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 * Obsolete features removed:
12 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
13 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is not supported anymore.
15 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (once enabled by the 'cygnus'
16 option) has been removed. See discussion about automake bug#11034
19 - The automake-provided '@mkdir_p@' configure substitution and
20 AM_PROG_MKDIR m4 macro have been removed. They had been obsolete
21 since automake 1.10, and actively deprecated since Automake 1.12.1.
22 However, to maintain a degree of backward-compatibility, the make
23 variable '$(mkdir_p)' is still defined (now simple as an alias to
24 '$(MKDIR_P)'). It will probably be removed in future major versions
25 of Automake (probably 1.14).
27 - The deprecated aclocal option '--acdir' has been removed. You
28 should use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir'
29 instead (which have been introduced in Automake 1.11.2).
31 - The following long-obsolete m4 macros have been removed:
33 AM_PROG_CC_STDC: superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002
34 fp_PROG_CC_STDC: broken alias for AM_PROG_CC_STDC
35 fp_WITH_DMALLOC: old alias for AM_WITH_DMALLOC
36 AM_CONFIG_HEADER: superseded by AC_CONFIG_HEADERS since July 2002
37 ud_PATH_LISPDIR: old alias for AM_PATH_LISPDIR
38 jm_MAINTAINER_MODE: old alias for AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
39 ud_GNU_GETTEXT: old alias for AM_GNU_GETTEXT
40 gm_PROG_LIBTOOL: old alias for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
41 fp_C_PROTOTYPES: old alias for AM_C_PROTOTYPES (which was part
42 of the now-removed automatic de-ANSI-fication
45 - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' have been removed.
47 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
49 - The parallel testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the
50 'parallel-tests' option) is the default one; the older serial
51 testsuite harness will still be available through the use of the
52 'serial-tests' option (introduced in Automake 1.12).
54 - The 'color-tests' option is now unconditionally activated by default.
55 In particular, this means that testsuite output is now colorized by
56 default if the attached terminal seems to support ANSI escapes, and
57 that the user can force output colorization by setting the variable
58 AM_COLOR_TESTS to "always". The 'color-tests' is still recognized
59 for backward-compatibility, although it's a handled as a no-op now.
61 * Silent rules support:
63 - Support for silent rules is now always active in Automake-generated
64 Makefiles. So, although the verbose output is still the default,
65 the user can now always use "./configure --enable-silent-rules" or
66 "make V=0" to enable quieter output in the package he's building.
68 - The 'silent-rules' option has now become a no-op, preserved for
69 backward-compatibility only. In particular, its use does not disable
70 the warnings in the 'portability-recursive' category anymore.
74 - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now use the
75 ' --build-dir' option, to keep the auxiliary files used by texi2dvi
76 and texi2pdf around without cluttering the build directory, and to
77 make it possible to run the "dvi" and "pdf" recipes in parallel.
79 * Automatic remake rules and 'missing' script:
81 - The 'missing' script does not try anymore to update the timestamp
82 of out-of-date files that require a maintainer-specific tool to be
83 remade, in case the user lacks such a tool (or has a too-old version
84 of it). It just give a useful warning, and in some cases also a tip
85 about how to obtain such a tool.
87 - The missing script has thus become useless as a (poor) way to work
88 around the sketched-timestamps issues that can happen for projects
89 that keep generated files committed in their VCS repository. Such
90 projects are now encouraged to write a custom "fix-timestamps.sh"
91 script to avoid such issues; a simple example is provided in the
92 "CVS and generated files" chapter of the automake manual.
96 The user can now define his own recursive targets that recurse
97 in the directories specified in $(SUBDIRS). This can be done by
98 specifying the name of such targets in invocations of the new
99 'AM_EXTRA_RECURSIVE_TARGETS' m4 macro.
101 - Any failure in the recipe of the "tags", "ctags", "cscope" or
102 "cscopelist" targets in a subdirectory is now propagated to the
103 top-level make invocation.
105 * Improvements to aclocal and related rebuilds rules:
107 - The Autoconf-provided macro AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR is now traced by
108 aclocal, and can be used to declare the local m4 include directory.
109 Formerly, one had to specify it with an explicit '-I' option to the
110 'aclocal' invocation.
112 - The special make variable ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS is deprecated; future
113 Automake versions will warn about its use, and later version will
114 remove support for it altogether.
116 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
120 * WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
122 - Future versions of Automake will likely drop support for the
123 long-deprecated 'configure.in' name for the Autoconf input file.
124 You are advised to use the recommended name 'configure.ac' instead.
126 - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the rules to
127 build pdf, ps and dvi output from Texinfo input will use the '--tidy'
128 option by default. Since such an option was introduced in Texinfo
129 4.9, this means that Makefiles generated by future Automake versions
130 will require at least that version of Texinfo.
132 - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the parallel
133 testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the 'parallel-tests'
134 option) will become the default one; the older serial testsuite
135 harness will still be available through the use of the 'serial-tests'
138 - Support for the two- and three-arguments invocation forms of the
139 AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro is deprecated, and will be removed in the
140 next major Automake version (1.13).
142 - The exact order in which the directories in the aclocal macro
143 search path are looked up is probably going to be changed in the
144 next Automake release (1.13).
146 - The 'missing' script will not try anymore to update the timestamp
147 of out-of-date files that require a maintainer-specific tool to be
148 remade, in case the user lacks such a tool (or has a too-old version
149 of it). In fact, starting from Automake 1.13, all it'll do will be
150 giving more useful warnings than a bare "command not found" from a
153 * Miscellaneous changes:
155 - The '.m4' files provided by Automake does not define serial numbers
156 anymore. This should cause no difference in the behaviour of aclocal
159 - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
161 Bugs fixed in 1.12.3:
163 * Long-standing bugs:
165 - Instead of renaming only self-references of files (typically for
166 #lines), ylwrap now also renames references to the other generated
167 files. This fixes support for GLR and C++ parsers from Bison (PR
168 automake/491 and automake bug#7648): 'parser.c' now properly
169 #includes 'parser.h' instead of 'y.tab.h'.
171 - Generated files unknown to ylwrap are now preserved. This fixes
172 C++ support for Bison (automake bug#7648): location.hh and the
173 like are no longer discarded.
175 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
179 * Warnings and deprecations:
181 - Automake now issues a warning (in the 'portability' category) if
182 'configure.in' is used instead of 'configure.ac' as the Autoconf
183 input file. Such a warning will also be present in the next
184 Autoconf version (2.70).
188 - Recursive cleaning rules descends into the $(SUBDIRS) in the natural
189 order (as done by the other recursive rules), rather than in the
190 inverse order. They used to do that in order to work a round a
191 limitation in an older implementation of the automatic dependency
192 tracking support, but that limitation had been lifted years ago
193 already, when the automatic dependency tracking based on side-effects
194 of compilation had been introduced.
196 - Cleaning rules for compiled objects (both "plain" and libtool) work
197 better when subdir objects are involved, not triggering a distinct
198 'rm' invocation for each such object. They do so by removing *any*
199 compiled object file that is in the same directory of a subdir
200 object. See automake bug#10697.
202 * Silent rules support:
204 - A new predefined $(AM_V_P) make variable is provided; it expands
205 to a shell conditional that can be used in recipes to know whether
206 make is being run in silent or verbose mode.
208 Bugs fixed in 1.12.2:
210 * SECURITY VULNERABILITIES!
212 - The 'distcheck' recipe no longer grants temporary world-write
213 permissions on the extracted distdir. Even if such rights were
214 only granted for a vanishingly small time window, the implied
215 race condition proved to be enough to allow a local attacker
216 to run arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running
217 "make distcheck". This is CVE-2012-3386.
219 * Long-standing bugs:
221 - The "recheck" targets behaves better in the face of build failures
222 related to previously failed tests. For example, if a test is a
223 compiled program that must be rerun by "make recheck", and its
224 compilation fails, it will still be rerun by further "make recheck"
225 invocations. See automake bug#11791.
227 * Bugs introduced by 1.12.1:
229 - Automake provides once again the '$(mkdir_p)' make variable and the
230 '@mkdir_p@' substitution (both as simple aliases for '$(MKDIR_P)'),
231 for better backward-compatibility.
233 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
237 * New supported languages:
239 - Support for Objective C++ has been added; it should work similarly to
240 the support for Objective C.
242 * Deprecated obsolescent features:
244 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
245 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro now elicits a warning in the 'obsolete'
246 category. Starting from the next major Automake release (1.13), such
247 usages won't be allowed anymore.
249 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (enabled by the 'cygnus' option) is
250 now deprecated (its use triggers a warning in the 'obsolete' category).
251 It will be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13).
253 - The long-obsolete (since 1.10) automake-provided $(mkdir_p) make
254 variable, @mkdir_p@ configure-time substitution and AM_PROG_MKDIR
255 m4 macro are deprecated, eliciting a warning in the 'obsolete'
258 * Miscellaneous changes:
260 - The Automake test cases now require a proper POSIX-conforming shell.
261 Older non-POSIX Bourne shells (like Solaris 10 /bin/sh) won't be
262 accepted anymore. In most cases, the user shouldn't have to specify
263 such POSIX shell explicitly, since it will be looked up at configure
264 time. Still, when this lookup fails, or when the user wants to
265 override its conclusion, the variable 'AM_TEST_RUNNER_SHELL' can be
266 used (pointing to the shell that will be used to run the Automake
269 Bugs fixed in 1.12.1:
271 * Bugs introduced by 1.12:
273 - Several weaknesses in Automake's own build system and test suite
276 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
278 - When given non-option arguments, aclocal rejects them, instead of
279 silently ignoring them.
281 * Long-standing bugs:
283 - When the 'color-tests' option is in use, forcing of colored testsuite
284 output through "AM_COLOR_TESTS=always" works even if the terminal is
285 a non-ANSI one, i.e., if the TERM environment variable has a value of
288 - Several inefficiencies and poor performances in the implementation
289 of the parallel-tests 'check' and 'recheck' targets have been fixed.
291 - The post-processing of output "#line" directives done the ylwrap
292 script is more faithful w.r.t. files in a subdirectory; for example,
293 if the processed file is "src/grammar.y", ylwrap will correctly
294 produce directives like:
295 #line 7 "src/grammar.y"
300 * Bugs with new Perl versions:
302 - Aclocal works correctly with perl 5.16.0 (automake bug#11543).
304 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
308 * Obsolete features removed:
310 - The never documented nor truly used script 'acinstall' has been
313 - Support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been removed.
315 - The support for the "obscure" multilib feature has been removed
316 from Automake core (but remains available in the 'contrib/'
317 directory of the Automake distribution).
319 - Support for ".log -> .html" conversion and the check-html and
320 recheck-html targets has been removed from Automake core (but
321 remains available in the 'contrib/' directory of the Automake
324 - The deprecated 'lzma' compression format for distribution archives
325 has been removed, in favor of 'xz' and 'lzip'.
327 - The obsolete AM_WITH_REGEX macro has been removed.
329 - The long-deprecated options '--output-dir', '--Werror' and
330 '--Wno-error' have been removed.
332 - The chapter on the history of Automake has been moved out of the
333 reference manual, into a new dedicated Texinfo file.
337 - New 'cscope' target to build a cscope database for the source tree.
339 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
341 - The new automake option 'serial-tests' has been introduced. It can
342 be used to explicitly instruct automake to use the older serial
343 testsuite harness. This is still the default at the moment, but it
344 might change in future versions.
346 - The 'recheck' target (provided by the parallel testsuite harness) now
347 depends on the 'all' target. This allows for a better user-experience
348 in test-driven development. See automake bug#11252.
350 - Test scripts that exit with status 99 to signal an "hard error" (e.g.,
351 and unexpected or internal error, or a failure to set up the test case
352 scenario) have their outcome reported as an 'ERROR' now. Previous
353 versions of automake reported such an outcome as a 'FAIL' (the only
354 difference with normal failures being that hard errors were counted
355 as failures even when the test originating them was listed in
358 - The testsuite summary displayed by the parallel-test harness has a
359 completely new format, that always list the numbers of passed, failed,
360 xfailed, xpassed, skipped and errored tests, even when these numbers
361 are zero (but using smart coloring when the color-tests option is in
364 - The default testsuite driver offered by the 'parallel-tests' option is
365 now implemented (partly at least) with the help of automake-provided
366 auxiliary scripts (e.g., 'test-driver'), instead of relying entirely
367 on code in the generated Makefile.in.
368 This has two noteworthy implications. The first one is that projects
369 using the 'parallel-tests' option should now either run automake with
370 the '--add-missing' option, or manually copy the 'test-driver' script
371 into their tree. The second, and more important, implication is that
372 now, when the 'parallel-tests' option is in use, TESTS_ENVIRONMENT can
373 not be used anymore to define a test runner, and the command specified
374 in LOG_COMPILER (and <ext>_LOG_COMPILER) must be a *real* executable
375 program or script. For example, this is still a valid usage (albeit
378 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
379 if test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS)'; then \
380 maybe_errexit='-e'; \
384 LOG_COMPILER = $(SHELL) $$maybe_errexit
386 while this is not anymore:
388 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
389 $(SHELL) `test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS_CHECKING)' && echo ' -e'`
393 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
394 run_with_perl_or_shell () \
396 if grep -q '^#!.*perl' $$1; then
402 LOG_COMPILER = run_with_perl_or_shell
404 - The package authors can now use customary testsuite drivers within
405 the framework provided by the 'parallel-tests' testsuite harness.
406 Consistently with the existing syntax, this can be done by defining
407 special makefile variables 'LOG_DRIVER' and '<ext>_LOG_DRIVER'.
409 - A new developer-reserved variable 'AM_TESTS_FD_REDIRECT' can be used
410 to redirect/define file descriptors used by the test scripts.
412 - The parallel-tests harness generates now, in addition the '.log' files
413 holding the output produced by the test scripts, a new set of '.trs'
414 files, holding "metadata" derived by the execution of the test scripts;
415 among such metadata are the outcomes of the test cases run by a script.
417 - Initial and still experimental support for the TAP test protocol is
420 * Changes to Yacc and Lex support:
422 - C source and header files derived from non-distributed Yacc and/or
423 Lex sources are now removed by a simple "make clean" (while they were
424 previously removed only by "make maintainer-clean").
426 - Slightly backward-incompatible change, relevant only for use of Yacc
427 with C++: the extensions of the header files produced by the Yacc
428 rules are now modelled after the extension of the corresponding
429 sources. For example, yacc files named "foo.y++" and "bar.yy" will
430 produce header files named "foo.h++" and "bar.hh" respectively, where
431 they would have previously produced header files named simply "foo.h"
432 and "bar.h". This change offers better compatibility with 'bison -o'.
434 * Miscellaneous changes:
436 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro now causes configure to exit with status 77,
437 rather than 1, if the vala compiler found is too old.
439 - The build system of Automake itself now avoids the use of make
440 recursion as much as possible.
442 - Automake now prefers to quote 'like this' or "like this", rather
443 than `like this', in diagnostic message and generated Makefiles,
444 to accommodate the new GNU Coding Standards recommendations.
446 - Automake has a new option '--print-libdir' that prints the path of the
447 directory containing the Automake-provided scripts and data files.
449 - The 'dist' and 'dist-all' targets now can run compressors in parallel.
451 - The rules to create pdf, dvi and ps output from Texinfo files now
452 works better with modern 'texi2dvi' script, by explicitly passing
453 it the '--clean' option to ensure stray auxiliary files are not
454 left to clutter the build directory.
456 - Automake can now generate silenced rules for texinfo outputs.
458 - Some auxiliary files that are automatically distributed by Automake
459 (e.g., 'install-sh', or the 'depcomp' script for packages compiling
460 C sources) might now be listed in the DIST_COMMON variable in many
461 Makefile.in files, rather than in the top-level one.
463 - Messages of types warning or error from 'automake' and 'aclocal'
464 are now prefixed with the respective type, and presence of -Werror
467 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now tries to avoid
468 sleeping for a second, which slowed down cached configure runs
469 noticeably. In that case, it will check back at the end of the
470 configure script to ensure that at least one second has passed, to
471 avoid time stamp issues with makefile rules rerunning autotools
474 - The warnings in the category 'extra-portability' are now enabled by
475 '-Wall'. In previous versions, one has to use '-Wextra-portability'
480 - Various minor bugfixes for recent or long-standing bugs.
482 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
484 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
485 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
487 - The automake-provided parallel testsuite harness does not fail anymore
488 with BSD make used in parallel mode when there are test scripts in a
489 subdirectory, like in:
491 TESTS = sub/foo.test sub/bar.test
493 * Long-standing bugs:
495 - Automake's own build system finally have a real "installcheck" target.
497 - Vala-related cleanup rules are now more complete, and work better in
500 - Files listed with the AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE macro in configure.ac are
501 now automatically distributed also if the directory of the auxiliary
502 files coincides with the top-level directory.
504 - Automake now detects the presence of the '-d' flag in the various
505 '*YFLAGS' variables even when their definitions involve indirections
506 through other variables, such as in:
508 AM_YFLAGS = $(foo_opts)
510 - Automake now complains if a '*YFLAGS' variable has any conditional
511 content, not only a conditional definition.
513 - Explicit enabling and/or disabling of Automake warning categories
514 through the '-W...' options now always takes precedence over the
515 implicit warning level implied by Automake strictness (foreign, gnu
516 or gnits), regardless of the order in which such strictness and
517 warning flags appear. For example, a setting like:
518 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = -Wall --foreign
519 will cause the warnings in category 'portability' to be enabled, even
520 if those warnings are by default disabled in 'foreign' strictness.
522 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
524 Bugs fixed in 1.11.5:
526 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
528 - Vala files with '.vapi' extension are now recognized and handled
529 correctly again. See automake bug#11222.
531 - Vala support work again for projects that contain some program
532 built from '.vala' (and possibly '.c') sources and some other
533 program built from '.c' sources *only*. See automake bug#11229.
535 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
539 * Miscellaneous changes:
541 - The 'ar-lib' script now ignores the "s" (symbol index) and "S" (no
542 symbol index) modifiers as well as the "s" action, as the symbol index
543 is created unconditionally by Microsoft lib. Also, the "q" (quick)
544 action is now a synonym for "r" (replace). Also, the script has been
545 ignoring the "v" (verbose) modifier already since Automake 1.11.3.
547 - When the 'compile' script is used to wrap MSVC, it now accepts an
548 optional space between the -I, -L and -l options and their respective
549 arguments, for better POSIX compliance.
551 - There is an initial, experimental support for automatic dependency
552 tracking with tcc (the Tiny C Compiler). Its associated depmode is
553 currently recognized as "icc" (but this and other details are likely
554 to change in future versions).
556 - Automatic dependency tracking now works also with the IBM XL C/C++
557 compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'xlc'.
559 Bugs fixed in 1.11.4:
561 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
563 - A definition of 'noinst_PYTHON' before 'python_PYTHON' (or similar)
564 don't cause spurious failures upon "make install" anymore.
566 - The user can now instruct the 'uninstall-info' rule not to update
567 the '${infodir}/dir' file by exporting the environment variable
568 'AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no". This is done for consistency
569 with how the 'install-info' rule operates since automake 1.11.2.
571 * Long-standing bugs:
573 - It is now possible for a foo_SOURCES variable to hold Vala sources
574 together with C header files, as well as with sources and headers for
575 other supported languages (e.g., C++). Previously, only mixing C and
576 Vala sources was supported.
578 - If "aclocal --install" is used, and the first directory specified with
579 '-I' is non-existent, aclocal will now create it before trying to copy
582 - An empty declaration of a "foo_PRIMARY" don't cause anymore the
583 generated install rules to create an empty $(foodir) directory;
584 for example, if Makefile.am contains something like:
588 pkglibexec_SCRIPTS += bar.sh
591 the $(pkglibexec) directory will not be created upon "make install".
593 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
597 * Miscellaneous changes:
599 - Automake's own build system is more silent by default, making use of
600 the 'silent-rules' option.
602 - The master copy of the `gnupload' script is now maintained in gnulib,
605 - The `missing' script doesn't try to wrap calls to `tar' anymore.
607 - "make dist" doesn't wrap `tar' invocations with the `missing' script
608 anymore. Similarly, the obsolescent variable `$(AMTAR)' (which you
609 shouldn't be using BTW ;-) does not invoke the missing script anymore
610 to wrap tar, but simply invokes the `tar' program itself.
612 - "make dist" can now create lzip-compressed tarballs.
614 - In the Automake info documentation, the Top node and the nodes about
615 the invocation of the automake and aclocal programs have been renamed;
616 now, calling "info automake" will open the Top node, while calling
617 "info automake-invocation" and "info aclocal-invocation" will access
618 the nodes about the invocation of respectively automake and aclocal.
620 - Automake is now distributed as a gzip-compressed and an xz-compressed
621 tarball. Previously, bzip2 was used instead of xz.
623 - The last relics of Python 1.5 support have been removed from the
624 AM_PATH_PYTHON macro.
626 - For programs and libraries, automake now detects EXTRA_foo_DEPENDENCIES
627 and adds them to the normal list of dependencies, but without
628 overwriting the foo_DEPENDENCIES variable, which is normally computed
631 Bugs fixed in 1.11.3:
633 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
635 - Automake now correctly recognizes the prefix/primary combination
636 `pkglibexec_SCRIPTS' as valid.
638 - The parallel-tests harness doesn't trip anymore on sed implementations
639 with stricter limits on the length of input lines (problem seen at
642 * Long-standing bugs:
644 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.am files is avoided by stub
645 rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `automake' also if
646 some previously needed `.am' file has been removed.
648 - The `silent-rules' option now generates working makefiles even
649 for the uncommon `make' implementations that do not support the
650 nested-variables extension to POSIX 2008. For such `make'
651 implementations, whether a build is silent is determined at
652 configure time, and cannot be overridden at make time with
653 `make V=0' or `make V=1'.
655 - Vala support now works better in VPATH setups.
657 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
661 * Changes to aclocal:
663 - The `--acdir' option is deprecated. Now you should use the new options
664 `--automake-acdir' and `--system-acdir' instead.
666 - The `ACLOCAL_PATH' environment variable is now interpreted as a
667 colon-separated list of additional directories to search after the
668 automake internal acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal-APIVERSION)
669 and before the system acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal).
671 * Miscellaneous changes:
673 - The Automake support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been
674 deprecated. It will probably be removed in the next major Automake
677 - The `lzma' compression scheme and associated automake option `dist-lzma'
678 is obsoleted by `xz' and `dist-xz' due to upstream changes.
680 - You may adjust the compression options used in dist-xz and dist-bzip2.
681 The default is now merely -e for xz, but still -9 for bzip; you may
682 specify a different level via the XZ_OPT and BZIP2 envvars respectively.
683 E.g., "make dist-xz XZ_OPT=-7" or "make dist-bzip2 BZIP2=-5"
685 - The `compile' script now converts some options for MSVC for a better
686 user experience. Similarly, the new `ar-lib' script wraps Microsoft lib.
688 - The py-compile script now accepts empty arguments passed to the options
689 `--destdir' and `--basedir', and complains about unrecognized options.
690 Moreover, a non-option argument or a special `--' argument terminates
693 - A developer that needs to pass specific flags to configure at "make
694 distcheck" time can now, and indeed is advised to, do so by defining
695 the developer-reserved makefile variable AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS,
696 instead of the old DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS.
697 The DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS variable should now be reserved for the
698 user; still, the old Makefile.am files that used to define it will
699 still continue to work as before.
701 - New macro AM_PROG_AR that looks for an archiver and wraps it in the new
702 'ar-lib' auxiliary script if the selected archiver is Microsoft lib.
703 This new macro is required for LIBRARIES and LTLIBRARIES when automake
704 is run with -Wextra-portability and -Werror.
706 - When using DejaGnu-based testsuites, the user can extend the `site.exp'
707 file generated by automake-provided rules by defining the special make
708 variable `$(EXTRA_DEJAGNU_SITE_CONFIG)'.
710 - The `install-info' rule can now be instructed not to create/update
711 the `${infodir}/dir' file, by exporting the new environment variable
712 `AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no".
714 Bugs fixed in 1.11.2:
716 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
718 - The parallel-tests driver no longer produces erroneous results with
719 Tru64/OSF 5.1 sh upon unreadable log files.
721 - The `parallel-tests' test driver does not report spurious successes
722 when used with concurrent FreeBSD make (e.g., "make check -j3").
724 - When the parallel-tests driver is in use, automake now explicitly
725 rejects invalid entries and conditional contents in TEST_EXTENSIONS,
726 instead of issuing confusing and apparently unrelated error messages
727 (e.g., "non-POSIX variable name", "bad characters in variable name",
728 or "redefinition of TEST_EXTENSIONS), or even, in some situations,
729 silently producing broken `Makefile.in' files.
731 - The `silent-rules' option now truly silences all compile rules, even
732 when dependency tracking is disabled. Also, when `silent-rules' is
733 not used, `make' output no longer contains spurious backslash-only
734 lines, thus once again matching what Automake did before 1.11.
736 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
737 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
739 * Long-standing bugs:
741 - The order of Yacc and Lex flags is fixed to be consistent with other
742 languages: $(AM_YFLAGS) comes before $(YFLAGS), and $(AM_LFLAGS) before
743 $(LFLAGS), so that the user variables override the developer variables.
745 - "make distcheck" now correctly complains also when "make uninstall"
746 leaves one and only one file installed in $(prefix).
748 - A "make uninstall" issued before a "make install", or after a mere
749 "make install-data" or a mere "make install-exec" does not spuriously
752 - Automake now warns about more primary/directory invalid combinations,
753 such as "doc_LIBRARIES" or "pkglib_PROGRAMS".
755 - Rules generated by Automake now try harder to not change any files when
756 `make -n' is invoked. Fixes include compilation of Emacs Lisp, Vala, or
757 Yacc source files and the rule to update config.h.
759 - Several scripts and the parallel-tests testsuite driver now exit with
760 the right exit status upon receiving a signal.
762 - A per-Makefile.am setting of -Werror does not erroneously carry over
763 to the handling of other Makefile.am files.
765 - The code for automatic dependency tracking works around a Solaris
766 make bug triggered by sources containing repeated slashes when the
767 `subdir-objects' option was used.
769 - The makedepend and hp depmodes now work better with VPATH builds.
771 - Java sources specified with check_JAVA are no longer compiled for
772 "make all", but only for "make check".
774 - An usage like "java_JAVA = foo.java" will now cause Automake to warn
775 and error out if `javadir' is undefined, instead of silently producing
776 a broken Makefile.in.
778 - aclocal and automake now honour the configure-time definitions of
779 AUTOCONF and AUTOM4TE when they spawn autoconf or autom4te processes.
781 - The `install-info' recipe no longer tries to guess whether the
782 `install-info' program is from Debian or from GNU, and adaptively
783 change its behaviour; this has proven to be frail and easy to
786 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
788 Bugs fixed in 1.11.1:
790 - Lots of minor bugfixes.
792 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
794 - The `parallel-tests' test driver works around a GNU make 3.80 bug with
795 trailing white space in the test list (`TESTS = foo $(EMPTY)').
797 * Long standing bugs:
799 - On Darwin 9, `pythondir' and `pyexecdir' pointed below `/Library/Python'
800 even if the `--prefix' argument pointed outside of a system directory.
801 AM_PATH_PYTHON has been fixed to ignore the value returned from python's
802 `get_python_lib' function if it points outside the configured prefix,
803 unless the `--prefix' argument was either `/usr' or below `/System'.
805 - The testsuite does not try to change the mode of `ltmain.sh' files from
806 a Libtool installation (symlinked to test directories) any more.
808 - AM_PROG_GCJ uses AC_CHECK_TOOLS to look for `gcj' now, so that prefixed
809 tools are preferred in a cross-compile setup.
811 - The distribution is tarred up with mode 755 now by the `dist*' targets.
812 This fixes a race condition where untrusted users could modify files
813 in the $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION) distdir before packing if the toplevel
814 build directory was world-searchable. This is CVE-2009-4029.
816 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
820 * Version requirements:
822 - Autoconf 2.62 or greater is required.
824 * Changes to aclocal:
826 - The autoconf version check implemented by aclocal in aclocal.m4
827 (and new in Automake 1.10) is degraded to a warning. This helps
828 in the common case where the Autoconf versions used are compatible.
830 * Changes to automake:
832 - The automake program can run multiple threads for creating most
833 Makefile.in files concurrently, if at least Perl 5.7.2 is available
834 with interpreter-based threads enabled. Set the environment variable
835 AUTOMAKE_JOBS to the maximum number of threads to use, in order to
836 enable this experimental feature.
838 * Changes to Libtool support:
840 - Libtool generic flags are now passed to the install and uninstall
843 - distcheck works with Libtool 2.x even when LT_OUTPUT is used, as
844 config.lt is removed correctly now.
848 - subdir-object mode works now with Fortran (F77, FC, preprocessed
849 Fortran, and Ratfor).
851 - For files with extension .f90, .f95, .f03, or .f08, the flag
852 $(FCFLAGS_f[09]x) computed by AC_FC_SRCEXT is now used in compile rules.
854 - Files with extension .sx are also treated as preprocessed assembler.
856 - The default source file extension (.c) can be overridden with
857 AM_DEFAULT_SOURCE_EXT now.
859 - Python 3.0 is supported now, Python releases prior to 2.0 are no
862 - AM_PATH_PYTHON honors python's idea about the site directory.
864 - There is initial support for the Vala programming language, when using
867 * Miscellaneous changes:
869 - Automake development is done in a git repository on Savannah now, see
871 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=automake.git
873 A read-only CVS mirror is provided at
875 cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@pserver.git.sv.gnu.org:/automake.git \
876 checkout -d automake HEAD
878 - "make dist" can now create xz-compressed tarballs,
879 as well as (deprecated?) lzma-compressed tarballs.
881 - `automake --add-missing' will by default install the GPLv3 file as
882 COPYING if it is missing. It will also warn that the license file
883 should be added to source control. Note that Automake will never
884 overwrite an existing COPYING file, even when the `--force-missing'
887 - The manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL 1.3.
889 - Automake ships and installs man pages for automake and aclocal now.
891 - New shorthand `$(pkglibexecdir)' for `$(libexecdir)/@PACKAGE@'.
893 - install-sh supports -C, which does not update the installed file
894 (and its time stamps) if the contents did not change.
896 - The `gnupload' script has been revamped.
898 - The `depcomp' and `compile' scripts now work with MSVC under MSYS.
900 - The targets `install' and `uninstall' are more efficient now, in that
901 for example multiple files from one Automake variable such as
902 `bin_SCRIPTS' are copied in one `install' (or `libtool --mode=install')
903 invocation if they do not have to be renamed.
905 Both install and uninstall may sometimes enter (`cd' into) the target
906 installation directory now, when no build-local scripts are used.
908 Both install and uninstall do not fail anymore but do nothing if an
909 installation directory variable like `bindir' is set to the empty string.
911 For built-in rules, `make install' now fails reliably if installation
912 of a file failed. Conversely, `make uninstall' even succeeds when
913 issued multiple times.
915 These changes may need some adjustments from users: For example,
916 some `install' programs refuse to install multiple copies of the
917 same file in one invocation, so you may need to remove duplicate
918 entries from file lists.
920 Also, within one set of files, say, nobase_data_DATA, the order of
921 installation may be changed, or even unstable among different hosts,
922 due to the use of associative arrays in awk. The increased use of
923 awk matches a similar move in Autoconf to provide for better scaling.
925 Further, most undocumented per-rule install command variables such as
926 binSCRIPT_INSTALL have been removed because they are not needed any
927 more. Packages which use them should be using the appropriate one of
928 INSTALL_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT} or their install_sh_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT}
929 counterpart, depending on the type of files and the need for automatic
930 target directory creation.
932 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.m4 files is avoided by
933 stub rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `aclocal'
934 also if some previously needed macro file has been removed.
936 - Rebuild rules now also work for a removed `subdir/Makefile.in' in
937 an otherwise up to date tree.
939 - The `color-tests' option causes colored test result output on terminals.
941 - The `parallel-tests' option enables a new test driver that allows for
942 parallel test execution, inter-test dependencies, lazy test execution
943 for unit-testing, re-testing only failed tests, and formatted result output
944 as RST (reStructuredText) and HTML. Enabling this option may require some
945 changes to your test suite setup; see the manual for details.
947 - The `silent-rules' option enables Linux kernel-style silent build output.
948 This option requires the widely supported but non-POSIX `make' feature
949 of recursive variable expansion, so do not use it if your package needs
950 to build with `make' implementations that do not support it.
952 To enable less verbose build output, the developer has to use the Automake
953 option `silent-rules' in `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE', or call the `AM_SILENT_RULES'
954 macro. The user may then set the default verbosity by passing the
955 `--enable-silent-rules' option to `configure'. At `make' run time, this
956 default may be overridden using `make V=0' for less verbose, and `make V=1'
957 for backward-compatible verbose output.
959 - New prefix `notrans_' for manpages which should not be transformed
960 by --program-transform.
962 - New macro AM_COND_IF for conditional evaluation and conditional
965 - For AC_CONFIG_LINKS, if source and destination are equal, do not
966 remove the file in a non-VPATH build. Such setups work with Autoconf
969 - AM_MAINTAINER_MODE now allows for an optional argument specifying
972 - AM_SUBST_NOTMAKE may prevent substitution of AC_SUBSTed variables,
973 useful especially for multi-line values.
975 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now diagnoses an
976 unsafe absolute source directory name and makes configure fail.
978 - The Automake macros and rules cope better with whitespace in the
979 current directory name, as long as the relative path to `configure'
980 does not contain whitespace. To this end, the values of `$(MISSING)'
981 and `$(install_sh)' may contain suitable quoting, and their expansion
982 might need `eval'uation if used outside of a makefile. These
983 undocumented variables may be used in several documented macros such
984 as $(AUTOCONF) or $(MAKEINFO).
988 * Long-standing bugs:
990 - Fix aix dependency tracking for libtool objects.
992 - Work around AIX sh quoting issue in AC_PROG_CC_C_O, leading to
993 unnecessary use of the `compile' script.
995 - For nobase_*_LTLIBRARIES with nonempty directory components, the
996 correct `-rpath' argument is used now.
998 - `config.status --file=Makefile depfiles' now also works with the
999 extra quoting used internally by Autoconf 2.62 and newer
1000 (it used to work only without the `--file=' bit).
1002 - The `missing' script works better with versioned tool names.
1004 - Semantics for `missing help2man' have been revamped:
1006 Previously, if `help2man' was not present, `missing help2man' would have
1007 the following semantics: if some man page was out of date but present, then
1008 a warning would be printed, but the exit status was 0. If the man page was
1009 not present at all, then `missing' would create a replacement man page
1010 containing an error message, and exit with a status of 2. This does not play
1011 well with `make': the next run will see this particular man page as being up
1012 to date, and will only error out on the next generated man page, if any;
1013 repeat until all pages are done. This was not desirable.
1015 These are the new semantics: if some man page is not present, and help2man
1016 is not either, then `missing' will warn and generate the replacement page
1017 containing the error message, but exit successfully. However, `make dist'
1018 will ensure that no such bogus man pages are packaged into a tarball.
1020 - Targets provided by automake behave better with `make -n', in that they
1021 take care not to create files.
1023 - `config.status Makefile... depfiles' works fine again in the presence of
1024 disabled dependency tracking.
1026 - The default no-op recursive rules for these targets also work with BSD make
1027 now: html, install-html, install-dvi, install-pdf, install-pdf, install-info.
1029 - `make distcheck' works also when both a directory and some file below it
1030 have been added to a distribution variable, such as EXTRA_DIST or *_SOURCES.
1032 - Texinfo dvi, ps, pdf, and html output files are not removed upon
1033 `make mostlyclean' any more; only the LaTeX by-products are.
1035 - Renamed objects also work with the `subdir-objects' option and
1036 source file languages which Automake does not know itself.
1038 - `automake' now correctly complains about variable assignments which are
1039 preceded by a comment, extend over multiple lines with backslash-escaped
1040 newlines, and end in a comment sign. Previous versions would silently
1041 and wrongly ignore such assignments completely.
1043 * Bugs introduced by 1.10:
1045 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
1046 Makefile.in's again, but also cope with long lines.
1048 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of XFAIL_TESTS
1049 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1050 This is for consistency with the analogous change to TESTS in 1.10.
1052 - Fix order of standard includes to again be `-I. -I$(srcdir)',
1053 followed by directories containing config headers.
1055 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1059 * Version requirements:
1061 - Autoconf 2.60 or greater is required.
1063 - Perl 5.6 or greater is required.
1065 * Changes to aclocal:
1067 - aclocal now also supports -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble options.
1069 - `dirlist' entries (for the aclocal search path) may use shell
1070 wildcards such as `*', `?', or `[...]'.
1072 - aclocal supports an --install option that will cause system-wide
1073 third-party macros to be installed in the local directory
1074 specified with the first -I flag. This option also uses #serial
1075 lines in M4 files to upgrade local macros.
1077 The new aclocal options --dry-run and --diff help to review changes
1078 before they are installed.
1080 - aclocal now outputs an autoconf version check in aclocal.m4 in
1081 projects using automake.
1083 For a few years, automake and aclocal have been calling autoconf
1084 (or its underlying engine autom4te) to accurately retrieve the
1085 data they need from configure.ac and its siblings. Doing so can
1086 only work if all autotools use the same version of autoconf. For
1087 instance a Makefile.in generated by automake for one version of
1088 autoconf may stop working if configure is regenerated with another
1089 version of autoconf, and vice versa.
1091 This new version check ensures that the whole build system has
1092 been generated using the same autoconf version.
1094 * Support for new Autoconf macros:
1096 - The new AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE Autoconf macro is supported.
1098 - If `subdir-objects' is set, and AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR is specified,
1099 $(LIBOBJS), $(LTLIBOBJS), $(ALLOCA), and $(LTALLOCA) can be used
1100 in different directories. However, only one instance of such a
1101 library objects directory is supported.
1103 * Change to Libtool support:
1105 - Libtool generic flags (those that go before the --mode=MODE option)
1106 can be specified using AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS and target_LIBTOOLFLAGS.
1108 * Yacc and Lex changes:
1110 - The rebuild rules for distributed Yacc and Lex output will avoid
1111 overwriting existing files if AM_MAINTAINER_MODE and maintainer-mode
1114 - ylwrap is now always used for lex and yacc source files,
1115 regardless of whether there is more than one source per directory.
1117 * Languages changes:
1119 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now honors CPPFLAGS,
1120 AM_CPPFLAGS and per-target _CPPFLAGS, and supports dependency
1121 tracking, unlike non-preprocessed assembler (*.s).
1123 - subdir-object mode works now with Assembler. Automake assumes
1124 that the compiler understands `-c -o'.
1126 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now also honors
1127 $(DEFS) $(DEFAULT_INCLUDES) $(INCLUDES).
1129 - Improved support for Objective C:
1130 - Autoconf's new AC_PROG_OBJC will enable automatic dependency tracking.
1131 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1133 - New support for Unified Parallel C:
1134 - AM_PROG_UPC looks for a UPC compiler.
1135 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1137 - Per-target flags are now correctly handled in link rules.
1139 For instance maude_CFLAGS correctly overrides AM_CFLAGS; likewise
1140 for maude_LDFLAGS and AM_LDFLAGS. Previous versions bogusly
1141 preferred AM_CFLAGS over maude_CFLAGS while linking, and they
1142 used both AM_LDFLAGS and maude_LDFLAGS on the same link command.
1144 The fix for compiler flags (i.e., using maude_CFLAGS instead of
1145 AM_CFLAGS) should not hurt any package since that is how _CFLAGS
1146 is expected to work (and actually works during compilation).
1148 However using maude_LDFLAGS "instead of" AM_LDFLAGS rather than
1149 "in addition to" breaks backward compatibility with older versions.
1150 If your package used both variables, as in
1152 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1153 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1154 a_LDFLAGS = more flags
1157 and assumed *_LDFLAGS would sum up, you should rewrite it as
1159 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1160 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1161 a_LDFLAGS = $(AM_LDFLAGS) more flags
1164 This new behavior of *_LDFLAGS is more coherent with other
1165 per-target variables, and the way *_LDFLAGS variables were
1166 considered internally.
1168 * New installation targets:
1170 - New targets mandated by GNU Coding Standards:
1175 By default they will only install Texinfo manuals.
1176 You can customize them with *-local variants:
1182 - The undocumented recursive target `uninstall-info' no longer exists.
1183 (`uninstall' is in charge of removing all possible documentation
1184 flavors, including optional formats such as dvi, ps, or info even
1185 when `no-installinfo' is used.)
1187 * Miscellaneous changes:
1189 - Automake no longer complains if input files for AC_CONFIG_FILES
1190 are specified using shell variables.
1192 - clean, distribution, or rebuild rules are normally disabled for
1193 inputs and outputs of AC_CONFIG_FILES, AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, and
1194 AC_CONFIG_LINK specified using shell variables. However, if these
1195 variables are used as ${VAR}, and AC_SUBSTed, then Automake will
1196 be able to output rules anyway.
1197 (See the Automake documentation for AC_CONFIG_FILES.)
1199 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of TESTS
1200 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1201 This is mostly useful when some check_PROGRAMS are listed in TESTS.
1203 - `-Wportability' has finally been turned on by default for `gnu' and
1204 `gnits' strictness. This means, automake will complain about %-rules
1205 or $(GNU Make functions) unless you switch to `foreign' strictness or
1206 use `-Wno-portability'.
1208 - Automake now uses AC_PROG_MKDIR_P (new in Autoconf 2.60), and uses
1209 $(MKDIR_P) instead of $(mkdir_p) to create directories. The
1210 $(mkdir_p) variable is still defined (to the same value as
1211 $(MKDIR_P)) but should be considered obsolete. If you are using
1212 $(mkdir_p) in some of your rules, please plan to update them to
1213 $(MKDIR_P) at some point.
1215 - AM_C_PROTOTYPES and ansi2knr are now documented as being obsolete.
1216 They still work in this release, but may be withdrawn in a future one.
1218 - Inline compilation rules for gcc3-style dependency tracking are
1221 - Automake installs a "Hello World!" example package in $(docdir).
1222 This example is used throughout the new "Autotools Introduction"
1223 chapter of the manual.
1225 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1229 * Makefile.in bloat reduction:
1231 - Inference rules are used to compile sources in subdirectories when
1232 the `subdir-objects' option is used and no per-target flags are
1233 used. This should reduce the size of some projects a lot, because
1234 Automake used to output an explicit rule for each such object in
1237 - Automake no longer outputs three rules (.o, .obj, .lo) for each
1238 object that must be built with explicit rules. It just outputs
1239 the rules required to build the kind of object considered: either
1240 the two .o and .obj rules for usual objects, or the .lo rule for
1243 * Change to Libtool support:
1245 - Libtool tags are used with libtool versions that support them.
1246 (I.e., with Libtool 1.5 or greater.)
1248 - Automake is now able to handle setups where a libtool library is
1249 conditionally installed in different directories, as in
1252 lib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1254 pkglib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1256 liba_la_SOURCES = ...
1258 * Changes to aclocal:
1260 - aclocal now ensures that AC_DEFUNs and AU_DEFUNs it discovers are
1261 really evaluated, before it decides to include them in aclocal.m4.
1262 This solves nasty problems with conditional redefinitions of
1263 Autoconf macros in /usr/share/aclocal/*.m4 files causing extraneous
1264 *.m4 files to be included in any project using these macros.
1265 (Calls to AC_PROG_EGREP causing libtool.m4 to be included is the
1266 most famous instance of this bug.)
1268 - Do not complain about missing conditionally AC_REQUIREd macros
1269 that are not actually used. In 1.8.x aclocal would correctly
1270 determine which of these macros were really needed (and include
1271 only these in the package); unfortunately it would also require
1272 all of them to be present in order to run. This created
1273 situations were aclocal would not work on a tarball distributing
1274 all the macros it uses. For instance running aclocal on a project
1275 containing only the subset of the Gettext macros in use by the
1276 project did not work, because gettext conditionally requires other
1279 * Portability improvements:
1281 - Tar format can be chosen with the new options tar-v7, tar-ustar, and
1282 tar-pax. The new option filename-length-max=99 helps diagnosing
1283 filenames that are too long for tar-v7. (PR/414)
1285 - Variables aumented with `+=' are now automatically flattened (i.e.,
1286 trailing backslashes removed) and then wrapped around 80 colummns
1287 (adding trailing backslashes). In previous versions, a long series
1293 would result in a single-line definition of VAR that could possibly
1294 exceed the maximum line length of some make implementations.
1296 Non-augmented variables are still output as they are defined in
1301 - Support Fortran 90/95 with the new "fc" and "ppfc" languages.
1302 Works the same as the old Fortran 77 implementation; just replace
1303 F77 with FC everywhere (exception: FFLAGS becomes FCFLAGS).
1304 Requires a version of autoconf which provides AC_PROG_FC (>=2.59).
1306 - Support for conditional _LISP.
1308 - Support for conditional -hook and -local rules (PR/428).
1310 - Diagnose AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR calls following AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. (PR/49)
1312 - Automake will not write any Makefile.ins after the first error it
1313 encounters. The previous Makefile.ins (if any) will be left in
1314 place. (Warnings will not prevent output, but remember they can
1315 be turned into errors with -Werror.)
1317 - The restriction that SUBDIRS must contain direct children is gone.
1320 - The manual tells more about SUBDIRS vs. DIST_SUBDIRS.
1321 It also gives an example of nested packages using AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS.
1323 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1325 Bugs fixed in 1.8.5:
1327 * Long-standing bugs:
1329 - Define DIST_SUBDIRS even when the `no-dist' or `cygnus' options are used
1330 so that `make distclean' and `make maintainer-clean' can work.
1332 - Define AR and ARFLAGS even when only EXTRA_LIBRARIES are defined.
1334 - Fix many rules to please FreeBSD make, which runs commands with `sh -e'.
1336 - Polish diagnostic when no input file is found.
1338 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1340 Bugs fixed in 1.8.4:
1342 * Long-standing bugs:
1344 - Fix AM_PATH_PYTHON to correctly display $PYTHON when it has been
1345 overridden by the user.
1347 - Honor PATH_SEPARATOR in various places of the Automake package, for
1350 - Adjust dependency tracking mode detection to ICC 8.0's new output.
1353 - Fix install-sh so it can install the `mv' binary... using `mv'.
1355 - Fix tru64 dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1357 - Work around Exuberant Ctags when creating a TAGS files in a directory
1358 without files to scan but with subdirectories to include.
1360 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1362 - Fix an "internal error" when @LIBOBJS@ is used in a variable that is
1363 not defined in the same conditions as the _LDADD that uses it.
1365 - Do not warn when JAVAROOT is overridden, this is legitimate.
1367 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1369 Bugs fixed in 1.8.3:
1371 * Long-standing bugs:
1373 - Quote filenames in installation rules, in case $DESTDIR, $prefix,
1374 or any of the other *dir variables contain a space.
1376 Please note that Automake does not and cannot support spaces in
1377 filenames that are involved during the build. This change affects
1378 only installation paths, so that `make install' does not bomb out
1379 in packages configured with
1380 ./configure --prefix '/c/Program Files'
1382 - Fix the depfiles output so it works with GNU sed (<4.1) even when
1383 POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.
1385 - Do not AC_SUBST(LIBOBJS) in AM_WITH_REGEX. This macro was unusable
1386 since Autoconf 2.54, which defines LIBOBJS itself.
1388 - Fix a potential (but unlikely) race condition in parallel elisp
1389 builds. (Introduced in 1.7.3.)
1391 - Do not assume that users override _DEPENDENCIES in all conditions
1392 where Automake will try to define them.
1394 - Do not use `mkdir -p' in mkinstalldirs, unless this is GNU mkdir.
1395 Solaris 8's `mkdir -p' is not thread-safe and can break parallel
1398 This fix also affects the $(mkdir_p) variable defined since
1399 Automake 1.8. It will be set to `mkdir -p' only if mkdir is GNU
1400 mkdir, and to `mkinstalldirs' or `install-sh -d' otherwise.
1402 - Secure temporary directory creation in `make distcheck'. (PR/413)
1404 - Do not generate two build rules for `parser.h' when the
1405 parser appears in two different conditionals.
1407 - Work around a Solaris 8 /bin/sh bug in the test for dependency
1408 checking. Usually ./configure will not pick this shell; so this
1409 fix only helps cases where the shell is forced to /bin/sh.
1411 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1413 - In some situations (hand-written `m4_include's), aclocal would
1414 call the `File::Spec->rel2abs' method, which was only introduced
1415 in Perl 5.6. This new version reestablish support Perl 5.005.
1417 It is likely that the next major Automake releases will require at
1418 least Perl 5.6. Consider upgrading your development environment
1419 if you are still using the five-year-old Perl 5.005.
1421 - Automake would sometimes fail to define rules for targets listed
1422 in variables defined in multiple conditions. For instance on
1428 it would define only the `a.$(OBJEXT): a.c' rule and omit the
1429 `b.$(OBJEXT): b.c' rule.
1431 * New sections in manual:
1433 - Third-Party Makefiles: how to interface third party Makefiles.
1434 - Upgrading: upgrading packages to newer Automake versions.
1435 - Multiple Outputs: handling tools that produce many outputs.
1437 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1441 * A (well known) portability bug slipped in the changes made to
1442 install-sh in Automake 1.8.1. The broken install-sh would refuse to
1443 install anything on Tru64.
1445 * Fix install rules for conditionally built python files. (This never
1448 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1452 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1454 - Fix Config.pm import error with old Perl versions (at least
1455 5.005_03). One symptom is that aclocal could not find its macro
1458 - Automake 1.8 used `mkdir -m 0755 -p --' to ensure that directories
1459 created by `make install' are always world readable, even if the
1460 installer happens to have an overly restrictive umask (e.g. 077).
1461 This was a mistake and has been reverted. There are at least two
1462 reasons why we must not use `-m 0755':
1463 - it causes special bits like SGID to be ignored,
1464 - it may be too restrictive (some setups expect 775 directories).
1466 - Fix aclocal to honor definitions located in files which have been
1467 m4_included manually. aclocal 1.8 had been updated to check
1468 m4_included files for new requirements, but forgot that these
1469 m4_included files can also provide new definitions.
1471 Note that if you have such a setup, we recommend you get rid of
1472 it. In the past, there was a reason to m4_include files manually:
1473 aclocal used to duplicate entire M4 files into aclocal.m4, even
1474 files that were distributed. Some packages were therefore
1475 m4_including the distributed file directly, and playing some
1476 tricks to ensure aclocal would not copy that file to aclocal.m4,
1477 in order to limit the amount of duplication. Since aclocal 1.8.x
1478 will precisely output m4_includes for local M4 files, we recommend
1479 that you clean up your setup, removing all manual m4_includes and
1480 letting aclocal output them.
1482 - Output detailed menus in the Info version if the Automake manual,
1483 so that Emacs can locate the indexes.
1485 - configure.ac and configure were listed twice in DIST_COMMON (an
1486 internal variable where Automake lists configury files to
1487 distribute). This was harmless, but unaesthetic.
1489 - Use `chmod a-w' instead of `chmod -w' as the latter honors umask.
1490 This was an issue only in the Automake package itself, not in
1493 - Automake assumed that all AC_CONFIG_LINKS arguments had the form
1494 DEST:SRC. This was wrong, as some packages do
1495 AC_CONFIG_LINKS($computedlinks). This version no longer abort in
1498 - Contrary to mkinstalldirs, $(mkdir_p) was expecting exactly one
1499 argument. This caused two kinds of failures:
1500 - Rules installing data in a conditionally defined directory
1501 failed when that directory was undefined. In this case no
1502 argument was supplied.
1503 - `make installdirs' failed, because several directories were
1504 passed to $(mkdir_p). This was an issue only on platform
1505 were $(mkdir_p) is implemented with `install-sh -d'.
1506 $(mkdir_p) as been changed to accept 0 or more arguments, as
1509 * Long-standing bugs:
1511 - Fix an unexpected diagnostic occurring when users attempt
1512 to override some internal variables that Automake appends to.
1514 - aclocal now scans configure.ac for macro definitions (PR/319).
1516 - Fix a portability issue with OSF1/Tru64 Make. If a directory
1517 distributes files which are outside itself (this usually occurs
1518 when using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([../dir]) to use auxiliary files
1519 from a parent package), then `make distcheck' fails due to an
1520 optimization performed by OSF1/Tru64 Make in its VPATH handling.
1521 (tests/subpkg2.test failure)
1523 - Fix another portability issue with Sun and OSF1/Tru64 Make.
1524 In a VPATH-build configuration, `make install' would install
1525 nobase_ files to wrong locations.
1527 - Fix a Perl `uninitialized value' diagnostic occurring when
1528 automake complains that a Texinfo file does not have a
1529 @setfilename statement.
1531 - Erase config.status.lineno during `make distclean'. This file
1532 can be created by config.status. Automake already knew about
1533 configure.lineno, but forgot config.status.lineno.
1535 - Distribute all files, even those which are built and installed
1536 conditionally. This change affects files listed in conditionally
1537 defined *_HEADERS and *_PYTHON variable (unless they are nodist_*)
1538 as well as those listed in conditionally defined dist_*_DATA,
1539 dist_*_JAVA, dist_*_LISP, and dist_*_SCRIPTS variables.
1541 - Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to avoid \? in sed regular expressions; it
1542 doesn't conform to POSIX.
1544 - Normalize help strings for configure variables and options added
1549 - Check for python2.4 in AM_PATH_PYTHON.
1551 * Spurious failures in test suite:
1553 - tests/libtool5.test, tests/ltcond.test, tests/ltcond2.test,
1554 tests/ltconv.test: fix failures with CVS Libtool.
1555 - tests/aclocal6.test: fix failure if autom4te.cache is disabled.
1556 - tests/txinfo24.test, tests/txinfo25.test, tests/txinfo28.test:
1557 fix failures with old Texinfo versions.
1559 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1565 - The NEWS file is more verbose.
1569 - Autoconf 2.58 or greater is required.
1573 - Default source file names in the absence of a _SOURCES declaration
1574 are made by removing any target extension before appending `.c', so
1575 to make the libtool module `foo.la' from `foo.c', you only need to
1578 lib_LTLIBRARIES = foo.la
1579 foo_la_LDFLAGS = -module
1581 For backward compatibility, foo_la.c will be used instead of
1582 foo.c if this file exists or is the explicit target of a rule.
1583 However -Wobsolete will warn about this deprecated naming.
1585 - AR's `cru' flags are now set in a global ARFLAGS variable instead
1586 of being hard-coded in each $(AR) invocation, so they can be
1587 substituted from configure.ac. This has been requested by people
1588 dealing with non-POSIX ar implementations.
1590 - New warning option: -Woverride. This will warn about any user
1591 target or variable definitions which override Automake
1594 - Texinfo rules back up and restore info files when makeinfo fails.
1596 - Texinfo rules now support the `html' target.
1597 Running this requires Texinfo 4.0 or greater.
1599 `html' is a new recursive target, so if your package mixes
1600 hand-crafted `Makefile.in's with Automake-generated
1601 `Makefile.in's, you should adjust the former to support (or
1602 ignore) this target so that `make html' recurses successfully. If
1603 you had a custom `html' rule in your `Makefile.am', it's better to
1604 rename it as `html-local', otherwise your rule will override
1605 Automake's new rule (you can check that by running `automake
1606 -Woverride') and that will stop the recursion to subdirectories.
1608 Last but not least, this `html' rule is declared PHONY, even when
1609 overridden. Fortunately, it appears that few packages use a
1610 non-PHONY `html' rule.
1612 - Any file which is m4_included from configure.ac will appear as a
1613 configure and Makefile.in dependency, and will be automatically
1616 - The rules for rebuilding Makefiles and Makefile.ins will now
1617 rebuild all Makefiles and all Makefile.ins at once when one of
1618 configure's dependencies has changed. This is considerably faster
1619 than previous implementations, where config.status and automake
1620 were run separately in each directory (this still happens when you
1621 change a Makefile.am locally, without touching configure.ac or
1622 friends). Doing this also solves a longstanding issue: these
1623 rebuild rules failed to work when adding new directories to the
1624 tree, forcing you to run automake manually.
1626 - For similar reasons, the rules to rebuild configure,
1627 config.status, and aclocal.m4 are now defined in all directories.
1628 Note that if you were using the CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES and
1629 CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES (formerly undocumented) variables, you
1630 should better define them in all directories. This is easily done
1631 using an AC_SUBST (make sure you prefix these dependencies with
1632 $(top_srcdir) since this variable will appear at different
1633 levels of the build tree).
1635 - aclocal will now use `m4_include' instead of copying local m4
1636 files into aclocal.m4. (Local m4 files are those you ship with
1637 your project, other files will be copied as usual.)
1639 Because m4_included files are automatically distributed, it means
1640 for most projects there is no point in EXTRA_DISTing the list of
1641 m4 files which are used. (You can probably get rid of
1642 m4/Makefile.am if you had one.)
1644 - aclocal will avoid touching aclocal.m4 when possible, so that
1645 Autom4te's cache isn't needlessly invalidated. This behavior can
1646 be switched off with the new `--force' option.
1648 - aclocal now uses Autoconf's --trace to detect macros which are
1649 actually used and will no longer include unused macros simply
1650 because they where mentioned. This was often the case for macros
1651 called conditionally.
1653 - New options no-dist and no-dist-gzip.
1655 - compile, depcomp, elisp-comp, install-sh, mdate-sh, mkinstalldirs,
1656 py-compile, and ylwrap, now all understand --version and --help.
1658 - Automake will now recognize AC_CONFIG_LINKS so far as removing created
1659 links as part of the distclean target and including source files in
1662 - AM_PATH_PYTHON now supports ACTION-IF-FOUND and ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND
1663 argument. The latter can be used to override the default behavior
1664 (which is to abort).
1666 - Automake will exit with $? = 63 on version mismatch. (So does
1667 Autoconf 2.58) missing knows this, and in this case it will
1668 emulate the tools as if they were absent. Because older versions
1669 of Automake and Autoconf did not use this exit code, this change
1670 will only be useful in projects generated with future versions of
1673 - When using AC_CONFIG_FILES with multiple input files, Automake
1674 generates the first ".in" input file for which a ".am" exists.
1675 (Former versions would try to use only the first input file.)
1677 - lisp_DATA is now allowed. If you are using the empty ELCFILES
1678 idiom to disable byte-compilation of lisp_LISP files, it is
1679 recommended that you switch to using lisp_DATA. Note that
1680 this is not strictly equivalent: lisp_DATA will install elisp
1681 files even if emacs is not installed, while *_LISP do not
1682 install anything unless emacs is found.
1684 - Makefiles will prefer `mkdir -p' over mkinstalldirs if it is
1685 available. This selection is achieved through the Makefile
1686 variable $(mkdir_p) that is set by AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE to either
1687 `mkdir -m 0755 -p --', `$(mkinstalldirs) -m 0755', or
1688 `$(install_sh) -m 0755 -d'.
1692 - Because `mkdir -p' is available on most platforms, and we can use
1693 `install-sh -d' when it is not, the use of the mkinstalldirs
1694 script is being phased out. `automake --add-missing' no longer
1695 installs it, and if you remove mkinstalldirs from your package,
1696 automake will define $(mkinstalldirs) as an alias for $(mkdir_p).
1698 Gettext 0.12.1 still requires mkinstalldirs. Fortunately
1699 gettextize and autopoint will install it when needed. Automake
1700 will continue to define the $(mkinstalldirs) and to distribute
1701 mkinstalldirs when this script is in the source tree.
1703 - AM_PROG_CC_STDC is now empty. The content of this macro was
1704 merged in AC_PROG_CC. If your code uses $am_cv_prog_cc_stdc, you
1705 should adjust it to use $ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc instead. (This
1706 renaming should be safe, even if you have to support several,
1707 versions of Automake, because AC_PROG_CC defines this variable
1708 since Autoconf 2.54.)
1710 - Some users where using the undocumented ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES
1711 variable to override the aclocal.m4 dependencies computed
1712 (inaccurately) by older versions of Automake. Because Automake
1713 now tracks configure's m4 dependencies accurately (see m4_include
1714 above), the use of ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES should be considered
1715 obsolete and will be flagged as such when running `automake
1720 - Defining programs conditionally using Automake conditionals no
1721 longer leads to a combinatorial explosion. The following
1722 construct used to be troublesome when used with dozens of
1737 Likewise for _SOURCES, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables.
1739 - Due to implementation constraints, previous versions of Automake
1740 proscribed multiple conditional definitions of some variables
1750 All _PROGRAMS, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables were affected.
1751 This restriction has been lifted, and these variables now
1752 support multiple conditional definitions as do other variables.
1754 - Cleanup the definitions of $(distdir) and $(top_distdir).
1755 $(top_distdir) now points to the root of the distribution
1756 directory created during `make dist', as it did in Automake 1.4,
1757 not to the root of the build tree as it did in intervening
1758 versions. Furthermore these two variables are now only defined in
1759 the top level Makefile, and passed to sub-directories when running
1762 - The --no-force option now correctly checks the Makefile.in's
1763 dependencies before deciding not to update it.
1765 - Do not assume that make files are called Makefile in cleaning rules.
1767 - Update .info files in the source tree, not in the build tree. This
1768 is what the GNU Coding Standard recommend. Only Automake 1.7.x
1769 used to update these files in the build tree (previous versions did
1770 it in the source tree too), and it caused several problems, varying
1771 from mere annoyance to portability issues.
1773 - COPYING, COPYING.LIB, and COPYING.LESSER are no longer overwritten
1774 when --add-missing and --force-missing are used. For backward
1775 compatibility --add-missing will continue to install COPYING (in
1776 `gnu' strictness) when none of these three files exist, but this
1777 use is deprecated: you should better choose a license yourself and
1778 install it once for all in your source tree (and in your code
1781 - Fix ylwrap so that it does not overwrite header files that haven't
1782 changed, as the inline rule already does.
1784 - User-defined rules override automake-defined rules for the same
1785 targets, even when rules do not have commands. This is not new
1786 (and was documented), however some of the automake-generated
1787 rules have escaped this principle in former Automake versions.
1788 Rules for the following targets are affected by this fix:
1790 clean, clean-am, dist-all, distclean, distclean-am, dvi, dvi-am,
1791 info, info-am, install-data-am, install-exec-am, install-info,
1792 install-info-am, install-man, installcheck-am, maintainer-clean,
1793 maintainer-clean-am, mostlyclean, mostlyclean-am, pdf, pdf-am,
1794 ps, ps-am, uninstall-am, uninstall-info, uninstall-man
1796 Practically it means that an attempt to supplement the dependencies
1797 of some target, as in
1799 clean: my-clean-rule
1801 will now *silently override* the automake definition of the
1802 rule for this target. Running `automake -Woverride' will diagnose
1803 all such overriding definitions.
1805 It should be noted that almost all of these targets support a *-local
1806 variant that is meant to supplement the automake-defined rule
1807 (See node `Extending' in the manual). The above rule should
1810 clean-local: my-clean-rule
1812 These *-local targets have been documented since at least
1813 Automake 1.2, so you should not fear the change if you have
1814 to support multiple automake versions.
1818 - The Automake manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
1820 - Targets dist-gzip, dist-bzip2, dist-tarZ, dist-zip are always defined.
1822 - core dumps are no longer removed by the cleaning rules. There are
1823 at least three reasons for this:
1824 1. These files should not be created by any build step,
1825 so their removal do not fit any of the cleaning rules.
1826 Actually, they may be precious to the developer.
1827 2. If such file is created during a build, then it's clearly a
1828 bug Automake should not hide. Not removing the file will
1829 cause `make distcheck' to complain about its presence.
1830 3. Operating systems have different naming conventions for
1831 core dump files. A core file on one system might be a
1832 completely legitimate data file on another system.
1834 - RUNTESTFLAGS, CTAGSFLAGS, ETAGSFLAGS, JAVACFLAGS are no longer
1835 defined by Automake. This means that any definition in the
1836 environment will be used, unless overridden in the Makefile.am or
1837 on the command line. The old behavior, where these variables were
1838 defined empty in each Makefile, can be obtained by AC_SUBSTing or
1839 AC_ARG_VARing each variable from configure.ac.
1841 - CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES and CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES are now
1842 documented. (The is not a new feature, these variables have
1843 been there since at least Automake 1.4.)
1845 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1847 Bugs fixed in 1.7.9:
1848 * Fix install-strip to work with nobase_ binaries.
1849 * Fix renaming of #line directives in ylwrap.
1850 * Rebuild with Autoconf 2.59. (1.7.8 was not installable with pdksh.)
1852 Bugs fixed in 1.7.8:
1853 * Remove spurious blank lines in cleaning rules introduced in 1.7.7.
1854 * Fix detection of Debian's install-info, broken since version 1.5.
1855 (Debian bug #213524).
1856 * Honor -module if it appears in AM_LDFLAGS (i.e., relax name checking)
1857 This was only done for libfoo_LDFLAGS and LDFLAGS in previous versions.
1859 Bugs fixed in 1.7.7:
1860 * The implementation of automake's --no-force option is unreliable,
1861 so this option is ignored in this version. A real fix will appear in
1862 Automake 1.8. (Debian Bug #206299)
1863 * AM_PATH_PYTHON: really check the whole list of interpreters if no
1864 argument is given. (PR/399)
1865 * Do not warn about leading `_' in variable names, even with -Wportability.
1866 * Support user redefinitions of TEXINFO_TEX.
1867 * depcomp: support AIX Compiler version 6.
1868 * Fix missing rebuilds during `make dist' with BSD make.
1869 (Could produce tarballs containing out-of-date files.)
1870 * Resurrect multilib support.
1871 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1872 - Extending aclocal: how to write m4 macros that won't trigger warnings
1874 - A Shared Library: Rewrite and split into subsections.
1876 Bugs fixed in 1.7.6:
1877 * Fix depcomp's icc mode for ICC 7.1.
1878 * Diagnose calls to AC_CONFIG_FILES and friends with not enough arguments.
1879 * Fix maintainer-clean's removal of autom4te.cache in VPATH builds.
1880 * Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to work with POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
1881 * Fix the location reported in some diagnostics related to AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
1882 * Remove Latin-1 characters from elisp-comp.
1883 * Update the manual's @dircategory to match the Free Software Directory.
1885 Bugs fixed in 1.7.5:
1886 * Update install-sh's license to remove an advertising clause.
1887 (Debian bug #191717)
1888 * Fix a bug introduced in 1.7.4, related to BUILT_SOURCE handling,
1889 that caused invalid Makefile.ins to be generated.
1890 * Make sure AM_MAKE_INCLUDE doesn't fail when a `doit' file exists.
1891 * New FAQ entry: renamed objects.
1893 Bugs fixed in 1.7.4:
1894 * Tweak the TAGS rule to support Exuberant Ctags (in addition to
1895 the Emacs implementation)
1896 * Fix output of aclocal.m4 dependencies in subdirectories.
1897 * Use `mv -f' instead of `mv' in fastdep rules.
1898 * Upgrade mdate-sh to work on OS/2.
1899 * Don't byte-compile elisp files when ELCFILES is set empty.
1900 (this documented feature was broken by 1.7.3)
1901 * Diagnose trailing backslashes on last line of Makefile.am.
1902 * Diagnose whitespace following trailing backslashes.
1903 * Multiple tests are now correctly supported in DEJATOOL. (PR/388)
1904 * Fix rebuilt rules for AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.bot])
1906 * `make install' will build `BUILT_SOURCES' first.
1907 * Minor documentation fixes.
1909 Bugs fixed in 1.7.3:
1910 * Fix stamp files numbering (when using multiple AC_CONFIG_HEADERS).
1911 * Query distutils for `pythondir' and `pythonexecdir', instead of
1912 using an hardcoded path. This should allow builds on 64-bit
1913 distributions that usually use lib64/ instead of lib/.
1914 * AM_PATH_PYTHON will also search for python2.3.
1915 * elisp files are now built all at once instead of one by one. Besides
1916 incurring a speed-up, this is required to support interdependent elisp files.
1917 * Support for DJGPP:
1918 - `make distcheck' will now work in `_inst/' and `_build' instead
1919 of `=inst/' and `=build/'
1920 - use `_dirstamp' when the file-system doesn't support `.dirstamp'
1921 - install/uninstall `*.i[0-9][0-9]'-style info files
1922 - more changes that affect only the Automake package (not its output)
1923 * Fix some incompatibilities with upcoming perl-5.10.
1924 * Properly quote AC_PACKAGE_TARNAME and AC_PACKAGE_VERSION when defining
1925 PACKAGE and VERSION.
1927 - dashmstdout and dashXmstdout modes: don't use `-o /dev/null', this
1928 is troublesome with gcc and Solaris compilers. (PR/385)
1929 - makedepend mode: work with Libtool. (PR/385 too)
1931 * better support for unusual gettext setups, such as multiple po/ directories
1933 - Flag missing po/ and intl/ directories as warnings, not errors.
1934 - Disable these warnings if po/ does not exist.
1935 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1937 - Document how AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR interacts with missing files.
1939 - Document `AM_YFLAGS = -d'. (PR/382)
1941 Bugs fixed in 1.7.2:
1942 * Fix installation and uninstallation of Info files built in subdirectories.
1943 * Do not run `./configure --with-included-gettext' during `make distcheck'
1944 if AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) is used.
1945 * Correctly uninstall renamed man pages.
1946 * Do not strip escaped newline in variables defined in one condition
1947 and augmented in another condition.
1948 * Fix ansi2knr rules for LIBOBJS sources.
1949 * Clean all known Texinfo index files, not only those which appear to
1950 be used, because we cannot know which indexes are used in included files.
1951 (PR/375, Debian Bug #168671)
1952 * Honor only the first @setfilename seen in a Texinfo file.
1953 * Treat "required file X not found" diagnostics as errors (exit status 1).
1954 * Don't complain that a required file is not found when it is a Makefile
1956 * Don't use single suffix inference rules when building `.info'-less
1957 Info files, for the sake of Solaris make.
1958 * The `check' target now depends on `$(BUILT_SOURCES)'. (PR/359)
1959 * Recognize multiple inference rules such as `.a.b .c.d:'. (PR/371)
1960 * Warn about multiple inference rules when -Wportability is used. (PR/372)
1961 * Fix building of deansified files from subdirectories. (PR/370)
1962 * Add missing `fi' in the .c->.obj rules.
1963 * Improve install-sh to work even when names contain spaces or certain
1964 (but not all) shell metachars.
1965 * Fix the following spurious failures in the test suite:
1966 depcomp2.test, gnits2.test, gnits3.test, python3.test, texinfo13.test
1967 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1968 - Augment the section about BUILT_SOURCES.
1969 - Mention that AM_PROG_CC_STDC is a relic that is better avoided today.
1971 Bugs fixed in 1.7.1:
1972 * Honor `ansi2knr' for files built in subdirectories, or using per-targets
1974 * Aclocal should now recognize macro names containing parentheses, e.g.
1975 AC_DEFUN([AC_LANG_PREPROC(Fortran 90)], [...]).
1976 * Erase *.sum and *.log files created by DejaGnu, during `make distclean'.
1978 * Install Python files even if they were built. (PR/369)
1979 * Have stamp-vti dependent upon configure instead of configure.ac, as the
1980 version might not be defined in the latter. (PR/358)
1981 * Reorder arguments passed to a couple of commands, so things works
1982 when POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
1983 * Fix a regex that can cause Perl to segfault on large input.
1985 * Fix distribution of packages that have some sources defined conditionally,
1986 as in the `Conditional compilation using Automake conditionals' example
1988 * Fix spurious test suite failures on IRIX.
1989 * Don't report a required variable as undefined if it has been
1990 defined conditionally for the "right" conditions.
1991 * Fix cleaning of the /tmp subdirectory used by `make distcheck', in case
1992 `make distcheck' fails.
1993 * Fix distribution of included Makefile fragment, so we don't create
1994 spurious directories in the distribution. (PR/366)
1995 * Don't complain that a target lacks `.$(EXEEXT)' when it has it.
1998 * Autoconf 2.54 is required.
1999 * `aclocal' and `automake' will no longer warn about obsolete
2000 configure macros. This is done by `autoconf -Wobsolete'.
2001 * AM_CONFIG_HEADER, AM_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS and
2002 AM_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ_NEEDS_SYS_IOCTL are obsolete (although still
2003 supported). You should use AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS,
2004 and AC_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ instead. `autoupdate' can upgrade
2005 `configure.ac' for you.
2006 * Support for per-program and per-library `_CPPFLAGS'.
2007 * New `ctags' target (builds CTAGS files).
2008 * Support for -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble, where mumble is a warning category
2009 (see `automake --help' or the manual for a list of them).
2010 * Honor the WARNINGS environment variable.
2011 * Omit the call to depcomp when using gcc3: call the compiler directly.
2012 * A new option, std-options, tests that programs support --help and --version
2013 when `make installcheck' is run. This is enabled by --gnits.
2014 * Texinfo rules now support the `ps' and `pdf' targets.
2015 * Info files are now created in the build directory, not the source directory.
2016 * info_TEXINFOS supports files in subdirectories (this requires Texinfo 4.1
2018 * `make distcheck' will enforce DESTDIR support by attempting
2020 * `+=' can be used in conditionals, even if the augmented variable
2021 was defined for another condition.
2022 * Makefile fragments (inserted with `include') are always distributed.
2023 * Use Autoconf's --trace interface to inspect configure.ac and get
2024 a more accurate view of it.
2025 * Add support for extending aclocal's default macro search path
2026 using a `dirlist' file within the aclocal directory.
2027 * automake --output-dir is deprecated.
2028 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether uninstall actually
2029 removes all installed files has been moved in a separate target,
2030 distuninstallcheck, so it can be overridden easily.
2034 * Support for AM_INIT_GETTEXT([external])
2035 * Bug fixes, including:
2036 - Fix Automake's own `make install' so it works even if `ln' doesn't.
2037 - nobase_ programs and scripts honor --program-transform correctly.
2038 - Erase configure.lineno during `make distclean'.
2039 - Erase YACC and LEX outputs during `make maintainer-clean'.
2042 * Many bug fixes, including:
2043 - Requiring the current version works.
2044 - Fix "$@" portability issues (for Zsh).
2045 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
2047 - Don't compute dependencies in background to avoid races with libtool.
2048 - Fix handling of _OBJECTS variables for targets sharing source variables.
2049 - Check dependency mode for Java when AM_PROG_GCJ is used.
2052 * automake --output-dir is deprecated
2053 * Many bug fixes, including:
2054 - Don't choke on AM_LDFLAGS definitions.
2055 - Clean libtool objects from subdirectories.
2056 - Allow configure variables with reserved suffix and unknown prefix
2057 (e.g. AC_SUBST(mumble_LDFLAGS) when 'mumble' is not a target).
2058 - Fix the definition of AUTOMAKE and ACLOCAL in configure.
2061 * Autoconf 2.52 is required.
2062 * automake no longer run libtoolize.
2063 This is the job of autoreconf (from GNU Autoconf).
2064 * `dist' generates all the archive flavors, as did `dist-all'.
2065 * `dist-gzip' generates the Gzip tar file only.
2066 * Combining Automake Makefile conditionals no longer lead to a combinatorial
2067 explosion. Makefile.in's keep a reasonable size.
2068 * AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_STRTOD, AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, AM_PTRDIFF_T
2069 are no longer shipped, since Autoconf 2.52 provides them (both as AM_
2071 * `#line' of Lex and Yacc files are properly set.
2072 * EXTRA_DIST can contain generated directories.
2073 * Support for dot-less extensions in suffix rules.
2074 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether distclean actually
2075 cleans all built files has been moved in a separate target, distcleancheck,
2076 so it can be overridden easily.
2077 * `make distcheck' will pass additional options defined in
2078 $(DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS) to configure.
2079 * Fixed CDPATH portability problems, in particular for MacOS X.
2080 * Fixed handling of nobase_ targets.
2081 * Fixed support of implicit rules leading to .lo objects.
2082 * Fixed late inclusion of --add-missing files (e.g. depcomp) in DIST_COMMON
2083 * Added uninstall-hook target
2084 * `AC_INIT AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(tarname,version)' is an obsolete construct.
2085 You can now use `AC_INIT(pkgname,version) AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE' instead.
2086 (Note that "pkgname" is not "tarname", see the manual for details.)
2087 It is also possible to pass a list of global Automake options as
2088 first argument to this new form of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.
2089 * Compiler-based assembler is now called `CCAS'; people expected `AS'
2090 to be a real assembler.
2091 * AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE will set STRIP itself when it needs it. Adding
2092 AC_CHECK_TOOL([STRIP], [strip]) manually is no longer required.
2093 * aclocal and automake are also installed with the version number
2094 appended, and some of the install directory names have changed.
2095 This lets you have multiple versions installed simultaneously.
2096 * Support for parsers and lexers in subdirectories.
2099 * Support for `configure.ac'.
2100 * Support for `else COND', `endif COND' and negated conditions `!COND'.
2101 * `make dist-all' is much faster.
2102 * Allows '@' AC_SUBSTs in macro names.
2103 * Faster AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE (requires update of `missing' script)
2104 * User-side dependency tracking. Developers no longer need GNU make
2106 * Uses DIST_SUBDIRS in some situations when SUBDIRS is conditional
2107 * Most files are correctly handled if they appear in subdirs
2108 For instance, a _DATA file can appear in a subdir
2109 * GNU tar is no longer required for `make dist'
2110 * Added support for `dist_' and `nodist_' prefixes
2111 * Added support for `nobase_' prefix
2112 * Compiled Java support
2113 * Support for per-executable and per-library compilation flags
2117 * Added support for the Fortran 77 programming language.
2118 * Re-indexed the Automake Texinfo manual.
2119 * Added `AM_FOOFLAGS' variable for each compiler invocation;
2120 e.g. AM_CFLAGS can be used in Makefile.am to set C compiler flags
2121 * Support for latest autoconf, including support for objext
2122 * Can now put `.' in SUBDIRS to control build order
2123 * `include' command and `+=' support for macro assignment
2124 * Dependency tracking no long susceptible to deleted header file problem
2125 * Maintainer mode now a conditional. @MAINT@ is now an anachronism.
2130 * Better Cygwin32 support
2131 * Support for suffix rules with _SOURCES variables
2132 * New options `readme-alpha' and `check-news'; Gnits mode sets these
2133 * @LEXLIB@ no longer required when lex source seen
2134 Lex support in `missing', and new lex macro. Update your missing script.
2135 * Built-in support for assembly
2136 * aclocal gives error if `AM_' macro not found
2137 * Passed YFLAGS, not YACCFLAGS, to yacc
2138 * AM_PROG_CC_STDC does not have to come before AC_PROG_CPP
2139 * Dependencies computed as a side effect of compilation
2140 * Preliminary support for Java
2141 * DESTDIR support at "make install" time
2142 * Improved ansi2knr support; you must use the latest ansi2knr.c (included)
2146 * Better DejaGnu support
2147 * Added no-installinfo option
2148 * Added Emacs Lisp support
2149 * Added --no-force option
2150 * Included `aclocal' program
2151 * Automake will now generate rules to regenerate aclocal.m4, if appropriate
2152 * Now uses `AM_' macro names everywhere
2153 * ansi2knr option can have directory prefix (eg `../lib/ansi2knr')
2154 ansi2knr now works correctly on K&R sources
2155 * Better C++, yacc, lex support
2156 * Will compute _DEPENDENCIES variables automatically if not supplied
2157 * Will interpolate $(...) and ${...} when examining contents of a variable
2158 * .deps files now in build directory, not source directory; dependency
2159 handling generally rewritten
2160 * DATA, MANS and BUILT_SOURCES no longer included in distribution
2161 * can now put config.h into a subdir
2162 * Added dist-all target
2163 * Support for install-info program (see texinfo 3.9)
2164 * Support for "yacc -d"
2165 * configure substitutions are automatically discovered and included
2166 in generated Makefile.in
2167 * Special --cygnus mode
2168 * OMIT_DEPENDENCIES can now hold list of dependencies to be omitted
2169 when making distribution. Some dependencies are auto-ignored.
2170 * Changed how libraries are specified in _LIBRARIES variable
2171 * Full libtool support, from Gord Matzigkeit
2172 * No longer have to explicitly touch stamp-h when using AC_CONFIG_HEADER;
2173 AM_CONFIG_HEADER handles it automatically
2174 * Texinfo output files no longer need .info extension
2175 * Added `missing' support
2177 * Conditionals in Makefile.am, from Ian Taylor
2181 * distcheck target runs install and installcheck targets
2182 * Added preliminary support for DejaGnu.
2187 * More libtool fixes from Gord Matzigkeit; libtool support is still
2189 * Added support for jm_MAINTAINER_MODE
2191 * New "distcheck" target
2195 * mkinstalldirs and mdate-sh now appear in directory specified by
2197 * Removed DIST_SUBDIRS, DIST_OTHER
2198 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM only required when an actual program exists
2199 * dist-hook target now run before distribution packaged up; idea from
2200 Dieter Baron. Other hooks exist, too.
2201 * Preliminary (unfinished) support for libtool
2202 * Added short option names.
2203 * Better "dist" support when gluing together multiple packages
2207 * Documentation updates (many from François Pinard)
2208 * strictness `normal' now renamed to `foreign'
2209 * Renamed --install-missing to --add-missing
2210 * Now handles AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
2211 * Now handles TESTS macro
2212 * DIST_OTHER renamed to EXTRA_DIST
2213 * DIST_SUBDIRS is deprecated
2214 * @ALLOCA@ and @LIBOBJS@ now work in _LDADD variables
2215 * Better error messages in many cases
2216 * Program names are canonicalized
2217 * Added "check" prefix; from Gord Matzigkeit
2221 * configure.in scanner knows about AC_PATH_XTRA, AC_OUTPUT ":" syntax
2222 * Beginnings of a test suite
2223 * Automatically adds -I options for $(srcdir), ".", and path to config.h
2224 * Doesn't print anything when running
2225 * Beginnings of MAINT_CHARSET support
2226 * Can specify version in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS
2227 * Most errors recognizable by Emacs' M-x next-error
2228 * Added --verbose option
2229 * All "primary" variables now obsolete; use EXTRA_PRIMARY to supply
2230 configure-generated names
2231 * Required macros now distributed in aclocal.m4
2233 * --strictness=gnu is default
2237 * More sophisticated configure.in scanning; now understands ALLOCA and
2238 LIBOBJS directly, handles AC_CONFIG_HEADER more precisely, etc.
2239 * TEXINFOS and MANS now obsolete; use info_TEXINFOS and man_MANS instead.
2240 * CONFIG_HEADER variable now obsolete
2241 * Can handle multiple Texinfo sources
2242 * Allow hierarchies deeper than 2. From Gord Matzigkeit.
2243 * HEADERS variable no longer needed; now can put .h files directly into
2244 foo_SOURCES variable.
2245 * Automake automatically rebuilds files listed in AC_OUTPUT. The
2246 corresponding ".in" files are included in the distribution.
2249 * Added --gnu and --gnits options
2250 * More standards checking
2252 * Cleaned up 'dist' targets
2253 * Added AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS variable and several options
2254 * Now scans configure.in to get some information (preliminary)
2257 * Works with Perl 4 again
2260 * Added --install-missing option.
2261 * Pretty-prints generated macros and rules
2262 * Comments in Makefile.am are placed more intelligently in Makefile.in
2263 * Generates .PHONY target
2264 * Rule or macro in Makefile.am now overrides contents of Automake file
2265 * Substantial cleanups from François Pinard
2269 * Works with Perl 4 again.
2272 * New uniform naming scheme.
2273 * --strictness option
2275 * '.c' files corresponding to '.y' or '.l' files are automatically
2277 * Many bug fixes and cleanups
2280 * Allow objects to be conditionally included in libraries via lib_LIBADD.
2283 * Bug fixes in 'clean' code.
2284 * Now generates 'installdirs' target.
2285 * man page installation reworked.
2286 * 'make dist' no longer re-creates all Makefile.in's.
2289 * Reimplemented in Perl
2290 * Added --amdir option (for debugging)
2291 * Texinfo support cleaned up.
2292 * Automatic de-ANSI-fication cleaned up.
2293 * Cleaned up 'clean' targets.
2296 * Automatic dependency tracking
2297 * More documentation
2298 * New variables DATA and PACKAGEDATA
2299 * SCRIPTS installed using $(INSTALL_SCRIPT)
2300 * No longer uses double-colon rules
2302 * Changes in advance of internationalization
2306 Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2308 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
2309 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2310 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
2313 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2314 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2315 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2316 GNU General Public License for more details.
2318 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2319 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.