3 * Version requirements:
5 - Autoconf 2.65 or greater is required.
7 - The rules to build PDF and DVI output from Texinfo input now
8 requires Texinfo 4.9 or later.
10 * Obsolete features removed:
12 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
13 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is not supported anymore.
15 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (once enabled by the 'cygnus'
16 option) has been removed. See discussion about automake bug#11034
19 - The automake-provided $(mkdir_p) make variable, @mkdir_p@ configure
20 time substitution and AM_PROG_MKDIR m4 macro have been removed. They
21 had been obsolete since automake 1.10, and actively deprecated since
24 - The deprecated aclocal option '--acdir' has been removed. You
25 should use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir'
26 instead (which have been introduced in Automake 1.11.2).
28 - The following long-obsolete m4 macros have been removed:
30 AM_PROG_CC_STDC: superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002
31 fp_PROG_CC_STDC: broken alias for AM_PROG_CC_STDC
32 fp_WITH_DMALLOC: old alias for AM_WITH_DMALLOC
33 AM_CONFIG_HEADER: superseded by AC_CONFIG_HEADERS since July 2002
34 ud_PATH_LISPDIR: old alias for AM_PATH_LISPDIR
35 jm_MAINTAINER_MODE: old alias for AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
36 ud_GNU_GETTEXT: old alias for AM_GNU_GETTEXT
37 gm_PROG_LIBTOOL: old alias for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
38 fp_C_PROTOTYPES: old alias for AM_C_PROTOTYPES (which was part
39 of the now-removed automatic de-ANSI-fication
42 - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' have been removed.
44 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
46 - The parallel testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the
47 'parallel-tests' option) is the default one; the older serial
48 testsuite harness will still be available through the use of the
49 'serial-tests' option (introduced in Automake 1.12).
51 * Silent rules support:
53 - Support for silent rules is now always active in Automake-generated
54 Makefiles. So, although the verbose output is still the default,
55 the user can now always use "./configure --enable-silent-rules" or
56 "make V=0" to enable quieter output in the package he's building.
58 - The 'silent-rules' option has now become a no-op, preserved for
59 backward-compatibility only. In particular, its use does not disable
60 the warnings in the 'portability-recursive' category anymore.
64 - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now use the
65 ' --build-dir' option, to keep the auxiliary files used by texi2dvi
66 and texi2pdf around without cluttering the build directory, and to
67 make it possible to run the "dvi" and "pdf" recipes in parallel.
69 * Automatic remake rules and 'missing' script:
71 - The 'missing' script does not try anymore to update the timestamp
72 of out-of-date files that require a maintainer-specific tool to be
73 remade, in case the user lacks such a tool (or has a too-old version
74 of it). It just give a useful warning, and in some cases also a tip
75 about how to obtain such a tool.
77 - The missing script has thus become useless as a (poor) way to work
78 around the sketched-timestamps issues that can happen for projects
79 that keep generated files committed in their VCS repository. Such
80 projects are now encouraged to write a custom "fix-timestamps.sh"
81 script to avoid such issues; a simple example is provided in the
82 "CVS and generated files" chapter of the automake manual.
86 The user can now define his own recursive targets that recurse
87 in the directories specified in $(SUBDIRS). This can be done by
88 specifying the name of such targets in invocations of the new
89 'AM_EXTRA_RECURSIVE_TARGETS' m4 macro.
91 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
95 * WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
97 - Future versions of Automake will likely drop support for the
98 long-deprecated 'configure.in' name for the Autoconf input file.
99 You are advised to use the recommended name 'configure.ac' instead.
101 - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the rules to
102 build pdf, ps and dvi output from Texinfo input will use the '--tidy'
103 option by default. Since such an option was introduced in Texinfo
104 4.9, this means that Makefiles generated by future Automake versions
105 will require at least that version of Texinfo.
107 - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the parallel
108 testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the 'parallel-tests'
109 option) will become the default one; the older serial testsuite
110 harness will still be available through the use of the 'serial-tests'
113 - Support for the two- and three-arguments invocation forms of the
114 AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro will be deprecated in the next minor version
115 of Automake (1.12.1) and removed in the next major version (1.13).
117 - The exact order in which the directories in the aclocal macro
118 search path are looked up is probably going to be changed in the
119 next Automake release (1.13).
121 * Warnings and deprecations:
123 - Automake now issues a warning (in the 'portability' category) if
124 'configure.in' is used instead of 'configure.ac' as the Autoconf
125 input file. Such a warning will also be present in the next
126 Autoconf version (2.70).
130 - Recursive cleaning rules descends into the $(SUBDIRS) in the natural
131 order (as done by the other recursive rules), rather than in the
132 inverse order. They used to do that in order to work a round a
133 limitation in an older implementation of the automatic dependency
134 tracking support, but that limitation had been lifted years ago
135 already, when the automatic dependency tracking based on side-effects
136 of compilation had been introduced.
138 - Cleaning rules for compiled objects (both "plain" and libtool) work
139 better when subdir objects are involved, not triggering a distinct
140 'rm' invocation for each such object. They do so by removing *any*
141 compiled object file that is in the same directory of a subdir
142 object. See automake bug#10697.
144 * Silent rules support:
146 - A new predefined $(AM_V_P) make variable is provided; it expands
147 to a shell conditional that can be used in recipes to know whether
148 make is being run in silent or verbose mode.
150 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
154 * New supported languages:
156 - Support for Objective C++ has been added; it should work similarly to
157 the support for Objective C.
159 * Deprecated obsolescent features:
161 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
162 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro now elicits a warning in the 'obsolete'
163 category. Starting from the next major Automake release (1.13), such
164 usages won't be allowed anymore.
166 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (enabled by the 'cygnus' option) is
167 now deprecated (its use triggers a warning in the 'obsolete' category).
168 It will be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13).
170 - The long-obsolete (since 1.10) automake-provided $(mkdir_p) make
171 variable, @mkdir_p@ configure-time substitution and AM_PROG_MKDIR
172 m4 macro are deprecated, eliciting a warning in the 'obsolete'
173 category. They will be removed in the next major version (1.13).
175 * Miscellaneous changes:
177 - The Automake test cases now require a proper POSIX-conforming shell.
178 Older non-POSIX Bourne shells (like Solaris 10 /bin/sh) won't be
179 accepted anymore. In most cases, the user shouldn't have to specify
180 such POSIX shell explicitly, since it will be looked up at configure
181 time. Still, when this lookup fails, or when the user wants to
182 override its conclusion, the variable 'AM_TEST_RUNNER_SHELL' can be
183 used (pointing to the shell that will be used to run the Automake
186 Bugs fixed in 1.12.1:
188 * Bugs introduced by 1.12:
190 - Several weaknesses in Automake's own build system and test suite
193 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
195 - When given non-option arguments, aclocal rejects them, instead of
196 silently ignoring them.
198 * Long-standing bugs:
200 - When the 'color-tests' option is in use, forcing of colored testsuite
201 output through "AM_COLOR_TESTS=always" works even if the terminal is
202 a non-ANSI one, i.e., if the TERM environment variable has a value of
205 - Several inefficiencies and poor performances in the implementation
206 of the parallel-tests 'check' and 'recheck' targets have been fixed.
208 - The post-processing of output "#line" directives done the ylwrap
209 script is more faithful w.r.t. files in a subdirectory; for example,
210 if the processed file is "src/grammar.y", ylwrap will correctly
211 produce directives like:
212 #line 7 "src/grammar.y"
217 * Bugs with new Perl versions:
219 - Aclocal works correctly with perl 5.16.0 (automake bug#11543).
221 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
225 * Obsolete features removed:
227 - The never documented nor truly used script 'acinstall' has been
230 - Support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been removed.
232 - The support for the "obscure" multilib feature has been removed
233 from Automake core (but remains available in the 'contrib/'
234 directory of the Automake distribution).
236 - Support for ".log -> .html" conversion and the check-html and
237 recheck-html targets has been removed from Automake core (but
238 remains available in the 'contrib/' directory of the Automake
241 - The deprecated 'lzma' compression format for distribution archives
242 has been removed, in favor of 'xz' and 'lzip'.
244 - The obsolete AM_WITH_REGEX macro has been removed.
246 - The long-deprecated options '--output-dir', '--Werror' and
247 '--Wno-error' have been removed.
249 - The chapter on the history of Automake has been moved out of the
250 reference manual, into a new dedicated Texinfo file.
254 - New 'cscope' target to build a cscope database for the source tree.
256 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
258 - The new automake option 'serial-tests' has been introduced. It can
259 be used to explicitly instruct automake to use the older serial
260 testsuite harness. This is still the default at the moment, but it
261 might change in future versions.
263 - The 'recheck' target (provided by the parallel testsuite harness) now
264 depends on the 'all' target. This allows for a better user-experience
265 in test-driven development. See automake bug#11252.
267 - Test scripts that exit with status 99 to signal an "hard error" (e.g.,
268 and unexpected or internal error, or a failure to set up the test case
269 scenario) have their outcome reported as an 'ERROR' now. Previous
270 versions of automake reported such an outcome as a 'FAIL' (the only
271 difference with normal failures being that hard errors were counted
272 as failures even when the test originating them was listed in
275 - The testsuite summary displayed by the parallel-test harness has a
276 completely new format, that always list the numbers of passed, failed,
277 xfailed, xpassed, skipped and errored tests, even when these numbers
278 are zero (but using smart coloring when the color-tests option is in
281 - The default testsuite driver offered by the 'parallel-tests' option is
282 now implemented (partly at least) with the help of automake-provided
283 auxiliary scripts (e.g., 'test-driver'), instead of relying entirely
284 on code in the generated Makefile.in.
285 This has two noteworthy implications. The first one is that projects
286 using the 'parallel-tests' option should now either run automake with
287 the '--add-missing' option, or manually copy the 'test-driver' script
288 into their tree. The second, and more important, implication is that
289 now, when the 'parallel-tests' option is in use, TESTS_ENVIRONMENT can
290 not be used anymore to define a test runner, and the command specified
291 in LOG_COMPILER (and <ext>_LOG_COMPILER) must be a *real* executable
292 program or script. For example, this is still a valid usage (albeit
295 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
296 if test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS)'; then \
297 maybe_errexit='-e'; \
301 LOG_COMPILER = $(SHELL) $$maybe_errexit
303 while this is not anymore:
305 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
306 $(SHELL) `test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS_CHECKING)' && echo ' -e'`
310 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
311 run_with_perl_or_shell () \
313 if grep -q '^#!.*perl' $$1; then
319 LOG_COMPILER = run_with_perl_or_shell
321 - The package authors can now use customary testsuite drivers within
322 the framework provided by the 'parallel-tests' testsuite harness.
323 Consistently with the existing syntax, this can be done by defining
324 special makefile variables 'LOG_DRIVER' and '<ext>_LOG_DRIVER'.
326 - A new developer-reserved variable 'AM_TESTS_FD_REDIRECT' can be used
327 to redirect/define file descriptors used by the test scripts.
329 - The parallel-tests harness generates now, in addition the '.log' files
330 holding the output produced by the test scripts, a new set of '.trs'
331 files, holding "metadata" derived by the execution of the test scripts;
332 among such metadata are the outcomes of the test cases run by a script.
334 - Initial and still experimental support for the TAP test protocol is
337 * Changes to Yacc and Lex support:
339 - C source and header files derived from non-distributed Yacc and/or
340 Lex sources are now removed by a simple "make clean" (while they were
341 previously removed only by "make maintainer-clean").
343 - Slightly backward-incompatible change, relevant only for use of Yacc
344 with C++: the extensions of the header files produced by the Yacc
345 rules are now modelled after the extension of the corresponding
346 sources. For example, yacc files named "foo.y++" and "bar.yy" will
347 produce header files named "foo.h++" and "bar.hh" respectively, where
348 they would have previously produced header files named simply "foo.h"
349 and "bar.h". This change offers better compatibility with 'bison -o'.
351 * Miscellaneous changes:
353 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro now causes configure to exit with status 77,
354 rather than 1, if the vala compiler found is too old.
356 - The build system of Automake itself now avoids the use of make
357 recursion as much as possible.
359 - Automake now prefers to quote 'like this' or "like this", rather
360 than `like this', in diagnostic message and generated Makefiles,
361 to accommodate the new GNU Coding Standards recommendations.
363 - Automake has a new option '--print-libdir' that prints the path of the
364 directory containing the Automake-provided scripts and data files.
366 - The 'dist' and 'dist-all' targets now can run compressors in parallel.
368 - The rules to create pdf, dvi and ps output from Texinfo files now
369 works better with modern 'texi2dvi' script, by explicitly passing
370 it the '--clean' option to ensure stray auxiliary files are not
371 left to clutter the build directory.
373 - Automake can now generate silenced rules for texinfo outputs.
375 - Some auxiliary files that are automatically distributed by Automake
376 (e.g., 'install-sh', or the 'depcomp' script for packages compiling
377 C sources) might now be listed in the DIST_COMMON variable in many
378 Makefile.in files, rather than in the top-level one.
380 - Messages of types warning or error from 'automake' and 'aclocal'
381 are now prefixed with the respective type, and presence of -Werror
384 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now tries to avoid
385 sleeping for a second, which slowed down cached configure runs
386 noticeably. In that case, it will check back at the end of the
387 configure script to ensure that at least one second has passed, to
388 avoid time stamp issues with makefile rules rerunning autotools
391 - The warnings in the category 'extra-portability' are now enabled by
392 '-Wall'. In previous versions, one has to use '-Wextra-portability'
397 - Various minor bugfixes for recent or long-standing bugs.
399 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
401 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
402 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
404 - The automake-provided parallel testsuite harness does not fail anymore
405 with BSD make used in parallel mode when there are test scripts in a
406 subdirectory, like in:
408 TESTS = sub/foo.test sub/bar.test
410 * Long-standing bugs:
412 - Automake's own build system finally have a real "installcheck" target.
414 - Vala-related cleanup rules are now more complete, and work better in
417 - Files listed with the AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE macro in configure.ac are
418 now automatically distributed also if the directory of the auxiliary
419 files coincides with the top-level directory.
421 - Automake now detects the presence of the '-d' flag in the various
422 '*YFLAGS' variables even when their definitions involve indirections
423 through other variables, such as in:
425 AM_YFLAGS = $(foo_opts)
427 - Automake now complains if a '*YFLAGS' variable has any conditional
428 content, not only a conditional definition.
430 - Explicit enabling and/or disabling of Automake warning categories
431 through the '-W...' options now always takes precedence over the
432 implicit warning level implied by Automake strictness (foreign, gnu
433 or gnits), regardless of the order in which such strictness and
434 warning flags appear. For example, a setting like:
435 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = -Wall --foreign
436 will cause the warnings in category 'portability' to be enabled, even
437 if those warnings are by default disabled in 'foreign' strictness.
439 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
441 Bugs fixed in 1.11.5:
443 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
445 - Vala files with '.vapi' extension are now recognized and handled
446 correctly again. See automake bug#11222.
448 - Vala support work again for projects that contain some program
449 built from '.vala' (and possibly '.c') sources and some other
450 program built from '.c' sources *only*. See automake bug#11229.
452 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
456 * Miscellaneous changes:
458 - The 'ar-lib' script now ignores the "s" (symbol index) and "S" (no
459 symbol index) modifiers as well as the "s" action, as the symbol index
460 is created unconditionally by Microsoft lib. Also, the "q" (quick)
461 action is now a synonym for "r" (replace). Also, the script has been
462 ignoring the "v" (verbose) modifier already since Automake 1.11.3.
464 - When the 'compile' script is used to wrap MSVC, it now accepts an
465 optional space between the -I, -L and -l options and their respective
466 arguments, for better POSIX compliance.
468 - There is an initial, experimental support for automatic dependency
469 tracking with tcc (the Tiny C Compiler). Its associated depmode is
470 currently recognized as "icc" (but this and other details are likely
471 to change in future versions).
473 - Automatic dependency tracking now works also with the IBM XL C/C++
474 compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'xlc'.
476 Bugs fixed in 1.11.4:
478 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
480 - A definition of 'noinst_PYTHON' before 'python_PYTHON' (or similar)
481 don't cause spurious failures upon "make install" anymore.
483 - The user can now instruct the 'uninstall-info' rule not to update
484 the '${infodir}/dir' file by exporting the environment variable
485 'AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no". This is done for consistency
486 with how the 'install-info' rule operates since automake 1.11.2.
488 * Long-standing bugs:
490 - It is now possible for a foo_SOURCES variable to hold Vala sources
491 together with C header files, as well as with sources and headers for
492 other supported languages (e.g., C++). Previously, only mixing C and
493 Vala sources was supported.
495 - If "aclocal --install" is used, and the first directory specified with
496 '-I' is non-existent, aclocal will now create it before trying to copy
499 - An empty declaration of a "foo_PRIMARY" don't cause anymore the
500 generated install rules to create an empty $(foodir) directory;
501 for example, if Makefile.am contains something like:
505 pkglibexec_SCRIPTS += bar.sh
508 the $(pkglibexec) directory will not be created upon "make install".
510 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
514 * Miscellaneous changes:
516 - Automake's own build system is more silent by default, making use of
517 the 'silent-rules' option.
519 - The master copy of the `gnupload' script is now maintained in gnulib,
522 - The `missing' script doesn't try to wrap calls to `tar' anymore.
524 - "make dist" doesn't wrap `tar' invocations with the `missing' script
525 anymore. Similarly, the obsolescent variable `$(AMTAR)' (which you
526 shouldn't be using BTW ;-) does not invoke the missing script anymore
527 to wrap tar, but simply invokes the `tar' program itself.
529 - "make dist" can now create lzip-compressed tarballs.
531 - In the Automake info documentation, the Top node and the nodes about
532 the invocation of the automake and aclocal programs have been renamed;
533 now, calling "info automake" will open the Top node, while calling
534 "info automake-invocation" and "info aclocal-invocation" will access
535 the nodes about the invocation of respectively automake and aclocal.
537 - Automake is now distributed as a gzip-compressed and an xz-compressed
538 tarball. Previously, bzip2 was used instead of xz.
540 - The last relics of Python 1.5 support have been removed from the
541 AM_PATH_PYTHON macro.
543 - For programs and libraries, automake now detects EXTRA_foo_DEPENDENCIES
544 and adds them to the normal list of dependencies, but without
545 overwriting the foo_DEPENDENCIES variable, which is normally computed
548 Bugs fixed in 1.11.3:
550 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
552 - Automake now correctly recognizes the prefix/primary combination
553 `pkglibexec_SCRIPTS' as valid.
555 - The parallel-tests harness doesn't trip anymore on sed implementations
556 with stricter limits on the length of input lines (problem seen at
559 * Long-standing bugs:
561 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.am files is avoided by stub
562 rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `automake' also if
563 some previously needed `.am' file has been removed.
565 - The `silent-rules' option now generates working makefiles even
566 for the uncommon `make' implementations that do not support the
567 nested-variables extension to POSIX 2008. For such `make'
568 implementations, whether a build is silent is determined at
569 configure time, and cannot be overridden at make time with
570 `make V=0' or `make V=1'.
572 - Vala support now works better in VPATH setups.
574 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
578 * Changes to aclocal:
580 - The `--acdir' option is deprecated. Now you should use the new options
581 `--automake-acdir' and `--system-acdir' instead.
583 - The `ACLOCAL_PATH' environment variable is now interpreted as a
584 colon-separated list of additional directories to search after the
585 automake internal acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal-APIVERSION)
586 and before the system acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal).
588 * Miscellaneous changes:
590 - The Automake support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been
591 deprecated. It will probably be removed in the next major Automake
594 - The `lzma' compression scheme and associated automake option `dist-lzma'
595 is obsoleted by `xz' and `dist-xz' due to upstream changes.
597 - You may adjust the compression options used in dist-xz and dist-bzip2.
598 The default is now merely -e for xz, but still -9 for bzip; you may
599 specify a different level via the XZ_OPT and BZIP2 envvars respectively.
600 E.g., "make dist-xz XZ_OPT=-7" or "make dist-bzip2 BZIP2=-5"
602 - The `compile' script now converts some options for MSVC for a better
603 user experience. Similarly, the new `ar-lib' script wraps Microsoft lib.
605 - The py-compile script now accepts empty arguments passed to the options
606 `--destdir' and `--basedir', and complains about unrecognized options.
607 Moreover, a non-option argument or a special `--' argument terminates
610 - A developer that needs to pass specific flags to configure at "make
611 distcheck" time can now, and indeed is advised to, do so by defining
612 the developer-reserved makefile variable AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS,
613 instead of the old DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS.
614 The DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS variable should now be reserved for the
615 user; still, the old Makefile.am files that used to define it will
616 still continue to work as before.
618 - New macro AM_PROG_AR that looks for an archiver and wraps it in the new
619 'ar-lib' auxiliary script if the selected archiver is Microsoft lib.
620 This new macro is required for LIBRARIES and LTLIBRARIES when automake
621 is run with -Wextra-portability and -Werror.
623 - When using DejaGnu-based testsuites, the user can extend the `site.exp'
624 file generated by automake-provided rules by defining the special make
625 variable `$(EXTRA_DEJAGNU_SITE_CONFIG)'.
627 - The `install-info' rule can now be instructed not to create/update
628 the `${infodir}/dir' file, by exporting the new environment variable
629 `AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no".
631 Bugs fixed in 1.11.2:
633 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
635 - The parallel-tests driver no longer produces erroneous results with
636 Tru64/OSF 5.1 sh upon unreadable log files.
638 - The `parallel-tests' test driver does not report spurious successes
639 when used with concurrent FreeBSD make (e.g., "make check -j3").
641 - When the parallel-tests driver is in use, automake now explicitly
642 rejects invalid entries and conditional contents in TEST_EXTENSIONS,
643 instead of issuing confusing and apparently unrelated error messages
644 (e.g., "non-POSIX variable name", "bad characters in variable name",
645 or "redefinition of TEST_EXTENSIONS), or even, in some situations,
646 silently producing broken `Makefile.in' files.
648 - The `silent-rules' option now truly silences all compile rules, even
649 when dependency tracking is disabled. Also, when `silent-rules' is
650 not used, `make' output no longer contains spurious backslash-only
651 lines, thus once again matching what Automake did before 1.11.
653 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
654 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
656 * Long-standing bugs:
658 - The order of Yacc and Lex flags is fixed to be consistent with other
659 languages: $(AM_YFLAGS) comes before $(YFLAGS), and $(AM_LFLAGS) before
660 $(LFLAGS), so that the user variables override the developer variables.
662 - "make distcheck" now correctly complains also when "make uninstall"
663 leaves one and only one file installed in $(prefix).
665 - A "make uninstall" issued before a "make install", or after a mere
666 "make install-data" or a mere "make install-exec" does not spuriously
669 - Automake now warns about more primary/directory invalid combinations,
670 such as "doc_LIBRARIES" or "pkglib_PROGRAMS".
672 - Rules generated by Automake now try harder to not change any files when
673 `make -n' is invoked. Fixes include compilation of Emacs Lisp, Vala, or
674 Yacc source files and the rule to update config.h.
676 - Several scripts and the parallel-tests testsuite driver now exit with
677 the right exit status upon receiving a signal.
679 - A per-Makefile.am setting of -Werror does not erroneously carry over
680 to the handling of other Makefile.am files.
682 - The code for automatic dependency tracking works around a Solaris
683 make bug triggered by sources containing repeated slashes when the
684 `subdir-objects' option was used.
686 - The makedepend and hp depmodes now work better with VPATH builds.
688 - Java sources specified with check_JAVA are no longer compiled for
689 "make all", but only for "make check".
691 - An usage like "java_JAVA = foo.java" will now cause Automake to warn
692 and error out if `javadir' is undefined, instead of silently producing
693 a broken Makefile.in.
695 - aclocal and automake now honour the configure-time definitions of
696 AUTOCONF and AUTOM4TE when they spawn autoconf or autom4te processes.
698 - The `install-info' recipe no longer tries to guess whether the
699 `install-info' program is from Debian or from GNU, and adaptively
700 change its behaviour; this has proven to be frail and easy to
703 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
705 Bugs fixed in 1.11.1:
707 - Lots of minor bugfixes.
709 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
711 - The `parallel-tests' test driver works around a GNU make 3.80 bug with
712 trailing white space in the test list (`TESTS = foo $(EMPTY)').
714 * Long standing bugs:
716 - On Darwin 9, `pythondir' and `pyexecdir' pointed below `/Library/Python'
717 even if the `--prefix' argument pointed outside of a system directory.
718 AM_PATH_PYTHON has been fixed to ignore the value returned from python's
719 `get_python_lib' function if it points outside the configured prefix,
720 unless the `--prefix' argument was either `/usr' or below `/System'.
722 - The testsuite does not try to change the mode of `ltmain.sh' files from
723 a Libtool installation (symlinked to test directories) any more.
725 - AM_PROG_GCJ uses AC_CHECK_TOOLS to look for `gcj' now, so that prefixed
726 tools are preferred in a cross-compile setup.
728 - The distribution is tarred up with mode 755 now by the `dist*' targets.
729 This fixes a race condition where untrusted users could modify files
730 in the $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION) distdir before packing if the toplevel
731 build directory was world-searchable. This is CVE-2009-4029.
733 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
737 * Version requirements:
739 - Autoconf 2.62 or greater is required.
741 * Changes to aclocal:
743 - The autoconf version check implemented by aclocal in aclocal.m4
744 (and new in Automake 1.10) is degraded to a warning. This helps
745 in the common case where the Autoconf versions used are compatible.
747 * Changes to automake:
749 - The automake program can run multiple threads for creating most
750 Makefile.in files concurrently, if at least Perl 5.7.2 is available
751 with interpreter-based threads enabled. Set the environment variable
752 AUTOMAKE_JOBS to the maximum number of threads to use, in order to
753 enable this experimental feature.
755 * Changes to Libtool support:
757 - Libtool generic flags are now passed to the install and uninstall
760 - distcheck works with Libtool 2.x even when LT_OUTPUT is used, as
761 config.lt is removed correctly now.
765 - subdir-object mode works now with Fortran (F77, FC, preprocessed
766 Fortran, and Ratfor).
768 - For files with extension .f90, .f95, .f03, or .f08, the flag
769 $(FCFLAGS_f[09]x) computed by AC_FC_SRCEXT is now used in compile rules.
771 - Files with extension .sx are also treated as preprocessed assembler.
773 - The default source file extension (.c) can be overridden with
774 AM_DEFAULT_SOURCE_EXT now.
776 - Python 3.0 is supported now, Python releases prior to 2.0 are no
779 - AM_PATH_PYTHON honors python's idea about the site directory.
781 - There is initial support for the Vala programming language, when using
784 * Miscellaneous changes:
786 - Automake development is done in a git repository on Savannah now, see
788 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=automake.git
790 A read-only CVS mirror is provided at
792 cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@pserver.git.sv.gnu.org:/automake.git \
793 checkout -d automake HEAD
795 - "make dist" can now create xz-compressed tarballs,
796 as well as (deprecated?) lzma-compressed tarballs.
798 - `automake --add-missing' will by default install the GPLv3 file as
799 COPYING if it is missing. It will also warn that the license file
800 should be added to source control. Note that Automake will never
801 overwrite an existing COPYING file, even when the `--force-missing'
804 - The manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL 1.3.
806 - Automake ships and installs man pages for automake and aclocal now.
808 - New shorthand `$(pkglibexecdir)' for `$(libexecdir)/@PACKAGE@'.
810 - install-sh supports -C, which does not update the installed file
811 (and its time stamps) if the contents did not change.
813 - The `gnupload' script has been revamped.
815 - The `depcomp' and `compile' scripts now work with MSVC under MSYS.
817 - The targets `install' and `uninstall' are more efficient now, in that
818 for example multiple files from one Automake variable such as
819 `bin_SCRIPTS' are copied in one `install' (or `libtool --mode=install')
820 invocation if they do not have to be renamed.
822 Both install and uninstall may sometimes enter (`cd' into) the target
823 installation directory now, when no build-local scripts are used.
825 Both install and uninstall do not fail anymore but do nothing if an
826 installation directory variable like `bindir' is set to the empty string.
828 For built-in rules, `make install' now fails reliably if installation
829 of a file failed. Conversely, `make uninstall' even succeeds when
830 issued multiple times.
832 These changes may need some adjustments from users: For example,
833 some `install' programs refuse to install multiple copies of the
834 same file in one invocation, so you may need to remove duplicate
835 entries from file lists.
837 Also, within one set of files, say, nobase_data_DATA, the order of
838 installation may be changed, or even unstable among different hosts,
839 due to the use of associative arrays in awk. The increased use of
840 awk matches a similar move in Autoconf to provide for better scaling.
842 Further, most undocumented per-rule install command variables such as
843 binSCRIPT_INSTALL have been removed because they are not needed any
844 more. Packages which use them should be using the appropriate one of
845 INSTALL_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT} or their install_sh_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT}
846 counterpart, depending on the type of files and the need for automatic
847 target directory creation.
849 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.m4 files is avoided by
850 stub rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `aclocal'
851 also if some previously needed macro file has been removed.
853 - Rebuild rules now also work for a removed `subdir/Makefile.in' in
854 an otherwise up to date tree.
856 - The `color-tests' option causes colored test result output on terminals.
858 - The `parallel-tests' option enables a new test driver that allows for
859 parallel test execution, inter-test dependencies, lazy test execution
860 for unit-testing, re-testing only failed tests, and formatted result output
861 as RST (reStructuredText) and HTML. Enabling this option may require some
862 changes to your test suite setup; see the manual for details.
864 - The `silent-rules' option enables Linux kernel-style silent build output.
865 This option requires the widely supported but non-POSIX `make' feature
866 of recursive variable expansion, so do not use it if your package needs
867 to build with `make' implementations that do not support it.
869 To enable less verbose build output, the developer has to use the Automake
870 option `silent-rules' in `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE', or call the `AM_SILENT_RULES'
871 macro. The user may then set the default verbosity by passing the
872 `--enable-silent-rules' option to `configure'. At `make' run time, this
873 default may be overridden using `make V=0' for less verbose, and `make V=1'
874 for backward-compatible verbose output.
876 - New prefix `notrans_' for manpages which should not be transformed
877 by --program-transform.
879 - New macro AM_COND_IF for conditional evaluation and conditional
882 - For AC_CONFIG_LINKS, if source and destination are equal, do not
883 remove the file in a non-VPATH build. Such setups work with Autoconf
886 - AM_MAINTAINER_MODE now allows for an optional argument specifying
889 - AM_SUBST_NOTMAKE may prevent substitution of AC_SUBSTed variables,
890 useful especially for multi-line values.
892 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now diagnoses an
893 unsafe absolute source directory name and makes configure fail.
895 - The Automake macros and rules cope better with whitespace in the
896 current directory name, as long as the relative path to `configure'
897 does not contain whitespace. To this end, the values of `$(MISSING)'
898 and `$(install_sh)' may contain suitable quoting, and their expansion
899 might need `eval'uation if used outside of a makefile. These
900 undocumented variables may be used in several documented macros such
901 as $(AUTOCONF) or $(MAKEINFO).
905 * Long-standing bugs:
907 - Fix aix dependency tracking for libtool objects.
909 - Work around AIX sh quoting issue in AC_PROG_CC_C_O, leading to
910 unnecessary use of the `compile' script.
912 - For nobase_*_LTLIBRARIES with nonempty directory components, the
913 correct `-rpath' argument is used now.
915 - `config.status --file=Makefile depfiles' now also works with the
916 extra quoting used internally by Autoconf 2.62 and newer
917 (it used to work only without the `--file=' bit).
919 - The `missing' script works better with versioned tool names.
921 - Semantics for `missing help2man' have been revamped:
923 Previously, if `help2man' was not present, `missing help2man' would have
924 the following semantics: if some man page was out of date but present, then
925 a warning would be printed, but the exit status was 0. If the man page was
926 not present at all, then `missing' would create a replacement man page
927 containing an error message, and exit with a status of 2. This does not play
928 well with `make': the next run will see this particular man page as being up
929 to date, and will only error out on the next generated man page, if any;
930 repeat until all pages are done. This was not desirable.
932 These are the new semantics: if some man page is not present, and help2man
933 is not either, then `missing' will warn and generate the replacement page
934 containing the error message, but exit successfully. However, `make dist'
935 will ensure that no such bogus man pages are packaged into a tarball.
937 - Targets provided by automake behave better with `make -n', in that they
938 take care not to create files.
940 - `config.status Makefile... depfiles' works fine again in the presence of
941 disabled dependency tracking.
943 - The default no-op recursive rules for these targets also work with BSD make
944 now: html, install-html, install-dvi, install-pdf, install-pdf, install-info.
946 - `make distcheck' works also when both a directory and some file below it
947 have been added to a distribution variable, such as EXTRA_DIST or *_SOURCES.
949 - Texinfo dvi, ps, pdf, and html output files are not removed upon
950 `make mostlyclean' any more; only the LaTeX by-products are.
952 - Renamed objects also work with the `subdir-objects' option and
953 source file languages which Automake does not know itself.
955 - `automake' now correctly complains about variable assignments which are
956 preceded by a comment, extend over multiple lines with backslash-escaped
957 newlines, and end in a comment sign. Previous versions would silently
958 and wrongly ignore such assignments completely.
960 * Bugs introduced by 1.10:
962 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
963 Makefile.in's again, but also cope with long lines.
965 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of XFAIL_TESTS
966 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
967 This is for consistency with the analogous change to TESTS in 1.10.
969 - Fix order of standard includes to again be `-I. -I$(srcdir)',
970 followed by directories containing config headers.
972 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
976 * Version requirements:
978 - Autoconf 2.60 or greater is required.
980 - Perl 5.6 or greater is required.
982 * Changes to aclocal:
984 - aclocal now also supports -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble options.
986 - `dirlist' entries (for the aclocal search path) may use shell
987 wildcards such as `*', `?', or `[...]'.
989 - aclocal supports an --install option that will cause system-wide
990 third-party macros to be installed in the local directory
991 specified with the first -I flag. This option also uses #serial
992 lines in M4 files to upgrade local macros.
994 The new aclocal options --dry-run and --diff help to review changes
995 before they are installed.
997 - aclocal now outputs an autoconf version check in aclocal.m4 in
998 projects using automake.
1000 For a few years, automake and aclocal have been calling autoconf
1001 (or its underlying engine autom4te) to accurately retrieve the
1002 data they need from configure.ac and its siblings. Doing so can
1003 only work if all autotools use the same version of autoconf. For
1004 instance a Makefile.in generated by automake for one version of
1005 autoconf may stop working if configure is regenerated with another
1006 version of autoconf, and vice versa.
1008 This new version check ensures that the whole build system has
1009 been generated using the same autoconf version.
1011 * Support for new Autoconf macros:
1013 - The new AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE Autoconf macro is supported.
1015 - If `subdir-objects' is set, and AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR is specified,
1016 $(LIBOBJS), $(LTLIBOBJS), $(ALLOCA), and $(LTALLOCA) can be used
1017 in different directories. However, only one instance of such a
1018 library objects directory is supported.
1020 * Change to Libtool support:
1022 - Libtool generic flags (those that go before the --mode=MODE option)
1023 can be specified using AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS and target_LIBTOOLFLAGS.
1025 * Yacc and Lex changes:
1027 - The rebuild rules for distributed Yacc and Lex output will avoid
1028 overwriting existing files if AM_MAINTAINER_MODE and maintainer-mode
1031 - ylwrap is now always used for lex and yacc source files,
1032 regardless of whether there is more than one source per directory.
1034 * Languages changes:
1036 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now honors CPPFLAGS,
1037 AM_CPPFLAGS and per-target _CPPFLAGS, and supports dependency
1038 tracking, unlike non-preprocessed assembler (*.s).
1040 - subdir-object mode works now with Assembler. Automake assumes
1041 that the compiler understands `-c -o'.
1043 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now also honors
1044 $(DEFS) $(DEFAULT_INCLUDES) $(INCLUDES).
1046 - Improved support for Objective C:
1047 - Autoconf's new AC_PROG_OBJC will enable automatic dependency tracking.
1048 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1050 - New support for Unified Parallel C:
1051 - AM_PROG_UPC looks for a UPC compiler.
1052 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1054 - Per-target flags are now correctly handled in link rules.
1056 For instance maude_CFLAGS correctly overrides AM_CFLAGS; likewise
1057 for maude_LDFLAGS and AM_LDFLAGS. Previous versions bogusly
1058 preferred AM_CFLAGS over maude_CFLAGS while linking, and they
1059 used both AM_LDFLAGS and maude_LDFLAGS on the same link command.
1061 The fix for compiler flags (i.e., using maude_CFLAGS instead of
1062 AM_CFLAGS) should not hurt any package since that is how _CFLAGS
1063 is expected to work (and actually works during compilation).
1065 However using maude_LDFLAGS "instead of" AM_LDFLAGS rather than
1066 "in addition to" breaks backward compatibility with older versions.
1067 If your package used both variables, as in
1069 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1070 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1071 a_LDFLAGS = more flags
1074 and assumed *_LDFLAGS would sum up, you should rewrite it as
1076 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1077 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1078 a_LDFLAGS = $(AM_LDFLAGS) more flags
1081 This new behavior of *_LDFLAGS is more coherent with other
1082 per-target variables, and the way *_LDFLAGS variables were
1083 considered internally.
1085 * New installation targets:
1087 - New targets mandated by GNU Coding Standards:
1092 By default they will only install Texinfo manuals.
1093 You can customize them with *-local variants:
1099 - The undocumented recursive target `uninstall-info' no longer exists.
1100 (`uninstall' is in charge of removing all possible documentation
1101 flavors, including optional formats such as dvi, ps, or info even
1102 when `no-installinfo' is used.)
1104 * Miscellaneous changes:
1106 - Automake no longer complains if input files for AC_CONFIG_FILES
1107 are specified using shell variables.
1109 - clean, distribution, or rebuild rules are normally disabled for
1110 inputs and outputs of AC_CONFIG_FILES, AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, and
1111 AC_CONFIG_LINK specified using shell variables. However, if these
1112 variables are used as ${VAR}, and AC_SUBSTed, then Automake will
1113 be able to output rules anyway.
1114 (See the Automake documentation for AC_CONFIG_FILES.)
1116 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of TESTS
1117 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1118 This is mostly useful when some check_PROGRAMS are listed in TESTS.
1120 - `-Wportability' has finally been turned on by default for `gnu' and
1121 `gnits' strictness. This means, automake will complain about %-rules
1122 or $(GNU Make functions) unless you switch to `foreign' strictness or
1123 use `-Wno-portability'.
1125 - Automake now uses AC_PROG_MKDIR_P (new in Autoconf 2.60), and uses
1126 $(MKDIR_P) instead of $(mkdir_p) to create directories. The
1127 $(mkdir_p) variable is still defined (to the same value as
1128 $(MKDIR_P)) but should be considered obsolete. If you are using
1129 $(mkdir_p) in some of your rules, please plan to update them to
1130 $(MKDIR_P) at some point.
1132 - AM_C_PROTOTYPES and ansi2knr are now documented as being obsolete.
1133 They still work in this release, but may be withdrawn in a future one.
1135 - Inline compilation rules for gcc3-style dependency tracking are
1138 - Automake installs a "Hello World!" example package in $(docdir).
1139 This example is used throughout the new "Autotools Introduction"
1140 chapter of the manual.
1142 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1146 * Makefile.in bloat reduction:
1148 - Inference rules are used to compile sources in subdirectories when
1149 the `subdir-objects' option is used and no per-target flags are
1150 used. This should reduce the size of some projects a lot, because
1151 Automake used to output an explicit rule for each such object in
1154 - Automake no longer outputs three rules (.o, .obj, .lo) for each
1155 object that must be built with explicit rules. It just outputs
1156 the rules required to build the kind of object considered: either
1157 the two .o and .obj rules for usual objects, or the .lo rule for
1160 * Change to Libtool support:
1162 - Libtool tags are used with libtool versions that support them.
1163 (I.e., with Libtool 1.5 or greater.)
1165 - Automake is now able to handle setups where a libtool library is
1166 conditionally installed in different directories, as in
1169 lib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1171 pkglib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1173 liba_la_SOURCES = ...
1175 * Changes to aclocal:
1177 - aclocal now ensures that AC_DEFUNs and AU_DEFUNs it discovers are
1178 really evaluated, before it decides to include them in aclocal.m4.
1179 This solves nasty problems with conditional redefinitions of
1180 Autoconf macros in /usr/share/aclocal/*.m4 files causing extraneous
1181 *.m4 files to be included in any project using these macros.
1182 (Calls to AC_PROG_EGREP causing libtool.m4 to be included is the
1183 most famous instance of this bug.)
1185 - Do not complain about missing conditionally AC_REQUIREd macros
1186 that are not actually used. In 1.8.x aclocal would correctly
1187 determine which of these macros were really needed (and include
1188 only these in the package); unfortunately it would also require
1189 all of them to be present in order to run. This created
1190 situations were aclocal would not work on a tarball distributing
1191 all the macros it uses. For instance running aclocal on a project
1192 containing only the subset of the Gettext macros in use by the
1193 project did not work, because gettext conditionally requires other
1196 * Portability improvements:
1198 - Tar format can be chosen with the new options tar-v7, tar-ustar, and
1199 tar-pax. The new option filename-length-max=99 helps diagnosing
1200 filenames that are too long for tar-v7. (PR/414)
1202 - Variables aumented with `+=' are now automatically flattened (i.e.,
1203 trailing backslashes removed) and then wrapped around 80 colummns
1204 (adding trailing backslashes). In previous versions, a long series
1210 would result in a single-line definition of VAR that could possibly
1211 exceed the maximum line length of some make implementations.
1213 Non-augmented variables are still output as they are defined in
1218 - Support Fortran 90/95 with the new "fc" and "ppfc" languages.
1219 Works the same as the old Fortran 77 implementation; just replace
1220 F77 with FC everywhere (exception: FFLAGS becomes FCFLAGS).
1221 Requires a version of autoconf which provides AC_PROG_FC (>=2.59).
1223 - Support for conditional _LISP.
1225 - Support for conditional -hook and -local rules (PR/428).
1227 - Diagnose AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR calls following AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. (PR/49)
1229 - Automake will not write any Makefile.ins after the first error it
1230 encounters. The previous Makefile.ins (if any) will be left in
1231 place. (Warnings will not prevent output, but remember they can
1232 be turned into errors with -Werror.)
1234 - The restriction that SUBDIRS must contain direct children is gone.
1237 - The manual tells more about SUBDIRS vs. DIST_SUBDIRS.
1238 It also gives an example of nested packages using AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS.
1240 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1242 Bugs fixed in 1.8.5:
1244 * Long-standing bugs:
1246 - Define DIST_SUBDIRS even when the `no-dist' or `cygnus' options are used
1247 so that `make distclean' and `make maintainer-clean' can work.
1249 - Define AR and ARFLAGS even when only EXTRA_LIBRARIES are defined.
1251 - Fix many rules to please FreeBSD make, which runs commands with `sh -e'.
1253 - Polish diagnostic when no input file is found.
1255 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1257 Bugs fixed in 1.8.4:
1259 * Long-standing bugs:
1261 - Fix AM_PATH_PYTHON to correctly display $PYTHON when it has been
1262 overridden by the user.
1264 - Honor PATH_SEPARATOR in various places of the Automake package, for
1267 - Adjust dependency tracking mode detection to ICC 8.0's new output.
1270 - Fix install-sh so it can install the `mv' binary... using `mv'.
1272 - Fix tru64 dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1274 - Work around Exuberant Ctags when creating a TAGS files in a directory
1275 without files to scan but with subdirectories to include.
1277 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1279 - Fix an "internal error" when @LIBOBJS@ is used in a variable that is
1280 not defined in the same conditions as the _LDADD that uses it.
1282 - Do not warn when JAVAROOT is overridden, this is legitimate.
1284 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1286 Bugs fixed in 1.8.3:
1288 * Long-standing bugs:
1290 - Quote filenames in installation rules, in case $DESTDIR, $prefix,
1291 or any of the other *dir variables contain a space.
1293 Please note that Automake does not and cannot support spaces in
1294 filenames that are involved during the build. This change affects
1295 only installation paths, so that `make install' does not bomb out
1296 in packages configured with
1297 ./configure --prefix '/c/Program Files'
1299 - Fix the depfiles output so it works with GNU sed (<4.1) even when
1300 POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.
1302 - Do not AC_SUBST(LIBOBJS) in AM_WITH_REGEX. This macro was unusable
1303 since Autoconf 2.54, which defines LIBOBJS itself.
1305 - Fix a potential (but unlikely) race condition in parallel elisp
1306 builds. (Introduced in 1.7.3.)
1308 - Do not assume that users override _DEPENDENCIES in all conditions
1309 where Automake will try to define them.
1311 - Do not use `mkdir -p' in mkinstalldirs, unless this is GNU mkdir.
1312 Solaris 8's `mkdir -p' is not thread-safe and can break parallel
1315 This fix also affects the $(mkdir_p) variable defined since
1316 Automake 1.8. It will be set to `mkdir -p' only if mkdir is GNU
1317 mkdir, and to `mkinstalldirs' or `install-sh -d' otherwise.
1319 - Secure temporary directory creation in `make distcheck'. (PR/413)
1321 - Do not generate two build rules for `parser.h' when the
1322 parser appears in two different conditionals.
1324 - Work around a Solaris 8 /bin/sh bug in the test for dependency
1325 checking. Usually ./configure will not pick this shell; so this
1326 fix only helps cases where the shell is forced to /bin/sh.
1328 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1330 - In some situations (hand-written `m4_include's), aclocal would
1331 call the `File::Spec->rel2abs' method, which was only introduced
1332 in Perl 5.6. This new version reestablish support Perl 5.005.
1334 It is likely that the next major Automake releases will require at
1335 least Perl 5.6. Consider upgrading your development environment
1336 if you are still using the five-year-old Perl 5.005.
1338 - Automake would sometimes fail to define rules for targets listed
1339 in variables defined in multiple conditions. For instance on
1345 it would define only the `a.$(OBJEXT): a.c' rule and omit the
1346 `b.$(OBJEXT): b.c' rule.
1348 * New sections in manual:
1350 - Third-Party Makefiles: how to interface third party Makefiles.
1351 - Upgrading: upgrading packages to newer Automake versions.
1352 - Multiple Outputs: handling tools that produce many outputs.
1354 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1358 * A (well known) portability bug slipped in the changes made to
1359 install-sh in Automake 1.8.1. The broken install-sh would refuse to
1360 install anything on Tru64.
1362 * Fix install rules for conditionally built python files. (This never
1365 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1369 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1371 - Fix Config.pm import error with old Perl versions (at least
1372 5.005_03). One symptom is that aclocal could not find its macro
1375 - Automake 1.8 used `mkdir -m 0755 -p --' to ensure that directories
1376 created by `make install' are always world readable, even if the
1377 installer happens to have an overly restrictive umask (e.g. 077).
1378 This was a mistake and has been reverted. There are at least two
1379 reasons why we must not use `-m 0755':
1380 - it causes special bits like SGID to be ignored,
1381 - it may be too restrictive (some setups expect 775 directories).
1383 - Fix aclocal to honor definitions located in files which have been
1384 m4_included manually. aclocal 1.8 had been updated to check
1385 m4_included files for new requirements, but forgot that these
1386 m4_included files can also provide new definitions.
1388 Note that if you have such a setup, we recommend you get rid of
1389 it. In the past, there was a reason to m4_include files manually:
1390 aclocal used to duplicate entire M4 files into aclocal.m4, even
1391 files that were distributed. Some packages were therefore
1392 m4_including the distributed file directly, and playing some
1393 tricks to ensure aclocal would not copy that file to aclocal.m4,
1394 in order to limit the amount of duplication. Since aclocal 1.8.x
1395 will precisely output m4_includes for local M4 files, we recommend
1396 that you clean up your setup, removing all manual m4_includes and
1397 letting aclocal output them.
1399 - Output detailed menus in the Info version if the Automake manual,
1400 so that Emacs can locate the indexes.
1402 - configure.ac and configure were listed twice in DIST_COMMON (an
1403 internal variable where Automake lists configury files to
1404 distribute). This was harmless, but unaesthetic.
1406 - Use `chmod a-w' instead of `chmod -w' as the latter honors umask.
1407 This was an issue only in the Automake package itself, not in
1410 - Automake assumed that all AC_CONFIG_LINKS arguments had the form
1411 DEST:SRC. This was wrong, as some packages do
1412 AC_CONFIG_LINKS($computedlinks). This version no longer abort in
1415 - Contrary to mkinstalldirs, $(mkdir_p) was expecting exactly one
1416 argument. This caused two kinds of failures:
1417 - Rules installing data in a conditionally defined directory
1418 failed when that directory was undefined. In this case no
1419 argument was supplied.
1420 - `make installdirs' failed, because several directories were
1421 passed to $(mkdir_p). This was an issue only on platform
1422 were $(mkdir_p) is implemented with `install-sh -d'.
1423 $(mkdir_p) as been changed to accept 0 or more arguments, as
1426 * Long-standing bugs:
1428 - Fix an unexpected diagnostic occurring when users attempt
1429 to override some internal variables that Automake appends to.
1431 - aclocal now scans configure.ac for macro definitions (PR/319).
1433 - Fix a portability issue with OSF1/Tru64 Make. If a directory
1434 distributes files which are outside itself (this usually occurs
1435 when using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([../dir]) to use auxiliary files
1436 from a parent package), then `make distcheck' fails due to an
1437 optimization performed by OSF1/Tru64 Make in its VPATH handling.
1438 (tests/subpkg2.test failure)
1440 - Fix another portability issue with Sun and OSF1/Tru64 Make.
1441 In a VPATH-build configuration, `make install' would install
1442 nobase_ files to wrong locations.
1444 - Fix a Perl `uninitialized value' diagnostic occurring when
1445 automake complains that a Texinfo file does not have a
1446 @setfilename statement.
1448 - Erase config.status.lineno during `make distclean'. This file
1449 can be created by config.status. Automake already knew about
1450 configure.lineno, but forgot config.status.lineno.
1452 - Distribute all files, even those which are built and installed
1453 conditionally. This change affects files listed in conditionally
1454 defined *_HEADERS and *_PYTHON variable (unless they are nodist_*)
1455 as well as those listed in conditionally defined dist_*_DATA,
1456 dist_*_JAVA, dist_*_LISP, and dist_*_SCRIPTS variables.
1458 - Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to avoid \? in sed regular expressions; it
1459 doesn't conform to POSIX.
1461 - Normalize help strings for configure variables and options added
1466 - Check for python2.4 in AM_PATH_PYTHON.
1468 * Spurious failures in test suite:
1470 - tests/libtool5.test, tests/ltcond.test, tests/ltcond2.test,
1471 tests/ltconv.test: fix failures with CVS Libtool.
1472 - tests/aclocal6.test: fix failure if autom4te.cache is disabled.
1473 - tests/txinfo24.test, tests/txinfo25.test, tests/txinfo28.test:
1474 fix failures with old Texinfo versions.
1476 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1482 - The NEWS file is more verbose.
1486 - Autoconf 2.58 or greater is required.
1490 - Default source file names in the absence of a _SOURCES declaration
1491 are made by removing any target extension before appending `.c', so
1492 to make the libtool module `foo.la' from `foo.c', you only need to
1495 lib_LTLIBRARIES = foo.la
1496 foo_la_LDFLAGS = -module
1498 For backward compatibility, foo_la.c will be used instead of
1499 foo.c if this file exists or is the explicit target of a rule.
1500 However -Wobsolete will warn about this deprecated naming.
1502 - AR's `cru' flags are now set in a global ARFLAGS variable instead
1503 of being hard-coded in each $(AR) invocation, so they can be
1504 substituted from configure.ac. This has been requested by people
1505 dealing with non-POSIX ar implementations.
1507 - New warning option: -Woverride. This will warn about any user
1508 target or variable definitions which override Automake
1511 - Texinfo rules back up and restore info files when makeinfo fails.
1513 - Texinfo rules now support the `html' target.
1514 Running this requires Texinfo 4.0 or greater.
1516 `html' is a new recursive target, so if your package mixes
1517 hand-crafted `Makefile.in's with Automake-generated
1518 `Makefile.in's, you should adjust the former to support (or
1519 ignore) this target so that `make html' recurses successfully. If
1520 you had a custom `html' rule in your `Makefile.am', it's better to
1521 rename it as `html-local', otherwise your rule will override
1522 Automake's new rule (you can check that by running `automake
1523 -Woverride') and that will stop the recursion to subdirectories.
1525 Last but not least, this `html' rule is declared PHONY, even when
1526 overridden. Fortunately, it appears that few packages use a
1527 non-PHONY `html' rule.
1529 - Any file which is m4_included from configure.ac will appear as a
1530 configure and Makefile.in dependency, and will be automatically
1533 - The rules for rebuilding Makefiles and Makefile.ins will now
1534 rebuild all Makefiles and all Makefile.ins at once when one of
1535 configure's dependencies has changed. This is considerably faster
1536 than previous implementations, where config.status and automake
1537 were run separately in each directory (this still happens when you
1538 change a Makefile.am locally, without touching configure.ac or
1539 friends). Doing this also solves a longstanding issue: these
1540 rebuild rules failed to work when adding new directories to the
1541 tree, forcing you to run automake manually.
1543 - For similar reasons, the rules to rebuild configure,
1544 config.status, and aclocal.m4 are now defined in all directories.
1545 Note that if you were using the CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES and
1546 CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES (formerly undocumented) variables, you
1547 should better define them in all directories. This is easily done
1548 using an AC_SUBST (make sure you prefix these dependencies with
1549 $(top_srcdir) since this variable will appear at different
1550 levels of the build tree).
1552 - aclocal will now use `m4_include' instead of copying local m4
1553 files into aclocal.m4. (Local m4 files are those you ship with
1554 your project, other files will be copied as usual.)
1556 Because m4_included files are automatically distributed, it means
1557 for most projects there is no point in EXTRA_DISTing the list of
1558 m4 files which are used. (You can probably get rid of
1559 m4/Makefile.am if you had one.)
1561 - aclocal will avoid touching aclocal.m4 when possible, so that
1562 Autom4te's cache isn't needlessly invalidated. This behavior can
1563 be switched off with the new `--force' option.
1565 - aclocal now uses Autoconf's --trace to detect macros which are
1566 actually used and will no longer include unused macros simply
1567 because they where mentioned. This was often the case for macros
1568 called conditionally.
1570 - New options no-dist and no-dist-gzip.
1572 - compile, depcomp, elisp-comp, install-sh, mdate-sh, mkinstalldirs,
1573 py-compile, and ylwrap, now all understand --version and --help.
1575 - Automake will now recognize AC_CONFIG_LINKS so far as removing created
1576 links as part of the distclean target and including source files in
1579 - AM_PATH_PYTHON now supports ACTION-IF-FOUND and ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND
1580 argument. The latter can be used to override the default behavior
1581 (which is to abort).
1583 - Automake will exit with $? = 63 on version mismatch. (So does
1584 Autoconf 2.58) missing knows this, and in this case it will
1585 emulate the tools as if they were absent. Because older versions
1586 of Automake and Autoconf did not use this exit code, this change
1587 will only be useful in projects generated with future versions of
1590 - When using AC_CONFIG_FILES with multiple input files, Automake
1591 generates the first ".in" input file for which a ".am" exists.
1592 (Former versions would try to use only the first input file.)
1594 - lisp_DATA is now allowed. If you are using the empty ELCFILES
1595 idiom to disable byte-compilation of lisp_LISP files, it is
1596 recommended that you switch to using lisp_DATA. Note that
1597 this is not strictly equivalent: lisp_DATA will install elisp
1598 files even if emacs is not installed, while *_LISP do not
1599 install anything unless emacs is found.
1601 - Makefiles will prefer `mkdir -p' over mkinstalldirs if it is
1602 available. This selection is achieved through the Makefile
1603 variable $(mkdir_p) that is set by AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE to either
1604 `mkdir -m 0755 -p --', `$(mkinstalldirs) -m 0755', or
1605 `$(install_sh) -m 0755 -d'.
1609 - Because `mkdir -p' is available on most platforms, and we can use
1610 `install-sh -d' when it is not, the use of the mkinstalldirs
1611 script is being phased out. `automake --add-missing' no longer
1612 installs it, and if you remove mkinstalldirs from your package,
1613 automake will define $(mkinstalldirs) as an alias for $(mkdir_p).
1615 Gettext 0.12.1 still requires mkinstalldirs. Fortunately
1616 gettextize and autopoint will install it when needed. Automake
1617 will continue to define the $(mkinstalldirs) and to distribute
1618 mkinstalldirs when this script is in the source tree.
1620 - AM_PROG_CC_STDC is now empty. The content of this macro was
1621 merged in AC_PROG_CC. If your code uses $am_cv_prog_cc_stdc, you
1622 should adjust it to use $ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc instead. (This
1623 renaming should be safe, even if you have to support several,
1624 versions of Automake, because AC_PROG_CC defines this variable
1625 since Autoconf 2.54.)
1627 - Some users where using the undocumented ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES
1628 variable to override the aclocal.m4 dependencies computed
1629 (inaccurately) by older versions of Automake. Because Automake
1630 now tracks configure's m4 dependencies accurately (see m4_include
1631 above), the use of ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES should be considered
1632 obsolete and will be flagged as such when running `automake
1637 - Defining programs conditionally using Automake conditionals no
1638 longer leads to a combinatorial explosion. The following
1639 construct used to be troublesome when used with dozens of
1654 Likewise for _SOURCES, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables.
1656 - Due to implementation constraints, previous versions of Automake
1657 proscribed multiple conditional definitions of some variables
1667 All _PROGRAMS, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables were affected.
1668 This restriction has been lifted, and these variables now
1669 support multiple conditional definitions as do other variables.
1671 - Cleanup the definitions of $(distdir) and $(top_distdir).
1672 $(top_distdir) now points to the root of the distribution
1673 directory created during `make dist', as it did in Automake 1.4,
1674 not to the root of the build tree as it did in intervening
1675 versions. Furthermore these two variables are now only defined in
1676 the top level Makefile, and passed to sub-directories when running
1679 - The --no-force option now correctly checks the Makefile.in's
1680 dependencies before deciding not to update it.
1682 - Do not assume that make files are called Makefile in cleaning rules.
1684 - Update .info files in the source tree, not in the build tree. This
1685 is what the GNU Coding Standard recommend. Only Automake 1.7.x
1686 used to update these files in the build tree (previous versions did
1687 it in the source tree too), and it caused several problems, varying
1688 from mere annoyance to portability issues.
1690 - COPYING, COPYING.LIB, and COPYING.LESSER are no longer overwritten
1691 when --add-missing and --force-missing are used. For backward
1692 compatibility --add-missing will continue to install COPYING (in
1693 `gnu' strictness) when none of these three files exist, but this
1694 use is deprecated: you should better choose a license yourself and
1695 install it once for all in your source tree (and in your code
1698 - Fix ylwrap so that it does not overwrite header files that haven't
1699 changed, as the inline rule already does.
1701 - User-defined rules override automake-defined rules for the same
1702 targets, even when rules do not have commands. This is not new
1703 (and was documented), however some of the automake-generated
1704 rules have escaped this principle in former Automake versions.
1705 Rules for the following targets are affected by this fix:
1707 clean, clean-am, dist-all, distclean, distclean-am, dvi, dvi-am,
1708 info, info-am, install-data-am, install-exec-am, install-info,
1709 install-info-am, install-man, installcheck-am, maintainer-clean,
1710 maintainer-clean-am, mostlyclean, mostlyclean-am, pdf, pdf-am,
1711 ps, ps-am, uninstall-am, uninstall-info, uninstall-man
1713 Practically it means that an attempt to supplement the dependencies
1714 of some target, as in
1716 clean: my-clean-rule
1718 will now *silently override* the automake definition of the
1719 rule for this target. Running `automake -Woverride' will diagnose
1720 all such overriding definitions.
1722 It should be noted that almost all of these targets support a *-local
1723 variant that is meant to supplement the automake-defined rule
1724 (See node `Extending' in the manual). The above rule should
1727 clean-local: my-clean-rule
1729 These *-local targets have been documented since at least
1730 Automake 1.2, so you should not fear the change if you have
1731 to support multiple automake versions.
1735 - The Automake manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
1737 - Targets dist-gzip, dist-bzip2, dist-tarZ, dist-zip are always defined.
1739 - core dumps are no longer removed by the cleaning rules. There are
1740 at least three reasons for this:
1741 1. These files should not be created by any build step,
1742 so their removal do not fit any of the cleaning rules.
1743 Actually, they may be precious to the developer.
1744 2. If such file is created during a build, then it's clearly a
1745 bug Automake should not hide. Not removing the file will
1746 cause `make distcheck' to complain about its presence.
1747 3. Operating systems have different naming conventions for
1748 core dump files. A core file on one system might be a
1749 completely legitimate data file on another system.
1751 - RUNTESTFLAGS, CTAGSFLAGS, ETAGSFLAGS, JAVACFLAGS are no longer
1752 defined by Automake. This means that any definition in the
1753 environment will be used, unless overridden in the Makefile.am or
1754 on the command line. The old behavior, where these variables were
1755 defined empty in each Makefile, can be obtained by AC_SUBSTing or
1756 AC_ARG_VARing each variable from configure.ac.
1758 - CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES and CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES are now
1759 documented. (The is not a new feature, these variables have
1760 been there since at least Automake 1.4.)
1762 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1764 Bugs fixed in 1.7.9:
1765 * Fix install-strip to work with nobase_ binaries.
1766 * Fix renaming of #line directives in ylwrap.
1767 * Rebuild with Autoconf 2.59. (1.7.8 was not installable with pdksh.)
1769 Bugs fixed in 1.7.8:
1770 * Remove spurious blank lines in cleaning rules introduced in 1.7.7.
1771 * Fix detection of Debian's install-info, broken since version 1.5.
1772 (Debian bug #213524).
1773 * Honor -module if it appears in AM_LDFLAGS (i.e., relax name checking)
1774 This was only done for libfoo_LDFLAGS and LDFLAGS in previous versions.
1776 Bugs fixed in 1.7.7:
1777 * The implementation of automake's --no-force option is unreliable,
1778 so this option is ignored in this version. A real fix will appear in
1779 Automake 1.8. (Debian Bug #206299)
1780 * AM_PATH_PYTHON: really check the whole list of interpreters if no
1781 argument is given. (PR/399)
1782 * Do not warn about leading `_' in variable names, even with -Wportability.
1783 * Support user redefinitions of TEXINFO_TEX.
1784 * depcomp: support AIX Compiler version 6.
1785 * Fix missing rebuilds during `make dist' with BSD make.
1786 (Could produce tarballs containing out-of-date files.)
1787 * Resurrect multilib support.
1788 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1789 - Extending aclocal: how to write m4 macros that won't trigger warnings
1791 - A Shared Library: Rewrite and split into subsections.
1793 Bugs fixed in 1.7.6:
1794 * Fix depcomp's icc mode for ICC 7.1.
1795 * Diagnose calls to AC_CONFIG_FILES and friends with not enough arguments.
1796 * Fix maintainer-clean's removal of autom4te.cache in VPATH builds.
1797 * Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to work with POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
1798 * Fix the location reported in some diagnostics related to AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
1799 * Remove Latin-1 characters from elisp-comp.
1800 * Update the manual's @dircategory to match the Free Software Directory.
1802 Bugs fixed in 1.7.5:
1803 * Update install-sh's license to remove an advertising clause.
1804 (Debian bug #191717)
1805 * Fix a bug introduced in 1.7.4, related to BUILT_SOURCE handling,
1806 that caused invalid Makefile.ins to be generated.
1807 * Make sure AM_MAKE_INCLUDE doesn't fail when a `doit' file exists.
1808 * New FAQ entry: renamed objects.
1810 Bugs fixed in 1.7.4:
1811 * Tweak the TAGS rule to support Exuberant Ctags (in addition to
1812 the Emacs implementation)
1813 * Fix output of aclocal.m4 dependencies in subdirectories.
1814 * Use `mv -f' instead of `mv' in fastdep rules.
1815 * Upgrade mdate-sh to work on OS/2.
1816 * Don't byte-compile elisp files when ELCFILES is set empty.
1817 (this documented feature was broken by 1.7.3)
1818 * Diagnose trailing backslashes on last line of Makefile.am.
1819 * Diagnose whitespace following trailing backslashes.
1820 * Multiple tests are now correctly supported in DEJATOOL. (PR/388)
1821 * Fix rebuilt rules for AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.bot])
1823 * `make install' will build `BUILT_SOURCES' first.
1824 * Minor documentation fixes.
1826 Bugs fixed in 1.7.3:
1827 * Fix stamp files numbering (when using multiple AC_CONFIG_HEADERS).
1828 * Query distutils for `pythondir' and `pythonexecdir', instead of
1829 using an hardcoded path. This should allow builds on 64-bit
1830 distributions that usually use lib64/ instead of lib/.
1831 * AM_PATH_PYTHON will also search for python2.3.
1832 * elisp files are now built all at once instead of one by one. Besides
1833 incurring a speed-up, this is required to support interdependent elisp files.
1834 * Support for DJGPP:
1835 - `make distcheck' will now work in `_inst/' and `_build' instead
1836 of `=inst/' and `=build/'
1837 - use `_dirstamp' when the file-system doesn't support `.dirstamp'
1838 - install/uninstall `*.i[0-9][0-9]'-style info files
1839 - more changes that affect only the Automake package (not its output)
1840 * Fix some incompatibilities with upcoming perl-5.10.
1841 * Properly quote AC_PACKAGE_TARNAME and AC_PACKAGE_VERSION when defining
1842 PACKAGE and VERSION.
1844 - dashmstdout and dashXmstdout modes: don't use `-o /dev/null', this
1845 is troublesome with gcc and Solaris compilers. (PR/385)
1846 - makedepend mode: work with Libtool. (PR/385 too)
1848 * better support for unusual gettext setups, such as multiple po/ directories
1850 - Flag missing po/ and intl/ directories as warnings, not errors.
1851 - Disable these warnings if po/ does not exist.
1852 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1854 - Document how AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR interacts with missing files.
1856 - Document `AM_YFLAGS = -d'. (PR/382)
1858 Bugs fixed in 1.7.2:
1859 * Fix installation and uninstallation of Info files built in subdirectories.
1860 * Do not run `./configure --with-included-gettext' during `make distcheck'
1861 if AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) is used.
1862 * Correctly uninstall renamed man pages.
1863 * Do not strip escaped newline in variables defined in one condition
1864 and augmented in another condition.
1865 * Fix ansi2knr rules for LIBOBJS sources.
1866 * Clean all known Texinfo index files, not only those which appear to
1867 be used, because we cannot know which indexes are used in included files.
1868 (PR/375, Debian Bug #168671)
1869 * Honor only the first @setfilename seen in a Texinfo file.
1870 * Treat "required file X not found" diagnostics as errors (exit status 1).
1871 * Don't complain that a required file is not found when it is a Makefile
1873 * Don't use single suffix inference rules when building `.info'-less
1874 Info files, for the sake of Solaris make.
1875 * The `check' target now depends on `$(BUILT_SOURCES)'. (PR/359)
1876 * Recognize multiple inference rules such as `.a.b .c.d:'. (PR/371)
1877 * Warn about multiple inference rules when -Wportability is used. (PR/372)
1878 * Fix building of deansified files from subdirectories. (PR/370)
1879 * Add missing `fi' in the .c->.obj rules.
1880 * Improve install-sh to work even when names contain spaces or certain
1881 (but not all) shell metachars.
1882 * Fix the following spurious failures in the test suite:
1883 depcomp2.test, gnits2.test, gnits3.test, python3.test, texinfo13.test
1884 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1885 - Augment the section about BUILT_SOURCES.
1886 - Mention that AM_PROG_CC_STDC is a relic that is better avoided today.
1888 Bugs fixed in 1.7.1:
1889 * Honor `ansi2knr' for files built in subdirectories, or using per-targets
1891 * Aclocal should now recognize macro names containing parentheses, e.g.
1892 AC_DEFUN([AC_LANG_PREPROC(Fortran 90)], [...]).
1893 * Erase *.sum and *.log files created by DejaGnu, during `make distclean'.
1895 * Install Python files even if they were built. (PR/369)
1896 * Have stamp-vti dependent upon configure instead of configure.ac, as the
1897 version might not be defined in the latter. (PR/358)
1898 * Reorder arguments passed to a couple of commands, so things works
1899 when POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
1900 * Fix a regex that can cause Perl to segfault on large input.
1902 * Fix distribution of packages that have some sources defined conditionally,
1903 as in the `Conditional compilation using Automake conditionals' example
1905 * Fix spurious test suite failures on IRIX.
1906 * Don't report a required variable as undefined if it has been
1907 defined conditionally for the "right" conditions.
1908 * Fix cleaning of the /tmp subdirectory used by `make distcheck', in case
1909 `make distcheck' fails.
1910 * Fix distribution of included Makefile fragment, so we don't create
1911 spurious directories in the distribution. (PR/366)
1912 * Don't complain that a target lacks `.$(EXEEXT)' when it has it.
1915 * Autoconf 2.54 is required.
1916 * `aclocal' and `automake' will no longer warn about obsolete
1917 configure macros. This is done by `autoconf -Wobsolete'.
1918 * AM_CONFIG_HEADER, AM_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS and
1919 AM_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ_NEEDS_SYS_IOCTL are obsolete (although still
1920 supported). You should use AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS,
1921 and AC_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ instead. `autoupdate' can upgrade
1922 `configure.ac' for you.
1923 * Support for per-program and per-library `_CPPFLAGS'.
1924 * New `ctags' target (builds CTAGS files).
1925 * Support for -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble, where mumble is a warning category
1926 (see `automake --help' or the manual for a list of them).
1927 * Honor the WARNINGS environment variable.
1928 * Omit the call to depcomp when using gcc3: call the compiler directly.
1929 * A new option, std-options, tests that programs support --help and --version
1930 when `make installcheck' is run. This is enabled by --gnits.
1931 * Texinfo rules now support the `ps' and `pdf' targets.
1932 * Info files are now created in the build directory, not the source directory.
1933 * info_TEXINFOS supports files in subdirectories (this requires Texinfo 4.1
1935 * `make distcheck' will enforce DESTDIR support by attempting
1937 * `+=' can be used in conditionals, even if the augmented variable
1938 was defined for another condition.
1939 * Makefile fragments (inserted with `include') are always distributed.
1940 * Use Autoconf's --trace interface to inspect configure.ac and get
1941 a more accurate view of it.
1942 * Add support for extending aclocal's default macro search path
1943 using a `dirlist' file within the aclocal directory.
1944 * automake --output-dir is deprecated.
1945 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether uninstall actually
1946 removes all installed files has been moved in a separate target,
1947 distuninstallcheck, so it can be overridden easily.
1951 * Support for AM_INIT_GETTEXT([external])
1952 * Bug fixes, including:
1953 - Fix Automake's own `make install' so it works even if `ln' doesn't.
1954 - nobase_ programs and scripts honor --program-transform correctly.
1955 - Erase configure.lineno during `make distclean'.
1956 - Erase YACC and LEX outputs during `make maintainer-clean'.
1959 * Many bug fixes, including:
1960 - Requiring the current version works.
1961 - Fix "$@" portability issues (for Zsh).
1962 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
1964 - Don't compute dependencies in background to avoid races with libtool.
1965 - Fix handling of _OBJECTS variables for targets sharing source variables.
1966 - Check dependency mode for Java when AM_PROG_GCJ is used.
1969 * automake --output-dir is deprecated
1970 * Many bug fixes, including:
1971 - Don't choke on AM_LDFLAGS definitions.
1972 - Clean libtool objects from subdirectories.
1973 - Allow configure variables with reserved suffix and unknown prefix
1974 (e.g. AC_SUBST(mumble_LDFLAGS) when 'mumble' is not a target).
1975 - Fix the definition of AUTOMAKE and ACLOCAL in configure.
1978 * Autoconf 2.52 is required.
1979 * automake no longer run libtoolize.
1980 This is the job of autoreconf (from GNU Autoconf).
1981 * `dist' generates all the archive flavors, as did `dist-all'.
1982 * `dist-gzip' generates the Gzip tar file only.
1983 * Combining Automake Makefile conditionals no longer lead to a combinatorial
1984 explosion. Makefile.in's keep a reasonable size.
1985 * AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_STRTOD, AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, AM_PTRDIFF_T
1986 are no longer shipped, since Autoconf 2.52 provides them (both as AM_
1988 * `#line' of Lex and Yacc files are properly set.
1989 * EXTRA_DIST can contain generated directories.
1990 * Support for dot-less extensions in suffix rules.
1991 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether distclean actually
1992 cleans all built files has been moved in a separate target, distcleancheck,
1993 so it can be overridden easily.
1994 * `make distcheck' will pass additional options defined in
1995 $(DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS) to configure.
1996 * Fixed CDPATH portability problems, in particular for MacOS X.
1997 * Fixed handling of nobase_ targets.
1998 * Fixed support of implicit rules leading to .lo objects.
1999 * Fixed late inclusion of --add-missing files (e.g. depcomp) in DIST_COMMON
2000 * Added uninstall-hook target
2001 * `AC_INIT AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(tarname,version)' is an obsolete construct.
2002 You can now use `AC_INIT(pkgname,version) AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE' instead.
2003 (Note that "pkgname" is not "tarname", see the manual for details.)
2004 It is also possible to pass a list of global Automake options as
2005 first argument to this new form of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.
2006 * Compiler-based assembler is now called `CCAS'; people expected `AS'
2007 to be a real assembler.
2008 * AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE will set STRIP itself when it needs it. Adding
2009 AC_CHECK_TOOL([STRIP], [strip]) manually is no longer required.
2010 * aclocal and automake are also installed with the version number
2011 appended, and some of the install directory names have changed.
2012 This lets you have multiple versions installed simultaneously.
2013 * Support for parsers and lexers in subdirectories.
2016 * Support for `configure.ac'.
2017 * Support for `else COND', `endif COND' and negated conditions `!COND'.
2018 * `make dist-all' is much faster.
2019 * Allows '@' AC_SUBSTs in macro names.
2020 * Faster AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE (requires update of `missing' script)
2021 * User-side dependency tracking. Developers no longer need GNU make
2023 * Uses DIST_SUBDIRS in some situations when SUBDIRS is conditional
2024 * Most files are correctly handled if they appear in subdirs
2025 For instance, a _DATA file can appear in a subdir
2026 * GNU tar is no longer required for `make dist'
2027 * Added support for `dist_' and `nodist_' prefixes
2028 * Added support for `nobase_' prefix
2029 * Compiled Java support
2030 * Support for per-executable and per-library compilation flags
2034 * Added support for the Fortran 77 programming language.
2035 * Re-indexed the Automake Texinfo manual.
2036 * Added `AM_FOOFLAGS' variable for each compiler invocation;
2037 e.g. AM_CFLAGS can be used in Makefile.am to set C compiler flags
2038 * Support for latest autoconf, including support for objext
2039 * Can now put `.' in SUBDIRS to control build order
2040 * `include' command and `+=' support for macro assignment
2041 * Dependency tracking no long susceptible to deleted header file problem
2042 * Maintainer mode now a conditional. @MAINT@ is now an anachronism.
2047 * Better Cygwin32 support
2048 * Support for suffix rules with _SOURCES variables
2049 * New options `readme-alpha' and `check-news'; Gnits mode sets these
2050 * @LEXLIB@ no longer required when lex source seen
2051 Lex support in `missing', and new lex macro. Update your missing script.
2052 * Built-in support for assembly
2053 * aclocal gives error if `AM_' macro not found
2054 * Passed YFLAGS, not YACCFLAGS, to yacc
2055 * AM_PROG_CC_STDC does not have to come before AC_PROG_CPP
2056 * Dependencies computed as a side effect of compilation
2057 * Preliminary support for Java
2058 * DESTDIR support at "make install" time
2059 * Improved ansi2knr support; you must use the latest ansi2knr.c (included)
2063 * Better DejaGnu support
2064 * Added no-installinfo option
2065 * Added Emacs Lisp support
2066 * Added --no-force option
2067 * Included `aclocal' program
2068 * Automake will now generate rules to regenerate aclocal.m4, if appropriate
2069 * Now uses `AM_' macro names everywhere
2070 * ansi2knr option can have directory prefix (eg `../lib/ansi2knr')
2071 ansi2knr now works correctly on K&R sources
2072 * Better C++, yacc, lex support
2073 * Will compute _DEPENDENCIES variables automatically if not supplied
2074 * Will interpolate $(...) and ${...} when examining contents of a variable
2075 * .deps files now in build directory, not source directory; dependency
2076 handling generally rewritten
2077 * DATA, MANS and BUILT_SOURCES no longer included in distribution
2078 * can now put config.h into a subdir
2079 * Added dist-all target
2080 * Support for install-info program (see texinfo 3.9)
2081 * Support for "yacc -d"
2082 * configure substitutions are automatically discovered and included
2083 in generated Makefile.in
2084 * Special --cygnus mode
2085 * OMIT_DEPENDENCIES can now hold list of dependencies to be omitted
2086 when making distribution. Some dependencies are auto-ignored.
2087 * Changed how libraries are specified in _LIBRARIES variable
2088 * Full libtool support, from Gord Matzigkeit
2089 * No longer have to explicitly touch stamp-h when using AC_CONFIG_HEADER;
2090 AM_CONFIG_HEADER handles it automatically
2091 * Texinfo output files no longer need .info extension
2092 * Added `missing' support
2094 * Conditionals in Makefile.am, from Ian Taylor
2098 * distcheck target runs install and installcheck targets
2099 * Added preliminary support for DejaGnu.
2104 * More libtool fixes from Gord Matzigkeit; libtool support is still
2106 * Added support for jm_MAINTAINER_MODE
2108 * New "distcheck" target
2112 * mkinstalldirs and mdate-sh now appear in directory specified by
2114 * Removed DIST_SUBDIRS, DIST_OTHER
2115 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM only required when an actual program exists
2116 * dist-hook target now run before distribution packaged up; idea from
2117 Dieter Baron. Other hooks exist, too.
2118 * Preliminary (unfinished) support for libtool
2119 * Added short option names.
2120 * Better "dist" support when gluing together multiple packages
2124 * Documentation updates (many from François Pinard)
2125 * strictness `normal' now renamed to `foreign'
2126 * Renamed --install-missing to --add-missing
2127 * Now handles AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
2128 * Now handles TESTS macro
2129 * DIST_OTHER renamed to EXTRA_DIST
2130 * DIST_SUBDIRS is deprecated
2131 * @ALLOCA@ and @LIBOBJS@ now work in _LDADD variables
2132 * Better error messages in many cases
2133 * Program names are canonicalized
2134 * Added "check" prefix; from Gord Matzigkeit
2138 * configure.in scanner knows about AC_PATH_XTRA, AC_OUTPUT ":" syntax
2139 * Beginnings of a test suite
2140 * Automatically adds -I options for $(srcdir), ".", and path to config.h
2141 * Doesn't print anything when running
2142 * Beginnings of MAINT_CHARSET support
2143 * Can specify version in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS
2144 * Most errors recognizable by Emacs' M-x next-error
2145 * Added --verbose option
2146 * All "primary" variables now obsolete; use EXTRA_PRIMARY to supply
2147 configure-generated names
2148 * Required macros now distributed in aclocal.m4
2150 * --strictness=gnu is default
2154 * More sophisticated configure.in scanning; now understands ALLOCA and
2155 LIBOBJS directly, handles AC_CONFIG_HEADER more precisely, etc.
2156 * TEXINFOS and MANS now obsolete; use info_TEXINFOS and man_MANS instead.
2157 * CONFIG_HEADER variable now obsolete
2158 * Can handle multiple Texinfo sources
2159 * Allow hierarchies deeper than 2. From Gord Matzigkeit.
2160 * HEADERS variable no longer needed; now can put .h files directly into
2161 foo_SOURCES variable.
2162 * Automake automatically rebuilds files listed in AC_OUTPUT. The
2163 corresponding ".in" files are included in the distribution.
2166 * Added --gnu and --gnits options
2167 * More standards checking
2169 * Cleaned up 'dist' targets
2170 * Added AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS variable and several options
2171 * Now scans configure.in to get some information (preliminary)
2174 * Works with Perl 4 again
2177 * Added --install-missing option.
2178 * Pretty-prints generated macros and rules
2179 * Comments in Makefile.am are placed more intelligently in Makefile.in
2180 * Generates .PHONY target
2181 * Rule or macro in Makefile.am now overrides contents of Automake file
2182 * Substantial cleanups from François Pinard
2186 * Works with Perl 4 again.
2189 * New uniform naming scheme.
2190 * --strictness option
2192 * '.c' files corresponding to '.y' or '.l' files are automatically
2194 * Many bug fixes and cleanups
2197 * Allow objects to be conditionally included in libraries via lib_LIBADD.
2200 * Bug fixes in 'clean' code.
2201 * Now generates 'installdirs' target.
2202 * man page installation reworked.
2203 * 'make dist' no longer re-creates all Makefile.in's.
2206 * Reimplemented in Perl
2207 * Added --amdir option (for debugging)
2208 * Texinfo support cleaned up.
2209 * Automatic de-ANSI-fication cleaned up.
2210 * Cleaned up 'clean' targets.
2213 * Automatic dependency tracking
2214 * More documentation
2215 * New variables DATA and PACKAGEDATA
2216 * SCRIPTS installed using $(INSTALL_SCRIPT)
2217 * No longer uses double-colon rules
2219 * Changes in advance of internationalization
2223 Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2225 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
2226 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2227 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
2230 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2231 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2232 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2233 GNU General Public License for more details.
2235 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2236 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.