake core (but
107 remains available in the 'contrib/' directory of the Automake
110 - The deprecated 'lzma' compression format for distribution archives
111 has been removed, in favor of 'xz' and 'lzip'.
113 - The obsolete AM_WITH_REGEX macro has been removed.
115 - The long-deprecated options '--output-dir', '--Werror' and
116 '--Wno-error' have been removed.
118 - The chapter on the history of Automake has been moved out of the
119 reference manual, into a new dedicated Texinfo file.
123 - New 'cscope' target to build a cscope database for the source tree.
125 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
127 - The new automake option 'serial-tests' has been introduced. It can
128 be used to explicitly instruct automake to use the older serial
129 testsuite harness. This is still the default at the moment, but it
130 might change in future versions.
132 - The 'recheck' target (provided by the parallel testsuite harness) now
133 depends on the 'all' target. This allows for a better user-experience
134 in test-driven development. See automake bug#11252.
136 - Test scripts that exit with status 99 to signal an "hard error" (e.g.,
137 and unexpected or internal error, or a failure to set up the test case
138 scenario) have their outcome reported as an 'ERROR' now. Previous
139 versions of automake reported such an outcome as a 'FAIL' (the only
140 difference with normal failures being that hard errors were counted
141 as failures even when the test originating them was listed in
144 - The testsuite summary displayed by the parallel-test harness has a
145 completely new format, that always list the numbers of passed, failed,
146 xfailed, xpassed, skipped and errored tests, even when these numbers
147 are zero (but using smart coloring when the color-tests option is in
150 - The default testsuite driver offered by the 'parallel-tests' option is
151 now implemented (partly at least) with the help of automake-provided
152 auxiliary scripts (e.g., 'test-driver'), instead of relying entirely
153 on code in the generated Makefile.in.
154 This has two noteworthy implications. The first one is that projects
155 using the 'parallel-tests' option should now either run automake with
156 the '--add-missing' option, or manually copy the 'test-driver' script
157 into their tree. The second, and more important, implication is that
158 now, when the 'parallel-tests' option is in use, TESTS_ENVIRONMENT can
159 not be used anymore to define a test runner, and the command specified
160 in LOG_COMPILER (and <ext>_LOG_COMPILER) must be a *real* executable
161 program or script. For example, this is still a valid usage (albeit
164 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
165 if test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS)'; then \
166 maybe_errexit='-e'; \
170 LOG_COMPILER = $(SHELL) $$maybe_errexit
172 while this is not anymore:
174 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
175 $(SHELL) `test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS_CHECKING)' && echo ' -e'`
179 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
180 run_with_perl_or_shell () \
182 if grep -q '^#!.*perl' $$1; then
188 LOG_COMPILER = run_with_perl_or_shell
190 - The package authors can now use customary testsuite drivers within
191 the framework provided by the 'parallel-tests' testsuite harness.
192 Consistently with the existing syntax, this can be done by defining
193 special makefile variables 'LOG_DRIVER' and '<ext>_LOG_DRIVER'.
195 - A new developer-reserved variable 'AM_TESTS_FD_REDIRECT' can be used
196 to redirect/define file descriptors used by the test scripts.
198 - The parallel-tests harness generates now, in addition the '.log' files
199 holding the output produced by the test scripts, a new set of '.trs'
200 files, holding "metadata" derived by the execution of the test scripts;
201 among such metadata are the outcomes of the test cases run by a script.
203 - Initial and still experimental support for the TAP test protocol is
206 * Changes to Yacc and Lex support:
208 - C source and header files derived from non-distributed Yacc and/or
209 Lex sources are now removed by a simple "make clean" (while they were
210 previously removed only by "make maintainer-clean").
212 - Slightly backward-incompatible change, relevant only for use of Yacc
213 with C++: the extensions of the header files produced by the Yacc
214 rules are now modelled after the extension of the corresponding
215 sources. For example, yacc files named "foo.y++" and "bar.yy" will
216 produce header files named "foo.h++" and "bar.hh" respectively, where
217 they would have previously produced header files named simply "foo.h"
218 and "bar.h". This change offers better compatibility with 'bison -o'.
220 * Miscellaneous changes:
222 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro now causes configure to exit with status 77,
223 rather than 1, if the vala compiler found is too old.
225 - The build system of Automake itself now avoids the use of make
226 recursion as much as possible.
228 - Automake now prefers to quote 'like this' or "like this", rather
229 than `like this', in diagnostic message and generated Makefiles,
230 to accommodate the new GNU Coding Standards recommendations.
232 - Automake has a new option '--print-libdir' that prints the path of the
233 directory containing the Automake-provided scripts and data files.
235 - The 'dist' and 'dist-all' targets now can run compressors in parallel.
237 - The rules to create pdf, dvi and ps output from Texinfo files now
238 works better with modern 'texi2dvi' script, by explicitly passing
239 it the '--clean' option to ensure stray auxiliary files are not
240 left to clutter the build directory.
242 - Automake can now generate silenced rules for texinfo outputs.
244 - Some auxiliary files that are automatically distributed by Automake
245 (e.g., 'install-sh', or the 'depcomp' script for packages compiling
246 C sources) might now be listed in the DIST_COMMON variable in many
247 Makefile.in files, rather than in the top-level one.
249 - Messages of types warning or error from 'automake' and 'aclocal'
250 are now prefixed with the respective type, and presence of -Werror
253 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now tries to avoid
254 sleeping for a second, which slowed down cached configure runs
255 noticeably. In that case, it will check back at the end of the
256 configure script to ensure that at least one second has passed, to
257 avoid time stamp issues with makefile rules rerunning autotools
260 - The warnings in the category 'extra-portability' are now enabled by
261 '-Wall'. In previous versions, one has to use '-Wextra-portability'
266 - Various minor bugfixes for recent or long-standing bugs.
268 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
270 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
271 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
273 - The automake-provided parallel testsuite harness does not fail anymore
274 with BSD make used in parallel mode when there are test scripts in a
275 subdirectory, like in:
277 TESTS = sub/foo.test sub/bar.test
279 * Long-standing bugs:
281 - Automake's own build system finally have a real "installcheck" target.
283 - Vala-related cleanup rules are now more complete, and work better in
286 - Files listed with the AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE macro in configure.ac are
287 now automatically distributed also if the directory of the auxiliary
288 files coincides with the top-level directory.
290 - Automake now detects the presence of the '-d' flag in the various
291 '*YFLAGS' variables even when their definitions involve indirections
292 through other variables, such as in:
294 AM_YFLAGS = $(foo_opts)
296 - Automake now complains if a '*YFLAGS' variable has any conditional
297 content, not only a conditional definition.
299 - Explicit enabling and/or disabling of Automake warning categories
300 through the '-W...' options now always takes precedence over the
301 implicit warning level implied by Automake strictness (foreign, gnu
302 or gnits), regardless of the order in which such strictness and
303 warning flags appear. For example, a setting like:
304 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = -Wall --foreign
305 will cause the warnings in category 'portability' to be enabled, even
306 if those warnings are by default disabled in 'foreign' strictness.
308 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
310 Bugs fixed in 1.11.5:
312 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
314 - Vala files with '.vapi' extension are now recognized and handled
315 correctly again. See automake bug#11222.
317 - Vala support work again for projects that contain some program
318 built from '.vala' (and possibly '.c') sources and some other
319 program built from '.c' sources *only*. See automake bug#11229.
321 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
325 * Miscellaneous changes:
327 - The 'ar-lib' script now ignores the "s" (symbol index) and "S" (no
328 symbol index) modifiers as well as the "s" action, as the symbol index
329 is created unconditionally by Microsoft lib. Also, the "q" (quick)
330 action is now a synonym for "r" (replace). Also, the script has been
331 ignoring the "v" (verbose) modifier already since Automake 1.11.3.
333 - When the 'compile' script is used to wrap MSVC, it now accepts an
334 optional space between the -I, -L and -l options and their respective
335 arguments, for better POSIX compliance.
337 - There is an initial, experimental support for automatic dependency
338 tracking with tcc (the Tiny C Compiler). Its associated depmode is
339 currently recognized as "icc" (but this and other details are likely
340 to change in future versions).
342 - Automatic dependency tracking now works also with the IBM XL C/C++
343 compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'xlc'.
345 Bugs fixed in 1.11.4:
347 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
349 - A definition of 'noinst_PYTHON' before 'python_PYTHON' (or similar)
350 don't cause spurious failures upon "make install" anymore.
352 - The user can now instruct the 'uninstall-info' rule not to update
353 the '${infodir}/dir' file by exporting the environment variable
354 'AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no". This is done for consistency
355 with how the 'install-info' rule operates since automake 1.11.2.
357 * Long-standing bugs:
359 - It is now possible for a foo_SOURCES variable to hold Vala sources
360 together with C header files, as well as with sources and headers for
361 other supported languages (e.g., C++). Previously, only mixing C and
362 Vala sources was supported.
364 - If "aclocal --install" is used, and the first directory specified with
365 '-I' is non-existent, aclocal will now create it before trying to copy
368 - An empty declaration of a "foo_PRIMARY" don't cause anymore the
369 generated install rules to create an empty $(foodir) directory;
370 for example, if Makefile.am contains something like:
374 pkglibexec_SCRIPTS += bar.sh
377 the $(pkglibexec) directory will not be created upon "make install".
379 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
383 * Miscellaneous changes:
385 - Automake's own build system is more silent by default, making use of
386 the 'silent-rules' option.
388 - The master copy of the `gnupload' script is now maintained in gnulib,
391 - The `missing' script doesn't try to wrap calls to `tar' anymore.
393 - "make dist" doesn't wrap `tar' invocations with the `missing' script
394 anymore. Similarly, the obsolescent variable `$(AMTAR)' (which you
395 shouldn't be using BTW ;-) does not invoke the missing script anymore
396 to wrap tar, but simply invokes the `tar' program itself.
398 - "make dist" can now create lzip-compressed tarballs.
400 - In the Automake info documentation, the Top node and the nodes about
401 the invocation of the automake and aclocal programs have been renamed;
402 now, calling "info automake" will open the Top node, while calling
403 "info automake-invocation" and "info aclocal-invocation" will access
404 the nodes about the invocation of respectively automake and aclocal.
406 - Automake is now distributed as a gzip-compressed and an xz-compressed
407 tarball. Previously, bzip2 was used instead of xz.
409 - The last relics of Python 1.5 support have been removed from the
410 AM_PATH_PYTHON macro.
412 - For programs and libraries, automake now detects EXTRA_foo_DEPENDENCIES
413 and adds them to the normal list of dependencies, but without
414 overwriting the foo_DEPENDENCIES variable, which is normally computed
417 Bugs fixed in 1.11.3:
419 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
421 - Automake now correctly recognizes the prefix/primary combination
422 `pkglibexec_SCRIPTS' as valid.
424 - The parallel-tests harness doesn't trip anymore on sed implementations
425 with stricter limits on the length of input lines (problem seen at
428 * Long-standing bugs:
430 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.am files is avoided by stub
431 rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `automake' also if
432 some previously needed `.am' file has been removed.
434 - The `silent-rules' option now generates working makefiles even
435 for the uncommon `make' implementations that do not support the
436 nested-variables extension to POSIX 2008. For such `make'
437 implementations, whether a build is silent is determined at
438 configure time, and cannot be overridden at make time with
439 `make V=0' or `make V=1'.
441 - Vala support now works better in VPATH setups.
443 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
447 * Changes to aclocal:
449 - The `--acdir' option is deprecated. Now you should use the new options
450 `--automake-acdir' and `--system-acdir' instead.
452 - The `ACLOCAL_PATH' environment variable is now interpreted as a
453 colon-separated list of additional directories to search after the
454 automake internal acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal-APIVERSION)
455 and before the system acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal).
457 * Miscellaneous changes:
459 - The Automake support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been
460 deprecated. It will probably be removed in the next major Automake
463 - The `lzma' compression scheme and associated automake option `dist-lzma'
464 is obsoleted by `xz' and `dist-xz' due to upstream changes.
466 - You may adjust the compression options used in dist-xz and dist-bzip2.
467 The default is now merely -e for xz, but still -9 for bzip; you may
468 specify a different level via the XZ_OPT and BZIP2 envvars respectively.
469 E.g., "make dist-xz XZ_OPT=-7" or "make dist-bzip2 BZIP2=-5"
471 - The `compile' script now converts some options for MSVC for a better
472 user experience. Similarly, the new `ar-lib' script wraps Microsoft lib.
474 - The py-compile script now accepts empty arguments passed to the options
475 `--destdir' and `--basedir', and complains about unrecognized options.
476 Moreover, a non-option argument or a special `--' argument terminates
479 - A developer that needs to pass specific flags to configure at "make
480 distcheck" time can now, and indeed is advised to, do so by defining
481 the developer-reserved makefile variable AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS,
482 instead of the old DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS.
483 The DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS variable should now be reserved for the
484 user; still, the old Makefile.am files that used to define it will
485 still continue to work as before.
487 - New macro AM_PROG_AR that looks for an archiver and wraps it in the new
488 'ar-lib' auxiliary script if the selected archiver is Microsoft lib.
489 This new macro is required for LIBRARIES and LTLIBRARIES when automake
490 is run with -Wextra-portability and -Werror.
492 - When using DejaGnu-based testsuites, the user can extend the `site.exp'
493 file generated by automake-provided rules by defining the special make
494 variable `$(EXTRA_DEJAGNU_SITE_CONFIG)'.
496 - The `install-info' rule can now be instructed not to create/update
497 the `${infodir}/dir' file, by exporting the new environment variable
498 `AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no".
500 Bugs fixed in 1.11.2:
502 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
504 - The parallel-tests driver no longer produces erroneous results with
505 Tru64/OSF 5.1 sh upon unreadable log files.
507 - The `parallel-tests' test driver does not report spurious successes
508 when used with concurrent FreeBSD make (e.g., "make check -j3").
510 - When the parallel-tests driver is in use, automake now explicitly
511 rejects invalid entries and conditional contents in TEST_EXTENSIONS,
512 instead of issuing confusing and apparently unrelated error messages
513 (e.g., "non-POSIX variable name", "bad characters in variable name",
514 or "redefinition of TEST_EXTENSIONS), or even, in some situations,
515 silently producing broken `Makefile.in' files.
517 - The `silent-rules' option now truly silences all compile rules, even
518 when dependency tracking is disabled. Also, when `silent-rules' is
519 not used, `make' output no longer contains spurious backslash-only
520 lines, thus once again matching what Automake did before 1.11.
522 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
523 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
525 * Long-standing bugs:
527 - The order of Yacc and Lex flags is fixed to be consistent with other
528 languages: $(AM_YFLAGS) comes before $(YFLAGS), and $(AM_LFLAGS) before
529 $(LFLAGS), so that the user variables override the developer variables.
531 - "make distcheck" now correctly complains also when "make uninstall"
532 leaves one and only one file installed in $(prefix).
534 - A "make uninstall" issued before a "make install", or after a mere
535 "make install-data" or a mere "make install-exec" does not spuriously
538 - Automake now warns about more primary/directory invalid combinations,
539 such as "doc_LIBRARIES" or "pkglib_PROGRAMS".
541 - Rules generated by Automake now try harder to not change any files when
542 `make -n' is invoked. Fixes include compilation of Emacs Lisp, Vala, or
543 Yacc source files and the rule to update config.h.
545 - Several scripts and the parallel-tests testsuite driver now exit with
546 the right exit status upon receiving a signal.
548 - A per-Makefile.am setting of -Werror does not erroneously carry over
549 to the handling of other Makefile.am files.
551 - The code for automatic dependency tracking works around a Solaris
552 make bug triggered by sources containing repeated slashes when the
553 `subdir-objects' option was used.
555 - The makedepend and hp depmodes now work better with VPATH builds.
557 - Java sources specified with check_JAVA are no longer compiled for
558 "make all", but only for "make check".
560 - An usage like "java_JAVA = foo.java" will now cause Automake to warn
561 and error out if `javadir' is undefined, instead of silently producing
562 a broken Makefile.in.
564 - aclocal and automake now honour the configure-time definitions of
565 AUTOCONF and AUTOM4TE when they spawn autoconf or autom4te processes.
567 - The `install-info' recipe no longer tries to guess whether the
568 `install-info' program is from Debian or from GNU, and adaptively
569 change its behaviour; this has proven to be frail and easy to
572 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
574 Bugs fixed in 1.11.1:
576 - Lots of minor bugfixes.
578 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
580 - The `parallel-tests' test driver works around a GNU make 3.80 bug with
581 trailing white space in the test list (`TESTS = foo $(EMPTY)').
583 * Long standing bugs:
585 - On Darwin 9, `pythondir' and `pyexecdir' pointed below `/Library/Python'
586 even if the `--prefix' argument pointed outside of a system directory.
587 AM_PATH_PYTHON has been fixed to ignore the value returned from python's
588 `get_python_lib' function if it points outside the configured prefix,
589 unless the `--prefix' argument was either `/usr' or below `/System'.
591 - The testsuite does not try to change the mode of `ltmain.sh' files from
592 a Libtool installation (symlinked to test directories) any more.
594 - AM_PROG_GCJ uses AC_CHECK_TOOLS to look for `gcj' now, so that prefixed
595 tools are preferred in a cross-compile setup.
597 - The distribution is tarred up with mode 755 now by the `dist*' targets.
598 This fixes a race condition where untrusted users could modify files
599 in the $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION) distdir before packing if the toplevel
600 build directory was world-searchable. This is CVE-2009-4029.
602 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
606 * Version requirements:
608 - Autoconf 2.62 or greater is required.
610 * Changes to aclocal:
612 - The autoconf version check implemented by aclocal in aclocal.m4
613 (and new in Automake 1.10) is degraded to a warning. This helps
614 in the common case where the Autoconf versions used are compatible.
616 * Changes to automake:
618 - The automake program can run multiple threads for creating most
619 Makefile.in files concurrently, if at least Perl 5.7.2 is available
620 with interpreter-based threads enabled. Set the environment variable
621 AUTOMAKE_JOBS to the maximum number of threads to use, in order to
622 enable this experimental feature.
624 * Changes to Libtool support:
626 - Libtool generic flags are now passed to the install and uninstall
629 - distcheck works with Libtool 2.x even when LT_OUTPUT is used, as
630 config.lt is removed correctly now.
634 - subdir-object mode works now with Fortran (F77, FC, preprocessed
635 Fortran, and Ratfor).
637 - For files with extension .f90, .f95, .f03, or .f08, the flag
638 $(FCFLAGS_f[09]x) computed by AC_FC_SRCEXT is now used in compile rules.
640 - Files with extension .sx are also treated as preprocessed assembler.
642 - The default source file extension (.c) can be overridden with
643 AM_DEFAULT_SOURCE_EXT now.
645 - Python 3.0 is supported now, Python releases prior to 2.0 are no
648 - AM_PATH_PYTHON honors python's idea about the site directory.
650 - There is initial support for the Vala programming language, when using
653 * Miscellaneous changes:
655 - Automake development is done in a git repository on Savannah now, see
657 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=automake.git
659 A read-only CVS mirror is provided at
661 cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@pserver.git.sv.gnu.org:/automake.git \
662 checkout -d automake HEAD
664 - "make dist" can now create xz-compressed tarballs,
665 as well as (deprecated?) lzma-compressed tarballs.
667 - `automake --add-missing' will by default install the GPLv3 file as
668 COPYING if it is missing. It will also warn that the license file
669 should be added to source control. Note that Automake will never
670 overwrite an existing COPYING file, even when the `--force-missing'
673 - The manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL 1.3.
675 - Automake ships and installs man pages for automake and aclocal now.
677 - New shorthand `$(pkglibexecdir)' for `$(libexecdir)/@PACKAGE@'.
679 - install-sh supports -C, which does not update the installed file
680 (and its time stamps) if the contents did not change.
682 - The `gnupload' script has been revamped.
684 - The `depcomp' and `compile' scripts now work with MSVC under MSYS.
686 - The targets `install' and `uninstall' are more efficient now, in that
687 for example multiple files from one Automake variable such as
688 `bin_SCRIPTS' are copied in one `install' (or `libtool --mode=install')
689 invocation if they do not have to be renamed.
691 Both install and uninstall may sometimes enter (`cd' into) the target
692 installation directory now, when no build-local scripts are used.
694 Both install and uninstall do not fail anymore but do nothing if an
695 installation directory variable like `bindir' is set to the empty string.
697 For built-in rules, `make install' now fails reliably if installation
698 of a file failed. Conversely, `make uninstall' even succeeds when
699 issued multiple times.
701 These changes may need some adjustments from users: For example,
702 some `install' programs refuse to install multiple copies of the
703 same file in one invocation, so you may need to remove duplicate
704 entries from file lists.
706 Also, within one set of files, say, nobase_data_DATA, the order of
707 installation may be changed, or even unstable among different hosts,
708 due to the use of associative arrays in awk. The increased use of
709 awk matches a similar move in Autoconf to provide for better scaling.
711 Further, most undocumented per-rule install command variables such as
712 binSCRIPT_INSTALL have been removed because they are not needed any
713 more. Packages which use them should be using the appropriate one of
714 INSTALL_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT} or their install_sh_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT}
715 counterpart, depending on the type of files and the need for automatic
716 target directory creation.
718 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.m4 files is avoided by
719 stub rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `aclocal'
720 also if some previously needed macro file has been removed.
722 - Rebuild rules now also work for a removed `subdir/Makefile.in' in
723 an otherwise up to date tree.
725 - The `color-tests' option causes colored test result output on terminals.
727 - The `parallel-tests' option enables a new test driver that allows for
728 parallel test execution, inter-test dependencies, lazy test execution
729 for unit-testing, re-testing only failed tests, and formatted result output
730 as RST (reStructuredText) and HTML. Enabling this option may require some
731 changes to your test suite setup; see the manual for details.
733 - The `silent-rules' option enables Linux kernel-style silent build output.
734 This option requires the widely supported but non-POSIX `make' feature
735 of recursive variable expansion, so do not use it if your package needs
736 to build with `make' implementations that do not support it.
738 To enable less verbose build output, the developer has to use the Automake
739 option `silent-rules' in `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE', or call the `AM_SILENT_RULES'
740 macro. The user may then set the default verbosity by passing the
741 `--enable-silent-rules' option to `configure'. At `make' run time, this
742 default may be overridden using `make V=0' for less verbose, and `make V=1'
743 for backward-compatible verbose output.
745 - New prefix `notrans_' for manpages which should not be transformed
746 by --program-transform.
748 - New macro AM_COND_IF for conditional evaluation and conditional
751 - For AC_CONFIG_LINKS, if source and destination are equal, do not
752 remove the file in a non-VPATH build. Such setups work with Autoconf
755 - AM_MAINTAINER_MODE now allows for an optional argument specifying
758 - AM_SUBST_NOTMAKE may prevent substitution of AC_SUBSTed variables,
759 useful especially for multi-line values.
761 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now diagnoses an
762 unsafe absolute source directory name and makes configure fail.
764 - The Automake macros and rules cope better with whitespace in the
765 current directory name, as long as the relative path to `configure'
766 does not contain whitespace. To this end, the values of `$(MISSING)'
767 and `$(install_sh)' may contain suitable quoting, and their expansion
768 might need `eval'uation if used outside of a makefile. These
769 undocumented variables may be used in several documented macros such
770 as $(AUTOCONF) or $(MAKEINFO).
774 * Long-standing bugs:
776 - Fix aix dependency tracking for libtool objects.
778 - Work around AIX sh quoting issue in AC_PROG_CC_C_O, leading to
779 unnecessary use of the `compile' script.
781 - For nobase_*_LTLIBRARIES with nonempty directory components, the
782 correct `-rpath' argument is used now.
784 - `config.status --file=Makefile depfiles' now also works with the
785 extra quoting used internally by Autoconf 2.62 and newer
786 (it used to work only without the `--file=' bit).
788 - The `missing' script works better with versioned tool names.
790 - Semantics for `missing help2man' have been revamped:
792 Previously, if `help2man' was not present, `missing help2man' would have
793 the following semantics: if some man page was out of date but present, then
794 a warning would be printed, but the exit status was 0. If the man page was
795 not present at all, then `missing' would create a replacement man page
796 containing an error message, and exit with a status of 2. This does not play
797 well with `make': the next run will see this particular man page as being up
798 to date, and will only error out on the next generated man page, if any;
799 repeat until all pages are done. This was not desirable.
801 These are the new semantics: if some man page is not present, and help2man
802 is not either, then `missing' will warn and generate the replacement page
803 containing the error message, but exit successfully. However, `make dist'
804 will ensure that no such bogus man pages are packaged into a tarball.
806 - Targets provided by automake behave better with `make -n', in that they
807 take care not to create files.
809 - `config.status Makefile... depfiles' works fine again in the presence of
810 disabled dependency tracking.
812 - The default no-op recursive rules for these targets also work with BSD make
813 now: html, install-html, install-dvi, install-pdf, install-pdf, install-info.
815 - `make distcheck' works also when both a directory and some file below it
816 have been added to a distribution variable, such as EXTRA_DIST or *_SOURCES.
818 - Texinfo dvi, ps, pdf, and html output files are not removed upon
819 `make mostlyclean' any more; only the LaTeX by-products are.
821 - Renamed objects also work with the `subdir-objects' option and
822 source file languages which Automake does not know itself.
824 - `automake' now correctly complains about variable assignments which are
825 preceded by a comment, extend over multiple lines with backslash-escaped
826 newlines, and end in a comment sign. Previous versions would silently
827 and wrongly ignore such assignments completely.
829 * Bugs introduced by 1.10:
831 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
832 Makefile.in's again, but also cope with long lines.
834 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of XFAIL_TESTS
835 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
836 This is for consistency with the analogous change to TESTS in 1.10.
838 - Fix order of standard includes to again be `-I. -I$(srcdir)',
839 followed by directories containing config headers.
841 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
845 * Version requirements:
847 - Autoconf 2.60 or greater is required.
849 - Perl 5.6 or greater is required.
851 * Changes to aclocal:
853 - aclocal now also supports -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble options.
855 - `dirlist' entries (for the aclocal search path) may use shell
856 wildcards such as `*', `?', or `[...]'.
858 - aclocal supports an --install option that will cause system-wide
859 third-party macros to be installed in the local directory
860 specified with the first -I flag. This option also uses #serial
861 lines in M4 files to upgrade local macros.
863 The new aclocal options --dry-run and --diff help to review changes
864 before they are installed.
866 - aclocal now outputs an autoconf version check in aclocal.m4 in
867 projects using automake.
869 For a few years, automake and aclocal have been calling autoconf
870 (or its underlying engine autom4te) to accurately retrieve the
871 data they need from configure.ac and its siblings. Doing so can
872 only work if all autotools use the same version of autoconf. For
873 instance a Makefile.in generated by automake for one version of
874 autoconf may stop working if configure is regenerated with another
875 version of autoconf, and vice versa.
877 This new version check ensures that the whole build system has
878 been generated using the same autoconf version.
880 * Support for new Autoconf macros:
882 - The new AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE Autoconf macro is supported.
884 - If `subdir-objects' is set, and AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR is specified,
885 $(LIBOBJS), $(LTLIBOBJS), $(ALLOCA), and $(LTALLOCA) can be used
886 in different directories. However, only one instance of such a
887 library objects directory is supported.
889 * Change to Libtool support:
891 - Libtool generic flags (those that go before the --mode=MODE option)
892 can be specified using AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS and target_LIBTOOLFLAGS.
894 * Yacc and Lex changes:
896 - The rebuild rules for distributed Yacc and Lex output will avoid
897 overwriting existing files if AM_MAINTAINER_MODE and maintainer-mode
900 - ylwrap is now always used for lex and yacc source files,
901 regardless of whether there is more than one source per directory.
905 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now honors CPPFLAGS,
906 AM_CPPFLAGS and per-target _CPPFLAGS, and supports dependency
907 tracking, unlike non-preprocessed assembler (*.s).
909 - subdir-object mode works now with Assembler. Automake assumes
910 that the compiler understands `-c -o'.
912 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now also honors
913 $(DEFS) $(DEFAULT_INCLUDES) $(INCLUDES).
915 - Improved support for Objective C:
916 - Autoconf's new AC_PROG_OBJC will enable automatic dependency tracking.
917 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
919 - New support for Unified Parallel C:
920 - AM_PROG_UPC looks for a UPC compiler.
921 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
923 - Per-target flags are now correctly handled in link rules.
925 For instance maude_CFLAGS correctly overrides AM_CFLAGS; likewise
926 for maude_LDFLAGS and AM_LDFLAGS. Previous versions bogusly
927 preferred AM_CFLAGS over maude_CFLAGS while linking, and they
928 used both AM_LDFLAGS and maude_LDFLAGS on the same link command.
930 The fix for compiler flags (i.e., using maude_CFLAGS instead of
931 AM_CFLAGS) should not hurt any package since that is how _CFLAGS
932 is expected to work (and actually works during compilation).
934 However using maude_LDFLAGS "instead of" AM_LDFLAGS rather than
935 "in addition to" breaks backward compatibility with older versions.
936 If your package used both variables, as in
938 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
940 a_LDFLAGS = more flags
943 and assumed *_LDFLAGS would sum up, you should rewrite it as
945 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
947 a_LDFLAGS = $(AM_LDFLAGS) more flags
950 This new behavior of *_LDFLAGS is more coherent with other
951 per-target variables, and the way *_LDFLAGS variables were
952 considered internally.
954 * New installation targets:
956 - New targets mandated by GNU Coding Standards:
961 By default they will only install Texinfo manuals.
962 You can customize them with *-local variants:
968 - The undocumented recursive target `uninstall-info' no longer exists.
969 (`uninstall' is in charge of removing all possible documentation
970 flavors, including optional formats such as dvi, ps, or info even
971 when `no-installinfo' is used.)
973 * Miscellaneous changes:
975 - Automake no longer complains if input files for AC_CONFIG_FILES
976 are specified using shell variables.
978 - clean, distribution, or rebuild rules are normally disabled for
979 inputs and outputs of AC_CONFIG_FILES, AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, and
980 AC_CONFIG_LINK specified using shell variables. However, if these
981 variables are used as ${VAR}, and AC_SUBSTed, then Automake will
982 be able to output rules anyway.
983 (See the Automake documentation for AC_CONFIG_FILES.)
985 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of TESTS
986 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
987 This is mostly useful when some check_PROGRAMS are listed in TESTS.
989 - `-Wportability' has finally been turned on by default for `gnu' and
990 `gnits' strictness. This means, automake will complain about %-rules
991 or $(GNU Make functions) unless you switch to `foreign' strictness or
992 use `-Wno-portability'.
994 - Automake now uses AC_PROG_MKDIR_P (new in Autoconf 2.60), and uses
995 $(MKDIR_P) instead of $(mkdir_p) to create directories. The
996 $(mkdir_p) variable is still defined (to the same value as
997 $(MKDIR_P)) but should be considered obsolete. If you are using
998 $(mkdir_p) in some of your rules, please plan to update them to
999 $(MKDIR_P) at some point.
1001 - AM_C_PROTOTYPES and ansi2knr are now documented as being obsolete.
1002 They still work in this release, but may be withdrawn in a future one.
1004 - Inline compilation rules for gcc3-style dependency tracking are
1007 - Automake installs a "Hello World!" example package in $(docdir).
1008 This example is used throughout the new "Autotools Introduction"
1009 chapter of the manual.
1011 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1015 * Makefile.in bloat reduction:
1017 - Inference rules are used to compile sources in subdirectories when
1018 the `subdir-objects' option is used and no per-target flags are
1019 used. This should reduce the size of some projects a lot, because
1020 Automake used to output an explicit rule for each such object in
1023 - Automake no longer outputs three rules (.o, .obj, .lo) for each
1024 object that must be built with explicit rules. It just outputs
1025 the rules required to build the kind of object considered: either
1026 the two .o and .obj rules for usual objects, or the .lo rule for
1029 * Change to Libtool support:
1031 - Libtool tags are used with libtool versions that support them.
1032 (I.e., with Libtool 1.5 or greater.)
1034 - Automake is now able to handle setups where a libtool library is
1035 conditionally installed in different directories, as in
1038 lib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1040 pkglib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1042 liba_la_SOURCES = ...
1044 * Changes to aclocal:
1046 - aclocal now ensures that AC_DEFUNs and AU_DEFUNs it discovers are
1047 really evaluated, before it decides to include them in aclocal.m4.
1048 This solves nasty problems with conditional redefinitions of
1049 Autoconf macros in /usr/share/aclocal/*.m4 files causing extraneous
1050 *.m4 files to be included in any project using these macros.
1051 (Calls to AC_PROG_EGREP causing libtool.m4 to be included is the
1052 most famous instance of this bug.)
1054 - Do not complain about missing conditionally AC_REQUIREd macros
1055 that are not actually used. In 1.8.x aclocal would correctly
1056 determine which of these macros were really needed (and include
1057 only these in the package); unfortunately it would also require
1058 all of them to be present in order to run. This created
1059 situations were aclocal would not work on a tarball distributing
1060 all the macros it uses. For instance running aclocal on a project
1061 containing only the subset of the Gettext macros in use by the
1062 project did not work, because gettext conditionally requires other
1065 * Portability improvements:
1067 - Tar format can be chosen with the new options tar-v7, tar-ustar, and
1068 tar-pax. The new option filename-length-max=99 helps diagnosing
1069 filenames that are too long for tar-v7. (PR/414)
1071 - Variables aumented with `+=' are now automatically flattened (i.e.,
1072 trailing backslashes removed) and then wrapped around 80 colummns
1073 (adding trailing backslashes). In previous versions, a long series
1079 would result in a single-line definition of VAR that could possibly
1080 exceed the maximum line length of some make implementations.
1082 Non-augmented variables are still output as they are defined in
1087 - Support Fortran 90/95 with the new "fc" and "ppfc" languages.
1088 Works the same as the old Fortran 77 implementation; just replace
1089 F77 with FC everywhere (exception: FFLAGS becomes FCFLAGS).
1090 Requires a version of autoconf which provides AC_PROG_FC (>=2.59).
1092 - Support for conditional _LISP.
1094 - Support for conditional -hook and -local rules (PR/428).
1096 - Diagnose AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR calls following AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. (PR/49)
1098 - Automake will not write any Makefile.ins after the first error it
1099 encounters. The previous Makefile.ins (if any) will be left in
1100 place. (Warnings will not prevent output, but remember they can
1101 be turned into errors with -Werror.)
1103 - The restriction that SUBDIRS must contain direct children is gone.
1106 - The manual tells more about SUBDIRS vs. DIST_SUBDIRS.
1107 It also gives an example of nested packages using AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS.
1109 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1111 Bugs fixed in 1.8.5:
1113 * Long-standing bugs:
1115 - Define DIST_SUBDIRS even when the `no-dist' or `cygnus' options are used
1116 so that `make distclean' and `make maintainer-clean' can work.
1118 - Define AR and ARFLAGS even when only EXTRA_LIBRARIES are defined.
1120 - Fix many rules to please FreeBSD make, which runs commands with `sh -e'.
1122 - Polish diagnostic when no input file is found.
1124 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1126 Bugs fixed in 1.8.4:
1128 * Long-standing bugs:
1130 - Fix AM_PATH_PYTHON to correctly display $PYTHON when it has been
1131 overridden by the user.
1133 - Honor PATH_SEPARATOR in various places of the Automake package, for
1136 - Adjust dependency tracking mode detection to ICC 8.0's new output.
1139 - Fix install-sh so it can install the `mv' binary... using `mv'.
1141 - Fix tru64 dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1143 - Work around Exuberant Ctags when creating a TAGS files in a directory
1144 without files to scan but with subdirectories to include.
1146 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1148 - Fix an "internal error" when @LIBOBJS@ is used in a variable that is
1149 not defined in the same conditions as the _LDADD that uses it.
1151 - Do not warn when JAVAROOT is overridden, this is legitimate.
1153 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1155 Bugs fixed in 1.8.3:
1157 * Long-standing bugs:
1159 - Quote filenames in installation rules, in case $DESTDIR, $prefix,
1160 or any of the other *dir variables contain a space.
1162 Please note that Automake does not and cannot support spaces in
1163 filenames that are involved during the build. This change affects
1164 only installation paths, so that `make install' does not bomb out
1165 in packages configured with
1166 ./configure --prefix '/c/Program Files'
1168 - Fix the depfiles output so it works with GNU sed (<4.1) even when
1169 POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.
1171 - Do not AC_SUBST(LIBOBJS) in AM_WITH_REGEX. This macro was unusable
1172 since Autoconf 2.54, which defines LIBOBJS itself.
1174 - Fix a potential (but unlikely) race condition in parallel elisp
1175 builds. (Introduced in 1.7.3.)
1177 - Do not assume that users override _DEPENDENCIES in all conditions
1178 where Automake will try to define them.
1180 - Do not use `mkdir -p' in mkinstalldirs, unless this is GNU mkdir.
1181 Solaris 8's `mkdir -p' is not thread-safe and can break parallel
1184 This fix also affects the $(mkdir_p) variable defined since
1185 Automake 1.8. It will be set to `mkdir -p' only if mkdir is GNU
1186 mkdir, and to `mkinstalldirs' or `install-sh -d' otherwise.
1188 - Secure temporary directory creation in `make distcheck'. (PR/413)
1190 - Do not generate two build rules for `parser.h' when the
1191 parser appears in two different conditionals.
1193 - Work around a Solaris 8 /bin/sh bug in the test for dependency
1194 checking. Usually ./configure will not pick this shell; so this
1195 fix only helps cases where the shell is forced to /bin/sh.
1197 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1199 - In some situations (hand-written `m4_include's), aclocal would
1200 call the `File::Spec->rel2abs' method, which was only introduced
1201 in Perl 5.6. This new version reestablish support Perl 5.005.
1203 It is likely that the next major Automake releases will require at
1204 least Perl 5.6. Consider upgrading your development environment
1205 if you are still using the five-year-old Perl 5.005.
1207 - Automake would sometimes fail to define rules for targets listed
1208 in variables defined in multiple conditions. For instance on
1214 it would define only the `a.$(OBJEXT): a.c' rule and omit the
1215 `b.$(OBJEXT): b.c' rule.
1217 * New sections in manual:
1219 - Third-Party Makefiles: how to interface third party Makefiles.
1220 - Upgrading: upgrading packages to newer Automake versions.
1221 - Multiple Outputs: handling tools that produce many outputs.
1223 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1227 * A (well known) portability bug slipped in the changes made to
1228 install-sh in Automake 1.8.1. The broken install-sh would refuse to
1229 install anything on Tru64.
1231 * Fix install rules for conditionally built python files. (This never
1234 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1238 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1240 - Fix Config.pm import error with old Perl versions (at least
1241 5.005_03). One symptom is that aclocal could not find its macro
1244 - Automake 1.8 used `mkdir -m 0755 -p --' to ensure that directories
1245 created by `make install' are always world readable, even if the
1246 installer happens to have an overly restrictive umask (e.g. 077).
1247 This was a mistake and has been reverted. There are at least two
1248 reasons why we must not use `-m 0755':
1249 - it causes special bits like SGID to be ignored,
1250 - it may be too restrictive (some setups expect 775 directories).
1252 - Fix aclocal to honor definitions located in files which have been
1253 m4_included manually. aclocal 1.8 had been updated to check
1254 m4_included files for new requirements, but forgot that these
1255 m4_included files can also provide new definitions.
1257 Note that if you have such a setup, we recommend you get rid of
1258 it. In the past, there was a reason to m4_include files manually:
1259 aclocal used to duplicate entire M4 files into aclocal.m4, even
1260 files that were distributed. Some packages were therefore
1261 m4_including the distributed file directly, and playing some
1262 tricks to ensure aclocal would not copy that file to aclocal.m4,
1263 in order to limit the amount of duplication. Since aclocal 1.8.x
1264 will precisely output m4_includes for local M4 files, we recommend
1265 that you clean up your setup, removing all manual m4_includes and
1266 letting aclocal output them.
1268 - Output detailed menus in the Info version if the Automake manual,
1269 so that Emacs can locate the indexes.
1271 - configure.ac and configure were listed twice in DIST_COMMON (an
1272 internal variable where Automake lists configury files to
1273 distribute). This was harmless, but unaesthetic.
1275 - Use `chmod a-w' instead of `chmod -w' as the latter honors umask.
1276 This was an issue only in the Automake package itself, not in
1279 - Automake assumed that all AC_CONFIG_LINKS arguments had the form
1280 DEST:SRC. This was wrong, as some packages do
1281 AC_CONFIG_LINKS($computedlinks). This version no longer abort in
1284 - Contrary to mkinstalldirs, $(mkdir_p) was expecting exactly one
1285 argument. This caused two kinds of failures:
1286 - Rules installing data in a conditionally defined directory
1287 failed when that directory was undefined. In this case no
1288 argument was supplied.
1289 - `make installdirs' failed, because several directories were
1290 passed to $(mkdir_p). This was an issue only on platform
1291 were $(mkdir_p) is implemented with `install-sh -d'.
1292 $(mkdir_p) as been changed to accept 0 or more arguments, as
1295 * Long-standing bugs:
1297 - Fix an unexpected diagnostic occurring when users attempt
1298 to override some internal variables that Automake appends to.
1300 - aclocal now scans configure.ac for macro definitions (PR/319).
1302 - Fix a portability issue with OSF1/Tru64 Make. If a directory
1303 distributes files which are outside itself (this usually occurs
1304 when using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([../dir]) to use auxiliary files
1305 from a parent package), then `make distcheck' fails due to an
1306 optimization performed by OSF1/Tru64 Make in its VPATH handling.
1307 (tests/subpkg2.test failure)
1309 - Fix another portability issue with Sun and OSF1/Tru64 Make.
1310 In a VPATH-build configuration, `make install' would install
1311 nobase_ files to wrong locations.
1313 - Fix a Perl `uninitialized value' diagnostic occurring when
1314 automake complains that a Texinfo file does not have a
1315 @setfilename statement.
1317 - Erase config.status.lineno during `make distclean'. This file
1318 can be created by config.status. Automake already knew about
1319 configure.lineno, but forgot config.status.lineno.
1321 - Distribute all files, even those which are built and installed
1322 conditionally. This change affects files listed in conditionally
1323 defined *_HEADERS and *_PYTHON variable (unless they are nodist_*)
1324 as well as those listed in conditionally defined dist_*_DATA,
1325 dist_*_JAVA, dist_*_LISP, and dist_*_SCRIPTS variables.
1327 - Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to avoid \? in sed regular expressions; it
1328 doesn't conform to POSIX.
1330 - Normalize help strings for configure variables and options added
1335 - Check for python2.4 in AM_PATH_PYTHON.
1337 * Spurious failures in test suite:
1339 - tests/libtool5.test, tests/ltcond.test, tests/ltcond2.test,
1340 tests/ltconv.test: fix failures with CVS Libtool.
1341 - tests/aclocal6.test: fix failure if autom4te.cache is disabled.
1342 - tests/txinfo24.test, tests/txinfo25.test, tests/txinfo28.test:
1343 fix failures with old Texinfo versions.
1345 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1351 - The NEWS file is more verbose.
1355 - Autoconf 2.58 or greater is required.
1359 - Default source file names in the absence of a _SOURCES declaration
1360 are made by removing any target extension before appending `.c', so
1361 to make the libtool module `foo.la' from `foo.c', you only need to
1364 lib_LTLIBRARIES = foo.la
1365 foo_la_LDFLAGS = -module
1367 For backward compatibility, foo_la.c will be used instead of
1368 foo.c if this file exists or is the explicit target of a rule.
1369 However -Wobsolete will warn about this deprecated naming.
1371 - AR's `cru' flags are now set in a global ARFLAGS variable instead
1372 of being hard-coded in each $(AR) invocation, so they can be
1373 substituted from configure.ac. This has been requested by people
1374 dealing with non-POSIX ar implementations.
1376 - New warning option: -Woverride. This will warn about any user
1377 target or variable definitions which override Automake
1380 - Texinfo rules back up and restore info files when makeinfo fails.
1382 - Texinfo rules now support the `html' target.
1383 Running this requires Texinfo 4.0 or greater.
1385 `html' is a new recursive target, so if your package mixes
1386 hand-crafted `Makefile.in's with Automake-generated
1387 `Makefile.in's, you should adjust the former to support (or
1388 ignore) this target so that `make html' recurses successfully. If
1389 you had a custom `html' rule in your `Makefile.am', it's better to
1390 rename it as `html-local', otherwise your rule will override
1391 Automake's new rule (you can check that by running `automake
1392 -Woverride') and that will stop the recursion to subdirectories.
1394 Last but not least, this `html' rule is declared PHONY, even when
1395 overridden. Fortunately, it appears that few packages use a
1396 non-PHONY `html' rule.
1398 - Any file which is m4_included from configure.ac will appear as a
1399 configure and Makefile.in dependency, and will be automatically
1402 - The rules for rebuilding Makefiles and Makefile.ins will now
1403 rebuild all Makefiles and all Makefile.ins at once when one of
1404 configure's dependencies has changed. This is considerably faster
1405 than previous implementations, where config.status and automake
1406 were run separately in each directory (this still happens when you
1407 change a Makefile.am locally, without touching configure.ac or
1408 friends). Doing this also solves a longstanding issue: these
1409 rebuild rules failed to work when adding new directories to the
1410 tree, forcing you to run automake manually.
1412 - For similar reasons, the rules to rebuild configure,
1413 config.status, and aclocal.m4 are now defined in all directories.
1414 Note that if you were using the CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES and
1415 CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES (formerly undocumented) variables, you
1416 should better define them in all directories. This is easily done
1417 using an AC_SUBST (make sure you prefix these dependencies with
1418 $(top_srcdir) since this variable will appear at different
1419 levels of the build tree).
1421 - aclocal will now use `m4_include' instead of copying local m4
1422 files into aclocal.m4. (Local m4 files are those you ship with
1423 your project, other files will be copied as usual.)
1425 Because m4_included files are automatically distributed, it means
1426 for most projects there is no point in EXTRA_DISTing the list of
1427 m4 files which are used. (You can probably get rid of
1428 m4/Makefile.am if you had one.)
1430 - aclocal will avoid touching aclocal.m4 when possible, so that
1431 Autom4te's cache isn't needlessly invalidated. This behavior can
1432 be switched off with the new `--force' option.
1434 - aclocal now uses Autoconf's --trace to detect macros which are
1435 actually used and will no longer include unused macros simply
1436 because they where mentioned. This was often the case for macros
1437 called conditionally.
1439 - New options no-dist and no-dist-gzip.
1441 - compile, depcomp, elisp-comp, install-sh, mdate-sh, mkinstalldirs,
1442 py-compile, and ylwrap, now all understand --version and --help.
1444 - Automake will now recognize AC_CONFIG_LINKS so far as removing created
1445 links as part of the distclean target and including source files in
1448 - AM_PATH_PYTHON now supports ACTION-IF-FOUND and ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND
1449 argument. The latter can be used to override the default behavior
1450 (which is to abort).
1452 - Automake will exit with $? = 63 on version mismatch. (So does
1453 Autoconf 2.58) missing knows this, and in this case it will
1454 emulate the tools as if they were absent. Because older versions
1455 of Automake and Autoconf did not use this exit code, this change
1456 will only be useful in projects generated with future versions of
1459 - When using AC_CONFIG_FILES with multiple input files, Automake
1460 generates the first ".in" input file for which a ".am" exists.
1461 (Former versions would try to use only the first input file.)
1463 - lisp_DATA is now allowed. If you are using the empty ELCFILES
1464 idiom to disable byte-compilation of lisp_LISP files, it is
1465 recommended that you switch to using lisp_DATA. Note that
1466 this is not strictly equivalent: lisp_DATA will install elisp
1467 files even if emacs is not installed, while *_LISP do not
1468 install anything unless emacs is found.
1470 - Makefiles will prefer `mkdir -p' over mkinstalldirs if it is
1471 available. This selection is achieved through the Makefile
1472 variable $(mkdir_p) that is set by AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE to either
1473 `mkdir -m 0755 -p --', `$(mkinstalldirs) -m 0755', or
1474 `$(install_sh) -m 0755 -d'.
1478 - Because `mkdir -p' is available on most platforms, and we can use
1479 `install-sh -d' when it is not, the use of the mkinstalldirs
1480 script is being phased out. `automake --add-missing' no longer
1481 installs it, and if you remove mkinstalldirs from your package,
1482 automake will define $(mkinstalldirs) as an alias for $(mkdir_p).
1484 Gettext 0.12.1 still requires mkinstalldirs. Fortunately
1485 gettextize and autopoint will install it when needed. Automake
1486 will continue to define the $(mkinstalldirs) and to distribute
1487 mkinstalldirs when this script is in the source tree.
1489 - AM_PROG_CC_STDC is now empty. The content of this macro was
1490 merged in AC_PROG_CC. If your code uses $am_cv_prog_cc_stdc, you
1491 should adjust it to use $ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc instead. (This
1492 renaming should be safe, even if you have to support several,
1493 versions of Automake, because AC_PROG_CC defines this variable
1494 since Autoconf 2.54.)
1496 - Some users where using the undocumented ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES
1497 variable to override the aclocal.m4 dependencies computed
1498 (inaccurately) by older versions of Automake. Because Automake
1499 now tracks configure's m4 dependencies accurately (see m4_include
1500 above), the use of ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES should be considered
1501 obsolete and will be flagged as such when running `automake
1506 - Defining programs conditionally using Automake conditionals no
1507 longer leads to a combinatorial explosion. The following
1508 construct used to be troublesome when used with dozens of
1523 Likewise for _SOURCES, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables.
1525 - Due to implementation constraints, previous versions of Automake
1526 proscribed multiple conditional definitions of some variables
1536 All _PROGRAMS, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables were affected.
1537 This restriction has been lifted, and these variables now
1538 support multiple conditional definitions as do other variables.
1540 - Cleanup the definitions of $(distdir) and $(top_distdir).
1541 $(top_distdir) now points to the root of the distribution
1542 directory created during `make dist', as it did in Automake 1.4,
1543 not to the root of the build tree as it did in intervening
1544 versions. Furthermore these two variables are now only defined in
1545 the top level Makefile, and passed to sub-directories when running
1548 - The --no-force option now correctly checks the Makefile.in's
1549 dependencies before deciding not to update it.
1551 - Do not assume that make files are called Makefile in cleaning rules.
1553 - Update .info files in the source tree, not in the build tree. This
1554 is what the GNU Coding Standard recommend. Only Automake 1.7.x
1555 used to update these files in the build tree (previous versions did
1556 it in the source tree too), and it caused several problems, varying
1557 from mere annoyance to portability issues.
1559 - COPYING, COPYING.LIB, and COPYING.LESSER are no longer overwritten
1560 when --add-missing and --force-missing are used. For backward
1561 compatibility --add-missing will continue to install COPYING (in
1562 `gnu' strictness) when none of these three files exist, but this
1563 use is deprecated: you should better choose a license yourself and
1564 install it once for all in your source tree (and in your code
1567 - Fix ylwrap so that it does not overwrite header files that haven't
1568 changed, as the inline rule already does.
1570 - User-defined rules override automake-defined rules for the same
1571 targets, even when rules do not have commands. This is not new
1572 (and was documented), however some of the automake-generated
1573 rules have escaped this principle in former Automake versions.
1574 Rules for the following targets are affected by this fix:
1576 clean, clean-am, dist-all, distclean, distclean-am, dvi, dvi-am,
1577 info, info-am, install-data-am, install-exec-am, install-info,
1578 install-info-am, install-man, installcheck-am, maintainer-clean,
1579 maintainer-clean-am, mostlyclean, mostlyclean-am, pdf, pdf-am,
1580 ps, ps-am, uninstall-am, uninstall-info, uninstall-man
1582 Practically it means that an attempt to supplement the dependencies
1583 of some target, as in
1585 clean: my-clean-rule
1587 will now *silently override* the automake definition of the
1588 rule for this target. Running `automake -Woverride' will diagnose
1589 all such overriding definitions.
1591 It should be noted that almost all these targets support a *-local
1592 variant that is meant to supplement the automake-defined rule
1593 (See node `Extending' in the manual). The above rule should
1596 clean-local: my-clean-rule
1598 These *-local targets have been documented since at least
1599 Automake 1.2, so you should not fear the change if you have
1600 to support multiple automake versions.
1604 - The Automake manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
1606 - Targets dist-gzip, dist-bzip2, dist-tarZ, dist-zip are always defined.
1608 - core dumps are no longer removed by the cleaning rules. There are
1609 at least three reasons for this:
1610 1. These files should not be created by any build step,
1611 so their removal do not fit any of the cleaning rules.
1612 Actually, they may be precious to the developer.
1613 2. If such file is created during a build, then it's clearly a
1614 bug Automake should not hide. Not removing the file will
1615 cause `make distcheck' to complain about its presence.
1616 3. Operating systems have different naming conventions for
1617 core dump files. A core file on one system might be a
1618 completely legitimate data file on another system.
1620 - RUNTESTFLAGS, CTAGSFLAGS, ETAGSFLAGS, JAVACFLAGS are no longer
1621 defined by Automake. This means that any definition in the
1622 environment will be used, unless overridden in the Makefile.am or
1623 on the command line. The old behavior, where these variables were
1624 defined empty in each Makefile, can be obtained by AC_SUBSTing or
1625 AC_ARG_VARing each variable from configure.ac.
1627 - CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES and CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES are now
1628 documented. (The is not a new feature, these variables have
1629 been there since at least Automake 1.4.)
1631 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1633 Bugs fixed in 1.7.9:
1634 * Fix install-strip to work with nobase_ binaries.
1635 * Fix renaming of #line directives in ylwrap.
1636 * Rebuild with Autoconf 2.59. (1.7.8 was not installable with pdksh.)
1638 Bugs fixed in 1.7.8:
1639 * Remove spurious blank lines in cleaning rules introduced in 1.7.7.
1640 * Fix detection of Debian's install-info, broken since version 1.5.
1641 (Debian bug #213524).
1642 * Honor -module if it appears in AM_LDFLAGS (i.e., relax name checking)
1643 This was only done for libfoo_LDFLAGS and LDFLAGS in previous versions.
1645 Bugs fixed in 1.7.7:
1646 * The implementation of automake's --no-force option is unreliable,
1647 so this option is ignored in this version. A real fix will appear in
1648 Automake 1.8. (Debian Bug #206299)
1649 * AM_PATH_PYTHON: really check the whole list of interpreters if no
1650 argument is given. (PR/399)
1651 * Do not warn about leading `_' in variable names, even with -Wportability.
1652 * Support user redefinitions of TEXINFO_TEX.
1653 * depcomp: support AIX Compiler version 6.
1654 * Fix missing rebuilds during `make dist' with BSD make.
1655 (Could produce tarballs containing out-of-date files.)
1656 * Resurrect multilib support.
1657 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1658 - Extending aclocal: how to write m4 macros that won't trigger warnings
1660 - A Shared Library: Rewrite and split into subsections.
1662 Bugs fixed in 1.7.6:
1663 * Fix depcomp's icc mode for ICC 7.1.
1664 * Diagnose calls to AC_CONFIG_FILES and friends with not enough arguments.
1665 * Fix maintainer-clean's removal of autom4te.cache in VPATH builds.
1666 * Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to work with POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
1667 * Fix the location reported in some diagnostics related to AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
1668 * Remove Latin-1 characters from elisp-comp.
1669 * Update the manual's @dircategory to match the Free Software Directory.
1671 Bugs fixed in 1.7.5:
1672 * Update install-sh's license to remove an advertising clause.
1673 (Debian bug #191717)
1674 * Fix a bug introduced in 1.7.4, related to BUILT_SOURCE handling,
1675 that caused invalid Makefile.ins to be generated.
1676 * Make sure AM_MAKE_INCLUDE doesn't fail when a `doit' file exists.
1677 * New FAQ entry: renamed objects.
1679 Bugs fixed in 1.7.4:
1680 * Tweak the TAGS rule to support Exuberant Ctags (in addition to
1681 the Emacs implementation)
1682 * Fix output of aclocal.m4 dependencies in subdirectories.
1683 * Use `mv -f' instead of `mv' in fastdep rules.
1684 * Upgrade mdate-sh to work on OS/2.
1685 * Don't byte-compile elisp files when ELCFILES is set empty.
1686 (this documented feature was broken by 1.7.3)
1687 * Diagnose trailing backslashes on last line of Makefile.am.
1688 * Diagnose whitespace following trailing backslashes.
1689 * Multiple tests are now correctly supported in DEJATOOL. (PR/388)
1690 * Fix rebuilt rules for AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.bot])
1692 * `make install' will build `BUILT_SOURCES' first.
1693 * Minor documentation fixes.
1695 Bugs fixed in 1.7.3:
1696 * Fix stamp files numbering (when using multiple AC_CONFIG_HEADERS).
1697 * Query distutils for `pythondir' and `pythonexecdir', instead of
1698 using an hardcoded path. This should allow builds on 64-bit
1699 distributions that usually use lib64/ instead of lib/.
1700 * AM_PATH_PYTHON will also search for python2.3.
1701 * elisp files are now built all at once instead of one by one. Besides
1702 incurring a speed-up, this is required to support interdependent elisp files.
1703 * Support for DJGPP:
1704 - `make distcheck' will now work in `_inst/' and `_build' instead
1705 of `=inst/' and `=build/'
1706 - use `_dirstamp' when the file-system doesn't support `.dirstamp'
1707 - install/uninstall `*.i[0-9][0-9]'-style info files
1708 - more changes that affect only the Automake package (not its output)
1709 * Fix some incompatibilities with upcoming perl-5.10.
1710 * Properly quote AC_PACKAGE_TARNAME and AC_PACKAGE_VERSION when defining
1711 PACKAGE and VERSION.
1713 - dashmstdout and dashXmstdout modes: don't use `-o /dev/null', this
1714 is troublesome with gcc and Solaris compilers. (PR/385)
1715 - makedepend mode: work with Libtool. (PR/385 too)
1717 * better support for unusual gettext setups, such as multiple po/ directories
1719 - Flag missing po/ and intl/ directories as warnings, not errors.
1720 - Disable these warnings if po/ does not exist.
1721 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1723 - Document how AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR interacts with missing files.
1725 - Document `AM_YFLAGS = -d'. (PR/382)
1727 Bugs fixed in 1.7.2:
1728 * Fix installation and uninstallation of Info files built in subdirectories.
1729 * Do not run `./configure --with-included-gettext' during `make distcheck'
1730 if AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) is used.
1731 * Correctly uninstall renamed man pages.
1732 * Do not strip escaped newline in variables defined in one condition
1733 and augmented in another condition.
1734 * Fix ansi2knr rules for LIBOBJS sources.
1735 * Clean all known Texinfo index files, not only those which appear to
1736 be used, because we cannot know which indexes are used in included files.
1737 (PR/375, Debian Bug #168671)
1738 * Honor only the first @setfilename seen in a Texinfo file.
1739 * Treat "required file X not found" diagnostics as errors (exit status 1).
1740 * Don't complain that a required file is not found when it is a Makefile
1742 * Don't use single suffix inference rules when building `.info'-less
1743 Info files, for the sake of Solaris make.
1744 * The `check' target now depends on `$(BUILT_SOURCES)'. (PR/359)
1745 * Recognize multiple inference rules such as `.a.b .c.d:'. (PR/371)
1746 * Warn about multiple inference rules when -Wportability is used. (PR/372)
1747 * Fix building of deansified files from subdirectories. (PR/370)
1748 * Add missing `fi' in the .c->.obj rules.
1749 * Improve install-sh to work even when names contain spaces or certain
1750 (but not all) shell metachars.
1751 * Fix the following spurious failures in the test suite:
1752 depcomp2.test, gnits2.test, gnits3.test, python3.test, texinfo13.test
1753 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1754 - Augment the section about BUILT_SOURCES.
1755 - Mention that AM_PROG_CC_STDC is a relic that is better avoided today.
1757 Bugs fixed in 1.7.1:
1758 * Honor `ansi2knr' for files built in subdirectories, or using per-targets
1760 * Aclocal should now recognize macro names containing parentheses, e.g.
1761 AC_DEFUN([AC_LANG_PREPROC(Fortran 90)], [...]).
1762 * Erase *.sum and *.log files created by DejaGnu, during `make distclean'.
1764 * Install Python files even if they were built. (PR/369)
1765 * Have stamp-vti dependent upon configure instead of configure.ac, as the
1766 version might not be defined in the latter. (PR/358)
1767 * Reorder arguments passed to a couple of commands, so things works
1768 when POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
1769 * Fix a regex that can cause Perl to segfault on large input.
1771 * Fix distribution of packages that have some sources defined conditionally,
1772 as in the `Conditional compilation using Automake conditionals' example
1774 * Fix spurious test suite failures on IRIX.
1775 * Don't report a required variable as undefined if it has been
1776 defined conditionally for the "right" conditions.
1777 * Fix cleaning of the /tmp subdirectory used by `make distcheck', in case
1778 `make distcheck' fails.
1779 * Fix distribution of included Makefile fragment, so we don't create
1780 spurious directories in the distribution. (PR/366)
1781 * Don't complain that a target lacks `.$(EXEEXT)' when it has it.
1784 * Autoconf 2.54 is required.
1785 * `aclocal' and `automake' will no longer warn about obsolete
1786 configure macros. This is done by `autoconf -Wobsolete'.
1787 * AM_CONFIG_HEADER, AM_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS and
1788 AM_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ_NEEDS_SYS_IOCTL are obsolete (although still
1789 supported). You should use AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS,
1790 and AC_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ instead. `autoupdate' can upgrade
1791 `configure.ac' for you.
1792 * Support for per-program and per-library `_CPPFLAGS'.
1793 * New `ctags' target (builds CTAGS files).
1794 * Support for -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble, where mumble is a warning category
1795 (see `automake --help' or the manual for a list of them).
1796 * Honor the WARNINGS environment variable.
1797 * Omit the call to depcomp when using gcc3: call the compiler directly.
1798 * A new option, std-options, tests that programs support --help and --version
1799 when `make installcheck' is run. This is enabled by --gnits.
1800 * Texinfo rules now support the `ps' and `pdf' targets.
1801 * Info files are now created in the build directory, not the source directory.
1802 * info_TEXINFOS supports files in subdirectories (this requires Texinfo 4.1
1804 * `make distcheck' will enforce DESTDIR support by attempting
1806 * `+=' can be used in conditionals, even if the augmented variable
1807 was defined for another condition.
1808 * Makefile fragments (inserted with `include') are always distributed.
1809 * Use Autoconf's --trace interface to inspect configure.ac and get
1810 a more accurate view of it.
1811 * Add support for extending aclocal's default macro search path
1812 using a `dirlist' file within the aclocal directory.
1813 * automake --output-dir is deprecated.
1814 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether uninstall actually
1815 removes all installed files has been moved in a separate target,
1816 distuninstallcheck, so it can be overridden easily.
1820 * Support for AM_INIT_GETTEXT([external])
1821 * Bug fixes, including:
1822 - Fix Automake's own `make install' so it works even if `ln' doesn't.
1823 - nobase_ programs and scripts honor --program-transform correctly.
1824 - Erase configure.lineno during `make distclean'.
1825 - Erase YACC and LEX outputs during `make maintainer-clean'.
1828 * Many bug fixes, including:
1829 - Requiring the current version works.
1830 - Fix "$@" portability issues (for Zsh).
1831 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
1833 - Don't compute dependencies in background to avoid races with libtool.
1834 - Fix handling of _OBJECTS variables for targets sharing source variables.
1835 - Check dependency mode for Java when AM_PROG_GCJ is used.
1838 * automake --output-dir is deprecated
1839 * Many bug fixes, including:
1840 - Don't choke on AM_LDFLAGS definitions.
1841 - Clean libtool objects from subdirectories.
1842 - Allow configure variables with reserved suffix and unknown prefix
1843 (e.g. AC_SUBST(mumble_LDFLAGS) when 'mumble' is not a target).
1844 - Fix the definition of AUTOMAKE and ACLOCAL in configure.
1847 * Autoconf 2.52 is required.
1848 * automake no longer run libtoolize.
1849 This is the job of autoreconf (from GNU Autoconf).
1850 * `dist' generates all the archive flavors, as did `dist-all'.
1851 * `dist-gzip' generates the Gzip tar file only.
1852 * Combining Automake Makefile conditionals no longer lead to a combinatorial
1853 explosion. Makefile.in's keep a reasonable size.
1854 * AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_STRTOD, AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, AM_PTRDIFF_T
1855 are no longer shipped, since Autoconf 2.52 provides them (both as AM_
1857 * `#line' of Lex and Yacc files are properly set.
1858 * EXTRA_DIST can contain generated directories.
1859 * Support for dot-less extensions in suffix rules.
1860 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether distclean actually
1861 cleans all built files has been moved in a separate target, distcleancheck,
1862 so it can be overridden easily.
1863 * `make distcheck' will pass additional options defined in
1864 $(DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS) to configure.
1865 * Fixed CDPATH portability problems, in particular for MacOS X.
1866 * Fixed handling of nobase_ targets.
1867 * Fixed support of implicit rules leading to .lo objects.
1868 * Fixed late inclusion of --add-missing files (e.g. depcomp) in DIST_COMMON
1869 * Added uninstall-hook target
1870 * `AC_INIT AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(tarname,version)' is an obsolete construct.
1871 You can now use `AC_INIT(pkgname,version) AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE' instead.
1872 (Note that "pkgname" is not "tarname", see the manual for details.)
1873 It is also possible to pass a list of global Automake options as
1874 first argument to this new form of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.
1875 * Compiler-based assembler is now called `CCAS'; people expected `AS'
1876 to be a real assembler.
1877 * AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE will set STRIP itself when it needs it. Adding
1878 AC_CHECK_TOOL([STRIP], [strip]) manually is no longer required.
1879 * aclocal and automake are also installed with the version number
1880 appended, and some of the install directory names have changed.
1881 This lets you have multiple versions installed simultaneously.
1882 * Support for parsers and lexers in subdirectories.
1885 * Support for `configure.ac'.
1886 * Support for `else COND', `endif COND' and negated conditions `!COND'.
1887 * `make dist-all' is much faster.
1888 * Allows '@' AC_SUBSTs in macro names.
1889 * Faster AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE (requires update of `missing' script)
1890 * User-side dependency tracking. Developers no longer need GNU make
1892 * Uses DIST_SUBDIRS in some situations when SUBDIRS is conditional
1893 * Most files are correctly handled if they appear in subdirs
1894 For instance, a _DATA file can appear in a subdir
1895 * GNU tar is no longer required for `make dist'
1896 * Added support for `dist_' and `nodist_' prefixes
1897 * Added support for `nobase_' prefix
1898 * Compiled Java support
1899 * Support for per-executable and per-library compilation flags
1903 * Added support for the Fortran 77 programming language.
1904 * Re-indexed the Automake Texinfo manual.
1905 * Added `AM_FOOFLAGS' variable for each compiler invocation;
1906 e.g. AM_CFLAGS can be used in Makefile.am to set C compiler flags
1907 * Support for latest autoconf, including support for objext
1908 * Can now put `.' in SUBDIRS to control build order
1909 * `include' command and `+=' support for macro assignment
1910 * Dependency tracking no long susceptible to deleted header file problem
1911 * Maintainer mode now a conditional. @MAINT@ is now an anachronism.
1916 * Better Cygwin32 support
1917 * Support for suffix rules with _SOURCES variables
1918 * New options `readme-alpha' and `check-news'; Gnits mode sets these
1919 * @LEXLIB@ no longer required when lex source seen
1920 Lex support in `missing', and new lex macro. Update your missing script.
1921 * Built-in support for assembly
1922 * aclocal gives error if `AM_' macro not found
1923 * Passed YFLAGS, not YACCFLAGS, to yacc
1924 * AM_PROG_CC_STDC does not have to come before AC_PROG_CPP
1925 * Dependencies computed as a side effect of compilation
1926 * Preliminary support for Java
1927 * DESTDIR support at "make install" time
1928 * Improved ansi2knr support; you must use the latest ansi2knr.c (included)
1932 * Better DejaGnu support
1933 * Added no-installinfo option
1934 * Added Emacs Lisp support
1935 * Added --no-force option
1936 * Included `aclocal' program
1937 * Automake will now generate rules to regenerate aclocal.m4, if appropriate
1938 * Now uses `AM_' macro names everywhere
1939 * ansi2knr option can have directory prefix (eg `../lib/ansi2knr')
1940 ansi2knr now works correctly on K&R sources
1941 * Better C++, yacc, lex support
1942 * Will compute _DEPENDENCIES variables automatically if not supplied
1943 * Will interpolate $(...) and ${...} when examining contents of a variable
1944 * .deps files now in build directory, not source directory; dependency
1945 handling generally rewritten
1946 * DATA, MANS and BUILT_SOURCES no longer included in distribution
1947 * can now put config.h into a subdir
1948 * Added dist-all target
1949 * Support for install-info program (see texinfo 3.9)
1950 * Support for "yacc -d"
1951 * configure substitutions are automatically discovered and included
1952 in generated Makefile.in
1953 * Special --cygnus mode
1954 * OMIT_DEPENDENCIES can now hold list of dependencies to be omitted
1955 when making distribution. Some dependencies are auto-ignored.
1956 * Changed how libraries are specified in _LIBRARIES variable
1957 * Full libtool support, from Gord Matzigkeit
1958 * No longer have to explicitly touch stamp-h when using AC_CONFIG_HEADER;
1959 AM_CONFIG_HEADER handles it automatically
1960 * Texinfo output files no longer need .info extension
1961 * Added `missing' support
1963 * Conditionals in Makefile.am, from Ian Taylor
1967 * distcheck target runs install and installcheck targets
1968 * Added preliminary support for DejaGnu.
1973 * More libtool fixes from Gord Matzigkeit; libtool support is still
1975 * Added support for jm_MAINTAINER_MODE
1977 * New "distcheck" target
1981 * mkinstalldirs and mdate-sh now appear in directory specified by
1983 * Removed DIST_SUBDIRS, DIST_OTHER
1984 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM only required when an actual program exists
1985 * dist-hook target now run before distribution packaged up; idea from
1986 Dieter Baron. Other hooks exist, too.
1987 * Preliminary (unfinished) support for libtool
1988 * Added short option names.
1989 * Better "dist" support when gluing together multiple packages
1993 * Documentation updates (many from François Pinard)
1994 * strictness `normal' now renamed to `foreign'
1995 * Renamed --install-missing to --add-missing
1996 * Now handles AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
1997 * Now handles TESTS macro
1998 * DIST_OTHER renamed to EXTRA_DIST
1999 * DIST_SUBDIRS is deprecated
2000 * @ALLOCA@ and @LIBOBJS@ now work in _LDADD variables
2001 * Better error messages in many cases
2002 * Program names are canonicalized
2003 * Added "check" prefix; from Gord Matzigkeit
2007 * configure.in scanner knows about AC_PATH_XTRA, AC_OUTPUT ":" syntax
2008 * Beginnings of a test suite
2009 * Automatically adds -I options for $(srcdir), ".", and path to config.h
2010 * Doesn't print anything when running
2011 * Beginnings of MAINT_CHARSET support
2012 * Can specify version in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS
2013 * Most errors recognizable by Emacs' M-x next-error
2014 * Added --verbose option
2015 * All "primary" variables now obsolete; use EXTRA_PRIMARY to supply
2016 configure-generated names
2017 * Required macros now distributed in aclocal.m4
2019 * --strictness=gnu is default
2023 * More sophisticated configure.in scanning; now understands ALLOCA and
2024 LIBOBJS directly, handles AC_CONFIG_HEADER more precisely, etc.
2025 * TEXINFOS and MANS now obsolete; use info_TEXINFOS and man_MANS instead.
2026 * CONFIG_HEADER variable now obsolete
2027 * Can handle multiple Texinfo sources
2028 * Allow hierarchies deeper than 2. From Gord Matzigkeit.
2029 * HEADERS variable no longer needed; now can put .h files directly into
2030 foo_SOURCES variable.
2031 * Automake automatically rebuilds files listed in AC_OUTPUT. The
2032 corresponding ".in" files are included in the distribution.
2035 * Added --gnu and --gnits options
2036 * More standards checking
2038 * Cleaned up 'dist' targets
2039 * Added AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS variable and several options
2040 * Now scans configure.in to get some information (preliminary)
2043 * Works with Perl 4 again
2046 * Added --install-missing option.
2047 * Pretty-prints generated macros and rules
2048 * Comments in Makefile.am are placed more intelligently in Makefile.in
2049 * Generates .PHONY target
2050 * Rule or macro in Makefile.am now overrides contents of Automake file
2051 * Substantial cleanups from François Pinard
2055 * Works with Perl 4 again.
2058 * New uniform naming scheme.
2059 * --strictness option
2061 * '.c' files corresponding to '.y' or '.l' files are automatically
2063 * Many bug fixes and cleanups
2066 * Allow objects to be conditionally included in libraries via lib_LIBADD.
2069 * Bug fixes in 'clean' code.
2070 * Now generates 'installdirs' target.
2071 * man page installation reworked.
2072 * 'make dist' no longer re-creates all Makefile.in's.
2075 * Reimplemented in Perl
2076 * Added --amdir option (for debugging)
2077 * Texinfo support cleaned up.
2078 * Automatic de-ANSI-fication cleaned up.
2079 * Cleaned up 'clean' targets.
2082 * Automatic dependency tracking
2083 * More documentation
2084 * New variables DATA and PACKAGEDATA
2085 * SCRIPTS installed using $(INSTALL_SCRIPT)
2086 * No longer uses double-colon rules
2088 * Changes in advance of internationalization
2092 Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2094 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
2095 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2096 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
2099 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2100 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2101 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2102 GNU General Public License for more details.
2104 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2105 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.