1 * WARNING: New versioning scheme for Automake.
3 - Starting with this version onward, Automake will use an update and
4 more rational versioning scheme, one that will allow users to know
5 which kind of changes can be expected from a new version, based on
8 + Micro versions (e.g., 1.13.3, 2.0.1, 3.2.8) will introduce only
9 documentation updates and bug and regression fixes; they will
10 not introduce new features, nor any backward-incompatibility (any
11 such incompatibility would be considered a bug, to be fixed with
12 a further micro release).
14 + Minor versions (e.g., 1.14, 2.1) can introduce new backward
15 compatible features; the only backward-incompatibilities allowed
16 in such a release are new *non-fatal* deprecations and warnings,
17 and possibly fixes for old or non-trivial bugs (or even inefficient
18 behaviours) that could unfortunately have been seen, and used, by
19 some developers as "corner case features". This kind of fixes
20 should hopefully be quite rare.
22 + Major versions (now expected to be released every 18 or 24 months,
23 and not more often) can introduce new big features (possibly with
24 rough edges and not-fully-stabilized APIs), removal of deprecated
25 features, backward-incompatible changes of behaviour, and possibly
26 major refactorings (that, while ideally transparent to the user,
27 could introduce new bugs). Incompatibilities should however not
28 be introduced gratuitously and abruptly; a proper deprecation path
29 should be duly implemented in the preceding minor releases.
31 - According to this new scheme, the next major version of Automake
32 (the one that has until now been labelled as '1.14') will actually
33 become "Automake 2.0". Automake 1.14 will be the next minor version,
34 which will introduce new features and deprecation, but no backward
37 - See discussion about automake bug#13578 for more details and
38 background: <http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=13578>
40 * WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
42 - Automake 2.0 will require Autoconf 2.70 or later (which is still
43 unreleased at the moment of writing, but is planned to be released
44 before Automake 2.0 is).
46 - Automake 2.0 will drop support for the long-deprecated 'configure.in'
47 name for the Autoconf input file. You are advised to start using the
48 recommended name 'configure.ac' instead, ASAP.
50 - The ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS special make variable will be fully deprecated
51 in Automake 2.0 (where it will raise warnings in the "obsolete"
52 category). You are advised to start relying on the new Automake
53 support for AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS instead (which was introduced in
56 - Automake 2.0 will remove support for automatic dependency tracking
57 with the SGI C/C++ compilers on IRIX. The SGI depmode has been
58 reported broken "in the wild" already, and we don't think investing
59 time in debugging and fixing is worthwhile, especially considering
60 that SGI has last updated those compilers in 2006, and is expected
61 to retire support for them in December 2013:
62 <http://www.sgi.com/services/support/irix_mips_support.html>
64 - Future versions of Automake might remove support for MS-DOS and
65 Windows 95/98/ME (support for them was offered by relying on the
66 DJGPP project). Note however that both Cygwin and MSYS/MinGW on
67 modern Windows versions will continue to be fully supported.
69 - Automake-provided scripts and makefile recipes might (finally!)
70 start assuming a POSIX shell in Automake 2.0.
72 - Starting from Automake 2.0, third-party m4 files located in the
73 system-wide aclocal directory, as well as in any directory listed
74 in the ACLOCAL_PATH environment variable, will take precedence
75 over "built-in" Automake macros. For example (assuming Automake
76 is installed in the /usr/local hierarchy), a definition of the
77 AM_PROG_VALAC macro found in '/usr/local/share/aclocal/my-vala.m4'
78 should take precedence over the same-named automake-provided macro
79 (defined in '/usr/local/share/aclocal-2.0/vala.m4').
81 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
85 * Obsolescent features:
87 - Use of suffix-less info files (that can be specified through the
88 '@setfilename' macro in Texinfo input files) is discouraged, and
89 its use will raise warnings in the 'obsolete' category.
91 - Use of Texinfo input files with '.txi' or '.texinfo' extensions
92 is discouraged, and its use will raise warnings in the 'obsolete'
93 category. You are advised to simply use the '.texi' extension
96 * Documentation fixes:
98 - The long-deprecated but still supported two-arguments invocation form
99 of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is documented once again. This seems the sanest
100 thing to do, given that support for such an usage might need to remain
101 in place for a unspecified amount of time in order to cater for people
102 who want to define the version number for their package dynamically at
103 configure runtime (unfortunately, Autoconf does not yet support this
104 scenario, so we cannot delegate the work to it).
106 - The serial testsuite harness is no longer reported as "deprecated",
107 but as "discouraged". We have no plan to remove it, not to make its
108 use cause runtime warnings.
110 - The parallel testsuite is no longer reported as "experimental"; it
111 is well tested, and should be stable now.
113 - The 'shar' and 'tarZ' distribution formats and the 'dist-shar' and
114 'dist-tarZ' options are obsolescent, and their use is deprecated
115 in the documentation.
117 - Other minor miscellaneous fixes and improvements; in particular,
118 some improvements in cross-references.
122 - When the 'ustar' option is used, the generated configure script no
123 longer risks hanging during the tests for the availability of the
124 'pax' utility, even if the user running configure has a UID or GID
125 that requires more than 21 bits to be represented.
126 See automake bug#8343 and bug#13588.
128 - The obsolete macros AM_CONFIG_HEADER or AM_PROG_CC_STDC work once
129 again, as they did in Automake 1.12.x (albeit printing runtime
130 warnings in the 'obsolete' category). Removing them has turned
131 out to be a very bad idea, because it complicated distro packing
132 enormously. Making them issue fatal warnings, as we did in
133 Automake 1.13, has turned out to be a similarly very bad idea,
134 for exactly the same reason.
136 - aclocal will no longer error out if the first local m4 directory
137 (as specified by the '-I' option or the 'AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS' or
138 'AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR' macros) doesn't exist; it will merely report
139 a warning in the 'unsupported' category. This is done to support
140 some pre-existing real-world usages. See automake bug#13514.
142 - aclocal will no longer consider directories for extra m4 files more
143 than once, even if they are specified multiple times. This ensures
144 packages that specify both
146 AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4]) in configure.ac
147 ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4 in Makefile.am
149 will work correctly, even when the 'm4' directory contains no
150 package-specific files, but is used only to install third-party
151 m4 files (as can happen with e.g., "libtoolize --install").
152 See automake bug#13514.
154 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
160 - Use of the obsolete macros AM_CONFIG_HEADER or AM_PROG_CC_STDC now
161 causes a clear and helpful error message, instead of obscure ones
162 (issue introduced in Automake 1.13).
164 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
170 - ylwrap renames properly header guards in generated header files
171 (*.h), instead of leaving Y_TAB_H.
173 - ylwrap now also converts header guards in implementation files
174 (*.c). Because ylwrap failed to rename properly #include in the
175 implementation files, current versions of Bison (e.g., 2.7)
176 duplicate the generated header file in the implementation file.
177 The header guard then protects the implementation file from
178 duplicate definitions from the header file.
180 * Version requirements:
182 - Autoconf 2.65 or greater is now required.
184 - The rules to build PDF and DVI output from Texinfo input now
185 require Texinfo 4.9 or later.
189 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (once enabled by the 'cygnus'
190 option) has been removed. See discussion about automake bug#11034
191 for more background: <http://debbugs.gnu.org/11034>.
193 - The deprecated aclocal option '--acdir' has been removed. You
194 should use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir'
195 instead (which have been introduced in Automake 1.11.2).
197 - The following long-obsolete m4 macros have been removed:
199 AM_PROG_CC_STDC: superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002
200 fp_PROG_CC_STDC: broken alias for AM_PROG_CC_STDC
201 fp_WITH_DMALLOC: old alias for AM_WITH_DMALLOC
202 AM_CONFIG_HEADER: superseded by AC_CONFIG_HEADERS since July 2002
203 ud_PATH_LISPDIR: old alias for AM_PATH_LISPDIR
204 jm_MAINTAINER_MODE: old alias for AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
205 ud_GNU_GETTEXT: old alias for AM_GNU_GETTEXT
206 gm_PROG_LIBTOOL: old alias for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
207 fp_C_PROTOTYPES: old alias for AM_C_PROTOTYPES (which was part
208 of the now-removed automatic de-ANSI-fication
211 - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' have been removed.
213 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
214 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is no longer documented. It's still supported
215 though (albeit with a warning in the 'obsolete' category), to cater
216 for people who want to define the version number for their package
217 dynamically (e.g., from the current VCS revision). We'll have to
218 continue this support until Autoconf itself is fixed to allow better
219 support for such dynamic version numbers.
221 * Elisp byte-compilation:
223 - The byte compilation of '.el' files into '.elc' files is now done
224 with a suffix rule. This has simplified the compilation process, and
225 more importantly made it less brittle. The downside is that emacs is
226 now invoked once for each '.el' files, which cause some noticeable
227 slowdowns. These should however be mitigated on multicore machines
228 (which are becoming the norm today) if concurrent make ("make -j")
231 - Elisp files placed in a subdirectory are now byte-compiled to '.elc'
232 files in the same subdirectory; for example, byte-compiling of file
233 'sub/foo.el' file will result in 'sub/foo.elc' rather than in
234 'foo.elc'. This behaviour is backward-incompatible with older
235 Automake versions, but it is more natural and more sane. See also
238 - The Emacs invocation performing byte-compilation of '.el' files honors
239 the $(AM_ELCFLAGS) and $(ELCFLAGS) variables; as typical, the former
240 one is developer-reserved and the latter one user-reserved.
242 - The 'elisp-comp' script, once provided by Automake, has been rendered
243 obsoleted by the just-described changes, and thus removed.
245 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
247 - The parallel testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the
248 'parallel-tests' option) is the default one; the older serial
249 testsuite harness will still be available through the use of the
250 'serial-tests' option (introduced in Automake 1.12).
252 - The 'color-tests' option is now unconditionally activated by default.
253 In particular, this means that testsuite output is now colorized by
254 default if the attached terminal seems to support ANSI escapes, and
255 that the user can force output colorization by setting the variable
256 AM_COLOR_TESTS to "always". The 'color-tests' is still recognized
257 for backward-compatibility, although it's a handled as a no-op now.
259 * Silent rules support:
261 - Support for silent rules is now always active in Automake-generated
262 Makefiles. So, although the verbose output is still the default,
263 the user can now always use "./configure --enable-silent-rules" or
264 "make V=0" to enable quieter output in the package he's building.
266 - The 'silent-rules' option has now become a no-op, preserved for
267 backward-compatibility only. In particular, its use no longer
268 disables the warnings in the 'portability-recursive' category.
272 - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now require
273 Texinfo 4.9 or later.
275 - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now use the
276 '--build-dir' option, to keep the auxiliary files used by texi2dvi
277 and texi2pdf around without cluttering the build directory, and to
278 make it possible to run the "dvi" and "pdf" recipes in parallel.
280 * Automatic remake rules and 'missing' script:
282 - The 'missing' script no longer tries to update the timestamp of
283 out-of-date files that require a maintainer-specific tool to be
284 remade, in case the user lacks such a tool (or has a too-old version
285 of it). It just gives a useful warning, and in some cases also a
286 tip about how to obtain such a tool.
288 - The missing script has thus become useless as a (poor) way to work
289 around the sketched-timestamps issues that can happen for projects
290 that keep generated files committed in their VCS repository. Such
291 projects are now encouraged to write a custom "fix-timestamps.sh"
292 script to avoid such issues; a simple example is provided in the
293 "CVS and generated files" chapter of the automake manual.
297 - The user can now define his own recursive targets that recurse
298 in the directories specified in $(SUBDIRS). This can be done by
299 specifying the name of such targets in invocations of the new
300 'AM_EXTRA_RECURSIVE_TARGETS' m4 macro.
304 - Any failure in the recipe of the "tags", "ctags", "cscope" or
305 "cscopelist" targets in a subdirectory is now propagated to the
306 top-level make invocation.
308 - Tags are correctly computed also for files in _SOURCES variables that
309 only list files with non-standard suffixes (see automake bug#12372).
311 * Improvements to aclocal and related rebuilds rules:
313 - Autoconf-provided macros AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR and AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS
314 are now traced by aclocal, and can be used to declare the local m4
315 include directories. Formerly, one had to specify it with an explicit
316 '-I' option to the 'aclocal' invocation.
318 - The special make variable ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS is deprecated; future
319 Automake versions will warn about its use, and later version will
320 remove support for it altogether.
322 * The depcomp script:
324 - Dropped support for libtool 1.4.
326 - Various internal refactorings. They should cause no visible change,
327 but the chance for regression is there anyway, so please report any
328 unexpected or suspicious behaviour.
330 - Support for pre-8.0 versions of the Intel C Compiler has been dropped.
331 This should cause no problem, since icc 8.0 has been released in
332 December 2003 -- almost nine years ago.
334 - Support for tcc (the Tiny C Compiler) has been improved, and is now
335 handled through a dedicated 'tcc' mode.
339 - ylwrap generates header guards with a single '_' for series of non
340 alphabetic characters, instead of several. This is what Bison >=
343 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
345 Bugs fixed in 1.12.6:
347 * Python-related bugs:
349 - The default installation location for python modules has been improved
350 for Python 3 on Debian and Ubuntu systems, changing from:
352 ${prefix}/lib/python3/dist-packages
356 ${prefix}/lib/python3.x/site-packages
358 This change should ensure modules installed using the default ${prefix}
359 "/usr/local" are found by default by system python 3.x installations.
360 See automake bug#10227.
362 - Python byte-compilation supports the new layout mandated by PEP-3147,
363 with its __pycache__ directory (automake bug#8847).
365 * Build system issues:
367 - The maintainer rebuild rules for Makefiles and aclocal.m4 in
368 Automake's own build system works correctly again (bug introduced
373 - The Vala-related tests has been changed to adjust to the removal of
374 the 'posix' profile in the valac compiler. See automake bug#12934
377 - Some spurious testsuite failures related to older tools and systems
380 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
386 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro has been enhanced to takes two further
387 optional arguments; it's signature now being
389 AM_PROG_VALAC([MINIMUM-VERSION], [ACTION-IF-FOUND],
390 [ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND])
392 - By default, AM_PROG_VALAC no longer aborts the configure invocation
393 if the Vala compiler found is too old, but simply prints a warning
394 messages (as it did when the Vala compiler was not found). This
395 should avoid unnecessary difficulties for end users that just want
396 to compile the unmodified, distributed Vala-generated C sources,
397 but happens to have an old Vala compiler in their PATH. This fixes
400 - If no proper Vala compiler is found at configure runtime, AM_PROG_VALAC
401 will set the AC_SUBST'd variable 'VALAC' to 'valac' rather than to ':'.
402 This is a better default, because with it a triggered makefile rule
403 invoking a Vala compilation will clearly fail with an informative error
404 message like "valac: command not found", rather than silently, with
405 the error possibly going unnoticed or triggering harder-to-diagnose
406 fallout failures in later steps.
408 * Miscellaneous changes:
410 - automake and aclocal no longer honours the 'perllibdir' environment
411 variable. That had always been intended only as an hack required in
412 the testsuite, not meant for any use beyond that.
414 Bugs fixed in 1.12.5:
416 * Long-standing bugs:
418 - Automake no longer generates spurious remake rules invoking autoheader
419 to regenerate the template corresponding to header files specified after
420 the first one in AC_CONFIG_HEADERS (automake bug#12495).
422 - When wrapping Microsoft tools, the 'compile' script falls back to
423 finding classic 'libname.a' style libraries when 'name.lib' and
424 'name.dll.lib' aren't available.
426 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
430 * Warnings and deprecations:
432 - Warnings in the 'obsolete' category are enabled by default both in
433 automake and aclocal.
435 * Miscellaneous changes:
437 - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
439 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
443 * Miscellaneous changes:
445 - The '.m4' files provided by Automake no longer define serial numbers.
446 This should cause no difference in the behaviour of aclocal though.
448 - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
450 - There is initial support for automatic dependency tracking with the
451 Portland Group C/C++ compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'pgcc'.
453 Bugs fixed in 1.12.3:
455 * Long-standing bugs:
457 - Instead of renaming only self-references of files (typically for
458 #lines), ylwrap now also renames references to the other generated
459 files. This fixes support for GLR and C++ parsers from Bison (PR
460 automake/491 and automake bug#7648): 'parser.c' now properly
461 #includes 'parser.h' instead of 'y.tab.h'.
463 - Generated files unknown to ylwrap are now preserved. This fixes
464 C++ support for Bison (automake bug#7648): location.hh and the
465 like are no longer discarded.
467 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
471 * Warnings and deprecations:
473 - Automake now issues a warning (in the 'portability' category) if
474 'configure.in' is used instead of 'configure.ac' as the Autoconf
475 input file. Such a warning will also be present in the next
476 Autoconf version (2.70).
480 - Recursive cleaning rules descends into the $(SUBDIRS) in the natural
481 order (as done by the other recursive rules), rather than in the
482 inverse order. They used to do that in order to work a round a
483 limitation in an older implementation of the automatic dependency
484 tracking support, but that limitation had been lifted years ago
485 already, when the automatic dependency tracking based on side-effects
486 of compilation had been introduced.
488 - Cleaning rules for compiled objects (both "plain" and libtool) work
489 better when subdir objects are involved, not triggering a distinct
490 'rm' invocation for each such object. They do so by removing *any*
491 compiled object file that is in the same directory of a subdir
492 object. See automake bug#10697.
494 * Silent rules support:
496 - A new predefined $(AM_V_P) make variable is provided; it expands
497 to a shell conditional that can be used in recipes to know whether
498 make is being run in silent or verbose mode.
500 Bugs fixed in 1.12.2:
502 * SECURITY VULNERABILITIES!
504 - The 'distcheck' recipe no longer grants temporary world-write
505 permissions on the extracted distdir. Even if such rights were
506 only granted for a vanishingly small time window, the implied
507 race condition proved to be enough to allow a local attacker
508 to run arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running
509 "make distcheck". This is CVE-2012-3386.
511 * Long-standing bugs:
513 - The "recheck" targets behaves better in the face of build failures
514 related to previously failed tests. For example, if a test is a
515 compiled program that must be rerun by "make recheck", and its
516 compilation fails, it will still be rerun by further "make recheck"
517 invocations. See automake bug#11791.
519 * Bugs introduced by 1.12.1:
521 - Automake provides once again the '$(mkdir_p)' make variable and the
522 '@mkdir_p@' substitution (both as simple aliases for '$(MKDIR_P)'),
523 for better backward-compatibility.
525 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
529 * New supported languages:
531 - Support for Objective C++ has been added; it should work similarly to
532 the support for Objective C.
534 * Deprecated obsolescent features:
536 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
537 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro now elicits a warning in the 'obsolete'
538 category. Starting from some future major Automake release (likely
539 post-1.13), such usages will no longer be allowed.
541 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (enabled by the 'cygnus' option) is
542 now deprecated (its use triggers a warning in the 'obsolete' category).
543 It will be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13).
545 - The long-obsolete (since 1.10) automake-provided $(mkdir_p) make
546 variable, @mkdir_p@ configure-time substitution and AM_PROG_MKDIR
547 m4 macro are deprecated, eliciting a warning in the 'obsolete'
550 * Miscellaneous changes:
552 - The Automake test cases now require a proper POSIX-conforming shell.
553 Older non-POSIX Bourne shells (like Solaris 10 /bin/sh) will no longer
554 be accepted. In most cases, the user shouldn't have to specify such
555 POSIX shell explicitly, since it will be looked up at configure time.
556 Still, when this lookup fails, or when the user wants to override its
557 conclusion, the variable 'AM_TEST_RUNNER_SHELL' can be used (pointing
558 to the shell that will be used to run the Automake test cases).
560 Bugs fixed in 1.12.1:
562 * Bugs introduced by 1.12:
564 - Several weaknesses in Automake's own build system and test suite
567 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
569 - When given non-option arguments, aclocal rejects them, instead of
570 silently ignoring them.
572 * Long-standing bugs:
574 - When the 'color-tests' option is in use, forcing of colored testsuite
575 output through "AM_COLOR_TESTS=always" works even if the terminal is
576 a non-ANSI one, i.e., if the TERM environment variable has a value of
579 - Several inefficiencies and poor performances in the implementation
580 of the parallel-tests 'check' and 'recheck' targets have been fixed.
582 - The post-processing of output "#line" directives done the ylwrap
583 script is more faithful w.r.t. files in a subdirectory; for example,
584 if the processed file is "src/grammar.y", ylwrap will correctly
585 produce directives like:
586 #line 7 "src/grammar.y"
591 * Bugs with new Perl versions:
593 - Aclocal works correctly with perl 5.16.0 (automake bug#11543).
595 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
599 * Obsolete features removed:
601 - The never documented nor truly used script 'acinstall' has been
604 - Support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been removed.
606 - The support for the "obscure" multilib feature has been removed
607 from Automake core (but remains available in the 'contrib/'
608 directory of the Automake distribution).
610 - Support for ".log -> .html" conversion and the check-html and
611 recheck-html targets has been removed from Automake core (but
612 remains available in the 'contrib/' directory of the Automake
615 - The deprecated 'lzma' compression format for distribution archives
616 has been removed, in favor of 'xz' and 'lzip'.
618 - The obsolete AM_WITH_REGEX macro has been removed.
620 - The long-deprecated options '--output-dir', '--Werror' and
621 '--Wno-error' have been removed.
623 - The chapter on the history of Automake has been moved out of the
624 reference manual, into a new dedicated Texinfo file.
628 - New 'cscope' target to build a cscope database for the source tree.
630 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
632 - The new automake option 'serial-tests' has been introduced. It can
633 be used to explicitly instruct automake to use the older serial
634 testsuite harness. This is still the default at the moment, but it
635 might change in future versions.
637 - The 'recheck' target (provided by the parallel testsuite harness) now
638 depends on the 'all' target. This allows for a better user-experience
639 in test-driven development. See automake bug#11252.
641 - Test scripts that exit with status 99 to signal an "hard error" (e.g.,
642 and unexpected or internal error, or a failure to set up the test case
643 scenario) have their outcome reported as an 'ERROR' now. Previous
644 versions of automake reported such an outcome as a 'FAIL' (the only
645 difference with normal failures being that hard errors were counted
646 as failures even when the test originating them was listed in
649 - The testsuite summary displayed by the parallel-test harness has a
650 completely new format, that always list the numbers of passed, failed,
651 xfailed, xpassed, skipped and errored tests, even when these numbers
652 are zero (but using smart coloring when the color-tests option is in
655 - The default testsuite driver offered by the 'parallel-tests' option is
656 now implemented (partly at least) with the help of automake-provided
657 auxiliary scripts (e.g., 'test-driver'), instead of relying entirely
658 on code in the generated Makefile.in.
659 This has two noteworthy implications. The first one is that projects
660 using the 'parallel-tests' option should now either run automake with
661 the '--add-missing' option, or manually copy the 'test-driver' script
662 into their tree. The second, and more important, implication is that
663 now, when the 'parallel-tests' option is in use, TESTS_ENVIRONMENT can
664 no longer be used to define a test runner, and the command specified
665 in LOG_COMPILER (and <ext>_LOG_COMPILER) must be a *real* executable
666 program or script. For example, this is still a valid usage (albeit
669 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
670 if test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS)'; then \
671 maybe_errexit='-e'; \
675 LOG_COMPILER = $(SHELL) $$maybe_errexit
677 OTOH, this is no longer a valid usage:
679 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
680 $(SHELL) `test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS_CHECKING)' && echo ' -e'`
684 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
685 run_with_perl_or_shell () \
687 if grep -q '^#!.*perl' $$1; then
693 LOG_COMPILER = run_with_perl_or_shell
695 - The package authors can now use customary testsuite drivers within
696 the framework provided by the 'parallel-tests' testsuite harness.
697 Consistently with the existing syntax, this can be done by defining
698 special makefile variables 'LOG_DRIVER' and '<ext>_LOG_DRIVER'.
700 - A new developer-reserved variable 'AM_TESTS_FD_REDIRECT' can be used
701 to redirect/define file descriptors used by the test scripts.
703 - The parallel-tests harness generates now, in addition the '.log' files
704 holding the output produced by the test scripts, a new set of '.trs'
705 files, holding "metadata" derived by the execution of the test scripts;
706 among such metadata are the outcomes of the test cases run by a script.
708 - Initial and still experimental support for the TAP test protocol is
711 * Changes to Yacc and Lex support:
713 - C source and header files derived from non-distributed Yacc and/or
714 Lex sources are now removed by a simple "make clean" (while they were
715 previously removed only by "make maintainer-clean").
717 - Slightly backward-incompatible change, relevant only for use of Yacc
718 with C++: the extensions of the header files produced by the Yacc
719 rules are now modelled after the extension of the corresponding
720 sources. For example, yacc files named "foo.y++" and "bar.yy" will
721 produce header files named "foo.h++" and "bar.hh" respectively, where
722 they would have previously produced header files named simply "foo.h"
723 and "bar.h". This change offers better compatibility with 'bison -o'.
725 * Miscellaneous changes:
727 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro now causes configure to exit with status 77,
728 rather than 1, if the vala compiler found is too old.
730 - The build system of Automake itself now avoids the use of make
731 recursion as much as possible.
733 - Automake now prefers to quote 'like this' or "like this", rather
734 than `like this', in diagnostic message and generated Makefiles,
735 to accommodate the new GNU Coding Standards recommendations.
737 - Automake has a new option '--print-libdir' that prints the path of the
738 directory containing the Automake-provided scripts and data files.
740 - The 'dist' and 'dist-all' targets now can run compressors in parallel.
742 - The rules to create pdf, dvi and ps output from Texinfo files now
743 works better with modern 'texi2dvi' script, by explicitly passing
744 it the '--clean' option to ensure stray auxiliary files are not
745 left to clutter the build directory.
747 - Automake can now generate silenced rules for texinfo outputs.
749 - Some auxiliary files that are automatically distributed by Automake
750 (e.g., 'install-sh', or the 'depcomp' script for packages compiling
751 C sources) might now be listed in the DIST_COMMON variable in many
752 Makefile.in files, rather than in the top-level one.
754 - Messages of types warning or error from 'automake' and 'aclocal'
755 are now prefixed with the respective type, and presence of -Werror
758 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now tries to avoid
759 sleeping for a second, which slowed down cached configure runs
760 noticeably. In that case, it will check back at the end of the
761 configure script to ensure that at least one second has passed, to
762 avoid time stamp issues with makefile rules rerunning autotools
765 - The warnings in the category 'extra-portability' are now enabled by
766 '-Wall'. In previous versions, one has to use '-Wextra-portability'
771 - Various minor bugfixes for recent or long-standing bugs.
773 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
775 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
776 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
778 - The automake-provided parallel testsuite harness no longer fails
779 with BSD make used in parallel mode when there are test scripts in
780 a subdirectory, like in:
782 TESTS = sub/foo.test sub/bar.test
784 * Long-standing bugs:
786 - Automake's own build system finally have a real "installcheck" target.
788 - Vala-related cleanup rules are now more complete, and work better in
791 - Files listed with the AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE macro in configure.ac are
792 now automatically distributed also if the directory of the auxiliary
793 files coincides with the top-level directory.
795 - Automake now detects the presence of the '-d' flag in the various
796 '*YFLAGS' variables even when their definitions involve indirections
797 through other variables, such as in:
799 AM_YFLAGS = $(foo_opts)
801 - Automake now complains if a '*YFLAGS' variable has any conditional
802 content, not only a conditional definition.
804 - Explicit enabling and/or disabling of Automake warning categories
805 through the '-W...' options now always takes precedence over the
806 implicit warning level implied by Automake strictness (foreign, gnu
807 or gnits), regardless of the order in which such strictness and
808 warning flags appear. For example, a setting like:
809 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = -Wall --foreign
810 will cause the warnings in category 'portability' to be enabled, even
811 if those warnings are by default disabled in 'foreign' strictness.
813 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
815 Bugs fixed in 1.11.5:
817 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
819 - Vala files with '.vapi' extension are now recognized and handled
820 correctly again. See automake bug#11222.
822 - Vala support work again for projects that contain some program
823 built from '.vala' (and possibly '.c') sources and some other
824 program built from '.c' sources *only*. See automake bug#11229.
826 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
830 * Miscellaneous changes:
832 - The 'ar-lib' script now ignores the "s" (symbol index) and "S" (no
833 symbol index) modifiers as well as the "s" action, as the symbol index
834 is created unconditionally by Microsoft lib. Also, the "q" (quick)
835 action is now a synonym for "r" (replace). Also, the script has been
836 ignoring the "v" (verbose) modifier already since Automake 1.11.3.
838 - When the 'compile' script is used to wrap MSVC, it now accepts an
839 optional space between the -I, -L and -l options and their respective
840 arguments, for better POSIX compliance.
842 - There is an initial, experimental support for automatic dependency
843 tracking with tcc (the Tiny C Compiler). Its associated depmode is
844 currently recognized as "icc" (but this and other details are likely
845 to change in future versions).
847 - Automatic dependency tracking now works also with the IBM XL C/C++
848 compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'xlc'.
850 Bugs fixed in 1.11.4:
852 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
854 - A definition of 'noinst_PYTHON' before 'python_PYTHON' (or similar)
855 no longer cause spurious failures upon "make install".
857 - The user can now instruct the 'uninstall-info' rule not to update
858 the '${infodir}/dir' file by exporting the environment variable
859 'AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no". This is done for consistency
860 with how the 'install-info' rule operates since automake 1.11.2.
862 * Long-standing bugs:
864 - It is now possible for a foo_SOURCES variable to hold Vala sources
865 together with C header files, as well as with sources and headers for
866 other supported languages (e.g., C++). Previously, only mixing C and
867 Vala sources was supported.
869 - If "aclocal --install" is used, and the first directory specified with
870 '-I' is non-existent, aclocal will now create it before trying to copy
873 - An empty declaration of a "foo_PRIMARY" no longer cause the generated
874 install rules to create an empty $(foodir) directory; for example, if
875 Makefile.am contains something like:
879 pkglibexec_SCRIPTS += bar.sh
882 the $(pkglibexec) directory will not be created upon "make install".
884 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
888 * Miscellaneous changes:
890 - Automake's own build system is more silent by default, making use of
891 the 'silent-rules' option.
893 - The master copy of the 'gnupload' script is now maintained in gnulib,
896 - The 'missing' script no longer tries to wrap calls to 'tar'.
898 - "make dist" no longer wraps 'tar' invocations with the 'missing'
899 script. Similarly, the obsolescent variable '$(AMTAR)' (which you
900 shouldn't be using BTW ;-) no longer invokes the 'missing' script
901 to wrap tar, but simply invokes the 'tar' program itself.
903 - "make dist" can now create lzip-compressed tarballs.
905 - In the Automake info documentation, the Top node and the nodes about
906 the invocation of the automake and aclocal programs have been renamed;
907 now, calling "info automake" will open the Top node, while calling
908 "info automake-invocation" and "info aclocal-invocation" will access
909 the nodes about the invocation of respectively automake and aclocal.
911 - Automake is now distributed as a gzip-compressed and an xz-compressed
912 tarball. Previously, bzip2 was used instead of xz.
914 - The last relics of Python 1.5 support have been removed from the
915 AM_PATH_PYTHON macro.
917 - For programs and libraries, automake now detects EXTRA_foo_DEPENDENCIES
918 and adds them to the normal list of dependencies, but without
919 overwriting the foo_DEPENDENCIES variable, which is normally computed
922 Bugs fixed in 1.11.3:
924 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
926 - Automake now correctly recognizes the prefix/primary combination
927 'pkglibexec_SCRIPTS' as valid.
929 - The parallel-tests harness no longer trips on sed implementations
930 with stricter limits on the length of input lines (problem seen at
933 * Long-standing bugs:
935 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.am files is avoided by stub
936 rules. This allows 'make' to trigger a rerun of 'automake' also if
937 some previously needed '.am' file has been removed.
939 - The 'silent-rules' option now generates working makefiles even
940 for the uncommon 'make' implementations that do not support the
941 nested-variables extension to POSIX 2008. For such 'make'
942 implementations, whether a build is silent is determined at
943 configure time, and cannot be overridden at make time with
944 "make V=0" or "make V=1".
946 - Vala support now works better in VPATH setups.
948 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
952 * Changes to aclocal:
954 - The `--acdir' option is deprecated. Now you should use the new options
955 `--automake-acdir' and `--system-acdir' instead.
957 - The `ACLOCAL_PATH' environment variable is now interpreted as a
958 colon-separated list of additional directories to search after the
959 automake internal acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal-APIVERSION)
960 and before the system acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal).
962 * Miscellaneous changes:
964 - The Automake support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been
965 deprecated. It will probably be removed in the next major Automake
968 - The `lzma' compression scheme and associated automake option `dist-lzma'
969 is obsoleted by `xz' and `dist-xz' due to upstream changes.
971 - You may adjust the compression options used in dist-xz and dist-bzip2.
972 The default is now merely -e for xz, but still -9 for bzip; you may
973 specify a different level via the XZ_OPT and BZIP2 envvars respectively.
974 E.g., "make dist-xz XZ_OPT=-7" or "make dist-bzip2 BZIP2=-5"
976 - The `compile' script now converts some options for MSVC for a better
977 user experience. Similarly, the new `ar-lib' script wraps Microsoft lib.
979 - The py-compile script now accepts empty arguments passed to the options
980 `--destdir' and `--basedir', and complains about unrecognized options.
981 Moreover, a non-option argument or a special `--' argument terminates
984 - A developer that needs to pass specific flags to configure at "make
985 distcheck" time can now, and indeed is advised to, do so by defining
986 the developer-reserved makefile variable AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS,
987 instead of the old DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS.
988 The DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS variable should now be reserved for the
989 user; still, the old Makefile.am files that used to define it will
990 still continue to work as before.
992 - New macro AM_PROG_AR that looks for an archiver and wraps it in the new
993 'ar-lib' auxiliary script if the selected archiver is Microsoft lib.
994 This new macro is required for LIBRARIES and LTLIBRARIES when automake
995 is run with -Wextra-portability and -Werror.
997 - When using DejaGnu-based testsuites, the user can extend the `site.exp'
998 file generated by automake-provided rules by defining the special make
999 variable `$(EXTRA_DEJAGNU_SITE_CONFIG)'.
1001 - The `install-info' rule can now be instructed not to create/update
1002 the `${infodir}/dir' file, by exporting the new environment variable
1003 `AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no".
1005 Bugs fixed in 1.11.2:
1007 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
1009 - The parallel-tests driver no longer produces erroneous results with
1010 Tru64/OSF 5.1 sh upon unreadable log files.
1012 - The `parallel-tests' test driver does not report spurious successes
1013 when used with concurrent FreeBSD make (e.g., "make check -j3").
1015 - When the parallel-tests driver is in use, automake now explicitly
1016 rejects invalid entries and conditional contents in TEST_EXTENSIONS,
1017 instead of issuing confusing and apparently unrelated error messages
1018 (e.g., "non-POSIX variable name", "bad characters in variable name",
1019 or "redefinition of TEST_EXTENSIONS), or even, in some situations,
1020 silently producing broken `Makefile.in' files.
1022 - The `silent-rules' option now truly silences all compile rules, even
1023 when dependency tracking is disabled. Also, when `silent-rules' is
1024 not used, `make' output no longer contains spurious backslash-only
1025 lines, thus once again matching what Automake did before 1.11.
1027 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
1028 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
1030 * Long-standing bugs:
1032 - The order of Yacc and Lex flags is fixed to be consistent with other
1033 languages: $(AM_YFLAGS) comes before $(YFLAGS), and $(AM_LFLAGS) before
1034 $(LFLAGS), so that the user variables override the developer variables.
1036 - "make distcheck" now correctly complains also when "make uninstall"
1037 leaves one and only one file installed in $(prefix).
1039 - A "make uninstall" issued before a "make install", or after a mere
1040 "make install-data" or a mere "make install-exec" does not spuriously
1043 - Automake now warns about more primary/directory invalid combinations,
1044 such as "doc_LIBRARIES" or "pkglib_PROGRAMS".
1046 - Rules generated by Automake now try harder to not change any files when
1047 `make -n' is invoked. Fixes include compilation of Emacs Lisp, Vala, or
1048 Yacc source files and the rule to update config.h.
1050 - Several scripts and the parallel-tests testsuite driver now exit with
1051 the right exit status upon receiving a signal.
1053 - A per-Makefile.am setting of -Werror does not erroneously carry over
1054 to the handling of other Makefile.am files.
1056 - The code for automatic dependency tracking works around a Solaris
1057 make bug triggered by sources containing repeated slashes when the
1058 `subdir-objects' option was used.
1060 - The makedepend and hp depmodes now work better with VPATH builds.
1062 - Java sources specified with check_JAVA are no longer compiled for
1063 "make all", but only for "make check".
1065 - An usage like "java_JAVA = foo.java" will now cause Automake to warn
1066 and error out if `javadir' is undefined, instead of silently producing
1067 a broken Makefile.in.
1069 - aclocal and automake now honour the configure-time definitions of
1070 AUTOCONF and AUTOM4TE when they spawn autoconf or autom4te processes.
1072 - The `install-info' recipe no longer tries to guess whether the
1073 `install-info' program is from Debian or from GNU, and adaptively
1074 change its behaviour; this has proven to be frail and easy to
1077 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1079 Bugs fixed in 1.11.1:
1081 - Lots of minor bugfixes.
1083 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
1085 - The `parallel-tests' test driver works around a GNU make 3.80 bug with
1086 trailing white space in the test list (`TESTS = foo $(EMPTY)').
1088 * Long standing bugs:
1090 - On Darwin 9, `pythondir' and `pyexecdir' pointed below `/Library/Python'
1091 even if the `--prefix' argument pointed outside of a system directory.
1092 AM_PATH_PYTHON has been fixed to ignore the value returned from python's
1093 `get_python_lib' function if it points outside the configured prefix,
1094 unless the `--prefix' argument was either `/usr' or below `/System'.
1096 - The testsuite does not try to change the mode of `ltmain.sh' files from
1097 a Libtool installation (symlinked to test directories) any more.
1099 - AM_PROG_GCJ uses AC_CHECK_TOOLS to look for `gcj' now, so that prefixed
1100 tools are preferred in a cross-compile setup.
1102 - The distribution is tarred up with mode 755 now by the `dist*' targets.
1103 This fixes a race condition where untrusted users could modify files
1104 in the $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION) distdir before packing if the toplevel
1105 build directory was world-searchable. This is CVE-2009-4029.
1107 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1111 * Version requirements:
1113 - Autoconf 2.62 or greater is required.
1115 * Changes to aclocal:
1117 - The autoconf version check implemented by aclocal in aclocal.m4
1118 (and new in Automake 1.10) is degraded to a warning. This helps
1119 in the common case where the Autoconf versions used are compatible.
1121 * Changes to automake:
1123 - The automake program can run multiple threads for creating most
1124 Makefile.in files concurrently, if at least Perl 5.7.2 is available
1125 with interpreter-based threads enabled. Set the environment variable
1126 AUTOMAKE_JOBS to the maximum number of threads to use, in order to
1127 enable this experimental feature.
1129 * Changes to Libtool support:
1131 - Libtool generic flags are now passed to the install and uninstall
1134 - distcheck works with Libtool 2.x even when LT_OUTPUT is used, as
1135 config.lt is removed correctly now.
1137 * Languages changes:
1139 - subdir-object mode works now with Fortran (F77, FC, preprocessed
1140 Fortran, and Ratfor).
1142 - For files with extension .f90, .f95, .f03, or .f08, the flag
1143 $(FCFLAGS_f[09]x) computed by AC_FC_SRCEXT is now used in compile rules.
1145 - Files with extension .sx are also treated as preprocessed assembler.
1147 - The default source file extension (.c) can be overridden with
1148 AM_DEFAULT_SOURCE_EXT now.
1150 - Python 3.0 is supported now, Python releases prior to 2.0 are no
1153 - AM_PATH_PYTHON honors python's idea about the site directory.
1155 - There is initial support for the Vala programming language, when using
1156 Vala 0.7.0 or later.
1158 * Miscellaneous changes:
1160 - Automake development is done in a git repository on Savannah now, see
1162 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=automake.git
1164 A read-only CVS mirror is provided at
1166 cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@pserver.git.sv.gnu.org:/automake.git \
1167 checkout -d automake HEAD
1169 - "make dist" can now create xz-compressed tarballs,
1170 as well as (deprecated?) lzma-compressed tarballs.
1172 - `automake --add-missing' will by default install the GPLv3 file as
1173 COPYING if it is missing. It will also warn that the license file
1174 should be added to source control. Note that Automake will never
1175 overwrite an existing COPYING file, even when the `--force-missing'
1178 - The manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL 1.3.
1180 - Automake ships and installs man pages for automake and aclocal now.
1182 - New shorthand `$(pkglibexecdir)' for `$(libexecdir)/@PACKAGE@'.
1184 - install-sh supports -C, which does not update the installed file
1185 (and its time stamps) if the contents did not change.
1187 - The `gnupload' script has been revamped.
1189 - The `depcomp' and `compile' scripts now work with MSVC under MSYS.
1191 - The targets `install' and `uninstall' are more efficient now, in that
1192 for example multiple files from one Automake variable such as
1193 `bin_SCRIPTS' are copied in one `install' (or `libtool --mode=install')
1194 invocation if they do not have to be renamed.
1196 Both install and uninstall may sometimes enter (`cd' into) the target
1197 installation directory now, when no build-local scripts are used.
1199 Both install and uninstall do not fail anymore but do nothing if an
1200 installation directory variable like `bindir' is set to the empty string.
1202 For built-in rules, `make install' now fails reliably if installation
1203 of a file failed. Conversely, `make uninstall' even succeeds when
1204 issued multiple times.
1206 These changes may need some adjustments from users: For example,
1207 some `install' programs refuse to install multiple copies of the
1208 same file in one invocation, so you may need to remove duplicate
1209 entries from file lists.
1211 Also, within one set of files, say, nobase_data_DATA, the order of
1212 installation may be changed, or even unstable among different hosts,
1213 due to the use of associative arrays in awk. The increased use of
1214 awk matches a similar move in Autoconf to provide for better scaling.
1216 Further, most undocumented per-rule install command variables such as
1217 binSCRIPT_INSTALL have been removed because they are not needed any
1218 more. Packages which use them should be using the appropriate one of
1219 INSTALL_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT} or their install_sh_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT}
1220 counterpart, depending on the type of files and the need for automatic
1221 target directory creation.
1223 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.m4 files is avoided by
1224 stub rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `aclocal'
1225 also if some previously needed macro file has been removed.
1227 - Rebuild rules now also work for a removed `subdir/Makefile.in' in
1228 an otherwise up to date tree.
1230 - The `color-tests' option causes colored test result output on terminals.
1232 - The `parallel-tests' option enables a new test driver that allows for
1233 parallel test execution, inter-test dependencies, lazy test execution
1234 for unit-testing, re-testing only failed tests, and formatted result output
1235 as RST (reStructuredText) and HTML. Enabling this option may require some
1236 changes to your test suite setup; see the manual for details.
1238 - The `silent-rules' option enables Linux kernel-style silent build output.
1239 This option requires the widely supported but non-POSIX `make' feature
1240 of recursive variable expansion, so do not use it if your package needs
1241 to build with `make' implementations that do not support it.
1243 To enable less verbose build output, the developer has to use the Automake
1244 option `silent-rules' in `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE', or call the `AM_SILENT_RULES'
1245 macro. The user may then set the default verbosity by passing the
1246 `--enable-silent-rules' option to `configure'. At `make' run time, this
1247 default may be overridden using `make V=0' for less verbose, and `make V=1'
1248 for backward-compatible verbose output.
1250 - New prefix `notrans_' for manpages which should not be transformed
1251 by --program-transform.
1253 - New macro AM_COND_IF for conditional evaluation and conditional
1256 - For AC_CONFIG_LINKS, if source and destination are equal, do not
1257 remove the file in a non-VPATH build. Such setups work with Autoconf
1260 - AM_MAINTAINER_MODE now allows for an optional argument specifying
1261 the default setting.
1263 - AM_SUBST_NOTMAKE may prevent substitution of AC_SUBSTed variables,
1264 useful especially for multi-line values.
1266 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now diagnoses an
1267 unsafe absolute source directory name and makes configure fail.
1269 - The Automake macros and rules cope better with whitespace in the
1270 current directory name, as long as the relative path to `configure'
1271 does not contain whitespace. To this end, the values of `$(MISSING)'
1272 and `$(install_sh)' may contain suitable quoting, and their expansion
1273 might need `eval'uation if used outside of a makefile. These
1274 undocumented variables may be used in several documented macros such
1275 as $(AUTOCONF) or $(MAKEINFO).
1279 * Long-standing bugs:
1281 - Fix aix dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1283 - Work around AIX sh quoting issue in AC_PROG_CC_C_O, leading to
1284 unnecessary use of the `compile' script.
1286 - For nobase_*_LTLIBRARIES with nonempty directory components, the
1287 correct `-rpath' argument is used now.
1289 - `config.status --file=Makefile depfiles' now also works with the
1290 extra quoting used internally by Autoconf 2.62 and newer
1291 (it used to work only without the `--file=' bit).
1293 - The `missing' script works better with versioned tool names.
1295 - Semantics for `missing help2man' have been revamped:
1297 Previously, if `help2man' was not present, `missing help2man' would have
1298 the following semantics: if some man page was out of date but present, then
1299 a warning would be printed, but the exit status was 0. If the man page was
1300 not present at all, then `missing' would create a replacement man page
1301 containing an error message, and exit with a status of 2. This does not play
1302 well with `make': the next run will see this particular man page as being up
1303 to date, and will only error out on the next generated man page, if any;
1304 repeat until all pages are done. This was not desirable.
1306 These are the new semantics: if some man page is not present, and help2man
1307 is not either, then `missing' will warn and generate the replacement page
1308 containing the error message, but exit successfully. However, `make dist'
1309 will ensure that no such bogus man pages are packaged into a tarball.
1311 - Targets provided by automake behave better with `make -n', in that they
1312 take care not to create files.
1314 - `config.status Makefile... depfiles' works fine again in the presence of
1315 disabled dependency tracking.
1317 - The default no-op recursive rules for these targets also work with BSD make
1318 now: html, install-html, install-dvi, install-pdf, install-pdf, install-info.
1320 - `make distcheck' works also when both a directory and some file below it
1321 have been added to a distribution variable, such as EXTRA_DIST or *_SOURCES.
1323 - Texinfo dvi, ps, pdf, and html output files are not removed upon
1324 `make mostlyclean' any more; only the LaTeX by-products are.
1326 - Renamed objects also work with the `subdir-objects' option and
1327 source file languages which Automake does not know itself.
1329 - `automake' now correctly complains about variable assignments which are
1330 preceded by a comment, extend over multiple lines with backslash-escaped
1331 newlines, and end in a comment sign. Previous versions would silently
1332 and wrongly ignore such assignments completely.
1334 * Bugs introduced by 1.10:
1336 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
1337 Makefile.in's again, but also cope with long lines.
1339 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of XFAIL_TESTS
1340 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1341 This is for consistency with the analogous change to TESTS in 1.10.
1343 - Fix order of standard includes to again be `-I. -I$(srcdir)',
1344 followed by directories containing config headers.
1346 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1350 * Version requirements:
1352 - Autoconf 2.60 or greater is required.
1354 - Perl 5.6 or greater is required.
1356 * Changes to aclocal:
1358 - aclocal now also supports -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble options.
1360 - `dirlist' entries (for the aclocal search path) may use shell
1361 wildcards such as `*', `?', or `[...]'.
1363 - aclocal supports an --install option that will cause system-wide
1364 third-party macros to be installed in the local directory
1365 specified with the first -I flag. This option also uses #serial
1366 lines in M4 files to upgrade local macros.
1368 The new aclocal options --dry-run and --diff help to review changes
1369 before they are installed.
1371 - aclocal now outputs an autoconf version check in aclocal.m4 in
1372 projects using automake.
1374 For a few years, automake and aclocal have been calling autoconf
1375 (or its underlying engine autom4te) to accurately retrieve the
1376 data they need from configure.ac and its siblings. Doing so can
1377 only work if all autotools use the same version of autoconf. For
1378 instance a Makefile.in generated by automake for one version of
1379 autoconf may stop working if configure is regenerated with another
1380 version of autoconf, and vice versa.
1382 This new version check ensures that the whole build system has
1383 been generated using the same autoconf version.
1385 * Support for new Autoconf macros:
1387 - The new AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE Autoconf macro is supported.
1389 - If `subdir-objects' is set, and AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR is specified,
1390 $(LIBOBJS), $(LTLIBOBJS), $(ALLOCA), and $(LTALLOCA) can be used
1391 in different directories. However, only one instance of such a
1392 library objects directory is supported.
1394 * Change to Libtool support:
1396 - Libtool generic flags (those that go before the --mode=MODE option)
1397 can be specified using AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS and target_LIBTOOLFLAGS.
1399 * Yacc and Lex changes:
1401 - The rebuild rules for distributed Yacc and Lex output will avoid
1402 overwriting existing files if AM_MAINTAINER_MODE and maintainer-mode
1405 - ylwrap is now always used for lex and yacc source files,
1406 regardless of whether there is more than one source per directory.
1408 * Languages changes:
1410 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now honors CPPFLAGS,
1411 AM_CPPFLAGS and per-target _CPPFLAGS, and supports dependency
1412 tracking, unlike non-preprocessed assembler (*.s).
1414 - subdir-object mode works now with Assembler. Automake assumes
1415 that the compiler understands `-c -o'.
1417 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now also honors
1418 $(DEFS) $(DEFAULT_INCLUDES) $(INCLUDES).
1420 - Improved support for Objective C:
1421 - Autoconf's new AC_PROG_OBJC will enable automatic dependency tracking.
1422 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1424 - New support for Unified Parallel C:
1425 - AM_PROG_UPC looks for a UPC compiler.
1426 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1428 - Per-target flags are now correctly handled in link rules.
1430 For instance maude_CFLAGS correctly overrides AM_CFLAGS; likewise
1431 for maude_LDFLAGS and AM_LDFLAGS. Previous versions bogusly
1432 preferred AM_CFLAGS over maude_CFLAGS while linking, and they
1433 used both AM_LDFLAGS and maude_LDFLAGS on the same link command.
1435 The fix for compiler flags (i.e., using maude_CFLAGS instead of
1436 AM_CFLAGS) should not hurt any package since that is how _CFLAGS
1437 is expected to work (and actually works during compilation).
1439 However using maude_LDFLAGS "instead of" AM_LDFLAGS rather than
1440 "in addition to" breaks backward compatibility with older versions.
1441 If your package used both variables, as in
1443 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1444 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1445 a_LDFLAGS = more flags
1448 and assumed *_LDFLAGS would sum up, you should rewrite it as
1450 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1451 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1452 a_LDFLAGS = $(AM_LDFLAGS) more flags
1455 This new behavior of *_LDFLAGS is more coherent with other
1456 per-target variables, and the way *_LDFLAGS variables were
1457 considered internally.
1459 * New installation targets:
1461 - New targets mandated by GNU Coding Standards:
1466 By default they will only install Texinfo manuals.
1467 You can customize them with *-local variants:
1473 - The undocumented recursive target `uninstall-info' no longer exists.
1474 (`uninstall' is in charge of removing all possible documentation
1475 flavors, including optional formats such as dvi, ps, or info even
1476 when `no-installinfo' is used.)
1478 * Miscellaneous changes:
1480 - Automake no longer complains if input files for AC_CONFIG_FILES
1481 are specified using shell variables.
1483 - clean, distribution, or rebuild rules are normally disabled for
1484 inputs and outputs of AC_CONFIG_FILES, AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, and
1485 AC_CONFIG_LINK specified using shell variables. However, if these
1486 variables are used as ${VAR}, and AC_SUBSTed, then Automake will
1487 be able to output rules anyway.
1488 (See the Automake documentation for AC_CONFIG_FILES.)
1490 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of TESTS
1491 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1492 This is mostly useful when some check_PROGRAMS are listed in TESTS.
1494 - `-Wportability' has finally been turned on by default for `gnu' and
1495 `gnits' strictness. This means, automake will complain about %-rules
1496 or $(GNU Make functions) unless you switch to `foreign' strictness or
1497 use `-Wno-portability'.
1499 - Automake now uses AC_PROG_MKDIR_P (new in Autoconf 2.60), and uses
1500 $(MKDIR_P) instead of $(mkdir_p) to create directories. The
1501 $(mkdir_p) variable is still defined (to the same value as
1502 $(MKDIR_P)) but should be considered obsolete. If you are using
1503 $(mkdir_p) in some of your rules, please plan to update them to
1504 $(MKDIR_P) at some point.
1506 - AM_C_PROTOTYPES and ansi2knr are now documented as being obsolete.
1507 They still work in this release, but may be withdrawn in a future one.
1509 - Inline compilation rules for gcc3-style dependency tracking are
1512 - Automake installs a "Hello World!" example package in $(docdir).
1513 This example is used throughout the new "Autotools Introduction"
1514 chapter of the manual.
1516 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1520 * Makefile.in bloat reduction:
1522 - Inference rules are used to compile sources in subdirectories when
1523 the `subdir-objects' option is used and no per-target flags are
1524 used. This should reduce the size of some projects a lot, because
1525 Automake used to output an explicit rule for each such object in
1528 - Automake no longer outputs three rules (.o, .obj, .lo) for each
1529 object that must be built with explicit rules. It just outputs
1530 the rules required to build the kind of object considered: either
1531 the two .o and .obj rules for usual objects, or the .lo rule for
1534 * Change to Libtool support:
1536 - Libtool tags are used with libtool versions that support them.
1537 (I.e., with Libtool 1.5 or greater.)
1539 - Automake is now able to handle setups where a libtool library is
1540 conditionally installed in different directories, as in
1543 lib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1545 pkglib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1547 liba_la_SOURCES = ...
1549 * Changes to aclocal:
1551 - aclocal now ensures that AC_DEFUNs and AU_DEFUNs it discovers are
1552 really evaluated, before it decides to include them in aclocal.m4.
1553 This solves nasty problems with conditional redefinitions of
1554 Autoconf macros in /usr/share/aclocal/*.m4 files causing extraneous
1555 *.m4 files to be included in any project using these macros.
1556 (Calls to AC_PROG_EGREP causing libtool.m4 to be included is the
1557 most famous instance of this bug.)
1559 - Do not complain about missing conditionally AC_REQUIREd macros
1560 that are not actually used. In 1.8.x aclocal would correctly
1561 determine which of these macros were really needed (and include
1562 only these in the package); unfortunately it would also require
1563 all of them to be present in order to run. This created
1564 situations were aclocal would not work on a tarball distributing
1565 all the macros it uses. For instance running aclocal on a project
1566 containing only the subset of the Gettext macros in use by the
1567 project did not work, because gettext conditionally requires other
1570 * Portability improvements:
1572 - Tar format can be chosen with the new options tar-v7, tar-ustar, and
1573 tar-pax. The new option filename-length-max=99 helps diagnosing
1574 filenames that are too long for tar-v7. (PR/414)
1576 - Variables aumented with `+=' are now automatically flattened (i.e.,
1577 trailing backslashes removed) and then wrapped around 80 colummns
1578 (adding trailing backslashes). In previous versions, a long series
1584 would result in a single-line definition of VAR that could possibly
1585 exceed the maximum line length of some make implementations.
1587 Non-augmented variables are still output as they are defined in
1592 - Support Fortran 90/95 with the new "fc" and "ppfc" languages.
1593 Works the same as the old Fortran 77 implementation; just replace
1594 F77 with FC everywhere (exception: FFLAGS becomes FCFLAGS).
1595 Requires a version of autoconf which provides AC_PROG_FC (>=2.59).
1597 - Support for conditional _LISP.
1599 - Support for conditional -hook and -local rules (PR/428).
1601 - Diagnose AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR calls following AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. (PR/49)
1603 - Automake will not write any Makefile.ins after the first error it
1604 encounters. The previous Makefile.ins (if any) will be left in
1605 place. (Warnings will not prevent output, but remember they can
1606 be turned into errors with -Werror.)
1608 - The restriction that SUBDIRS must contain direct children is gone.
1611 - The manual tells more about SUBDIRS vs. DIST_SUBDIRS.
1612 It also gives an example of nested packages using AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS.
1614 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1616 Bugs fixed in 1.8.5:
1618 * Long-standing bugs:
1620 - Define DIST_SUBDIRS even when the `no-dist' or `cygnus' options are used
1621 so that `make distclean' and `make maintainer-clean' can work.
1623 - Define AR and ARFLAGS even when only EXTRA_LIBRARIES are defined.
1625 - Fix many rules to please FreeBSD make, which runs commands with `sh -e'.
1627 - Polish diagnostic when no input file is found.
1629 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1631 Bugs fixed in 1.8.4:
1633 * Long-standing bugs:
1635 - Fix AM_PATH_PYTHON to correctly display $PYTHON when it has been
1636 overridden by the user.
1638 - Honor PATH_SEPARATOR in various places of the Automake package, for
1641 - Adjust dependency tracking mode detection to ICC 8.0's new output.
1644 - Fix install-sh so it can install the `mv' binary... using `mv'.
1646 - Fix tru64 dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1648 - Work around Exuberant Ctags when creating a TAGS files in a directory
1649 without files to scan but with subdirectories to include.
1651 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1653 - Fix an "internal error" when @LIBOBJS@ is used in a variable that is
1654 not defined in the same conditions as the _LDADD that uses it.
1656 - Do not warn when JAVAROOT is overridden, this is legitimate.
1658 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1660 Bugs fixed in 1.8.3:
1662 * Long-standing bugs:
1664 - Quote filenames in installation rules, in case $DESTDIR, $prefix,
1665 or any of the other *dir variables contain a space.
1667 Please note that Automake does not and cannot support spaces in
1668 filenames that are involved during the build. This change affects
1669 only installation paths, so that `make install' does not bomb out
1670 in packages configured with
1671 ./configure --prefix '/c/Program Files'
1673 - Fix the depfiles output so it works with GNU sed (<4.1) even when
1674 POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.
1676 - Do not AC_SUBST(LIBOBJS) in AM_WITH_REGEX. This macro was unusable
1677 since Autoconf 2.54, which defines LIBOBJS itself.
1679 - Fix a potential (but unlikely) race condition in parallel elisp
1680 builds. (Introduced in 1.7.3.)
1682 - Do not assume that users override _DEPENDENCIES in all conditions
1683 where Automake will try to define them.
1685 - Do not use `mkdir -p' in mkinstalldirs, unless this is GNU mkdir.
1686 Solaris 8's `mkdir -p' is not thread-safe and can break parallel
1689 This fix also affects the $(mkdir_p) variable defined since
1690 Automake 1.8. It will be set to `mkdir -p' only if mkdir is GNU
1691 mkdir, and to `mkinstalldirs' or `install-sh -d' otherwise.
1693 - Secure temporary directory creation in `make distcheck'. (PR/413)
1695 - Do not generate two build rules for `parser.h' when the
1696 parser appears in two different conditionals.
1698 - Work around a Solaris 8 /bin/sh bug in the test for dependency
1699 checking. Usually ./configure will not pick this shell; so this
1700 fix only helps cases where the shell is forced to /bin/sh.
1702 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1704 - In some situations (hand-written `m4_include's), aclocal would
1705 call the `File::Spec->rel2abs' method, which was only introduced
1706 in Perl 5.6. This new version reestablish support Perl 5.005.
1708 It is likely that the next major Automake releases will require at
1709 least Perl 5.6. Consider upgrading your development environment
1710 if you are still using the five-year-old Perl 5.005.
1712 - Automake would sometimes fail to define rules for targets listed
1713 in variables defined in multiple conditions. For instance on
1719 it would define only the `a.$(OBJEXT): a.c' rule and omit the
1720 `b.$(OBJEXT): b.c' rule.
1722 * New sections in manual:
1724 - Third-Party Makefiles: how to interface third party Makefiles.
1725 - Upgrading: upgrading packages to newer Automake versions.
1726 - Multiple Outputs: handling tools that produce many outputs.
1728 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1732 * A (well known) portability bug slipped in the changes made to
1733 install-sh in Automake 1.8.1. The broken install-sh would refuse to
1734 install anything on Tru64.
1736 * Fix install rules for conditionally built python files. (This never
1739 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1743 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1745 - Fix Config.pm import error with old Perl versions (at least
1746 5.005_03). One symptom is that aclocal could not find its macro
1749 - Automake 1.8 used `mkdir -m 0755 -p --' to ensure that directories
1750 created by `make install' are always world readable, even if the
1751 installer happens to have an overly restrictive umask (e.g. 077).
1752 This was a mistake and has been reverted. There are at least two
1753 reasons why we must not use `-m 0755':
1754 - it causes special bits like SGID to be ignored,
1755 - it may be too restrictive (some setups expect 775 directories).
1757 - Fix aclocal to honor definitions located in files which have been
1758 m4_included manually. aclocal 1.8 had been updated to check
1759 m4_included files for new requirements, but forgot that these
1760 m4_included files can also provide new definitions.
1762 Note that if you have such a setup, we recommend you get rid of
1763 it. In the past, there was a reason to m4_include files manually:
1764 aclocal used to duplicate entire M4 files into aclocal.m4, even
1765 files that were distributed. Some packages were therefore
1766 m4_including the distributed file directly, and playing some
1767 tricks to ensure aclocal would not copy that file to aclocal.m4,
1768 in order to limit the amount of duplication. Since aclocal 1.8.x
1769 will precisely output m4_includes for local M4 files, we recommend
1770 that you clean up your setup, removing all manual m4_includes and
1771 letting aclocal output them.
1773 - Output detailed menus in the Info version if the Automake manual,
1774 so that Emacs can locate the indexes.
1776 - configure.ac and configure were listed twice in DIST_COMMON (an
1777 internal variable where Automake lists configury files to
1778 distribute). This was harmless, but unaesthetic.
1780 - Use `chmod a-w' instead of `chmod -w' as the latter honors umask.
1781 This was an issue only in the Automake package itself, not in
1784 - Automake assumed that all AC_CONFIG_LINKS arguments had the form
1785 DEST:SRC. This was wrong, as some packages do
1786 AC_CONFIG_LINKS($computedlinks). This version no longer abort in
1789 - Contrary to mkinstalldirs, $(mkdir_p) was expecting exactly one
1790 argument. This caused two kinds of failures:
1791 - Rules installing data in a conditionally defined directory
1792 failed when that directory was undefined. In this case no
1793 argument was supplied.
1794 - `make installdirs' failed, because several directories were
1795 passed to $(mkdir_p). This was an issue only on platform
1796 were $(mkdir_p) is implemented with `install-sh -d'.
1797 $(mkdir_p) as been changed to accept 0 or more arguments, as
1800 * Long-standing bugs:
1802 - Fix an unexpected diagnostic occurring when users attempt
1803 to override some internal variables that Automake appends to.
1805 - aclocal now scans configure.ac for macro definitions (PR/319).
1807 - Fix a portability issue with OSF1/Tru64 Make. If a directory
1808 distributes files which are outside itself (this usually occurs
1809 when using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([../dir]) to use auxiliary files
1810 from a parent package), then `make distcheck' fails due to an
1811 optimization performed by OSF1/Tru64 Make in its VPATH handling.
1812 (tests/subpkg2.test failure)
1814 - Fix another portability issue with Sun and OSF1/Tru64 Make.
1815 In a VPATH-build configuration, `make install' would install
1816 nobase_ files to wrong locations.
1818 - Fix a Perl `uninitialized value' diagnostic occurring when
1819 automake complains that a Texinfo file does not have a
1820 @setfilename statement.
1822 - Erase config.status.lineno during `make distclean'. This file
1823 can be created by config.status. Automake already knew about
1824 configure.lineno, but forgot config.status.lineno.
1826 - Distribute all files, even those which are built and installed
1827 conditionally. This change affects files listed in conditionally
1828 defined *_HEADERS and *_PYTHON variable (unless they are nodist_*)
1829 as well as those listed in conditionally defined dist_*_DATA,
1830 dist_*_JAVA, dist_*_LISP, and dist_*_SCRIPTS variables.
1832 - Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to avoid \? in sed regular expressions; it
1833 doesn't conform to POSIX.
1835 - Normalize help strings for configure variables and options added
1840 - Check for python2.4 in AM_PATH_PYTHON.
1842 * Spurious failures in test suite:
1844 - tests/libtool5.test, tests/ltcond.test, tests/ltcond2.test,
1845 tests/ltconv.test: fix failures with CVS Libtool.
1846 - tests/aclocal6.test: fix failure if autom4te.cache is disabled.
1847 - tests/txinfo24.test, tests/txinfo25.test, tests/txinfo28.test:
1848 fix failures with old Texinfo versions.
1850 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1856 - The NEWS file is more verbose.
1860 - Autoconf 2.58 or greater is required.
1864 - Default source file names in the absence of a _SOURCES declaration
1865 are made by removing any target extension before appending `.c', so
1866 to make the libtool module `foo.la' from `foo.c', you only need to
1869 lib_LTLIBRARIES = foo.la
1870 foo_la_LDFLAGS = -module
1872 For backward compatibility, foo_la.c will be used instead of
1873 foo.c if this file exists or is the explicit target of a rule.
1874 However -Wobsolete will warn about this deprecated naming.
1876 - AR's `cru' flags are now set in a global ARFLAGS variable instead
1877 of being hard-coded in each $(AR) invocation, so they can be
1878 substituted from configure.ac. This has been requested by people
1879 dealing with non-POSIX ar implementations.
1881 - New warning option: -Woverride. This will warn about any user
1882 target or variable definitions which override Automake
1885 - Texinfo rules back up and restore info files when makeinfo fails.
1887 - Texinfo rules now support the `html' target.
1888 Running this requires Texinfo 4.0 or greater.
1890 `html' is a new recursive target, so if your package mixes
1891 hand-crafted `Makefile.in's with Automake-generated
1892 `Makefile.in's, you should adjust the former to support (or
1893 ignore) this target so that `make html' recurses successfully. If
1894 you had a custom `html' rule in your `Makefile.am', it's better to
1895 rename it as `html-local', otherwise your rule will override
1896 Automake's new rule (you can check that by running `automake
1897 -Woverride') and that will stop the recursion to subdirectories.
1899 Last but not least, this `html' rule is declared PHONY, even when
1900 overridden. Fortunately, it appears that few packages use a
1901 non-PHONY `html' rule.
1903 - Any file which is m4_included from configure.ac will appear as a
1904 configure and Makefile.in dependency, and will be automatically
1907 - The rules for rebuilding Makefiles and Makefile.ins will now
1908 rebuild all Makefiles and all Makefile.ins at once when one of
1909 configure's dependencies has changed. This is considerably faster
1910 than previous implementations, where config.status and automake
1911 were run separately in each directory (this still happens when you
1912 change a Makefile.am locally, without touching configure.ac or
1913 friends). Doing this also solves a longstanding issue: these
1914 rebuild rules failed to work when adding new directories to the
1915 tree, forcing you to run automake manually.
1917 - For similar reasons, the rules to rebuild configure,
1918 config.status, and aclocal.m4 are now defined in all directories.
1919 Note that if you were using the CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES and
1920 CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES (formerly undocumented) variables, you
1921 should better define them in all directories. This is easily done
1922 using an AC_SUBST (make sure you prefix these dependencies with
1923 $(top_srcdir) since this variable will appear at different
1924 levels of the build tree).
1926 - aclocal will now use `m4_include' instead of copying local m4
1927 files into aclocal.m4. (Local m4 files are those you ship with
1928 your project, other files will be copied as usual.)
1930 Because m4_included files are automatically distributed, it means
1931 for most projects there is no point in EXTRA_DISTing the list of
1932 m4 files which are used. (You can probably get rid of
1933 m4/Makefile.am if you had one.)
1935 - aclocal will avoid touching aclocal.m4 when possible, so that
1936 Autom4te's cache isn't needlessly invalidated. This behavior can
1937 be switched off with the new `--force' option.
1939 - aclocal now uses Autoconf's --trace to detect macros which are
1940 actually used and will no longer include unused macros simply
1941 because they where mentioned. This was often the case for macros
1942 called conditionally.
1944 - New options no-dist and no-dist-gzip.
1946 - compile, depcomp, elisp-comp, install-sh, mdate-sh, mkinstalldirs,
1947 py-compile, and ylwrap, now all understand --version and --help.
1949 - Automake will now recognize AC_CONFIG_LINKS so far as removing created
1950 links as part of the distclean target and including source files in
1953 - AM_PATH_PYTHON now supports ACTION-IF-FOUND and ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND
1954 argument. The latter can be used to override the default behavior
1955 (which is to abort).
1957 - Automake will exit with $? = 63 on version mismatch. (So does
1958 Autoconf 2.58) missing knows this, and in this case it will
1959 emulate the tools as if they were absent. Because older versions
1960 of Automake and Autoconf did not use this exit code, this change
1961 will only be useful in projects generated with future versions of
1964 - When using AC_CONFIG_FILES with multiple input files, Automake
1965 generates the first ".in" input file for which a ".am" exists.
1966 (Former versions would try to use only the first input file.)
1968 - lisp_DATA is now allowed. If you are using the empty ELCFILES
1969 idiom to disable byte-compilation of lisp_LISP files, it is
1970 recommended that you switch to using lisp_DATA. Note that
1971 this is not strictly equivalent: lisp_DATA will install elisp
1972 files even if emacs is not installed, while *_LISP do not
1973 install anything unless emacs is found.
1975 - Makefiles will prefer `mkdir -p' over mkinstalldirs if it is
1976 available. This selection is achieved through the Makefile
1977 variable $(mkdir_p) that is set by AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE to either
1978 `mkdir -m 0755 -p --', `$(mkinstalldirs) -m 0755', or
1979 `$(install_sh) -m 0755 -d'.
1983 - Because `mkdir -p' is available on most platforms, and we can use
1984 `install-sh -d' when it is not, the use of the mkinstalldirs
1985 script is being phased out. `automake --add-missing' no longer
1986 installs it, and if you remove mkinstalldirs from your package,
1987 automake will define $(mkinstalldirs) as an alias for $(mkdir_p).
1989 Gettext 0.12.1 still requires mkinstalldirs. Fortunately
1990 gettextize and autopoint will install it when needed. Automake
1991 will continue to define the $(mkinstalldirs) and to distribute
1992 mkinstalldirs when this script is in the source tree.
1994 - AM_PROG_CC_STDC is now empty. The content of this macro was
1995 merged in AC_PROG_CC. If your code uses $am_cv_prog_cc_stdc, you
1996 should adjust it to use $ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc instead. (This
1997 renaming should be safe, even if you have to support several,
1998 versions of Automake, because AC_PROG_CC defines this variable
1999 since Autoconf 2.54.)
2001 - Some users where using the undocumented ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES
2002 variable to override the aclocal.m4 dependencies computed
2003 (inaccurately) by older versions of Automake. Because Automake
2004 now tracks configure's m4 dependencies accurately (see m4_include
2005 above), the use of ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES should be considered
2006 obsolete and will be flagged as such when running `automake
2011 - Defining programs conditionally using Automake conditionals no
2012 longer leads to a combinatorial explosion. The following
2013 construct used to be troublesome when used with dozens of
2028 Likewise for _SOURCES, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables.
2030 - Due to implementation constraints, previous versions of Automake
2031 proscribed multiple conditional definitions of some variables
2041 All _PROGRAMS, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables were affected.
2042 This restriction has been lifted, and these variables now
2043 support multiple conditional definitions as do other variables.
2045 - Cleanup the definitions of $(distdir) and $(top_distdir).
2046 $(top_distdir) now points to the root of the distribution
2047 directory created during `make dist', as it did in Automake 1.4,
2048 not to the root of the build tree as it did in intervening
2049 versions. Furthermore these two variables are now only defined in
2050 the top level Makefile, and passed to sub-directories when running
2053 - The --no-force option now correctly checks the Makefile.in's
2054 dependencies before deciding not to update it.
2056 - Do not assume that make files are called Makefile in cleaning rules.
2058 - Update .info files in the source tree, not in the build tree. This
2059 is what the GNU Coding Standard recommend. Only Automake 1.7.x
2060 used to update these files in the build tree (previous versions did
2061 it in the source tree too), and it caused several problems, varying
2062 from mere annoyance to portability issues.
2064 - COPYING, COPYING.LIB, and COPYING.LESSER are no longer overwritten
2065 when --add-missing and --force-missing are used. For backward
2066 compatibility --add-missing will continue to install COPYING (in
2067 `gnu' strictness) when none of these three files exist, but this
2068 use is deprecated: you should better choose a license yourself and
2069 install it once for all in your source tree (and in your code
2072 - Fix ylwrap so that it does not overwrite header files that haven't
2073 changed, as the inline rule already does.
2075 - User-defined rules override automake-defined rules for the same
2076 targets, even when rules do not have commands. This is not new
2077 (and was documented), however some of the automake-generated
2078 rules have escaped this principle in former Automake versions.
2079 Rules for the following targets are affected by this fix:
2081 clean, clean-am, dist-all, distclean, distclean-am, dvi, dvi-am,
2082 info, info-am, install-data-am, install-exec-am, install-info,
2083 install-info-am, install-man, installcheck-am, maintainer-clean,
2084 maintainer-clean-am, mostlyclean, mostlyclean-am, pdf, pdf-am,
2085 ps, ps-am, uninstall-am, uninstall-info, uninstall-man
2087 Practically it means that an attempt to supplement the dependencies
2088 of some target, as in
2090 clean: my-clean-rule
2092 will now *silently override* the automake definition of the
2093 rule for this target. Running `automake -Woverride' will diagnose
2094 all such overriding definitions.
2096 It should be noted that almost all of these targets support a *-local
2097 variant that is meant to supplement the automake-defined rule
2098 (See node `Extending' in the manual). The above rule should
2101 clean-local: my-clean-rule
2103 These *-local targets have been documented since at least
2104 Automake 1.2, so you should not fear the change if you have
2105 to support multiple automake versions.
2109 - The Automake manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
2111 - Targets dist-gzip, dist-bzip2, dist-tarZ, dist-zip are always defined.
2113 - core dumps are no longer removed by the cleaning rules. There are
2114 at least three reasons for this:
2115 1. These files should not be created by any build step,
2116 so their removal do not fit any of the cleaning rules.
2117 Actually, they may be precious to the developer.
2118 2. If such file is created during a build, then it's clearly a
2119 bug Automake should not hide. Not removing the file will
2120 cause `make distcheck' to complain about its presence.
2121 3. Operating systems have different naming conventions for
2122 core dump files. A core file on one system might be a
2123 completely legitimate data file on another system.
2125 - RUNTESTFLAGS, CTAGSFLAGS, ETAGSFLAGS, JAVACFLAGS are no longer
2126 defined by Automake. This means that any definition in the
2127 environment will be used, unless overridden in the Makefile.am or
2128 on the command line. The old behavior, where these variables were
2129 defined empty in each Makefile, can be obtained by AC_SUBSTing or
2130 AC_ARG_VARing each variable from configure.ac.
2132 - CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES and CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES are now
2133 documented. (The is not a new feature, these variables have
2134 been there since at least Automake 1.4.)
2136 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2138 Bugs fixed in 1.7.9:
2139 * Fix install-strip to work with nobase_ binaries.
2140 * Fix renaming of #line directives in ylwrap.
2141 * Rebuild with Autoconf 2.59. (1.7.8 was not installable with pdksh.)
2143 Bugs fixed in 1.7.8:
2144 * Remove spurious blank lines in cleaning rules introduced in 1.7.7.
2145 * Fix detection of Debian's install-info, broken since version 1.5.
2146 (Debian bug #213524).
2147 * Honor -module if it appears in AM_LDFLAGS (i.e., relax name checking)
2148 This was only done for libfoo_LDFLAGS and LDFLAGS in previous versions.
2150 Bugs fixed in 1.7.7:
2151 * The implementation of automake's --no-force option is unreliable,
2152 so this option is ignored in this version. A real fix will appear in
2153 Automake 1.8. (Debian Bug #206299)
2154 * AM_PATH_PYTHON: really check the whole list of interpreters if no
2155 argument is given. (PR/399)
2156 * Do not warn about leading `_' in variable names, even with -Wportability.
2157 * Support user redefinitions of TEXINFO_TEX.
2158 * depcomp: support AIX Compiler version 6.
2159 * Fix missing rebuilds during `make dist' with BSD make.
2160 (Could produce tarballs containing out-of-date files.)
2161 * Resurrect multilib support.
2162 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2163 - Extending aclocal: how to write m4 macros that won't trigger warnings
2165 - A Shared Library: Rewrite and split into subsections.
2167 Bugs fixed in 1.7.6:
2168 * Fix depcomp's icc mode for ICC 7.1.
2169 * Diagnose calls to AC_CONFIG_FILES and friends with not enough arguments.
2170 * Fix maintainer-clean's removal of autom4te.cache in VPATH builds.
2171 * Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to work with POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
2172 * Fix the location reported in some diagnostics related to AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
2173 * Remove Latin-1 characters from elisp-comp.
2174 * Update the manual's @dircategory to match the Free Software Directory.
2176 Bugs fixed in 1.7.5:
2177 * Update install-sh's license to remove an advertising clause.
2178 (Debian bug #191717)
2179 * Fix a bug introduced in 1.7.4, related to BUILT_SOURCE handling,
2180 that caused invalid Makefile.ins to be generated.
2181 * Make sure AM_MAKE_INCLUDE doesn't fail when a `doit' file exists.
2182 * New FAQ entry: renamed objects.
2184 Bugs fixed in 1.7.4:
2185 * Tweak the TAGS rule to support Exuberant Ctags (in addition to
2186 the Emacs implementation)
2187 * Fix output of aclocal.m4 dependencies in subdirectories.
2188 * Use `mv -f' instead of `mv' in fastdep rules.
2189 * Upgrade mdate-sh to work on OS/2.
2190 * Don't byte-compile elisp files when ELCFILES is set empty.
2191 (this documented feature was broken by 1.7.3)
2192 * Diagnose trailing backslashes on last line of Makefile.am.
2193 * Diagnose whitespace following trailing backslashes.
2194 * Multiple tests are now correctly supported in DEJATOOL. (PR/388)
2195 * Fix rebuilt rules for AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.bot])
2197 * `make install' will build `BUILT_SOURCES' first.
2198 * Minor documentation fixes.
2200 Bugs fixed in 1.7.3:
2201 * Fix stamp files numbering (when using multiple AC_CONFIG_HEADERS).
2202 * Query distutils for `pythondir' and `pythonexecdir', instead of
2203 using an hardcoded path. This should allow builds on 64-bit
2204 distributions that usually use lib64/ instead of lib/.
2205 * AM_PATH_PYTHON will also search for python2.3.
2206 * elisp files are now built all at once instead of one by one. Besides
2207 incurring a speed-up, this is required to support interdependent elisp files.
2208 * Support for DJGPP:
2209 - `make distcheck' will now work in `_inst/' and `_build' instead
2210 of `=inst/' and `=build/'
2211 - use `_dirstamp' when the file-system doesn't support `.dirstamp'
2212 - install/uninstall `*.i[0-9][0-9]'-style info files
2213 - more changes that affect only the Automake package (not its output)
2214 * Fix some incompatibilities with upcoming perl-5.10.
2215 * Properly quote AC_PACKAGE_TARNAME and AC_PACKAGE_VERSION when defining
2216 PACKAGE and VERSION.
2218 - dashmstdout and dashXmstdout modes: don't use `-o /dev/null', this
2219 is troublesome with gcc and Solaris compilers. (PR/385)
2220 - makedepend mode: work with Libtool. (PR/385 too)
2222 * better support for unusual gettext setups, such as multiple po/ directories
2224 - Flag missing po/ and intl/ directories as warnings, not errors.
2225 - Disable these warnings if po/ does not exist.
2226 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2228 - Document how AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR interacts with missing files.
2230 - Document `AM_YFLAGS = -d'. (PR/382)
2232 Bugs fixed in 1.7.2:
2233 * Fix installation and uninstallation of Info files built in subdirectories.
2234 * Do not run `./configure --with-included-gettext' during `make distcheck'
2235 if AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) is used.
2236 * Correctly uninstall renamed man pages.
2237 * Do not strip escaped newline in variables defined in one condition
2238 and augmented in another condition.
2239 * Fix ansi2knr rules for LIBOBJS sources.
2240 * Clean all known Texinfo index files, not only those which appear to
2241 be used, because we cannot know which indexes are used in included files.
2242 (PR/375, Debian Bug #168671)
2243 * Honor only the first @setfilename seen in a Texinfo file.
2244 * Treat "required file X not found" diagnostics as errors (exit status 1).
2245 * Don't complain that a required file is not found when it is a Makefile
2247 * Don't use single suffix inference rules when building `.info'-less
2248 Info files, for the sake of Solaris make.
2249 * The `check' target now depends on `$(BUILT_SOURCES)'. (PR/359)
2250 * Recognize multiple inference rules such as `.a.b .c.d:'. (PR/371)
2251 * Warn about multiple inference rules when -Wportability is used. (PR/372)
2252 * Fix building of deansified files from subdirectories. (PR/370)
2253 * Add missing `fi' in the .c->.obj rules.
2254 * Improve install-sh to work even when names contain spaces or certain
2255 (but not all) shell metachars.
2256 * Fix the following spurious failures in the test suite:
2257 depcomp2.test, gnits2.test, gnits3.test, python3.test, texinfo13.test
2258 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2259 - Augment the section about BUILT_SOURCES.
2260 - Mention that AM_PROG_CC_STDC is a relic that is better avoided today.
2262 Bugs fixed in 1.7.1:
2263 * Honor `ansi2knr' for files built in subdirectories, or using per-targets
2265 * Aclocal should now recognize macro names containing parentheses, e.g.
2266 AC_DEFUN([AC_LANG_PREPROC(Fortran 90)], [...]).
2267 * Erase *.sum and *.log files created by DejaGnu, during `make distclean'.
2269 * Install Python files even if they were built. (PR/369)
2270 * Have stamp-vti dependent upon configure instead of configure.ac, as the
2271 version might not be defined in the latter. (PR/358)
2272 * Reorder arguments passed to a couple of commands, so things works
2273 when POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
2274 * Fix a regex that can cause Perl to segfault on large input.
2276 * Fix distribution of packages that have some sources defined conditionally,
2277 as in the `Conditional compilation using Automake conditionals' example
2279 * Fix spurious test suite failures on IRIX.
2280 * Don't report a required variable as undefined if it has been
2281 defined conditionally for the "right" conditions.
2282 * Fix cleaning of the /tmp subdirectory used by `make distcheck', in case
2283 `make distcheck' fails.
2284 * Fix distribution of included Makefile fragment, so we don't create
2285 spurious directories in the distribution. (PR/366)
2286 * Don't complain that a target lacks `.$(EXEEXT)' when it has it.
2289 * Autoconf 2.54 is required.
2290 * `aclocal' and `automake' will no longer warn about obsolete
2291 configure macros. This is done by `autoconf -Wobsolete'.
2292 * AM_CONFIG_HEADER, AM_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS and
2293 AM_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ_NEEDS_SYS_IOCTL are obsolete (although still
2294 supported). You should use AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS,
2295 and AC_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ instead. `autoupdate' can upgrade
2296 `configure.ac' for you.
2297 * Support for per-program and per-library `_CPPFLAGS'.
2298 * New `ctags' target (builds CTAGS files).
2299 * Support for -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble, where mumble is a warning category
2300 (see `automake --help' or the manual for a list of them).
2301 * Honor the WARNINGS environment variable.
2302 * Omit the call to depcomp when using gcc3: call the compiler directly.
2303 * A new option, std-options, tests that programs support --help and --version
2304 when `make installcheck' is run. This is enabled by --gnits.
2305 * Texinfo rules now support the `ps' and `pdf' targets.
2306 * Info files are now created in the build directory, not the source directory.
2307 * info_TEXINFOS supports files in subdirectories (this requires Texinfo 4.1
2309 * `make distcheck' will enforce DESTDIR support by attempting
2311 * `+=' can be used in conditionals, even if the augmented variable
2312 was defined for another condition.
2313 * Makefile fragments (inserted with `include') are always distributed.
2314 * Use Autoconf's --trace interface to inspect configure.ac and get
2315 a more accurate view of it.
2316 * Add support for extending aclocal's default macro search path
2317 using a `dirlist' file within the aclocal directory.
2318 * automake --output-dir is deprecated.
2319 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether uninstall actually
2320 removes all installed files has been moved in a separate target,
2321 distuninstallcheck, so it can be overridden easily.
2325 * Support for AM_INIT_GETTEXT([external])
2326 * Bug fixes, including:
2327 - Fix Automake's own `make install' so it works even if `ln' doesn't.
2328 - nobase_ programs and scripts honor --program-transform correctly.
2329 - Erase configure.lineno during `make distclean'.
2330 - Erase YACC and LEX outputs during `make maintainer-clean'.
2333 * Many bug fixes, including:
2334 - Requiring the current version works.
2335 - Fix "$@" portability issues (for Zsh).
2336 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
2338 - Don't compute dependencies in background to avoid races with libtool.
2339 - Fix handling of _OBJECTS variables for targets sharing source variables.
2340 - Check dependency mode for Java when AM_PROG_GCJ is used.
2343 * automake --output-dir is deprecated
2344 * Many bug fixes, including:
2345 - Don't choke on AM_LDFLAGS definitions.
2346 - Clean libtool objects from subdirectories.
2347 - Allow configure variables with reserved suffix and unknown prefix
2348 (e.g. AC_SUBST(mumble_LDFLAGS) when 'mumble' is not a target).
2349 - Fix the definition of AUTOMAKE and ACLOCAL in configure.
2352 * Autoconf 2.52 is required.
2353 * automake no longer run libtoolize.
2354 This is the job of autoreconf (from GNU Autoconf).
2355 * `dist' generates all the archive flavors, as did `dist-all'.
2356 * `dist-gzip' generates the Gzip tar file only.
2357 * Combining Automake Makefile conditionals no longer lead to a combinatorial
2358 explosion. Makefile.in's keep a reasonable size.
2359 * AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_STRTOD, AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, AM_PTRDIFF_T
2360 are no longer shipped, since Autoconf 2.52 provides them (both as AM_
2362 * `#line' of Lex and Yacc files are properly set.
2363 * EXTRA_DIST can contain generated directories.
2364 * Support for dot-less extensions in suffix rules.
2365 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether distclean actually
2366 cleans all built files has been moved in a separate target, distcleancheck,
2367 so it can be overridden easily.
2368 * `make distcheck' will pass additional options defined in
2369 $(DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS) to configure.
2370 * Fixed CDPATH portability problems, in particular for MacOS X.
2371 * Fixed handling of nobase_ targets.
2372 * Fixed support of implicit rules leading to .lo objects.
2373 * Fixed late inclusion of --add-missing files (e.g. depcomp) in DIST_COMMON
2374 * Added uninstall-hook target
2375 * `AC_INIT AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(tarname,version)' is an obsolete construct.
2376 You can now use `AC_INIT(pkgname,version) AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE' instead.
2377 (Note that "pkgname" is not "tarname", see the manual for details.)
2378 It is also possible to pass a list of global Automake options as
2379 first argument to this new form of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.
2380 * Compiler-based assembler is now called `CCAS'; people expected `AS'
2381 to be a real assembler.
2382 * AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE will set STRIP itself when it needs it. Adding
2383 AC_CHECK_TOOL([STRIP], [strip]) manually is no longer required.
2384 * aclocal and automake are also installed with the version number
2385 appended, and some of the install directory names have changed.
2386 This lets you have multiple versions installed simultaneously.
2387 * Support for parsers and lexers in subdirectories.
2390 * Support for `configure.ac'.
2391 * Support for `else COND', `endif COND' and negated conditions `!COND'.
2392 * `make dist-all' is much faster.
2393 * Allows '@' AC_SUBSTs in macro names.
2394 * Faster AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE (requires update of `missing' script)
2395 * User-side dependency tracking. Developers no longer need GNU make
2397 * Uses DIST_SUBDIRS in some situations when SUBDIRS is conditional
2398 * Most files are correctly handled if they appear in subdirs
2399 For instance, a _DATA file can appear in a subdir
2400 * GNU tar is no longer required for `make dist'
2401 * Added support for `dist_' and `nodist_' prefixes
2402 * Added support for `nobase_' prefix
2403 * Compiled Java support
2404 * Support for per-executable and per-library compilation flags
2408 * Added support for the Fortran 77 programming language.
2409 * Re-indexed the Automake Texinfo manual.
2410 * Added `AM_FOOFLAGS' variable for each compiler invocation;
2411 e.g. AM_CFLAGS can be used in Makefile.am to set C compiler flags
2412 * Support for latest autoconf, including support for objext
2413 * Can now put `.' in SUBDIRS to control build order
2414 * `include' command and `+=' support for macro assignment
2415 * Dependency tracking no long susceptible to deleted header file problem
2416 * Maintainer mode now a conditional. @MAINT@ is now an anachronism.
2421 * Better Cygwin32 support
2422 * Support for suffix rules with _SOURCES variables
2423 * New options `readme-alpha' and `check-news'; Gnits mode sets these
2424 * @LEXLIB@ no longer required when lex source seen
2425 Lex support in `missing', and new lex macro. Update your missing script.
2426 * Built-in support for assembly
2427 * aclocal gives error if `AM_' macro not found
2428 * Passed YFLAGS, not YACCFLAGS, to yacc
2429 * AM_PROG_CC_STDC does not have to come before AC_PROG_CPP
2430 * Dependencies computed as a side effect of compilation
2431 * Preliminary support for Java
2432 * DESTDIR support at "make install" time
2433 * Improved ansi2knr support; you must use the latest ansi2knr.c (included)
2437 * Better DejaGnu support
2438 * Added no-installinfo option
2439 * Added Emacs Lisp support
2440 * Added --no-force option
2441 * Included `aclocal' program
2442 * Automake will now generate rules to regenerate aclocal.m4, if appropriate
2443 * Now uses `AM_' macro names everywhere
2444 * ansi2knr option can have directory prefix (eg `../lib/ansi2knr')
2445 ansi2knr now works correctly on K&R sources
2446 * Better C++, yacc, lex support
2447 * Will compute _DEPENDENCIES variables automatically if not supplied
2448 * Will interpolate $(...) and ${...} when examining contents of a variable
2449 * .deps files now in build directory, not source directory; dependency
2450 handling generally rewritten
2451 * DATA, MANS and BUILT_SOURCES no longer included in distribution
2452 * can now put config.h into a subdir
2453 * Added dist-all target
2454 * Support for install-info program (see texinfo 3.9)
2455 * Support for "yacc -d"
2456 * configure substitutions are automatically discovered and included
2457 in generated Makefile.in
2458 * Special --cygnus mode
2459 * OMIT_DEPENDENCIES can now hold list of dependencies to be omitted
2460 when making distribution. Some dependencies are auto-ignored.
2461 * Changed how libraries are specified in _LIBRARIES variable
2462 * Full libtool support, from Gord Matzigkeit
2463 * No longer have to explicitly touch stamp-h when using AC_CONFIG_HEADER;
2464 AM_CONFIG_HEADER handles it automatically
2465 * Texinfo output files no longer need .info extension
2466 * Added `missing' support
2468 * Conditionals in Makefile.am, from Ian Taylor
2472 * distcheck target runs install and installcheck targets
2473 * Added preliminary support for DejaGnu.
2478 * More libtool fixes from Gord Matzigkeit; libtool support is still
2480 * Added support for jm_MAINTAINER_MODE
2482 * New "distcheck" target
2486 * mkinstalldirs and mdate-sh now appear in directory specified by
2488 * Removed DIST_SUBDIRS, DIST_OTHER
2489 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM only required when an actual program exists
2490 * dist-hook target now run before distribution packaged up; idea from
2491 Dieter Baron. Other hooks exist, too.
2492 * Preliminary (unfinished) support for libtool
2493 * Added short option names.
2494 * Better "dist" support when gluing together multiple packages
2498 * Documentation updates (many from François Pinard)
2499 * strictness `normal' now renamed to `foreign'
2500 * Renamed --install-missing to --add-missing
2501 * Now handles AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
2502 * Now handles TESTS macro
2503 * DIST_OTHER renamed to EXTRA_DIST
2504 * DIST_SUBDIRS is deprecated
2505 * @ALLOCA@ and @LIBOBJS@ now work in _LDADD variables
2506 * Better error messages in many cases
2507 * Program names are canonicalized
2508 * Added "check" prefix; from Gord Matzigkeit
2512 * configure.in scanner knows about AC_PATH_XTRA, AC_OUTPUT ":" syntax
2513 * Beginnings of a test suite
2514 * Automatically adds -I options for $(srcdir), ".", and path to config.h
2515 * Doesn't print anything when running
2516 * Beginnings of MAINT_CHARSET support
2517 * Can specify version in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS
2518 * Most errors recognizable by Emacs' M-x next-error
2519 * Added --verbose option
2520 * All "primary" variables now obsolete; use EXTRA_PRIMARY to supply
2521 configure-generated names
2522 * Required macros now distributed in aclocal.m4
2524 * --strictness=gnu is default
2528 * More sophisticated configure.in scanning; now understands ALLOCA and
2529 LIBOBJS directly, handles AC_CONFIG_HEADER more precisely, etc.
2530 * TEXINFOS and MANS now obsolete; use info_TEXINFOS and man_MANS instead.
2531 * CONFIG_HEADER variable now obsolete
2532 * Can handle multiple Texinfo sources
2533 * Allow hierarchies deeper than 2. From Gord Matzigkeit.
2534 * HEADERS variable no longer needed; now can put .h files directly into
2535 foo_SOURCES variable.
2536 * Automake automatically rebuilds files listed in AC_OUTPUT. The
2537 corresponding ".in" files are included in the distribution.
2540 * Added --gnu and --gnits options
2541 * More standards checking
2543 * Cleaned up 'dist' targets
2544 * Added AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS variable and several options
2545 * Now scans configure.in to get some information (preliminary)
2548 * Works with Perl 4 again
2551 * Added --install-missing option.
2552 * Pretty-prints generated macros and rules
2553 * Comments in Makefile.am are placed more intelligently in Makefile.in
2554 * Generates .PHONY target
2555 * Rule or macro in Makefile.am now overrides contents of Automake file
2556 * Substantial cleanups from François Pinard
2560 * Works with Perl 4 again.
2563 * New uniform naming scheme.
2564 * --strictness option
2566 * '.c' files corresponding to '.y' or '.l' files are automatically
2568 * Many bug fixes and cleanups
2571 * Allow objects to be conditionally included in libraries via lib_LIBADD.
2574 * Bug fixes in 'clean' code.
2575 * Now generates 'installdirs' target.
2576 * man page installation reworked.
2577 * 'make dist' no longer re-creates all Makefile.in's.
2580 * Reimplemented in Perl
2581 * Added --amdir option (for debugging)
2582 * Texinfo support cleaned up.
2583 * Automatic de-ANSI-fication cleaned up.
2584 * Cleaned up 'clean' targets.
2587 * Automatic dependency tracking
2588 * More documentation
2589 * New variables DATA and PACKAGEDATA
2590 * SCRIPTS installed using $(INSTALL_SCRIPT)
2591 * No longer uses double-colon rules
2593 * Changes in advance of internationalization
2597 Copyright (C) 1995-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2599 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
2600 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2601 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
2604 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2605 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2606 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2607 GNU General Public License for more details.
2609 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2610 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
projects / platform / upstream / automake.git / blob