3 * Version requirements:
5 - Autoconf 2.65 or greater is required.
7 - The rules to build PDF and DVI output from Texinfo input now
8 requires Texinfo 4.9 or later.
10 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (once enabled by the 'cygnus'
11 option) has been removed. See discussion about automake bug#11034
14 - The automake-provided '@mkdir_p@' configure substitution and
15 AM_PROG_MKDIR m4 macro have been removed. They had been obsolete
16 since automake 1.10, and actively deprecated since Automake 1.12.1.
17 However, to maintain a degree of backward-compatibility, the make
18 variable '$(mkdir_p)' is still defined (now simple as an alias to
19 '$(MKDIR_P)'). It will probably be removed in future major versions
20 of Automake (probably 1.14).
22 - The deprecated aclocal option '--acdir' has been removed. You
23 should use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir'
24 instead (which have been introduced in Automake 1.11.2).
26 - The following long-obsolete m4 macros have been removed:
28 AM_PROG_CC_STDC: superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002
29 fp_PROG_CC_STDC: broken alias for AM_PROG_CC_STDC
30 fp_WITH_DMALLOC: old alias for AM_WITH_DMALLOC
31 AM_CONFIG_HEADER: superseded by AC_CONFIG_HEADERS since July 2002
32 ud_PATH_LISPDIR: old alias for AM_PATH_LISPDIR
33 jm_MAINTAINER_MODE: old alias for AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
34 ud_GNU_GETTEXT: old alias for AM_GNU_GETTEXT
35 gm_PROG_LIBTOOL: old alias for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
36 fp_C_PROTOTYPES: old alias for AM_C_PROTOTYPES (which was part
37 of the now-removed automatic de-ANSI-fication
40 - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' have been removed.
42 * Obsolescent features:
44 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
45 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is not documented anymore. It's still
46 supported though (albeit with a warning in the 'obsolete' category),
47 to cater for people who want to define the version number for their
48 package dynamically (e.g., from the current VCS revision). We'll
49 have to continue this support until Autoconf itself is fixed to allow
50 better support for such dynamic version numbers.
52 * Elisp byte-compilation:
54 - The byte compilation of '.el' files into '.elc' files is now done
55 with a suffix rule. This has simplified the compilation process, and
56 more importantly made it less brittle. The downside is that emacs is
57 now invoked once for each '.el' files, which cause some noticeable
58 slowdowns. These should however be mitigated on multicore machines
59 (which are becoming the norm today) if concurrent make ("make -j")
62 - Elisp files placed in a subdirectory are now byte-compiled to '.elc'
63 files in the same subdirectory; for example, byte-compiling of file
64 'sub/foo.el' file will result in 'sub/foo.elc' rather than in
65 'foo.elc'. This behaviour is backward-incompatible with older
66 Automake versions, but it is more natural and more sane. See also
69 - The Emacs invocation performing byte-compilation of '.el' files honors
70 the $(AM_ELCFLAGS) and $(ELCFLAGS) variables; as typical, the former
71 one is developer-reserved and the latter one user-reserved.
73 - The 'elisp-comp' script, once provided by Automake, has been rendered
74 obsoleted by the just-described changes, and thus removed.
76 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
78 - The parallel testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the
79 'parallel-tests' option) is the default one; the older serial
80 testsuite harness will still be available through the use of the
81 'serial-tests' option (introduced in Automake 1.12).
83 - The 'color-tests' option is now unconditionally activated by default.
84 In particular, this means that testsuite output is now colorized by
85 default if the attached terminal seems to support ANSI escapes, and
86 that the user can force output colorization by setting the variable
87 AM_COLOR_TESTS to "always". The 'color-tests' is still recognized
88 for backward-compatibility, although it's a handled as a no-op now.
90 * Silent rules support:
92 - Support for silent rules is now always active in Automake-generated
93 Makefiles. So, although the verbose output is still the default,
94 the user can now always use "./configure --enable-silent-rules" or
95 "make V=0" to enable quieter output in the package he's building.
97 - The 'silent-rules' option has now become a no-op, preserved for
98 backward-compatibility only. In particular, its use does not disable
99 the warnings in the 'portability-recursive' category anymore.
103 - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now use the
104 '--build-dir' option, to keep the auxiliary files used by texi2dvi
105 and texi2pdf around without cluttering the build directory, and to
106 make it possible to run the "dvi" and "pdf" recipes in parallel.
108 * Automatic remake rules and 'missing' script:
110 - The 'missing' script does not try anymore to update the timestamp
111 of out-of-date files that require a maintainer-specific tool to be
112 remade, in case the user lacks such a tool (or has a too-old version
113 of it). It just give a useful warning, and in some cases also a tip
114 about how to obtain such a tool.
116 - The missing script has thus become useless as a (poor) way to work
117 around the sketched-timestamps issues that can happen for projects
118 that keep generated files committed in their VCS repository. Such
119 projects are now encouraged to write a custom "fix-timestamps.sh"
120 script to avoid such issues; a simple example is provided in the
121 "CVS and generated files" chapter of the automake manual.
125 - The user can now define his own recursive targets that recurse
126 in the directories specified in $(SUBDIRS). This can be done by
127 specifying the name of such targets in invocations of the new
128 'AM_EXTRA_RECURSIVE_TARGETS' m4 macro.
130 - Any failure in the recipe of the "tags", "ctags", "cscope" or
131 "cscopelist" targets in a subdirectory is now propagated to the
132 top-level make invocation.
134 * Improvements to aclocal and related rebuilds rules:
136 - The Autoconf-provided macro AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR is now traced by
137 aclocal, and can be used to declare the local m4 include directory.
138 Formerly, one had to specify it with an explicit '-I' option to the
139 'aclocal' invocation.
141 - The special make variable ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS is deprecated; future
142 Automake versions will warn about its use, and later version will
143 remove support for it altogether.
145 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
149 * WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
151 - Future versions of Automake will likely drop support for the
152 long-deprecated 'configure.in' name for the Autoconf input file.
153 You are advised to use the recommended name 'configure.ac' instead.
155 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (as enabled by the 'cygnus'
156 option) will be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13).
158 - The long-obsolete (since automake 1.10) AM_PROG_MKDIR m4 macro will
159 be removed in Automake 1.13. The $(mkdir_p) make variable and the
160 @mkdir_p@ substitution will still remain available (as aliases of
161 $(MKDIR_P)) for the moment, for better backward compatibility.
163 - Autoconf 2.65 or later will be required by the next major Automake
164 version (1.13). Until now, Automake has required Autoconf version
167 - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the rules
168 to build pdf, ps and dvi output from Texinfo input will use the
169 '--build-dir' option by default. Since such an option was only
170 introduced in Texinfo 4.9, this means that Makefiles generated by
171 future Automake versions will require at least that version of
174 - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the parallel
175 testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the 'parallel-tests'
176 option) will become the default one; the older serial testsuite
177 harness will still be available through the use of the 'serial-tests'
180 - The following long-obsolete m4 macros will be removed in the
181 next major Automake version (1.13):
183 AM_PROG_CC_STDC: superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002
184 fp_PROG_CC_STDC: broken alias for AM_PROG_CC_STDC
185 fp_WITH_DMALLOC: old alias for AM_WITH_DMALLOC
186 AM_CONFIG_HEADER: superseded by AC_CONFIG_HEADERS since July 2002
187 ud_PATH_LISPDIR: old alias for AM_PATH_LISPDIR
188 jm_MAINTAINER_MODE: old alias for AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
189 ud_GNU_GETTEXT: old alias for AM_GNU_GETTEXT
190 gm_PROG_LIBTOOL: old alias for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
191 fp_C_PROTOTYPES: old alias for AM_C_PROTOTYPES (which was part
192 of the now-removed automatic de-ANSI-fication
195 - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' will be removed in
196 the next major Automake version (1.13).
198 - The '--acdir' option of aclocal is deprecated, and will probably
199 be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13). You should
200 use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir' instead
201 (which have been introduced in Automake 1.11.2).
203 - The 'missing' script will not try anymore to update the timestamp
204 of out-of-date files that require a maintainer-specific tool to be
205 remade, in case the user lacks such a tool (or has a too-old version
206 of it). In fact, starting from Automake 1.13, all it'll do will be
207 giving more useful warnings than a bare "command not found" from a
210 * Warnings and deprecations:
212 - Warnings in the 'obsolete' category are enabled by default both in
213 automake and aclocal.
215 * Miscellaneous changes:
217 - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
219 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
223 * Miscellaneous changes:
225 - The '.m4' files provided by Automake does not define serial numbers
226 anymore. This should cause no difference in the behaviour of aclocal
229 - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
231 - There is initial support for automatic dependency tracking with the
232 Portland Group C/C++ compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'pgcc'.
234 Bugs fixed in 1.12.3:
236 * Long-standing bugs:
238 - Instead of renaming only self-references of files (typically for
239 #lines), ylwrap now also renames references to the other generated
240 files. This fixes support for GLR and C++ parsers from Bison (PR
241 automake/491 and automake bug#7648): 'parser.c' now properly
242 #includes 'parser.h' instead of 'y.tab.h'.
244 - Generated files unknown to ylwrap are now preserved. This fixes
245 C++ support for Bison (automake bug#7648): location.hh and the
246 like are no longer discarded.
248 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
252 * Warnings and deprecations:
254 - Automake now issues a warning (in the 'portability' category) if
255 'configure.in' is used instead of 'configure.ac' as the Autoconf
256 input file. Such a warning will also be present in the next
257 Autoconf version (2.70).
261 - Recursive cleaning rules descends into the $(SUBDIRS) in the natural
262 order (as done by the other recursive rules), rather than in the
263 inverse order. They used to do that in order to work a round a
264 limitation in an older implementation of the automatic dependency
265 tracking support, but that limitation had been lifted years ago
266 already, when the automatic dependency tracking based on side-effects
267 of compilation had been introduced.
269 - Cleaning rules for compiled objects (both "plain" and libtool) work
270 better when subdir objects are involved, not triggering a distinct
271 'rm' invocation for each such object. They do so by removing *any*
272 compiled object file that is in the same directory of a subdir
273 object. See automake bug#10697.
275 * Silent rules support:
277 - A new predefined $(AM_V_P) make variable is provided; it expands
278 to a shell conditional that can be used in recipes to know whether
279 make is being run in silent or verbose mode.
281 Bugs fixed in 1.12.2:
283 * SECURITY VULNERABILITIES!
285 - The 'distcheck' recipe no longer grants temporary world-write
286 permissions on the extracted distdir. Even if such rights were
287 only granted for a vanishingly small time window, the implied
288 race condition proved to be enough to allow a local attacker
289 to run arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running
290 "make distcheck". This is CVE-2012-3386.
292 * Long-standing bugs:
294 - The "recheck" targets behaves better in the face of build failures
295 related to previously failed tests. For example, if a test is a
296 compiled program that must be rerun by "make recheck", and its
297 compilation fails, it will still be rerun by further "make recheck"
298 invocations. See automake bug#11791.
300 * Bugs introduced by 1.12.1:
302 - Automake provides once again the '$(mkdir_p)' make variable and the
303 '@mkdir_p@' substitution (both as simple aliases for '$(MKDIR_P)'),
304 for better backward-compatibility.
306 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
310 * New supported languages:
312 - Support for Objective C++ has been added; it should work similarly to
313 the support for Objective C.
315 * Deprecated obsolescent features:
317 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
318 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro now elicits a warning in the 'obsolete'
319 category. Starting from some future major Automake release (likely
320 post-1.13), such usages won't be allowed anymore.
322 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (enabled by the 'cygnus' option) is
323 now deprecated (its use triggers a warning in the 'obsolete' category).
324 It will be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13).
326 - The long-obsolete (since 1.10) automake-provided $(mkdir_p) make
327 variable, @mkdir_p@ configure-time substitution and AM_PROG_MKDIR
328 m4 macro are deprecated, eliciting a warning in the 'obsolete'
331 * Miscellaneous changes:
333 - The Automake test cases now require a proper POSIX-conforming shell.
334 Older non-POSIX Bourne shells (like Solaris 10 /bin/sh) won't be
335 accepted anymore. In most cases, the user shouldn't have to specify
336 such POSIX shell explicitly, since it will be looked up at configure
337 time. Still, when this lookup fails, or when the user wants to
338 override its conclusion, the variable 'AM_TEST_RUNNER_SHELL' can be
339 used (pointing to the shell that will be used to run the Automake
342 Bugs fixed in 1.12.1:
344 * Bugs introduced by 1.12:
346 - Several weaknesses in Automake's own build system and test suite
349 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
351 - When given non-option arguments, aclocal rejects them, instead of
352 silently ignoring them.
354 * Long-standing bugs:
356 - When the 'color-tests' option is in use, forcing of colored testsuite
357 output through "AM_COLOR_TESTS=always" works even if the terminal is
358 a non-ANSI one, i.e., if the TERM environment variable has a value of
361 - Several inefficiencies and poor performances in the implementation
362 of the parallel-tests 'check' and 'recheck' targets have been fixed.
364 - The post-processing of output "#line" directives done the ylwrap
365 script is more faithful w.r.t. files in a subdirectory; for example,
366 if the processed file is "src/grammar.y", ylwrap will correctly
367 produce directives like:
368 #line 7 "src/grammar.y"
373 * Bugs with new Perl versions:
375 - Aclocal works correctly with perl 5.16.0 (automake bug#11543).
377 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
381 * Obsolete features removed:
383 - The never documented nor truly used script 'acinstall' has been
386 - Support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been removed.
388 - The support for the "obscure" multilib feature has been removed
389 from Automake core (but remains available in the 'contrib/'
390 directory of the Automake distribution).
392 - Support for ".log -> .html" conversion and the check-html and
393 recheck-html targets has been removed from Automake core (but
394 remains available in the 'contrib/' directory of the Automake
397 - The deprecated 'lzma' compression format for distribution archives
398 has been removed, in favor of 'xz' and 'lzip'.
400 - The obsolete AM_WITH_REGEX macro has been removed.
402 - The long-deprecated options '--output-dir', '--Werror' and
403 '--Wno-error' have been removed.
405 - The chapter on the history of Automake has been moved out of the
406 reference manual, into a new dedicated Texinfo file.
410 - New 'cscope' target to build a cscope database for the source tree.
412 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
414 - The new automake option 'serial-tests' has been introduced. It can
415 be used to explicitly instruct automake to use the older serial
416 testsuite harness. This is still the default at the moment, but it
417 might change in future versions.
419 - The 'recheck' target (provided by the parallel testsuite harness) now
420 depends on the 'all' target. This allows for a better user-experience
421 in test-driven development. See automake bug#11252.
423 - Test scripts that exit with status 99 to signal an "hard error" (e.g.,
424 and unexpected or internal error, or a failure to set up the test case
425 scenario) have their outcome reported as an 'ERROR' now. Previous
426 versions of automake reported such an outcome as a 'FAIL' (the only
427 difference with normal failures being that hard errors were counted
428 as failures even when the test originating them was listed in
431 - The testsuite summary displayed by the parallel-test harness has a
432 completely new format, that always list the numbers of passed, failed,
433 xfailed, xpassed, skipped and errored tests, even when these numbers
434 are zero (but using smart coloring when the color-tests option is in
437 - The default testsuite driver offered by the 'parallel-tests' option is
438 now implemented (partly at least) with the help of automake-provided
439 auxiliary scripts (e.g., 'test-driver'), instead of relying entirely
440 on code in the generated Makefile.in.
441 This has two noteworthy implications. The first one is that projects
442 using the 'parallel-tests' option should now either run automake with
443 the '--add-missing' option, or manually copy the 'test-driver' script
444 into their tree. The second, and more important, implication is that
445 now, when the 'parallel-tests' option is in use, TESTS_ENVIRONMENT can
446 not be used anymore to define a test runner, and the command specified
447 in LOG_COMPILER (and <ext>_LOG_COMPILER) must be a *real* executable
448 program or script. For example, this is still a valid usage (albeit
451 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
452 if test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS)'; then \
453 maybe_errexit='-e'; \
457 LOG_COMPILER = $(SHELL) $$maybe_errexit
459 while this is not anymore:
461 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
462 $(SHELL) `test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS_CHECKING)' && echo ' -e'`
466 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
467 run_with_perl_or_shell () \
469 if grep -q '^#!.*perl' $$1; then
475 LOG_COMPILER = run_with_perl_or_shell
477 - The package authors can now use customary testsuite drivers within
478 the framework provided by the 'parallel-tests' testsuite harness.
479 Consistently with the existing syntax, this can be done by defining
480 special makefile variables 'LOG_DRIVER' and '<ext>_LOG_DRIVER'.
482 - A new developer-reserved variable 'AM_TESTS_FD_REDIRECT' can be used
483 to redirect/define file descriptors used by the test scripts.
485 - The parallel-tests harness generates now, in addition the '.log' files
486 holding the output produced by the test scripts, a new set of '.trs'
487 files, holding "metadata" derived by the execution of the test scripts;
488 among such metadata are the outcomes of the test cases run by a script.
490 - Initial and still experimental support for the TAP test protocol is
493 * Changes to Yacc and Lex support:
495 - C source and header files derived from non-distributed Yacc and/or
496 Lex sources are now removed by a simple "make clean" (while they were
497 previously removed only by "make maintainer-clean").
499 - Slightly backward-incompatible change, relevant only for use of Yacc
500 with C++: the extensions of the header files produced by the Yacc
501 rules are now modelled after the extension of the corresponding
502 sources. For example, yacc files named "foo.y++" and "bar.yy" will
503 produce header files named "foo.h++" and "bar.hh" respectively, where
504 they would have previously produced header files named simply "foo.h"
505 and "bar.h". This change offers better compatibility with 'bison -o'.
507 * Miscellaneous changes:
509 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro now causes configure to exit with status 77,
510 rather than 1, if the vala compiler found is too old.
512 - The build system of Automake itself now avoids the use of make
513 recursion as much as possible.
515 - Automake now prefers to quote 'like this' or "like this", rather
516 than `like this', in diagnostic message and generated Makefiles,
517 to accommodate the new GNU Coding Standards recommendations.
519 - Automake has a new option '--print-libdir' that prints the path of the
520 directory containing the Automake-provided scripts and data files.
522 - The 'dist' and 'dist-all' targets now can run compressors in parallel.
524 - The rules to create pdf, dvi and ps output from Texinfo files now
525 works better with modern 'texi2dvi' script, by explicitly passing
526 it the '--clean' option to ensure stray auxiliary files are not
527 left to clutter the build directory.
529 - Automake can now generate silenced rules for texinfo outputs.
531 - Some auxiliary files that are automatically distributed by Automake
532 (e.g., 'install-sh', or the 'depcomp' script for packages compiling
533 C sources) might now be listed in the DIST_COMMON variable in many
534 Makefile.in files, rather than in the top-level one.
536 - Messages of types warning or error from 'automake' and 'aclocal'
537 are now prefixed with the respective type, and presence of -Werror
540 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now tries to avoid
541 sleeping for a second, which slowed down cached configure runs
542 noticeably. In that case, it will check back at the end of the
543 configure script to ensure that at least one second has passed, to
544 avoid time stamp issues with makefile rules rerunning autotools
547 - The warnings in the category 'extra-portability' are now enabled by
548 '-Wall'. In previous versions, one has to use '-Wextra-portability'
553 - Various minor bugfixes for recent or long-standing bugs.
555 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
557 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
558 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
560 - The automake-provided parallel testsuite harness does not fail anymore
561 with BSD make used in parallel mode when there are test scripts in a
562 subdirectory, like in:
564 TESTS = sub/foo.test sub/bar.test
566 * Long-standing bugs:
568 - Automake's own build system finally have a real "installcheck" target.
570 - Vala-related cleanup rules are now more complete, and work better in
573 - Files listed with the AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE macro in configure.ac are
574 now automatically distributed also if the directory of the auxiliary
575 files coincides with the top-level directory.
577 - Automake now detects the presence of the '-d' flag in the various
578 '*YFLAGS' variables even when their definitions involve indirections
579 through other variables, such as in:
581 AM_YFLAGS = $(foo_opts)
583 - Automake now complains if a '*YFLAGS' variable has any conditional
584 content, not only a conditional definition.
586 - Explicit enabling and/or disabling of Automake warning categories
587 through the '-W...' options now always takes precedence over the
588 implicit warning level implied by Automake strictness (foreign, gnu
589 or gnits), regardless of the order in which such strictness and
590 warning flags appear. For example, a setting like:
591 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = -Wall --foreign
592 will cause the warnings in category 'portability' to be enabled, even
593 if those warnings are by default disabled in 'foreign' strictness.
595 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
597 Bugs fixed in 1.11.5:
599 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
601 - Vala files with '.vapi' extension are now recognized and handled
602 correctly again. See automake bug#11222.
604 - Vala support work again for projects that contain some program
605 built from '.vala' (and possibly '.c') sources and some other
606 program built from '.c' sources *only*. See automake bug#11229.
608 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
612 * Miscellaneous changes:
614 - The 'ar-lib' script now ignores the "s" (symbol index) and "S" (no
615 symbol index) modifiers as well as the "s" action, as the symbol index
616 is created unconditionally by Microsoft lib. Also, the "q" (quick)
617 action is now a synonym for "r" (replace). Also, the script has been
618 ignoring the "v" (verbose) modifier already since Automake 1.11.3.
620 - When the 'compile' script is used to wrap MSVC, it now accepts an
621 optional space between the -I, -L and -l options and their respective
622 arguments, for better POSIX compliance.
624 - There is an initial, experimental support for automatic dependency
625 tracking with tcc (the Tiny C Compiler). Its associated depmode is
626 currently recognized as "icc" (but this and other details are likely
627 to change in future versions).
629 - Automatic dependency tracking now works also with the IBM XL C/C++
630 compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'xlc'.
632 Bugs fixed in 1.11.4:
634 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
636 - A definition of 'noinst_PYTHON' before 'python_PYTHON' (or similar)
637 don't cause spurious failures upon "make install" anymore.
639 - The user can now instruct the 'uninstall-info' rule not to update
640 the '${infodir}/dir' file by exporting the environment variable
641 'AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no". This is done for consistency
642 with how the 'install-info' rule operates since automake 1.11.2.
644 * Long-standing bugs:
646 - It is now possible for a foo_SOURCES variable to hold Vala sources
647 together with C header files, as well as with sources and headers for
648 other supported languages (e.g., C++). Previously, only mixing C and
649 Vala sources was supported.
651 - If "aclocal --install" is used, and the first directory specified with
652 '-I' is non-existent, aclocal will now create it before trying to copy
655 - An empty declaration of a "foo_PRIMARY" don't cause anymore the
656 generated install rules to create an empty $(foodir) directory;
657 for example, if Makefile.am contains something like:
661 pkglibexec_SCRIPTS += bar.sh
664 the $(pkglibexec) directory will not be created upon "make install".
666 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
670 * Miscellaneous changes:
672 - Automake's own build system is more silent by default, making use of
673 the 'silent-rules' option.
675 - The master copy of the `gnupload' script is now maintained in gnulib,
678 - The `missing' script doesn't try to wrap calls to `tar' anymore.
680 - "make dist" doesn't wrap `tar' invocations with the `missing' script
681 anymore. Similarly, the obsolescent variable `$(AMTAR)' (which you
682 shouldn't be using BTW ;-) does not invoke the missing script anymore
683 to wrap tar, but simply invokes the `tar' program itself.
685 - "make dist" can now create lzip-compressed tarballs.
687 - In the Automake info documentation, the Top node and the nodes about
688 the invocation of the automake and aclocal programs have been renamed;
689 now, calling "info automake" will open the Top node, while calling
690 "info automake-invocation" and "info aclocal-invocation" will access
691 the nodes about the invocation of respectively automake and aclocal.
693 - Automake is now distributed as a gzip-compressed and an xz-compressed
694 tarball. Previously, bzip2 was used instead of xz.
696 - The last relics of Python 1.5 support have been removed from the
697 AM_PATH_PYTHON macro.
699 - For programs and libraries, automake now detects EXTRA_foo_DEPENDENCIES
700 and adds them to the normal list of dependencies, but without
701 overwriting the foo_DEPENDENCIES variable, which is normally computed
704 Bugs fixed in 1.11.3:
706 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
708 - Automake now correctly recognizes the prefix/primary combination
709 `pkglibexec_SCRIPTS' as valid.
711 - The parallel-tests harness doesn't trip anymore on sed implementations
712 with stricter limits on the length of input lines (problem seen at
715 * Long-standing bugs:
717 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.am files is avoided by stub
718 rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `automake' also if
719 some previously needed `.am' file has been removed.
721 - The `silent-rules' option now generates working makefiles even
722 for the uncommon `make' implementations that do not support the
723 nested-variables extension to POSIX 2008. For such `make'
724 implementations, whether a build is silent is determined at
725 configure time, and cannot be overridden at make time with
726 `make V=0' or `make V=1'.
728 - Vala support now works better in VPATH setups.
730 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
734 * Changes to aclocal:
736 - The `--acdir' option is deprecated. Now you should use the new options
737 `--automake-acdir' and `--system-acdir' instead.
739 - The `ACLOCAL_PATH' environment variable is now interpreted as a
740 colon-separated list of additional directories to search after the
741 automake internal acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal-APIVERSION)
742 and before the system acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal).
744 * Miscellaneous changes:
746 - The Automake support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been
747 deprecated. It will probably be removed in the next major Automake
750 - The `lzma' compression scheme and associated automake option `dist-lzma'
751 is obsoleted by `xz' and `dist-xz' due to upstream changes.
753 - You may adjust the compression options used in dist-xz and dist-bzip2.
754 The default is now merely -e for xz, but still -9 for bzip; you may
755 specify a different level via the XZ_OPT and BZIP2 envvars respectively.
756 E.g., "make dist-xz XZ_OPT=-7" or "make dist-bzip2 BZIP2=-5"
758 - The `compile' script now converts some options for MSVC for a better
759 user experience. Similarly, the new `ar-lib' script wraps Microsoft lib.
761 - The py-compile script now accepts empty arguments passed to the options
762 `--destdir' and `--basedir', and complains about unrecognized options.
763 Moreover, a non-option argument or a special `--' argument terminates
766 - A developer that needs to pass specific flags to configure at "make
767 distcheck" time can now, and indeed is advised to, do so by defining
768 the developer-reserved makefile variable AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS,
769 instead of the old DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS.
770 The DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS variable should now be reserved for the
771 user; still, the old Makefile.am files that used to define it will
772 still continue to work as before.
774 - New macro AM_PROG_AR that looks for an archiver and wraps it in the new
775 'ar-lib' auxiliary script if the selected archiver is Microsoft lib.
776 This new macro is required for LIBRARIES and LTLIBRARIES when automake
777 is run with -Wextra-portability and -Werror.
779 - When using DejaGnu-based testsuites, the user can extend the `site.exp'
780 file generated by automake-provided rules by defining the special make
781 variable `$(EXTRA_DEJAGNU_SITE_CONFIG)'.
783 - The `install-info' rule can now be instructed not to create/update
784 the `${infodir}/dir' file, by exporting the new environment variable
785 `AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no".
787 Bugs fixed in 1.11.2:
789 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
791 - The parallel-tests driver no longer produces erroneous results with
792 Tru64/OSF 5.1 sh upon unreadable log files.
794 - The `parallel-tests' test driver does not report spurious successes
795 when used with concurrent FreeBSD make (e.g., "make check -j3").
797 - When the parallel-tests driver is in use, automake now explicitly
798 rejects invalid entries and conditional contents in TEST_EXTENSIONS,
799 instead of issuing confusing and apparently unrelated error messages
800 (e.g., "non-POSIX variable name", "bad characters in variable name",
801 or "redefinition of TEST_EXTENSIONS), or even, in some situations,
802 silently producing broken `Makefile.in' files.
804 - The `silent-rules' option now truly silences all compile rules, even
805 when dependency tracking is disabled. Also, when `silent-rules' is
806 not used, `make' output no longer contains spurious backslash-only
807 lines, thus once again matching what Automake did before 1.11.
809 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
810 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
812 * Long-standing bugs:
814 - The order of Yacc and Lex flags is fixed to be consistent with other
815 languages: $(AM_YFLAGS) comes before $(YFLAGS), and $(AM_LFLAGS) before
816 $(LFLAGS), so that the user variables override the developer variables.
818 - "make distcheck" now correctly complains also when "make uninstall"
819 leaves one and only one file installed in $(prefix).
821 - A "make uninstall" issued before a "make install", or after a mere
822 "make install-data" or a mere "make install-exec" does not spuriously
825 - Automake now warns about more primary/directory invalid combinations,
826 such as "doc_LIBRARIES" or "pkglib_PROGRAMS".
828 - Rules generated by Automake now try harder to not change any files when
829 `make -n' is invoked. Fixes include compilation of Emacs Lisp, Vala, or
830 Yacc source files and the rule to update config.h.
832 - Several scripts and the parallel-tests testsuite driver now exit with
833 the right exit status upon receiving a signal.
835 - A per-Makefile.am setting of -Werror does not erroneously carry over
836 to the handling of other Makefile.am files.
838 - The code for automatic dependency tracking works around a Solaris
839 make bug triggered by sources containing repeated slashes when the
840 `subdir-objects' option was used.
842 - The makedepend and hp depmodes now work better with VPATH builds.
844 - Java sources specified with check_JAVA are no longer compiled for
845 "make all", but only for "make check".
847 - An usage like "java_JAVA = foo.java" will now cause Automake to warn
848 and error out if `javadir' is undefined, instead of silently producing
849 a broken Makefile.in.
851 - aclocal and automake now honour the configure-time definitions of
852 AUTOCONF and AUTOM4TE when they spawn autoconf or autom4te processes.
854 - The `install-info' recipe no longer tries to guess whether the
855 `install-info' program is from Debian or from GNU, and adaptively
856 change its behaviour; this has proven to be frail and easy to
859 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
861 Bugs fixed in 1.11.1:
863 - Lots of minor bugfixes.
865 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
867 - The `parallel-tests' test driver works around a GNU make 3.80 bug with
868 trailing white space in the test list (`TESTS = foo $(EMPTY)').
870 * Long standing bugs:
872 - On Darwin 9, `pythondir' and `pyexecdir' pointed below `/Library/Python'
873 even if the `--prefix' argument pointed outside of a system directory.
874 AM_PATH_PYTHON has been fixed to ignore the value returned from python's
875 `get_python_lib' function if it points outside the configured prefix,
876 unless the `--prefix' argument was either `/usr' or below `/System'.
878 - The testsuite does not try to change the mode of `ltmain.sh' files from
879 a Libtool installation (symlinked to test directories) any more.
881 - AM_PROG_GCJ uses AC_CHECK_TOOLS to look for `gcj' now, so that prefixed
882 tools are preferred in a cross-compile setup.
884 - The distribution is tarred up with mode 755 now by the `dist*' targets.
885 This fixes a race condition where untrusted users could modify files
886 in the $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION) distdir before packing if the toplevel
887 build directory was world-searchable. This is CVE-2009-4029.
889 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
893 * Version requirements:
895 - Autoconf 2.62 or greater is required.
897 * Changes to aclocal:
899 - The autoconf version check implemented by aclocal in aclocal.m4
900 (and new in Automake 1.10) is degraded to a warning. This helps
901 in the common case where the Autoconf versions used are compatible.
903 * Changes to automake:
905 - The automake program can run multiple threads for creating most
906 Makefile.in files concurrently, if at least Perl 5.7.2 is available
907 with interpreter-based threads enabled. Set the environment variable
908 AUTOMAKE_JOBS to the maximum number of threads to use, in order to
909 enable this experimental feature.
911 * Changes to Libtool support:
913 - Libtool generic flags are now passed to the install and uninstall
916 - distcheck works with Libtool 2.x even when LT_OUTPUT is used, as
917 config.lt is removed correctly now.
921 - subdir-object mode works now with Fortran (F77, FC, preprocessed
922 Fortran, and Ratfor).
924 - For files with extension .f90, .f95, .f03, or .f08, the flag
925 $(FCFLAGS_f[09]x) computed by AC_FC_SRCEXT is now used in compile rules.
927 - Files with extension .sx are also treated as preprocessed assembler.
929 - The default source file extension (.c) can be overridden with
930 AM_DEFAULT_SOURCE_EXT now.
932 - Python 3.0 is supported now, Python releases prior to 2.0 are no
935 - AM_PATH_PYTHON honors python's idea about the site directory.
937 - There is initial support for the Vala programming language, when using
940 * Miscellaneous changes:
942 - Automake development is done in a git repository on Savannah now, see
944 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=automake.git
946 A read-only CVS mirror is provided at
948 cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@pserver.git.sv.gnu.org:/automake.git \
949 checkout -d automake HEAD
951 - "make dist" can now create xz-compressed tarballs,
952 as well as (deprecated?) lzma-compressed tarballs.
954 - `automake --add-missing' will by default install the GPLv3 file as
955 COPYING if it is missing. It will also warn that the license file
956 should be added to source control. Note that Automake will never
957 overwrite an existing COPYING file, even when the `--force-missing'
960 - The manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL 1.3.
962 - Automake ships and installs man pages for automake and aclocal now.
964 - New shorthand `$(pkglibexecdir)' for `$(libexecdir)/@PACKAGE@'.
966 - install-sh supports -C, which does not update the installed file
967 (and its time stamps) if the contents did not change.
969 - The `gnupload' script has been revamped.
971 - The `depcomp' and `compile' scripts now work with MSVC under MSYS.
973 - The targets `install' and `uninstall' are more efficient now, in that
974 for example multiple files from one Automake variable such as
975 `bin_SCRIPTS' are copied in one `install' (or `libtool --mode=install')
976 invocation if they do not have to be renamed.
978 Both install and uninstall may sometimes enter (`cd' into) the target
979 installation directory now, when no build-local scripts are used.
981 Both install and uninstall do not fail anymore but do nothing if an
982 installation directory variable like `bindir' is set to the empty string.
984 For built-in rules, `make install' now fails reliably if installation
985 of a file failed. Conversely, `make uninstall' even succeeds when
986 issued multiple times.
988 These changes may need some adjustments from users: For example,
989 some `install' programs refuse to install multiple copies of the
990 same file in one invocation, so you may need to remove duplicate
991 entries from file lists.
993 Also, within one set of files, say, nobase_data_DATA, the order of
994 installation may be changed, or even unstable among different hosts,
995 due to the use of associative arrays in awk. The increased use of
996 awk matches a similar move in Autoconf to provide for better scaling.
998 Further, most undocumented per-rule install command variables such as
999 binSCRIPT_INSTALL have been removed because they are not needed any
1000 more. Packages which use them should be using the appropriate one of
1001 INSTALL_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT} or their install_sh_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT}
1002 counterpart, depending on the type of files and the need for automatic
1003 target directory creation.
1005 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.m4 files is avoided by
1006 stub rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `aclocal'
1007 also if some previously needed macro file has been removed.
1009 - Rebuild rules now also work for a removed `subdir/Makefile.in' in
1010 an otherwise up to date tree.
1012 - The `color-tests' option causes colored test result output on terminals.
1014 - The `parallel-tests' option enables a new test driver that allows for
1015 parallel test execution, inter-test dependencies, lazy test execution
1016 for unit-testing, re-testing only failed tests, and formatted result output
1017 as RST (reStructuredText) and HTML. Enabling this option may require some
1018 changes to your test suite setup; see the manual for details.
1020 - The `silent-rules' option enables Linux kernel-style silent build output.
1021 This option requires the widely supported but non-POSIX `make' feature
1022 of recursive variable expansion, so do not use it if your package needs
1023 to build with `make' implementations that do not support it.
1025 To enable less verbose build output, the developer has to use the Automake
1026 option `silent-rules' in `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE', or call the `AM_SILENT_RULES'
1027 macro. The user may then set the default verbosity by passing the
1028 `--enable-silent-rules' option to `configure'. At `make' run time, this
1029 default may be overridden using `make V=0' for less verbose, and `make V=1'
1030 for backward-compatible verbose output.
1032 - New prefix `notrans_' for manpages which should not be transformed
1033 by --program-transform.
1035 - New macro AM_COND_IF for conditional evaluation and conditional
1038 - For AC_CONFIG_LINKS, if source and destination are equal, do not
1039 remove the file in a non-VPATH build. Such setups work with Autoconf
1042 - AM_MAINTAINER_MODE now allows for an optional argument specifying
1043 the default setting.
1045 - AM_SUBST_NOTMAKE may prevent substitution of AC_SUBSTed variables,
1046 useful especially for multi-line values.
1048 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now diagnoses an
1049 unsafe absolute source directory name and makes configure fail.
1051 - The Automake macros and rules cope better with whitespace in the
1052 current directory name, as long as the relative path to `configure'
1053 does not contain whitespace. To this end, the values of `$(MISSING)'
1054 and `$(install_sh)' may contain suitable quoting, and their expansion
1055 might need `eval'uation if used outside of a makefile. These
1056 undocumented variables may be used in several documented macros such
1057 as $(AUTOCONF) or $(MAKEINFO).
1061 * Long-standing bugs:
1063 - Fix aix dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1065 - Work around AIX sh quoting issue in AC_PROG_CC_C_O, leading to
1066 unnecessary use of the `compile' script.
1068 - For nobase_*_LTLIBRARIES with nonempty directory components, the
1069 correct `-rpath' argument is used now.
1071 - `config.status --file=Makefile depfiles' now also works with the
1072 extra quoting used internally by Autoconf 2.62 and newer
1073 (it used to work only without the `--file=' bit).
1075 - The `missing' script works better with versioned tool names.
1077 - Semantics for `missing help2man' have been revamped:
1079 Previously, if `help2man' was not present, `missing help2man' would have
1080 the following semantics: if some man page was out of date but present, then
1081 a warning would be printed, but the exit status was 0. If the man page was
1082 not present at all, then `missing' would create a replacement man page
1083 containing an error message, and exit with a status of 2. This does not play
1084 well with `make': the next run will see this particular man page as being up
1085 to date, and will only error out on the next generated man page, if any;
1086 repeat until all pages are done. This was not desirable.
1088 These are the new semantics: if some man page is not present, and help2man
1089 is not either, then `missing' will warn and generate the replacement page
1090 containing the error message, but exit successfully. However, `make dist'
1091 will ensure that no such bogus man pages are packaged into a tarball.
1093 - Targets provided by automake behave better with `make -n', in that they
1094 take care not to create files.
1096 - `config.status Makefile... depfiles' works fine again in the presence of
1097 disabled dependency tracking.
1099 - The default no-op recursive rules for these targets also work with BSD make
1100 now: html, install-html, install-dvi, install-pdf, install-pdf, install-info.
1102 - `make distcheck' works also when both a directory and some file below it
1103 have been added to a distribution variable, such as EXTRA_DIST or *_SOURCES.
1105 - Texinfo dvi, ps, pdf, and html output files are not removed upon
1106 `make mostlyclean' any more; only the LaTeX by-products are.
1108 - Renamed objects also work with the `subdir-objects' option and
1109 source file languages which Automake does not know itself.
1111 - `automake' now correctly complains about variable assignments which are
1112 preceded by a comment, extend over multiple lines with backslash-escaped
1113 newlines, and end in a comment sign. Previous versions would silently
1114 and wrongly ignore such assignments completely.
1116 * Bugs introduced by 1.10:
1118 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
1119 Makefile.in's again, but also cope with long lines.
1121 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of XFAIL_TESTS
1122 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1123 This is for consistency with the analogous change to TESTS in 1.10.
1125 - Fix order of standard includes to again be `-I. -I$(srcdir)',
1126 followed by directories containing config headers.
1128 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1132 * Version requirements:
1134 - Autoconf 2.60 or greater is required.
1136 - Perl 5.6 or greater is required.
1138 * Changes to aclocal:
1140 - aclocal now also supports -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble options.
1142 - `dirlist' entries (for the aclocal search path) may use shell
1143 wildcards such as `*', `?', or `[...]'.
1145 - aclocal supports an --install option that will cause system-wide
1146 third-party macros to be installed in the local directory
1147 specified with the first -I flag. This option also uses #serial
1148 lines in M4 files to upgrade local macros.
1150 The new aclocal options --dry-run and --diff help to review changes
1151 before they are installed.
1153 - aclocal now outputs an autoconf version check in aclocal.m4 in
1154 projects using automake.
1156 For a few years, automake and aclocal have been calling autoconf
1157 (or its underlying engine autom4te) to accurately retrieve the
1158 data they need from configure.ac and its siblings. Doing so can
1159 only work if all autotools use the same version of autoconf. For
1160 instance a Makefile.in generated by automake for one version of
1161 autoconf may stop working if configure is regenerated with another
1162 version of autoconf, and vice versa.
1164 This new version check ensures that the whole build system has
1165 been generated using the same autoconf version.
1167 * Support for new Autoconf macros:
1169 - The new AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE Autoconf macro is supported.
1171 - If `subdir-objects' is set, and AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR is specified,
1172 $(LIBOBJS), $(LTLIBOBJS), $(ALLOCA), and $(LTALLOCA) can be used
1173 in different directories. However, only one instance of such a
1174 library objects directory is supported.
1176 * Change to Libtool support:
1178 - Libtool generic flags (those that go before the --mode=MODE option)
1179 can be specified using AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS and target_LIBTOOLFLAGS.
1181 * Yacc and Lex changes:
1183 - The rebuild rules for distributed Yacc and Lex output will avoid
1184 overwriting existing files if AM_MAINTAINER_MODE and maintainer-mode
1187 - ylwrap is now always used for lex and yacc source files,
1188 regardless of whether there is more than one source per directory.
1190 * Languages changes:
1192 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now honors CPPFLAGS,
1193 AM_CPPFLAGS and per-target _CPPFLAGS, and supports dependency
1194 tracking, unlike non-preprocessed assembler (*.s).
1196 - subdir-object mode works now with Assembler. Automake assumes
1197 that the compiler understands `-c -o'.
1199 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now also honors
1200 $(DEFS) $(DEFAULT_INCLUDES) $(INCLUDES).
1202 - Improved support for Objective C:
1203 - Autoconf's new AC_PROG_OBJC will enable automatic dependency tracking.
1204 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1206 - New support for Unified Parallel C:
1207 - AM_PROG_UPC looks for a UPC compiler.
1208 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1210 - Per-target flags are now correctly handled in link rules.
1212 For instance maude_CFLAGS correctly overrides AM_CFLAGS; likewise
1213 for maude_LDFLAGS and AM_LDFLAGS. Previous versions bogusly
1214 preferred AM_CFLAGS over maude_CFLAGS while linking, and they
1215 used both AM_LDFLAGS and maude_LDFLAGS on the same link command.
1217 The fix for compiler flags (i.e., using maude_CFLAGS instead of
1218 AM_CFLAGS) should not hurt any package since that is how _CFLAGS
1219 is expected to work (and actually works during compilation).
1221 However using maude_LDFLAGS "instead of" AM_LDFLAGS rather than
1222 "in addition to" breaks backward compatibility with older versions.
1223 If your package used both variables, as in
1225 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1226 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1227 a_LDFLAGS = more flags
1230 and assumed *_LDFLAGS would sum up, you should rewrite it as
1232 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1233 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1234 a_LDFLAGS = $(AM_LDFLAGS) more flags
1237 This new behavior of *_LDFLAGS is more coherent with other
1238 per-target variables, and the way *_LDFLAGS variables were
1239 considered internally.
1241 * New installation targets:
1243 - New targets mandated by GNU Coding Standards:
1248 By default they will only install Texinfo manuals.
1249 You can customize them with *-local variants:
1255 - The undocumented recursive target `uninstall-info' no longer exists.
1256 (`uninstall' is in charge of removing all possible documentation
1257 flavors, including optional formats such as dvi, ps, or info even
1258 when `no-installinfo' is used.)
1260 * Miscellaneous changes:
1262 - Automake no longer complains if input files for AC_CONFIG_FILES
1263 are specified using shell variables.
1265 - clean, distribution, or rebuild rules are normally disabled for
1266 inputs and outputs of AC_CONFIG_FILES, AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, and
1267 AC_CONFIG_LINK specified using shell variables. However, if these
1268 variables are used as ${VAR}, and AC_SUBSTed, then Automake will
1269 be able to output rules anyway.
1270 (See the Automake documentation for AC_CONFIG_FILES.)
1272 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of TESTS
1273 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1274 This is mostly useful when some check_PROGRAMS are listed in TESTS.
1276 - `-Wportability' has finally been turned on by default for `gnu' and
1277 `gnits' strictness. This means, automake will complain about %-rules
1278 or $(GNU Make functions) unless you switch to `foreign' strictness or
1279 use `-Wno-portability'.
1281 - Automake now uses AC_PROG_MKDIR_P (new in Autoconf 2.60), and uses
1282 $(MKDIR_P) instead of $(mkdir_p) to create directories. The
1283 $(mkdir_p) variable is still defined (to the same value as
1284 $(MKDIR_P)) but should be considered obsolete. If you are using
1285 $(mkdir_p) in some of your rules, please plan to update them to
1286 $(MKDIR_P) at some point.
1288 - AM_C_PROTOTYPES and ansi2knr are now documented as being obsolete.
1289 They still work in this release, but may be withdrawn in a future one.
1291 - Inline compilation rules for gcc3-style dependency tracking are
1294 - Automake installs a "Hello World!" example package in $(docdir).
1295 This example is used throughout the new "Autotools Introduction"
1296 chapter of the manual.
1298 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1302 * Makefile.in bloat reduction:
1304 - Inference rules are used to compile sources in subdirectories when
1305 the `subdir-objects' option is used and no per-target flags are
1306 used. This should reduce the size of some projects a lot, because
1307 Automake used to output an explicit rule for each such object in
1310 - Automake no longer outputs three rules (.o, .obj, .lo) for each
1311 object that must be built with explicit rules. It just outputs
1312 the rules required to build the kind of object considered: either
1313 the two .o and .obj rules for usual objects, or the .lo rule for
1316 * Change to Libtool support:
1318 - Libtool tags are used with libtool versions that support them.
1319 (I.e., with Libtool 1.5 or greater.)
1321 - Automake is now able to handle setups where a libtool library is
1322 conditionally installed in different directories, as in
1325 lib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1327 pkglib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1329 liba_la_SOURCES = ...
1331 * Changes to aclocal:
1333 - aclocal now ensures that AC_DEFUNs and AU_DEFUNs it discovers are
1334 really evaluated, before it decides to include them in aclocal.m4.
1335 This solves nasty problems with conditional redefinitions of
1336 Autoconf macros in /usr/share/aclocal/*.m4 files causing extraneous
1337 *.m4 files to be included in any project using these macros.
1338 (Calls to AC_PROG_EGREP causing libtool.m4 to be included is the
1339 most famous instance of this bug.)
1341 - Do not complain about missing conditionally AC_REQUIREd macros
1342 that are not actually used. In 1.8.x aclocal would correctly
1343 determine which of these macros were really needed (and include
1344 only these in the package); unfortunately it would also require
1345 all of them to be present in order to run. This created
1346 situations were aclocal would not work on a tarball distributing
1347 all the macros it uses. For instance running aclocal on a project
1348 containing only the subset of the Gettext macros in use by the
1349 project did not work, because gettext conditionally requires other
1352 * Portability improvements:
1354 - Tar format can be chosen with the new options tar-v7, tar-ustar, and
1355 tar-pax. The new option filename-length-max=99 helps diagnosing
1356 filenames that are too long for tar-v7. (PR/414)
1358 - Variables aumented with `+=' are now automatically flattened (i.e.,
1359 trailing backslashes removed) and then wrapped around 80 colummns
1360 (adding trailing backslashes). In previous versions, a long series
1366 would result in a single-line definition of VAR that could possibly
1367 exceed the maximum line length of some make implementations.
1369 Non-augmented variables are still output as they are defined in
1374 - Support Fortran 90/95 with the new "fc" and "ppfc" languages.
1375 Works the same as the old Fortran 77 implementation; just replace
1376 F77 with FC everywhere (exception: FFLAGS becomes FCFLAGS).
1377 Requires a version of autoconf which provides AC_PROG_FC (>=2.59).
1379 - Support for conditional _LISP.
1381 - Support for conditional -hook and -local rules (PR/428).
1383 - Diagnose AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR calls following AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. (PR/49)
1385 - Automake will not write any Makefile.ins after the first error it
1386 encounters. The previous Makefile.ins (if any) will be left in
1387 place. (Warnings will not prevent output, but remember they can
1388 be turned into errors with -Werror.)
1390 - The restriction that SUBDIRS must contain direct children is gone.
1393 - The manual tells more about SUBDIRS vs. DIST_SUBDIRS.
1394 It also gives an example of nested packages using AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS.
1396 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1398 Bugs fixed in 1.8.5:
1400 * Long-standing bugs:
1402 - Define DIST_SUBDIRS even when the `no-dist' or `cygnus' options are used
1403 so that `make distclean' and `make maintainer-clean' can work.
1405 - Define AR and ARFLAGS even when only EXTRA_LIBRARIES are defined.
1407 - Fix many rules to please FreeBSD make, which runs commands with `sh -e'.
1409 - Polish diagnostic when no input file is found.
1411 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1413 Bugs fixed in 1.8.4:
1415 * Long-standing bugs:
1417 - Fix AM_PATH_PYTHON to correctly display $PYTHON when it has been
1418 overridden by the user.
1420 - Honor PATH_SEPARATOR in various places of the Automake package, for
1423 - Adjust dependency tracking mode detection to ICC 8.0's new output.
1426 - Fix install-sh so it can install the `mv' binary... using `mv'.
1428 - Fix tru64 dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1430 - Work around Exuberant Ctags when creating a TAGS files in a directory
1431 without files to scan but with subdirectories to include.
1433 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1435 - Fix an "internal error" when @LIBOBJS@ is used in a variable that is
1436 not defined in the same conditions as the _LDADD that uses it.
1438 - Do not warn when JAVAROOT is overridden, this is legitimate.
1440 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1442 Bugs fixed in 1.8.3:
1444 * Long-standing bugs:
1446 - Quote filenames in installation rules, in case $DESTDIR, $prefix,
1447 or any of the other *dir variables contain a space.
1449 Please note that Automake does not and cannot support spaces in
1450 filenames that are involved during the build. This change affects
1451 only installation paths, so that `make install' does not bomb out
1452 in packages configured with
1453 ./configure --prefix '/c/Program Files'
1455 - Fix the depfiles output so it works with GNU sed (<4.1) even when
1456 POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.
1458 - Do not AC_SUBST(LIBOBJS) in AM_WITH_REGEX. This macro was unusable
1459 since Autoconf 2.54, which defines LIBOBJS itself.
1461 - Fix a potential (but unlikely) race condition in parallel elisp
1462 builds. (Introduced in 1.7.3.)
1464 - Do not assume that users override _DEPENDENCIES in all conditions
1465 where Automake will try to define them.
1467 - Do not use `mkdir -p' in mkinstalldirs, unless this is GNU mkdir.
1468 Solaris 8's `mkdir -p' is not thread-safe and can break parallel
1471 This fix also affects the $(mkdir_p) variable defined since
1472 Automake 1.8. It will be set to `mkdir -p' only if mkdir is GNU
1473 mkdir, and to `mkinstalldirs' or `install-sh -d' otherwise.
1475 - Secure temporary directory creation in `make distcheck'. (PR/413)
1477 - Do not generate two build rules for `parser.h' when the
1478 parser appears in two different conditionals.
1480 - Work around a Solaris 8 /bin/sh bug in the test for dependency
1481 checking. Usually ./configure will not pick this shell; so this
1482 fix only helps cases where the shell is forced to /bin/sh.
1484 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1486 - In some situations (hand-written `m4_include's), aclocal would
1487 call the `File::Spec->rel2abs' method, which was only introduced
1488 in Perl 5.6. This new version reestablish support Perl 5.005.
1490 It is likely that the next major Automake releases will require at
1491 least Perl 5.6. Consider upgrading your development environment
1492 if you are still using the five-year-old Perl 5.005.
1494 - Automake would sometimes fail to define rules for targets listed
1495 in variables defined in multiple conditions. For instance on
1501 it would define only the `a.$(OBJEXT): a.c' rule and omit the
1502 `b.$(OBJEXT): b.c' rule.
1504 * New sections in manual:
1506 - Third-Party Makefiles: how to interface third party Makefiles.
1507 - Upgrading: upgrading packages to newer Automake versions.
1508 - Multiple Outputs: handling tools that produce many outputs.
1510 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1514 * A (well known) portability bug slipped in the changes made to
1515 install-sh in Automake 1.8.1. The broken install-sh would refuse to
1516 install anything on Tru64.
1518 * Fix install rules for conditionally built python files. (This never
1521 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1525 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1527 - Fix Config.pm import error with old Perl versions (at least
1528 5.005_03). One symptom is that aclocal could not find its macro
1531 - Automake 1.8 used `mkdir -m 0755 -p --' to ensure that directories
1532 created by `make install' are always world readable, even if the
1533 installer happens to have an overly restrictive umask (e.g. 077).
1534 This was a mistake and has been reverted. There are at least two
1535 reasons why we must not use `-m 0755':
1536 - it causes special bits like SGID to be ignored,
1537 - it may be too restrictive (some setups expect 775 directories).
1539 - Fix aclocal to honor definitions located in files which have been
1540 m4_included manually. aclocal 1.8 had been updated to check
1541 m4_included files for new requirements, but forgot that these
1542 m4_included files can also provide new definitions.
1544 Note that if you have such a setup, we recommend you get rid of
1545 it. In the past, there was a reason to m4_include files manually:
1546 aclocal used to duplicate entire M4 files into aclocal.m4, even
1547 files that were distributed. Some packages were therefore
1548 m4_including the distributed file directly, and playing some
1549 tricks to ensure aclocal would not copy that file to aclocal.m4,
1550 in order to limit the amount of duplication. Since aclocal 1.8.x
1551 will precisely output m4_includes for local M4 files, we recommend
1552 that you clean up your setup, removing all manual m4_includes and
1553 letting aclocal output them.
1555 - Output detailed menus in the Info version if the Automake manual,
1556 so that Emacs can locate the indexes.
1558 - configure.ac and configure were listed twice in DIST_COMMON (an
1559 internal variable where Automake lists configury files to
1560 distribute). This was harmless, but unaesthetic.
1562 - Use `chmod a-w' instead of `chmod -w' as the latter honors umask.
1563 This was an issue only in the Automake package itself, not in
1566 - Automake assumed that all AC_CONFIG_LINKS arguments had the form
1567 DEST:SRC. This was wrong, as some packages do
1568 AC_CONFIG_LINKS($computedlinks). This version no longer abort in
1571 - Contrary to mkinstalldirs, $(mkdir_p) was expecting exactly one
1572 argument. This caused two kinds of failures:
1573 - Rules installing data in a conditionally defined directory
1574 failed when that directory was undefined. In this case no
1575 argument was supplied.
1576 - `make installdirs' failed, because several directories were
1577 passed to $(mkdir_p). This was an issue only on platform
1578 were $(mkdir_p) is implemented with `install-sh -d'.
1579 $(mkdir_p) as been changed to accept 0 or more arguments, as
1582 * Long-standing bugs:
1584 - Fix an unexpected diagnostic occurring when users attempt
1585 to override some internal variables that Automake appends to.
1587 - aclocal now scans configure.ac for macro definitions (PR/319).
1589 - Fix a portability issue with OSF1/Tru64 Make. If a directory
1590 distributes files which are outside itself (this usually occurs
1591 when using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([../dir]) to use auxiliary files
1592 from a parent package), then `make distcheck' fails due to an
1593 optimization performed by OSF1/Tru64 Make in its VPATH handling.
1594 (tests/subpkg2.test failure)
1596 - Fix another portability issue with Sun and OSF1/Tru64 Make.
1597 In a VPATH-build configuration, `make install' would install
1598 nobase_ files to wrong locations.
1600 - Fix a Perl `uninitialized value' diagnostic occurring when
1601 automake complains that a Texinfo file does not have a
1602 @setfilename statement.
1604 - Erase config.status.lineno during `make distclean'. This file
1605 can be created by config.status. Automake already knew about
1606 configure.lineno, but forgot config.status.lineno.
1608 - Distribute all files, even those which are built and installed
1609 conditionally. This change affects files listed in conditionally
1610 defined *_HEADERS and *_PYTHON variable (unless they are nodist_*)
1611 as well as those listed in conditionally defined dist_*_DATA,
1612 dist_*_JAVA, dist_*_LISP, and dist_*_SCRIPTS variables.
1614 - Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to avoid \? in sed regular expressions; it
1615 doesn't conform to POSIX.
1617 - Normalize help strings for configure variables and options added
1622 - Check for python2.4 in AM_PATH_PYTHON.
1624 * Spurious failures in test suite:
1626 - tests/libtool5.test, tests/ltcond.test, tests/ltcond2.test,
1627 tests/ltconv.test: fix failures with CVS Libtool.
1628 - tests/aclocal6.test: fix failure if autom4te.cache is disabled.
1629 - tests/txinfo24.test, tests/txinfo25.test, tests/txinfo28.test:
1630 fix failures with old Texinfo versions.
1632 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1638 - The NEWS file is more verbose.
1642 - Autoconf 2.58 or greater is required.
1646 - Default source file names in the absence of a _SOURCES declaration
1647 are made by removing any target extension before appending `.c', so
1648 to make the libtool module `foo.la' from `foo.c', you only need to
1651 lib_LTLIBRARIES = foo.la
1652 foo_la_LDFLAGS = -module
1654 For backward compatibility, foo_la.c will be used instead of
1655 foo.c if this file exists or is the explicit target of a rule.
1656 However -Wobsolete will warn about this deprecated naming.
1658 - AR's `cru' flags are now set in a global ARFLAGS variable instead
1659 of being hard-coded in each $(AR) invocation, so they can be
1660 substituted from configure.ac. This has been requested by people
1661 dealing with non-POSIX ar implementations.
1663 - New warning option: -Woverride. This will warn about any user
1664 target or variable definitions which override Automake
1667 - Texinfo rules back up and restore info files when makeinfo fails.
1669 - Texinfo rules now support the `html' target.
1670 Running this requires Texinfo 4.0 or greater.
1672 `html' is a new recursive target, so if your package mixes
1673 hand-crafted `Makefile.in's with Automake-generated
1674 `Makefile.in's, you should adjust the former to support (or
1675 ignore) this target so that `make html' recurses successfully. If
1676 you had a custom `html' rule in your `Makefile.am', it's better to
1677 rename it as `html-local', otherwise your rule will override
1678 Automake's new rule (you can check that by running `automake
1679 -Woverride') and that will stop the recursion to subdirectories.
1681 Last but not least, this `html' rule is declared PHONY, even when
1682 overridden. Fortunately, it appears that few packages use a
1683 non-PHONY `html' rule.
1685 - Any file which is m4_included from configure.ac will appear as a
1686 configure and Makefile.in dependency, and will be automatically
1689 - The rules for rebuilding Makefiles and Makefile.ins will now
1690 rebuild all Makefiles and all Makefile.ins at once when one of
1691 configure's dependencies has changed. This is considerably faster
1692 than previous implementations, where config.status and automake
1693 were run separately in each directory (this still happens when you
1694 change a Makefile.am locally, without touching configure.ac or
1695 friends). Doing this also solves a longstanding issue: these
1696 rebuild rules failed to work when adding new directories to the
1697 tree, forcing you to run automake manually.
1699 - For similar reasons, the rules to rebuild configure,
1700 config.status, and aclocal.m4 are now defined in all directories.
1701 Note that if you were using the CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES and
1702 CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES (formerly undocumented) variables, you
1703 should better define them in all directories. This is easily done
1704 using an AC_SUBST (make sure you prefix these dependencies with
1705 $(top_srcdir) since this variable will appear at different
1706 levels of the build tree).
1708 - aclocal will now use `m4_include' instead of copying local m4
1709 files into aclocal.m4. (Local m4 files are those you ship with
1710 your project, other files will be copied as usual.)
1712 Because m4_included files are automatically distributed, it means
1713 for most projects there is no point in EXTRA_DISTing the list of
1714 m4 files which are used. (You can probably get rid of
1715 m4/Makefile.am if you had one.)
1717 - aclocal will avoid touching aclocal.m4 when possible, so that
1718 Autom4te's cache isn't needlessly invalidated. This behavior can
1719 be switched off with the new `--force' option.
1721 - aclocal now uses Autoconf's --trace to detect macros which are
1722 actually used and will no longer include unused macros simply
1723 because they where mentioned. This was often the case for macros
1724 called conditionally.
1726 - New options no-dist and no-dist-gzip.
1728 - compile, depcomp, elisp-comp, install-sh, mdate-sh, mkinstalldirs,
1729 py-compile, and ylwrap, now all understand --version and --help.
1731 - Automake will now recognize AC_CONFIG_LINKS so far as removing created
1732 links as part of the distclean target and including source files in
1735 - AM_PATH_PYTHON now supports ACTION-IF-FOUND and ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND
1736 argument. The latter can be used to override the default behavior
1737 (which is to abort).
1739 - Automake will exit with $? = 63 on version mismatch. (So does
1740 Autoconf 2.58) missing knows this, and in this case it will
1741 emulate the tools as if they were absent. Because older versions
1742 of Automake and Autoconf did not use this exit code, this change
1743 will only be useful in projects generated with future versions of
1746 - When using AC_CONFIG_FILES with multiple input files, Automake
1747 generates the first ".in" input file for which a ".am" exists.
1748 (Former versions would try to use only the first input file.)
1750 - lisp_DATA is now allowed. If you are using the empty ELCFILES
1751 idiom to disable byte-compilation of lisp_LISP files, it is
1752 recommended that you switch to using lisp_DATA. Note that
1753 this is not strictly equivalent: lisp_DATA will install elisp
1754 files even if emacs is not installed, while *_LISP do not
1755 install anything unless emacs is found.
1757 - Makefiles will prefer `mkdir -p' over mkinstalldirs if it is
1758 available. This selection is achieved through the Makefile
1759 variable $(mkdir_p) that is set by AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE to either
1760 `mkdir -m 0755 -p --', `$(mkinstalldirs) -m 0755', or
1761 `$(install_sh) -m 0755 -d'.
1765 - Because `mkdir -p' is available on most platforms, and we can use
1766 `install-sh -d' when it is not, the use of the mkinstalldirs
1767 script is being phased out. `automake --add-missing' no longer
1768 installs it, and if you remove mkinstalldirs from your package,
1769 automake will define $(mkinstalldirs) as an alias for $(mkdir_p).
1771 Gettext 0.12.1 still requires mkinstalldirs. Fortunately
1772 gettextize and autopoint will install it when needed. Automake
1773 will continue to define the $(mkinstalldirs) and to distribute
1774 mkinstalldirs when this script is in the source tree.
1776 - AM_PROG_CC_STDC is now empty. The content of this macro was
1777 merged in AC_PROG_CC. If your code uses $am_cv_prog_cc_stdc, you
1778 should adjust it to use $ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc instead. (This
1779 renaming should be safe, even if you have to support several,
1780 versions of Automake, because AC_PROG_CC defines this variable
1781 since Autoconf 2.54.)
1783 - Some users where using the undocumented ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES
1784 variable to override the aclocal.m4 dependencies computed
1785 (inaccurately) by older versions of Automake. Because Automake
1786 now tracks configure's m4 dependencies accurately (see m4_include
1787 above), the use of ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES should be considered
1788 obsolete and will be flagged as such when running `automake
1793 - Defining programs conditionally using Automake conditionals no
1794 longer leads to a combinatorial explosion. The following
1795 construct used to be troublesome when used with dozens of
1810 Likewise for _SOURCES, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables.
1812 - Due to implementation constraints, previous versions of Automake
1813 proscribed multiple conditional definitions of some variables
1823 All _PROGRAMS, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables were affected.
1824 This restriction has been lifted, and these variables now
1825 support multiple conditional definitions as do other variables.
1827 - Cleanup the definitions of $(distdir) and $(top_distdir).
1828 $(top_distdir) now points to the root of the distribution
1829 directory created during `make dist', as it did in Automake 1.4,
1830 not to the root of the build tree as it did in intervening
1831 versions. Furthermore these two variables are now only defined in
1832 the top level Makefile, and passed to sub-directories when running
1835 - The --no-force option now correctly checks the Makefile.in's
1836 dependencies before deciding not to update it.
1838 - Do not assume that make files are called Makefile in cleaning rules.
1840 - Update .info files in the source tree, not in the build tree. This
1841 is what the GNU Coding Standard recommend. Only Automake 1.7.x
1842 used to update these files in the build tree (previous versions did
1843 it in the source tree too), and it caused several problems, varying
1844 from mere annoyance to portability issues.
1846 - COPYING, COPYING.LIB, and COPYING.LESSER are no longer overwritten
1847 when --add-missing and --force-missing are used. For backward
1848 compatibility --add-missing will continue to install COPYING (in
1849 `gnu' strictness) when none of these three files exist, but this
1850 use is deprecated: you should better choose a license yourself and
1851 install it once for all in your source tree (and in your code
1854 - Fix ylwrap so that it does not overwrite header files that haven't
1855 changed, as the inline rule already does.
1857 - User-defined rules override automake-defined rules for the same
1858 targets, even when rules do not have commands. This is not new
1859 (and was documented), however some of the automake-generated
1860 rules have escaped this principle in former Automake versions.
1861 Rules for the following targets are affected by this fix:
1863 clean, clean-am, dist-all, distclean, distclean-am, dvi, dvi-am,
1864 info, info-am, install-data-am, install-exec-am, install-info,
1865 install-info-am, install-man, installcheck-am, maintainer-clean,
1866 maintainer-clean-am, mostlyclean, mostlyclean-am, pdf, pdf-am,
1867 ps, ps-am, uninstall-am, uninstall-info, uninstall-man
1869 Practically it means that an attempt to supplement the dependencies
1870 of some target, as in
1872 clean: my-clean-rule
1874 will now *silently override* the automake definition of the
1875 rule for this target. Running `automake -Woverride' will diagnose
1876 all such overriding definitions.
1878 It should be noted that almost all of these targets support a *-local
1879 variant that is meant to supplement the automake-defined rule
1880 (See node `Extending' in the manual). The above rule should
1883 clean-local: my-clean-rule
1885 These *-local targets have been documented since at least
1886 Automake 1.2, so you should not fear the change if you have
1887 to support multiple automake versions.
1891 - The Automake manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
1893 - Targets dist-gzip, dist-bzip2, dist-tarZ, dist-zip are always defined.
1895 - core dumps are no longer removed by the cleaning rules. There are
1896 at least three reasons for this:
1897 1. These files should not be created by any build step,
1898 so their removal do not fit any of the cleaning rules.
1899 Actually, they may be precious to the developer.
1900 2. If such file is created during a build, then it's clearly a
1901 bug Automake should not hide. Not removing the file will
1902 cause `make distcheck' to complain about its presence.
1903 3. Operating systems have different naming conventions for
1904 core dump files. A core file on one system might be a
1905 completely legitimate data file on another system.
1907 - RUNTESTFLAGS, CTAGSFLAGS, ETAGSFLAGS, JAVACFLAGS are no longer
1908 defined by Automake. This means that any definition in the
1909 environment will be used, unless overridden in the Makefile.am or
1910 on the command line. The old behavior, where these variables were
1911 defined empty in each Makefile, can be obtained by AC_SUBSTing or
1912 AC_ARG_VARing each variable from configure.ac.
1914 - CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES and CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES are now
1915 documented. (The is not a new feature, these variables have
1916 been there since at least Automake 1.4.)
1918 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1920 Bugs fixed in 1.7.9:
1921 * Fix install-strip to work with nobase_ binaries.
1922 * Fix renaming of #line directives in ylwrap.
1923 * Rebuild with Autoconf 2.59. (1.7.8 was not installable with pdksh.)
1925 Bugs fixed in 1.7.8:
1926 * Remove spurious blank lines in cleaning rules introduced in 1.7.7.
1927 * Fix detection of Debian's install-info, broken since version 1.5.
1928 (Debian bug #213524).
1929 * Honor -module if it appears in AM_LDFLAGS (i.e., relax name checking)
1930 This was only done for libfoo_LDFLAGS and LDFLAGS in previous versions.
1932 Bugs fixed in 1.7.7:
1933 * The implementation of automake's --no-force option is unreliable,
1934 so this option is ignored in this version. A real fix will appear in
1935 Automake 1.8. (Debian Bug #206299)
1936 * AM_PATH_PYTHON: really check the whole list of interpreters if no
1937 argument is given. (PR/399)
1938 * Do not warn about leading `_' in variable names, even with -Wportability.
1939 * Support user redefinitions of TEXINFO_TEX.
1940 * depcomp: support AIX Compiler version 6.
1941 * Fix missing rebuilds during `make dist' with BSD make.
1942 (Could produce tarballs containing out-of-date files.)
1943 * Resurrect multilib support.
1944 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1945 - Extending aclocal: how to write m4 macros that won't trigger warnings
1947 - A Shared Library: Rewrite and split into subsections.
1949 Bugs fixed in 1.7.6:
1950 * Fix depcomp's icc mode for ICC 7.1.
1951 * Diagnose calls to AC_CONFIG_FILES and friends with not enough arguments.
1952 * Fix maintainer-clean's removal of autom4te.cache in VPATH builds.
1953 * Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to work with POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
1954 * Fix the location reported in some diagnostics related to AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
1955 * Remove Latin-1 characters from elisp-comp.
1956 * Update the manual's @dircategory to match the Free Software Directory.
1958 Bugs fixed in 1.7.5:
1959 * Update install-sh's license to remove an advertising clause.
1960 (Debian bug #191717)
1961 * Fix a bug introduced in 1.7.4, related to BUILT_SOURCE handling,
1962 that caused invalid Makefile.ins to be generated.
1963 * Make sure AM_MAKE_INCLUDE doesn't fail when a `doit' file exists.
1964 * New FAQ entry: renamed objects.
1966 Bugs fixed in 1.7.4:
1967 * Tweak the TAGS rule to support Exuberant Ctags (in addition to
1968 the Emacs implementation)
1969 * Fix output of aclocal.m4 dependencies in subdirectories.
1970 * Use `mv -f' instead of `mv' in fastdep rules.
1971 * Upgrade mdate-sh to work on OS/2.
1972 * Don't byte-compile elisp files when ELCFILES is set empty.
1973 (this documented feature was broken by 1.7.3)
1974 * Diagnose trailing backslashes on last line of Makefile.am.
1975 * Diagnose whitespace following trailing backslashes.
1976 * Multiple tests are now correctly supported in DEJATOOL. (PR/388)
1977 * Fix rebuilt rules for AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.bot])
1979 * `make install' will build `BUILT_SOURCES' first.
1980 * Minor documentation fixes.
1982 Bugs fixed in 1.7.3:
1983 * Fix stamp files numbering (when using multiple AC_CONFIG_HEADERS).
1984 * Query distutils for `pythondir' and `pythonexecdir', instead of
1985 using an hardcoded path. This should allow builds on 64-bit
1986 distributions that usually use lib64/ instead of lib/.
1987 * AM_PATH_PYTHON will also search for python2.3.
1988 * elisp files are now built all at once instead of one by one. Besides
1989 incurring a speed-up, this is required to support interdependent elisp files.
1990 * Support for DJGPP:
1991 - `make distcheck' will now work in `_inst/' and `_build' instead
1992 of `=inst/' and `=build/'
1993 - use `_dirstamp' when the file-system doesn't support `.dirstamp'
1994 - install/uninstall `*.i[0-9][0-9]'-style info files
1995 - more changes that affect only the Automake package (not its output)
1996 * Fix some incompatibilities with upcoming perl-5.10.
1997 * Properly quote AC_PACKAGE_TARNAME and AC_PACKAGE_VERSION when defining
1998 PACKAGE and VERSION.
2000 - dashmstdout and dashXmstdout modes: don't use `-o /dev/null', this
2001 is troublesome with gcc and Solaris compilers. (PR/385)
2002 - makedepend mode: work with Libtool. (PR/385 too)
2004 * better support for unusual gettext setups, such as multiple po/ directories
2006 - Flag missing po/ and intl/ directories as warnings, not errors.
2007 - Disable these warnings if po/ does not exist.
2008 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2010 - Document how AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR interacts with missing files.
2012 - Document `AM_YFLAGS = -d'. (PR/382)
2014 Bugs fixed in 1.7.2:
2015 * Fix installation and uninstallation of Info files built in subdirectories.
2016 * Do not run `./configure --with-included-gettext' during `make distcheck'
2017 if AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) is used.
2018 * Correctly uninstall renamed man pages.
2019 * Do not strip escaped newline in variables defined in one condition
2020 and augmented in another condition.
2021 * Fix ansi2knr rules for LIBOBJS sources.
2022 * Clean all known Texinfo index files, not only those which appear to
2023 be used, because we cannot know which indexes are used in included files.
2024 (PR/375, Debian Bug #168671)
2025 * Honor only the first @setfilename seen in a Texinfo file.
2026 * Treat "required file X not found" diagnostics as errors (exit status 1).
2027 * Don't complain that a required file is not found when it is a Makefile
2029 * Don't use single suffix inference rules when building `.info'-less
2030 Info files, for the sake of Solaris make.
2031 * The `check' target now depends on `$(BUILT_SOURCES)'. (PR/359)
2032 * Recognize multiple inference rules such as `.a.b .c.d:'. (PR/371)
2033 * Warn about multiple inference rules when -Wportability is used. (PR/372)
2034 * Fix building of deansified files from subdirectories. (PR/370)
2035 * Add missing `fi' in the .c->.obj rules.
2036 * Improve install-sh to work even when names contain spaces or certain
2037 (but not all) shell metachars.
2038 * Fix the following spurious failures in the test suite:
2039 depcomp2.test, gnits2.test, gnits3.test, python3.test, texinfo13.test
2040 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2041 - Augment the section about BUILT_SOURCES.
2042 - Mention that AM_PROG_CC_STDC is a relic that is better avoided today.
2044 Bugs fixed in 1.7.1:
2045 * Honor `ansi2knr' for files built in subdirectories, or using per-targets
2047 * Aclocal should now recognize macro names containing parentheses, e.g.
2048 AC_DEFUN([AC_LANG_PREPROC(Fortran 90)], [...]).
2049 * Erase *.sum and *.log files created by DejaGnu, during `make distclean'.
2051 * Install Python files even if they were built. (PR/369)
2052 * Have stamp-vti dependent upon configure instead of configure.ac, as the
2053 version might not be defined in the latter. (PR/358)
2054 * Reorder arguments passed to a couple of commands, so things works
2055 when POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
2056 * Fix a regex that can cause Perl to segfault on large input.
2058 * Fix distribution of packages that have some sources defined conditionally,
2059 as in the `Conditional compilation using Automake conditionals' example
2061 * Fix spurious test suite failures on IRIX.
2062 * Don't report a required variable as undefined if it has been
2063 defined conditionally for the "right" conditions.
2064 * Fix cleaning of the /tmp subdirectory used by `make distcheck', in case
2065 `make distcheck' fails.
2066 * Fix distribution of included Makefile fragment, so we don't create
2067 spurious directories in the distribution. (PR/366)
2068 * Don't complain that a target lacks `.$(EXEEXT)' when it has it.
2071 * Autoconf 2.54 is required.
2072 * `aclocal' and `automake' will no longer warn about obsolete
2073 configure macros. This is done by `autoconf -Wobsolete'.
2074 * AM_CONFIG_HEADER, AM_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS and
2075 AM_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ_NEEDS_SYS_IOCTL are obsolete (although still
2076 supported). You should use AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS,
2077 and AC_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ instead. `autoupdate' can upgrade
2078 `configure.ac' for you.
2079 * Support for per-program and per-library `_CPPFLAGS'.
2080 * New `ctags' target (builds CTAGS files).
2081 * Support for -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble, where mumble is a warning category
2082 (see `automake --help' or the manual for a list of them).
2083 * Honor the WARNINGS environment variable.
2084 * Omit the call to depcomp when using gcc3: call the compiler directly.
2085 * A new option, std-options, tests that programs support --help and --version
2086 when `make installcheck' is run. This is enabled by --gnits.
2087 * Texinfo rules now support the `ps' and `pdf' targets.
2088 * Info files are now created in the build directory, not the source directory.
2089 * info_TEXINFOS supports files in subdirectories (this requires Texinfo 4.1
2091 * `make distcheck' will enforce DESTDIR support by attempting
2093 * `+=' can be used in conditionals, even if the augmented variable
2094 was defined for another condition.
2095 * Makefile fragments (inserted with `include') are always distributed.
2096 * Use Autoconf's --trace interface to inspect configure.ac and get
2097 a more accurate view of it.
2098 * Add support for extending aclocal's default macro search path
2099 using a `dirlist' file within the aclocal directory.
2100 * automake --output-dir is deprecated.
2101 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether uninstall actually
2102 removes all installed files has been moved in a separate target,
2103 distuninstallcheck, so it can be overridden easily.
2107 * Support for AM_INIT_GETTEXT([external])
2108 * Bug fixes, including:
2109 - Fix Automake's own `make install' so it works even if `ln' doesn't.
2110 - nobase_ programs and scripts honor --program-transform correctly.
2111 - Erase configure.lineno during `make distclean'.
2112 - Erase YACC and LEX outputs during `make maintainer-clean'.
2115 * Many bug fixes, including:
2116 - Requiring the current version works.
2117 - Fix "$@" portability issues (for Zsh).
2118 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
2120 - Don't compute dependencies in background to avoid races with libtool.
2121 - Fix handling of _OBJECTS variables for targets sharing source variables.
2122 - Check dependency mode for Java when AM_PROG_GCJ is used.
2125 * automake --output-dir is deprecated
2126 * Many bug fixes, including:
2127 - Don't choke on AM_LDFLAGS definitions.
2128 - Clean libtool objects from subdirectories.
2129 - Allow configure variables with reserved suffix and unknown prefix
2130 (e.g. AC_SUBST(mumble_LDFLAGS) when 'mumble' is not a target).
2131 - Fix the definition of AUTOMAKE and ACLOCAL in configure.
2134 * Autoconf 2.52 is required.
2135 * automake no longer run libtoolize.
2136 This is the job of autoreconf (from GNU Autoconf).
2137 * `dist' generates all the archive flavors, as did `dist-all'.
2138 * `dist-gzip' generates the Gzip tar file only.
2139 * Combining Automake Makefile conditionals no longer lead to a combinatorial
2140 explosion. Makefile.in's keep a reasonable size.
2141 * AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_STRTOD, AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, AM_PTRDIFF_T
2142 are no longer shipped, since Autoconf 2.52 provides them (both as AM_
2144 * `#line' of Lex and Yacc files are properly set.
2145 * EXTRA_DIST can contain generated directories.
2146 * Support for dot-less extensions in suffix rules.
2147 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether distclean actually
2148 cleans all built files has been moved in a separate target, distcleancheck,
2149 so it can be overridden easily.
2150 * `make distcheck' will pass additional options defined in
2151 $(DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS) to configure.
2152 * Fixed CDPATH portability problems, in particular for MacOS X.
2153 * Fixed handling of nobase_ targets.
2154 * Fixed support of implicit rules leading to .lo objects.
2155 * Fixed late inclusion of --add-missing files (e.g. depcomp) in DIST_COMMON
2156 * Added uninstall-hook target
2157 * `AC_INIT AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(tarname,version)' is an obsolete construct.
2158 You can now use `AC_INIT(pkgname,version) AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE' instead.
2159 (Note that "pkgname" is not "tarname", see the manual for details.)
2160 It is also possible to pass a list of global Automake options as
2161 first argument to this new form of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.
2162 * Compiler-based assembler is now called `CCAS'; people expected `AS'
2163 to be a real assembler.
2164 * AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE will set STRIP itself when it needs it. Adding
2165 AC_CHECK_TOOL([STRIP], [strip]) manually is no longer required.
2166 * aclocal and automake are also installed with the version number
2167 appended, and some of the install directory names have changed.
2168 This lets you have multiple versions installed simultaneously.
2169 * Support for parsers and lexers in subdirectories.
2172 * Support for `configure.ac'.
2173 * Support for `else COND', `endif COND' and negated conditions `!COND'.
2174 * `make dist-all' is much faster.
2175 * Allows '@' AC_SUBSTs in macro names.
2176 * Faster AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE (requires update of `missing' script)
2177 * User-side dependency tracking. Developers no longer need GNU make
2179 * Uses DIST_SUBDIRS in some situations when SUBDIRS is conditional
2180 * Most files are correctly handled if they appear in subdirs
2181 For instance, a _DATA file can appear in a subdir
2182 * GNU tar is no longer required for `make dist'
2183 * Added support for `dist_' and `nodist_' prefixes
2184 * Added support for `nobase_' prefix
2185 * Compiled Java support
2186 * Support for per-executable and per-library compilation flags
2190 * Added support for the Fortran 77 programming language.
2191 * Re-indexed the Automake Texinfo manual.
2192 * Added `AM_FOOFLAGS' variable for each compiler invocation;
2193 e.g. AM_CFLAGS can be used in Makefile.am to set C compiler flags
2194 * Support for latest autoconf, including support for objext
2195 * Can now put `.' in SUBDIRS to control build order
2196 * `include' command and `+=' support for macro assignment
2197 * Dependency tracking no long susceptible to deleted header file problem
2198 * Maintainer mode now a conditional. @MAINT@ is now an anachronism.
2203 * Better Cygwin32 support
2204 * Support for suffix rules with _SOURCES variables
2205 * New options `readme-alpha' and `check-news'; Gnits mode sets these
2206 * @LEXLIB@ no longer required when lex source seen
2207 Lex support in `missing', and new lex macro. Update your missing script.
2208 * Built-in support for assembly
2209 * aclocal gives error if `AM_' macro not found
2210 * Passed YFLAGS, not YACCFLAGS, to yacc
2211 * AM_PROG_CC_STDC does not have to come before AC_PROG_CPP
2212 * Dependencies computed as a side effect of compilation
2213 * Preliminary support for Java
2214 * DESTDIR support at "make install" time
2215 * Improved ansi2knr support; you must use the latest ansi2knr.c (included)
2219 * Better DejaGnu support
2220 * Added no-installinfo option
2221 * Added Emacs Lisp support
2222 * Added --no-force option
2223 * Included `aclocal' program
2224 * Automake will now generate rules to regenerate aclocal.m4, if appropriate
2225 * Now uses `AM_' macro names everywhere
2226 * ansi2knr option can have directory prefix (eg `../lib/ansi2knr')
2227 ansi2knr now works correctly on K&R sources
2228 * Better C++, yacc, lex support
2229 * Will compute _DEPENDENCIES variables automatically if not supplied
2230 * Will interpolate $(...) and ${...} when examining contents of a variable
2231 * .deps files now in build directory, not source directory; dependency
2232 handling generally rewritten
2233 * DATA, MANS and BUILT_SOURCES no longer included in distribution
2234 * can now put config.h into a subdir
2235 * Added dist-all target
2236 * Support for install-info program (see texinfo 3.9)
2237 * Support for "yacc -d"
2238 * configure substitutions are automatically discovered and included
2239 in generated Makefile.in
2240 * Special --cygnus mode
2241 * OMIT_DEPENDENCIES can now hold list of dependencies to be omitted
2242 when making distribution. Some dependencies are auto-ignored.
2243 * Changed how libraries are specified in _LIBRARIES variable
2244 * Full libtool support, from Gord Matzigkeit
2245 * No longer have to explicitly touch stamp-h when using AC_CONFIG_HEADER;
2246 AM_CONFIG_HEADER handles it automatically
2247 * Texinfo output files no longer need .info extension
2248 * Added `missing' support
2250 * Conditionals in Makefile.am, from Ian Taylor
2254 * distcheck target runs install and installcheck targets
2255 * Added preliminary support for DejaGnu.
2260 * More libtool fixes from Gord Matzigkeit; libtool support is still
2262 * Added support for jm_MAINTAINER_MODE
2264 * New "distcheck" target
2268 * mkinstalldirs and mdate-sh now appear in directory specified by
2270 * Removed DIST_SUBDIRS, DIST_OTHER
2271 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM only required when an actual program exists
2272 * dist-hook target now run before distribution packaged up; idea from
2273 Dieter Baron. Other hooks exist, too.
2274 * Preliminary (unfinished) support for libtool
2275 * Added short option names.
2276 * Better "dist" support when gluing together multiple packages
2280 * Documentation updates (many from François Pinard)
2281 * strictness `normal' now renamed to `foreign'
2282 * Renamed --install-missing to --add-missing
2283 * Now handles AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
2284 * Now handles TESTS macro
2285 * DIST_OTHER renamed to EXTRA_DIST
2286 * DIST_SUBDIRS is deprecated
2287 * @ALLOCA@ and @LIBOBJS@ now work in _LDADD variables
2288 * Better error messages in many cases
2289 * Program names are canonicalized
2290 * Added "check" prefix; from Gord Matzigkeit
2294 * configure.in scanner knows about AC_PATH_XTRA, AC_OUTPUT ":" syntax
2295 * Beginnings of a test suite
2296 * Automatically adds -I options for $(srcdir), ".", and path to config.h
2297 * Doesn't print anything when running
2298 * Beginnings of MAINT_CHARSET support
2299 * Can specify version in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS
2300 * Most errors recognizable by Emacs' M-x next-error
2301 * Added --verbose option
2302 * All "primary" variables now obsolete; use EXTRA_PRIMARY to supply
2303 configure-generated names
2304 * Required macros now distributed in aclocal.m4
2306 * --strictness=gnu is default
2310 * More sophisticated configure.in scanning; now understands ALLOCA and
2311 LIBOBJS directly, handles AC_CONFIG_HEADER more precisely, etc.
2312 * TEXINFOS and MANS now obsolete; use info_TEXINFOS and man_MANS instead.
2313 * CONFIG_HEADER variable now obsolete
2314 * Can handle multiple Texinfo sources
2315 * Allow hierarchies deeper than 2. From Gord Matzigkeit.
2316 * HEADERS variable no longer needed; now can put .h files directly into
2317 foo_SOURCES variable.
2318 * Automake automatically rebuilds files listed in AC_OUTPUT. The
2319 corresponding ".in" files are included in the distribution.
2322 * Added --gnu and --gnits options
2323 * More standards checking
2325 * Cleaned up 'dist' targets
2326 * Added AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS variable and several options
2327 * Now scans configure.in to get some information (preliminary)
2330 * Works with Perl 4 again
2333 * Added --install-missing option.
2334 * Pretty-prints generated macros and rules
2335 * Comments in Makefile.am are placed more intelligently in Makefile.in
2336 * Generates .PHONY target
2337 * Rule or macro in Makefile.am now overrides contents of Automake file
2338 * Substantial cleanups from François Pinard
2342 * Works with Perl 4 again.
2345 * New uniform naming scheme.
2346 * --strictness option
2348 * '.c' files corresponding to '.y' or '.l' files are automatically
2350 * Many bug fixes and cleanups
2353 * Allow objects to be conditionally included in libraries via lib_LIBADD.
2356 * Bug fixes in 'clean' code.
2357 * Now generates 'installdirs' target.
2358 * man page installation reworked.
2359 * 'make dist' no longer re-creates all Makefile.in's.
2362 * Reimplemented in Perl
2363 * Added --amdir option (for debugging)
2364 * Texinfo support cleaned up.
2365 * Automatic de-ANSI-fication cleaned up.
2366 * Cleaned up 'clean' targets.
2369 * Automatic dependency tracking
2370 * More documentation
2371 * New variables DATA and PACKAGEDATA
2372 * SCRIPTS installed using $(INSTALL_SCRIPT)
2373 * No longer uses double-colon rules
2375 * Changes in advance of internationalization
2379 Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2381 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
2382 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2383 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
2386 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2387 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2388 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2389 GNU General Public License for more details.
2391 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2392 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.