3 * Version requirements:
5 - Autoconf 2.65 or greater is required.
7 * Obsolete features removed:
9 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (once enabled by the 'cygnus'
10 option) has been removed. See discussion about automake bug#11034
13 - The automake-provided $(mkdir_p) make variable, @mkdir_p@ configure
14 time substitution and AM_PROG_MKDIR m4 macro have been removed. They
15 had been obsolete since automake 1.10, and actively deprecated since
18 - The deprecated aclocal option '--acdir' has been removed. You
19 should use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir'
20 instead (which have been introduced in Automake 1.11.2).
22 - The following long-obsolete m4 macros have been removed:
24 AM_PROG_CC_STDC: superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002
25 fp_PROG_CC_STDC: broken alias for AM_PROG_CC_STDC
26 fp_WITH_DMALLOC: old alias for AM_WITH_DMALLOC
27 AM_CONFIG_HEADER: superseded by AC_CONFIG_HEADERS since July 2002
28 ud_PATH_LISPDIR: old alias for AM_PATH_LISPDIR
29 jm_MAINTAINER_MODE: old alias for AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
30 ud_GNU_GETTEXT: old alias for AM_GNU_GETTEXT
31 gm_PROG_LIBTOOL: old alias for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
32 fp_C_PROTOTYPES: old alias for AM_C_PROTOTYPES (which was part
33 of the now-removed automatic de-ANSI-fication
36 - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' have been removed.
38 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
40 - The parallel testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the
41 'parallel-tests' option) is the default one; the older serial
42 testsuite harness will still be available through the use of the
43 'serial-tests' option (introduced in Automake 1.12).
45 * Silent rules support:
47 - Support for silent rules is now always active in Automake-generated
48 Makefiles. So, although the verbose output is still the default,
49 the user can now always use "./configure --enable-silent-rules" or
50 "make V=0" to enable quieter output in the package he's building.
52 - The 'silent-rules' option has now become a no-op, preserved for
53 backward-compatibility only. In particular, its use does not disable
54 the warnings in the 'portability-recursive' category anymore.
56 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
60 * WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
62 - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the rules to
63 build pdf, ps and dvi output from Texinfo input will use the '--tidy'
64 option by default. Since such an option was introduced in Texinfo
65 4.9, this means that Makefiles generated by future Automake versions
66 will require at least that version of Texinfo.
68 - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the parallel
69 testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the 'parallel-tests'
70 option) will become the default one; the older serial testsuite
71 harness will still be available through the use of the 'serial-tests'
74 - Support for the two- and three-arguments invocation forms of the
75 AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro will be deprecated in the next minor version
76 of Automake (1.12.1) and removed in the next major version (1.13).
78 - The exact order in which the directories in the aclocal macro
79 search path are looked up is probably going to be changed in the
80 next Automake release (1.13).
82 * New supported languages:
84 - Support for Objective C++ has been added; it should work similarly to
85 the support for Objective C.
87 * Deprecated obsolescent features:
89 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
90 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro now elicits a warning in the 'obsolete'
91 category. Starting from the next major Automake release (1.13), such
92 usages won't be allowed anymore.
94 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (enabled by the 'cygnus' option) is
95 now deprecated (its use triggers a warning in the 'obsolete' category).
96 It will be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13).
98 - The long-obsolete (since 1.10) automake-provided $(mkdir_p) make
99 variable, @mkdir_p@ configure-time substitution and AM_PROG_MKDIR
100 m4 macro are deprecated, eliciting a warning in the 'obsolete'
101 category. They will be removed in the next major version (1.13).
103 * Miscellaneous changes:
105 - The Automake test cases now require a proper POSIX-conforming shell.
106 Older non-POSIX Bourne shells (like Solaris 10 /bin/sh) won't be
107 accepted anymore. In most cases, the user shouldn't have to specify
108 such POSIX shell explicitly, since it will be looked up at configure
109 time. Still, when this lookup fails, or when the user wants to
110 override its conclusion, the variable 'AM_TEST_RUNNER_SHELL' can be
111 used (pointing to the shell that will be used to run the Automake
114 Bugs fixed in 1.12.1:
116 * Bugs introduced by 1.12:
118 - Several weaknesses in Automake's own build system and test suite
121 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
123 - When given non-option arguments, aclocal rejects them, instead of
124 silently ignoring them.
126 * Long-standing bugs:
128 - When the 'color-tests' option is in use, forcing of colored testsuite
129 output through "AM_COLOR_TESTS=always" works even if the terminal is
130 a non-ANSI one, i.e., if the TERM environment variable has a value of
133 - Several inefficiencies and poor performances in the implementation
134 of the parallel-tests 'check' and 'recheck' targets have been fixed.
136 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
140 * Obsolete features removed:
142 - The never documented nor truly used script 'acinstall' has been
145 - Support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been removed.
147 - The support for the "obscure" multilib feature has been removed
148 from Automake core (but remains available in the 'contrib/'
149 directory of the Automake distribution).
151 - Support for ".log -> .html" conversion and the check-html and
152 recheck-html targets has been removed from Automake core (but
153 remains available in the 'contrib/' directory of the Automake
156 - The deprecated 'lzma' compression format for distribution archives
157 has been removed, in favor of 'xz' and 'lzip'.
159 - The obsolete AM_WITH_REGEX macro has been removed.
161 - The long-deprecated options '--output-dir', '--Werror' and
162 '--Wno-error' have been removed.
164 - The chapter on the history of Automake has been moved out of the
165 reference manual, into a new dedicated Texinfo file.
169 - New 'cscope' target to build a cscope database for the source tree.
171 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
173 - The new automake option 'serial-tests' has been introduced. It can
174 be used to explicitly instruct automake to use the older serial
175 testsuite harness. This is still the default at the moment, but it
176 might change in future versions.
178 - The 'recheck' target (provided by the parallel testsuite harness) now
179 depends on the 'all' target. This allows for a better user-experience
180 in test-driven development. See automake bug#11252.
182 - Test scripts that exit with status 99 to signal an "hard error" (e.g.,
183 and unexpected or internal error, or a failure to set up the test case
184 scenario) have their outcome reported as an 'ERROR' now. Previous
185 versions of automake reported such an outcome as a 'FAIL' (the only
186 difference with normal failures being that hard errors were counted
187 as failures even when the test originating them was listed in
190 - The testsuite summary displayed by the parallel-test harness has a
191 completely new format, that always list the numbers of passed, failed,
192 xfailed, xpassed, skipped and errored tests, even when these numbers
193 are zero (but using smart coloring when the color-tests option is in
196 - The default testsuite driver offered by the 'parallel-tests' option is
197 now implemented (partly at least) with the help of automake-provided
198 auxiliary scripts (e.g., 'test-driver'), instead of relying entirely
199 on code in the generated Makefile.in.
200 This has two noteworthy implications. The first one is that projects
201 using the 'parallel-tests' option should now either run automake with
202 the '--add-missing' option, or manually copy the 'test-driver' script
203 into their tree. The second, and more important, implication is that
204 now, when the 'parallel-tests' option is in use, TESTS_ENVIRONMENT can
205 not be used anymore to define a test runner, and the command specified
206 in LOG_COMPILER (and <ext>_LOG_COMPILER) must be a *real* executable
207 program or script. For example, this is still a valid usage (albeit
210 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
211 if test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS)'; then \
212 maybe_errexit='-e'; \
216 LOG_COMPILER = $(SHELL) $$maybe_errexit
218 while this is not anymore:
220 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
221 $(SHELL) `test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS_CHECKING)' && echo ' -e'`
225 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
226 run_with_perl_or_shell () \
228 if grep -q '^#!.*perl' $$1; then
234 LOG_COMPILER = run_with_perl_or_shell
236 - The package authors can now use customary testsuite drivers within
237 the framework provided by the 'parallel-tests' testsuite harness.
238 Consistently with the existing syntax, this can be done by defining
239 special makefile variables 'LOG_DRIVER' and '<ext>_LOG_DRIVER'.
241 - A new developer-reserved variable 'AM_TESTS_FD_REDIRECT' can be used
242 to redirect/define file descriptors used by the test scripts.
244 - The parallel-tests harness generates now, in addition the '.log' files
245 holding the output produced by the test scripts, a new set of '.trs'
246 files, holding "metadata" derived by the execution of the test scripts;
247 among such metadata are the outcomes of the test cases run by a script.
249 - Initial and still experimental support for the TAP test protocol is
252 * Changes to Yacc and Lex support:
254 - C source and header files derived from non-distributed Yacc and/or
255 Lex sources are now removed by a simple "make clean" (while they were
256 previously removed only by "make maintainer-clean").
258 - Slightly backward-incompatible change, relevant only for use of Yacc
259 with C++: the extensions of the header files produced by the Yacc
260 rules are now modelled after the extension of the corresponding
261 sources. For example, yacc files named "foo.y++" and "bar.yy" will
262 produce header files named "foo.h++" and "bar.hh" respectively, where
263 they would have previously produced header files named simply "foo.h"
264 and "bar.h". This change offers better compatibility with 'bison -o'.
266 * Miscellaneous changes:
268 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro now causes configure to exit with status 77,
269 rather than 1, if the vala compiler found is too old.
271 - The build system of Automake itself now avoids the use of make
272 recursion as much as possible.
274 - Automake now prefers to quote 'like this' or "like this", rather
275 than `like this', in diagnostic message and generated Makefiles,
276 to accommodate the new GNU Coding Standards recommendations.
278 - Automake has a new option '--print-libdir' that prints the path of the
279 directory containing the Automake-provided scripts and data files.
281 - The 'dist' and 'dist-all' targets now can run compressors in parallel.
283 - The rules to create pdf, dvi and ps output from Texinfo files now
284 works better with modern 'texi2dvi' script, by explicitly passing
285 it the '--clean' option to ensure stray auxiliary files are not
286 left to clutter the build directory.
288 - Automake can now generate silenced rules for texinfo outputs.
290 - Some auxiliary files that are automatically distributed by Automake
291 (e.g., 'install-sh', or the 'depcomp' script for packages compiling
292 C sources) might now be listed in the DIST_COMMON variable in many
293 Makefile.in files, rather than in the top-level one.
295 - Messages of types warning or error from 'automake' and 'aclocal'
296 are now prefixed with the respective type, and presence of -Werror
299 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now tries to avoid
300 sleeping for a second, which slowed down cached configure runs
301 noticeably. In that case, it will check back at the end of the
302 configure script to ensure that at least one second has passed, to
303 avoid time stamp issues with makefile rules rerunning autotools
306 - The warnings in the category 'extra-portability' are now enabled by
307 '-Wall'. In previous versions, one has to use '-Wextra-portability'
312 - Various minor bugfixes for recent or long-standing bugs.
314 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
316 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
317 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
319 - The automake-provided parallel testsuite harness does not fail anymore
320 with BSD make used in parallel mode when there are test scripts in a
321 subdirectory, like in:
323 TESTS = sub/foo.test sub/bar.test
325 * Long-standing bugs:
327 - Automake's own build system finally have a real "installcheck" target.
329 - Vala-related cleanup rules are now more complete, and work better in
332 - Files listed with the AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE macro in configure.ac are
333 now automatically distributed also if the directory of the auxiliary
334 files coincides with the top-level directory.
336 - Automake now detects the presence of the '-d' flag in the various
337 '*YFLAGS' variables even when their definitions involve indirections
338 through other variables, such as in:
340 AM_YFLAGS = $(foo_opts)
342 - Automake now complains if a '*YFLAGS' variable has any conditional
343 content, not only a conditional definition.
345 - Explicit enabling and/or disabling of Automake warning categories
346 through the '-W...' options now always takes precedence over the
347 implicit warning level implied by Automake strictness (foreign, gnu
348 or gnits), regardless of the order in which such strictness and
349 warning flags appear. For example, a setting like:
350 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = -Wall --foreign
351 will cause the warnings in category 'portability' to be enabled, even
352 if those warnings are by default disabled in 'foreign' strictness.
354 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
356 Bugs fixed in 1.11.5:
358 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
360 - Vala files with '.vapi' extension are now recognized and handled
361 correctly again. See automake bug#11222.
363 - Vala support work again for projects that contain some program
364 built from '.vala' (and possibly '.c') sources and some other
365 program built from '.c' sources *only*. See automake bug#11229.
367 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
371 * Miscellaneous changes:
373 - The 'ar-lib' script now ignores the "s" (symbol index) and "S" (no
374 symbol index) modifiers as well as the "s" action, as the symbol index
375 is created unconditionally by Microsoft lib. Also, the "q" (quick)
376 action is now a synonym for "r" (replace). Also, the script has been
377 ignoring the "v" (verbose) modifier already since Automake 1.11.3.
379 - When the 'compile' script is used to wrap MSVC, it now accepts an
380 optional space between the -I, -L and -l options and their respective
381 arguments, for better POSIX compliance.
383 - There is an initial, experimental support for automatic dependency
384 tracking with tcc (the Tiny C Compiler). Its associated depmode is
385 currently recognized as "icc" (but this and other details are likely
386 to change in future versions).
388 - Automatic dependency tracking now works also with the IBM XL C/C++
389 compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'xlc'.
391 Bugs fixed in 1.11.4:
393 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
395 - A definition of 'noinst_PYTHON' before 'python_PYTHON' (or similar)
396 don't cause spurious failures upon "make install" anymore.
398 - The user can now instruct the 'uninstall-info' rule not to update
399 the '${infodir}/dir' file by exporting the environment variable
400 'AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no". This is done for consistency
401 with how the 'install-info' rule operates since automake 1.11.2.
403 * Long-standing bugs:
405 - It is now possible for a foo_SOURCES variable to hold Vala sources
406 together with C header files, as well as with sources and headers for
407 other supported languages (e.g., C++). Previously, only mixing C and
408 Vala sources was supported.
410 - If "aclocal --install" is used, and the first directory specified with
411 '-I' is non-existent, aclocal will now create it before trying to copy
414 - An empty declaration of a "foo_PRIMARY" don't cause anymore the
415 generated install rules to create an empty $(foodir) directory;
416 for example, if Makefile.am contains something like:
420 pkglibexec_SCRIPTS += bar.sh
423 the $(pkglibexec) directory will not be created upon "make install".
425 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
429 * Miscellaneous changes:
431 - Automake's own build system is more silent by default, making use of
432 the 'silent-rules' option.
434 - The master copy of the `gnupload' script is now maintained in gnulib,
437 - The `missing' script doesn't try to wrap calls to `tar' anymore.
439 - "make dist" doesn't wrap `tar' invocations with the `missing' script
440 anymore. Similarly, the obsolescent variable `$(AMTAR)' (which you
441 shouldn't be using BTW ;-) does not invoke the missing script anymore
442 to wrap tar, but simply invokes the `tar' program itself.
444 - "make dist" can now create lzip-compressed tarballs.
446 - In the Automake info documentation, the Top node and the nodes about
447 the invocation of the automake and aclocal programs have been renamed;
448 now, calling "info automake" will open the Top node, while calling
449 "info automake-invocation" and "info aclocal-invocation" will access
450 the nodes about the invocation of respectively automake and aclocal.
452 - Automake is now distributed as a gzip-compressed and an xz-compressed
453 tarball. Previously, bzip2 was used instead of xz.
455 - The last relics of Python 1.5 support have been removed from the
456 AM_PATH_PYTHON macro.
458 - For programs and libraries, automake now detects EXTRA_foo_DEPENDENCIES
459 and adds them to the normal list of dependencies, but without
460 overwriting the foo_DEPENDENCIES variable, which is normally computed
463 Bugs fixed in 1.11.3:
465 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
467 - Automake now correctly recognizes the prefix/primary combination
468 `pkglibexec_SCRIPTS' as valid.
470 - The parallel-tests harness doesn't trip anymore on sed implementations
471 with stricter limits on the length of input lines (problem seen at
474 * Long-standing bugs:
476 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.am files is avoided by stub
477 rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `automake' also if
478 some previously needed `.am' file has been removed.
480 - The `silent-rules' option now generates working makefiles even
481 for the uncommon `make' implementations that do not support the
482 nested-variables extension to POSIX 2008. For such `make'
483 implementations, whether a build is silent is determined at
484 configure time, and cannot be overridden at make time with
485 `make V=0' or `make V=1'.
487 - Vala support now works better in VPATH setups.
489 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
493 * Changes to aclocal:
495 - The `--acdir' option is deprecated. Now you should use the new options
496 `--automake-acdir' and `--system-acdir' instead.
498 - The `ACLOCAL_PATH' environment variable is now interpreted as a
499 colon-separated list of additional directories to search after the
500 automake internal acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal-APIVERSION)
501 and before the system acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal).
503 * Miscellaneous changes:
505 - The Automake support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been
506 deprecated. It will probably be removed in the next major Automake
509 - The `lzma' compression scheme and associated automake option `dist-lzma'
510 is obsoleted by `xz' and `dist-xz' due to upstream changes.
512 - You may adjust the compression options used in dist-xz and dist-bzip2.
513 The default is now merely -e for xz, but still -9 for bzip; you may
514 specify a different level via the XZ_OPT and BZIP2 envvars respectively.
515 E.g., "make dist-xz XZ_OPT=-7" or "make dist-bzip2 BZIP2=-5"
517 - The `compile' script now converts some options for MSVC for a better
518 user experience. Similarly, the new `ar-lib' script wraps Microsoft lib.
520 - The py-compile script now accepts empty arguments passed to the options
521 `--destdir' and `--basedir', and complains about unrecognized options.
522 Moreover, a non-option argument or a special `--' argument terminates
525 - A developer that needs to pass specific flags to configure at "make
526 distcheck" time can now, and indeed is advised to, do so by defining
527 the developer-reserved makefile variable AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS,
528 instead of the old DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS.
529 The DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS variable should now be reserved for the
530 user; still, the old Makefile.am files that used to define it will
531 still continue to work as before.
533 - New macro AM_PROG_AR that looks for an archiver and wraps it in the new
534 'ar-lib' auxiliary script if the selected archiver is Microsoft lib.
535 This new macro is required for LIBRARIES and LTLIBRARIES when automake
536 is run with -Wextra-portability and -Werror.
538 - When using DejaGnu-based testsuites, the user can extend the `site.exp'
539 file generated by automake-provided rules by defining the special make
540 variable `$(EXTRA_DEJAGNU_SITE_CONFIG)'.
542 - The `install-info' rule can now be instructed not to create/update
543 the `${infodir}/dir' file, by exporting the new environment variable
544 `AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no".
546 Bugs fixed in 1.11.2:
548 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
550 - The parallel-tests driver no longer produces erroneous results with
551 Tru64/OSF 5.1 sh upon unreadable log files.
553 - The `parallel-tests' test driver does not report spurious successes
554 when used with concurrent FreeBSD make (e.g., "make check -j3").
556 - When the parallel-tests driver is in use, automake now explicitly
557 rejects invalid entries and conditional contents in TEST_EXTENSIONS,
558 instead of issuing confusing and apparently unrelated error messages
559 (e.g., "non-POSIX variable name", "bad characters in variable name",
560 or "redefinition of TEST_EXTENSIONS), or even, in some situations,
561 silently producing broken `Makefile.in' files.
563 - The `silent-rules' option now truly silences all compile rules, even
564 when dependency tracking is disabled. Also, when `silent-rules' is
565 not used, `make' output no longer contains spurious backslash-only
566 lines, thus once again matching what Automake did before 1.11.
568 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
569 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
571 * Long-standing bugs:
573 - The order of Yacc and Lex flags is fixed to be consistent with other
574 languages: $(AM_YFLAGS) comes before $(YFLAGS), and $(AM_LFLAGS) before
575 $(LFLAGS), so that the user variables override the developer variables.
577 - "make distcheck" now correctly complains also when "make uninstall"
578 leaves one and only one file installed in $(prefix).
580 - A "make uninstall" issued before a "make install", or after a mere
581 "make install-data" or a mere "make install-exec" does not spuriously
584 - Automake now warns about more primary/directory invalid combinations,
585 such as "doc_LIBRARIES" or "pkglib_PROGRAMS".
587 - Rules generated by Automake now try harder to not change any files when
588 `make -n' is invoked. Fixes include compilation of Emacs Lisp, Vala, or
589 Yacc source files and the rule to update config.h.
591 - Several scripts and the parallel-tests testsuite driver now exit with
592 the right exit status upon receiving a signal.
594 - A per-Makefile.am setting of -Werror does not erroneously carry over
595 to the handling of other Makefile.am files.
597 - The code for automatic dependency tracking works around a Solaris
598 make bug triggered by sources containing repeated slashes when the
599 `subdir-objects' option was used.
601 - The makedepend and hp depmodes now work better with VPATH builds.
603 - Java sources specified with check_JAVA are no longer compiled for
604 "make all", but only for "make check".
606 - An usage like "java_JAVA = foo.java" will now cause Automake to warn
607 and error out if `javadir' is undefined, instead of silently producing
608 a broken Makefile.in.
610 - aclocal and automake now honour the configure-time definitions of
611 AUTOCONF and AUTOM4TE when they spawn autoconf or autom4te processes.
613 - The `install-info' recipe no longer tries to guess whether the
614 `install-info' program is from Debian or from GNU, and adaptively
615 change its behaviour; this has proven to be frail and easy to
618 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
620 Bugs fixed in 1.11.1:
622 - Lots of minor bugfixes.
624 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
626 - The `parallel-tests' test driver works around a GNU make 3.80 bug with
627 trailing white space in the test list (`TESTS = foo $(EMPTY)').
629 * Long standing bugs:
631 - On Darwin 9, `pythondir' and `pyexecdir' pointed below `/Library/Python'
632 even if the `--prefix' argument pointed outside of a system directory.
633 AM_PATH_PYTHON has been fixed to ignore the value returned from python's
634 `get_python_lib' function if it points outside the configured prefix,
635 unless the `--prefix' argument was either `/usr' or below `/System'.
637 - The testsuite does not try to change the mode of `ltmain.sh' files from
638 a Libtool installation (symlinked to test directories) any more.
640 - AM_PROG_GCJ uses AC_CHECK_TOOLS to look for `gcj' now, so that prefixed
641 tools are preferred in a cross-compile setup.
643 - The distribution is tarred up with mode 755 now by the `dist*' targets.
644 This fixes a race condition where untrusted users could modify files
645 in the $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION) distdir before packing if the toplevel
646 build directory was world-searchable. This is CVE-2009-4029.
648 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
652 * Version requirements:
654 - Autoconf 2.62 or greater is required.
656 * Changes to aclocal:
658 - The autoconf version check implemented by aclocal in aclocal.m4
659 (and new in Automake 1.10) is degraded to a warning. This helps
660 in the common case where the Autoconf versions used are compatible.
662 * Changes to automake:
664 - The automake program can run multiple threads for creating most
665 Makefile.in files concurrently, if at least Perl 5.7.2 is available
666 with interpreter-based threads enabled. Set the environment variable
667 AUTOMAKE_JOBS to the maximum number of threads to use, in order to
668 enable this experimental feature.
670 * Changes to Libtool support:
672 - Libtool generic flags are now passed to the install and uninstall
675 - distcheck works with Libtool 2.x even when LT_OUTPUT is used, as
676 config.lt is removed correctly now.
680 - subdir-object mode works now with Fortran (F77, FC, preprocessed
681 Fortran, and Ratfor).
683 - For files with extension .f90, .f95, .f03, or .f08, the flag
684 $(FCFLAGS_f[09]x) computed by AC_FC_SRCEXT is now used in compile rules.
686 - Files with extension .sx are also treated as preprocessed assembler.
688 - The default source file extension (.c) can be overridden with
689 AM_DEFAULT_SOURCE_EXT now.
691 - Python 3.0 is supported now, Python releases prior to 2.0 are no
694 - AM_PATH_PYTHON honors python's idea about the site directory.
696 - There is initial support for the Vala programming language, when using
699 * Miscellaneous changes:
701 - Automake development is done in a git repository on Savannah now, see
703 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=automake.git
705 A read-only CVS mirror is provided at
707 cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@pserver.git.sv.gnu.org:/automake.git \
708 checkout -d automake HEAD
710 - "make dist" can now create xz-compressed tarballs,
711 as well as (deprecated?) lzma-compressed tarballs.
713 - `automake --add-missing' will by default install the GPLv3 file as
714 COPYING if it is missing. It will also warn that the license file
715 should be added to source control. Note that Automake will never
716 overwrite an existing COPYING file, even when the `--force-missing'
719 - The manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL 1.3.
721 - Automake ships and installs man pages for automake and aclocal now.
723 - New shorthand `$(pkglibexecdir)' for `$(libexecdir)/@PACKAGE@'.
725 - install-sh supports -C, which does not update the installed file
726 (and its time stamps) if the contents did not change.
728 - The `gnupload' script has been revamped.
730 - The `depcomp' and `compile' scripts now work with MSVC under MSYS.
732 - The targets `install' and `uninstall' are more efficient now, in that
733 for example multiple files from one Automake variable such as
734 `bin_SCRIPTS' are copied in one `install' (or `libtool --mode=install')
735 invocation if they do not have to be renamed.
737 Both install and uninstall may sometimes enter (`cd' into) the target
738 installation directory now, when no build-local scripts are used.
740 Both install and uninstall do not fail anymore but do nothing if an
741 installation directory variable like `bindir' is set to the empty string.
743 For built-in rules, `make install' now fails reliably if installation
744 of a file failed. Conversely, `make uninstall' even succeeds when
745 issued multiple times.
747 These changes may need some adjustments from users: For example,
748 some `install' programs refuse to install multiple copies of the
749 same file in one invocation, so you may need to remove duplicate
750 entries from file lists.
752 Also, within one set of files, say, nobase_data_DATA, the order of
753 installation may be changed, or even unstable among different hosts,
754 due to the use of associative arrays in awk. The increased use of
755 awk matches a similar move in Autoconf to provide for better scaling.
757 Further, most undocumented per-rule install command variables such as
758 binSCRIPT_INSTALL have been removed because they are not needed any
759 more. Packages which use them should be using the appropriate one of
760 INSTALL_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT} or their install_sh_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT}
761 counterpart, depending on the type of files and the need for automatic
762 target directory creation.
764 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.m4 files is avoided by
765 stub rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `aclocal'
766 also if some previously needed macro file has been removed.
768 - Rebuild rules now also work for a removed `subdir/Makefile.in' in
769 an otherwise up to date tree.
771 - The `color-tests' option causes colored test result output on terminals.
773 - The `parallel-tests' option enables a new test driver that allows for
774 parallel test execution, inter-test dependencies, lazy test execution
775 for unit-testing, re-testing only failed tests, and formatted result output
776 as RST (reStructuredText) and HTML. Enabling this option may require some
777 changes to your test suite setup; see the manual for details.
779 - The `silent-rules' option enables Linux kernel-style silent build output.
780 This option requires the widely supported but non-POSIX `make' feature
781 of recursive variable expansion, so do not use it if your package needs
782 to build with `make' implementations that do not support it.
784 To enable less verbose build output, the developer has to use the Automake
785 option `silent-rules' in `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE', or call the `AM_SILENT_RULES'
786 macro. The user may then set the default verbosity by passing the
787 `--enable-silent-rules' option to `configure'. At `make' run time, this
788 default may be overridden using `make V=0' for less verbose, and `make V=1'
789 for backward-compatible verbose output.
791 - New prefix `notrans_' for manpages which should not be transformed
792 by --program-transform.
794 - New macro AM_COND_IF for conditional evaluation and conditional
797 - For AC_CONFIG_LINKS, if source and destination are equal, do not
798 remove the file in a non-VPATH build. Such setups work with Autoconf
801 - AM_MAINTAINER_MODE now allows for an optional argument specifying
804 - AM_SUBST_NOTMAKE may prevent substitution of AC_SUBSTed variables,
805 useful especially for multi-line values.
807 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now diagnoses an
808 unsafe absolute source directory name and makes configure fail.
810 - The Automake macros and rules cope better with whitespace in the
811 current directory name, as long as the relative path to `configure'
812 does not contain whitespace. To this end, the values of `$(MISSING)'
813 and `$(install_sh)' may contain suitable quoting, and their expansion
814 might need `eval'uation if used outside of a makefile. These
815 undocumented variables may be used in several documented macros such
816 as $(AUTOCONF) or $(MAKEINFO).
820 * Long-standing bugs:
822 - Fix aix dependency tracking for libtool objects.
824 - Work around AIX sh quoting issue in AC_PROG_CC_C_O, leading to
825 unnecessary use of the `compile' script.
827 - For nobase_*_LTLIBRARIES with nonempty directory components, the
828 correct `-rpath' argument is used now.
830 - `config.status --file=Makefile depfiles' now also works with the
831 extra quoting used internally by Autoconf 2.62 and newer
832 (it used to work only without the `--file=' bit).
834 - The `missing' script works better with versioned tool names.
836 - Semantics for `missing help2man' have been revamped:
838 Previously, if `help2man' was not present, `missing help2man' would have
839 the following semantics: if some man page was out of date but present, then
840 a warning would be printed, but the exit status was 0. If the man page was
841 not present at all, then `missing' would create a replacement man page
842 containing an error message, and exit with a status of 2. This does not play
843 well with `make': the next run will see this particular man page as being up
844 to date, and will only error out on the next generated man page, if any;
845 repeat until all pages are done. This was not desirable.
847 These are the new semantics: if some man page is not present, and help2man
848 is not either, then `missing' will warn and generate the replacement page
849 containing the error message, but exit successfully. However, `make dist'
850 will ensure that no such bogus man pages are packaged into a tarball.
852 - Targets provided by automake behave better with `make -n', in that they
853 take care not to create files.
855 - `config.status Makefile... depfiles' works fine again in the presence of
856 disabled dependency tracking.
858 - The default no-op recursive rules for these targets also work with BSD make
859 now: html, install-html, install-dvi, install-pdf, install-pdf, install-info.
861 - `make distcheck' works also when both a directory and some file below it
862 have been added to a distribution variable, such as EXTRA_DIST or *_SOURCES.
864 - Texinfo dvi, ps, pdf, and html output files are not removed upon
865 `make mostlyclean' any more; only the LaTeX by-products are.
867 - Renamed objects also work with the `subdir-objects' option and
868 source file languages which Automake does not know itself.
870 - `automake' now correctly complains about variable assignments which are
871 preceded by a comment, extend over multiple lines with backslash-escaped
872 newlines, and end in a comment sign. Previous versions would silently
873 and wrongly ignore such assignments completely.
875 * Bugs introduced by 1.10:
877 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
878 Makefile.in's again, but also cope with long lines.
880 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of XFAIL_TESTS
881 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
882 This is for consistency with the analogous change to TESTS in 1.10.
884 - Fix order of standard includes to again be `-I. -I$(srcdir)',
885 followed by directories containing config headers.
887 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
891 * Version requirements:
893 - Autoconf 2.60 or greater is required.
895 - Perl 5.6 or greater is required.
897 * Changes to aclocal:
899 - aclocal now also supports -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble options.
901 - `dirlist' entries (for the aclocal search path) may use shell
902 wildcards such as `*', `?', or `[...]'.
904 - aclocal supports an --install option that will cause system-wide
905 third-party macros to be installed in the local directory
906 specified with the first -I flag. This option also uses #serial
907 lines in M4 files to upgrade local macros.
909 The new aclocal options --dry-run and --diff help to review changes
910 before they are installed.
912 - aclocal now outputs an autoconf version check in aclocal.m4 in
913 projects using automake.
915 For a few years, automake and aclocal have been calling autoconf
916 (or its underlying engine autom4te) to accurately retrieve the
917 data they need from configure.ac and its siblings. Doing so can
918 only work if all autotools use the same version of autoconf. For
919 instance a Makefile.in generated by automake for one version of
920 autoconf may stop working if configure is regenerated with another
921 version of autoconf, and vice versa.
923 This new version check ensures that the whole build system has
924 been generated using the same autoconf version.
926 * Support for new Autoconf macros:
928 - The new AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE Autoconf macro is supported.
930 - If `subdir-objects' is set, and AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR is specified,
931 $(LIBOBJS), $(LTLIBOBJS), $(ALLOCA), and $(LTALLOCA) can be used
932 in different directories. However, only one instance of such a
933 library objects directory is supported.
935 * Change to Libtool support:
937 - Libtool generic flags (those that go before the --mode=MODE option)
938 can be specified using AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS and target_LIBTOOLFLAGS.
940 * Yacc and Lex changes:
942 - The rebuild rules for distributed Yacc and Lex output will avoid
943 overwriting existing files if AM_MAINTAINER_MODE and maintainer-mode
946 - ylwrap is now always used for lex and yacc source files,
947 regardless of whether there is more than one source per directory.
951 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now honors CPPFLAGS,
952 AM_CPPFLAGS and per-target _CPPFLAGS, and supports dependency
953 tracking, unlike non-preprocessed assembler (*.s).
955 - subdir-object mode works now with Assembler. Automake assumes
956 that the compiler understands `-c -o'.
958 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now also honors
959 $(DEFS) $(DEFAULT_INCLUDES) $(INCLUDES).
961 - Improved support for Objective C:
962 - Autoconf's new AC_PROG_OBJC will enable automatic dependency tracking.
963 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
965 - New support for Unified Parallel C:
966 - AM_PROG_UPC looks for a UPC compiler.
967 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
969 - Per-target flags are now correctly handled in link rules.
971 For instance maude_CFLAGS correctly overrides AM_CFLAGS; likewise
972 for maude_LDFLAGS and AM_LDFLAGS. Previous versions bogusly
973 preferred AM_CFLAGS over maude_CFLAGS while linking, and they
974 used both AM_LDFLAGS and maude_LDFLAGS on the same link command.
976 The fix for compiler flags (i.e., using maude_CFLAGS instead of
977 AM_CFLAGS) should not hurt any package since that is how _CFLAGS
978 is expected to work (and actually works during compilation).
980 However using maude_LDFLAGS "instead of" AM_LDFLAGS rather than
981 "in addition to" breaks backward compatibility with older versions.
982 If your package used both variables, as in
984 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
986 a_LDFLAGS = more flags
989 and assumed *_LDFLAGS would sum up, you should rewrite it as
991 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
993 a_LDFLAGS = $(AM_LDFLAGS) more flags
996 This new behavior of *_LDFLAGS is more coherent with other
997 per-target variables, and the way *_LDFLAGS variables were
998 considered internally.
1000 * New installation targets:
1002 - New targets mandated by GNU Coding Standards:
1007 By default they will only install Texinfo manuals.
1008 You can customize them with *-local variants:
1014 - The undocumented recursive target `uninstall-info' no longer exists.
1015 (`uninstall' is in charge of removing all possible documentation
1016 flavors, including optional formats such as dvi, ps, or info even
1017 when `no-installinfo' is used.)
1019 * Miscellaneous changes:
1021 - Automake no longer complains if input files for AC_CONFIG_FILES
1022 are specified using shell variables.
1024 - clean, distribution, or rebuild rules are normally disabled for
1025 inputs and outputs of AC_CONFIG_FILES, AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, and
1026 AC_CONFIG_LINK specified using shell variables. However, if these
1027 variables are used as ${VAR}, and AC_SUBSTed, then Automake will
1028 be able to output rules anyway.
1029 (See the Automake documentation for AC_CONFIG_FILES.)
1031 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of TESTS
1032 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1033 This is mostly useful when some check_PROGRAMS are listed in TESTS.
1035 - `-Wportability' has finally been turned on by default for `gnu' and
1036 `gnits' strictness. This means, automake will complain about %-rules
1037 or $(GNU Make functions) unless you switch to `foreign' strictness or
1038 use `-Wno-portability'.
1040 - Automake now uses AC_PROG_MKDIR_P (new in Autoconf 2.60), and uses
1041 $(MKDIR_P) instead of $(mkdir_p) to create directories. The
1042 $(mkdir_p) variable is still defined (to the same value as
1043 $(MKDIR_P)) but should be considered obsolete. If you are using
1044 $(mkdir_p) in some of your rules, please plan to update them to
1045 $(MKDIR_P) at some point.
1047 - AM_C_PROTOTYPES and ansi2knr are now documented as being obsolete.
1048 They still work in this release, but may be withdrawn in a future one.
1050 - Inline compilation rules for gcc3-style dependency tracking are
1053 - Automake installs a "Hello World!" example package in $(docdir).
1054 This example is used throughout the new "Autotools Introduction"
1055 chapter of the manual.
1057 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1061 * Makefile.in bloat reduction:
1063 - Inference rules are used to compile sources in subdirectories when
1064 the `subdir-objects' option is used and no per-target flags are
1065 used. This should reduce the size of some projects a lot, because
1066 Automake used to output an explicit rule for each such object in
1069 - Automake no longer outputs three rules (.o, .obj, .lo) for each
1070 object that must be built with explicit rules. It just outputs
1071 the rules required to build the kind of object considered: either
1072 the two .o and .obj rules for usual objects, or the .lo rule for
1075 * Change to Libtool support:
1077 - Libtool tags are used with libtool versions that support them.
1078 (I.e., with Libtool 1.5 or greater.)
1080 - Automake is now able to handle setups where a libtool library is
1081 conditionally installed in different directories, as in
1084 lib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1086 pkglib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1088 liba_la_SOURCES = ...
1090 * Changes to aclocal:
1092 - aclocal now ensures that AC_DEFUNs and AU_DEFUNs it discovers are
1093 really evaluated, before it decides to include them in aclocal.m4.
1094 This solves nasty problems with conditional redefinitions of
1095 Autoconf macros in /usr/share/aclocal/*.m4 files causing extraneous
1096 *.m4 files to be included in any project using these macros.
1097 (Calls to AC_PROG_EGREP causing libtool.m4 to be included is the
1098 most famous instance of this bug.)
1100 - Do not complain about missing conditionally AC_REQUIREd macros
1101 that are not actually used. In 1.8.x aclocal would correctly
1102 determine which of these macros were really needed (and include
1103 only these in the package); unfortunately it would also require
1104 all of them to be present in order to run. This created
1105 situations were aclocal would not work on a tarball distributing
1106 all the macros it uses. For instance running aclocal on a project
1107 containing only the subset of the Gettext macros in use by the
1108 project did not work, because gettext conditionally requires other
1111 * Portability improvements:
1113 - Tar format can be chosen with the new options tar-v7, tar-ustar, and
1114 tar-pax. The new option filename-length-max=99 helps diagnosing
1115 filenames that are too long for tar-v7. (PR/414)
1117 - Variables aumented with `+=' are now automatically flattened (i.e.,
1118 trailing backslashes removed) and then wrapped around 80 colummns
1119 (adding trailing backslashes). In previous versions, a long series
1125 would result in a single-line definition of VAR that could possibly
1126 exceed the maximum line length of some make implementations.
1128 Non-augmented variables are still output as they are defined in
1133 - Support Fortran 90/95 with the new "fc" and "ppfc" languages.
1134 Works the same as the old Fortran 77 implementation; just replace
1135 F77 with FC everywhere (exception: FFLAGS becomes FCFLAGS).
1136 Requires a version of autoconf which provides AC_PROG_FC (>=2.59).
1138 - Support for conditional _LISP.
1140 - Support for conditional -hook and -local rules (PR/428).
1142 - Diagnose AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR calls following AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. (PR/49)
1144 - Automake will not write any Makefile.ins after the first error it
1145 encounters. The previous Makefile.ins (if any) will be left in
1146 place. (Warnings will not prevent output, but remember they can
1147 be turned into errors with -Werror.)
1149 - The restriction that SUBDIRS must contain direct children is gone.
1152 - The manual tells more about SUBDIRS vs. DIST_SUBDIRS.
1153 It also gives an example of nested packages using AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS.
1155 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1157 Bugs fixed in 1.8.5:
1159 * Long-standing bugs:
1161 - Define DIST_SUBDIRS even when the `no-dist' or `cygnus' options are used
1162 so that `make distclean' and `make maintainer-clean' can work.
1164 - Define AR and ARFLAGS even when only EXTRA_LIBRARIES are defined.
1166 - Fix many rules to please FreeBSD make, which runs commands with `sh -e'.
1168 - Polish diagnostic when no input file is found.
1170 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1172 Bugs fixed in 1.8.4:
1174 * Long-standing bugs:
1176 - Fix AM_PATH_PYTHON to correctly display $PYTHON when it has been
1177 overridden by the user.
1179 - Honor PATH_SEPARATOR in various places of the Automake package, for
1182 - Adjust dependency tracking mode detection to ICC 8.0's new output.
1185 - Fix install-sh so it can install the `mv' binary... using `mv'.
1187 - Fix tru64 dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1189 - Work around Exuberant Ctags when creating a TAGS files in a directory
1190 without files to scan but with subdirectories to include.
1192 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1194 - Fix an "internal error" when @LIBOBJS@ is used in a variable that is
1195 not defined in the same conditions as the _LDADD that uses it.
1197 - Do not warn when JAVAROOT is overridden, this is legitimate.
1199 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1201 Bugs fixed in 1.8.3:
1203 * Long-standing bugs:
1205 - Quote filenames in installation rules, in case $DESTDIR, $prefix,
1206 or any of the other *dir variables contain a space.
1208 Please note that Automake does not and cannot support spaces in
1209 filenames that are involved during the build. This change affects
1210 only installation paths, so that `make install' does not bomb out
1211 in packages configured with
1212 ./configure --prefix '/c/Program Files'
1214 - Fix the depfiles output so it works with GNU sed (<4.1) even when
1215 POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.
1217 - Do not AC_SUBST(LIBOBJS) in AM_WITH_REGEX. This macro was unusable
1218 since Autoconf 2.54, which defines LIBOBJS itself.
1220 - Fix a potential (but unlikely) race condition in parallel elisp
1221 builds. (Introduced in 1.7.3.)
1223 - Do not assume that users override _DEPENDENCIES in all conditions
1224 where Automake will try to define them.
1226 - Do not use `mkdir -p' in mkinstalldirs, unless this is GNU mkdir.
1227 Solaris 8's `mkdir -p' is not thread-safe and can break parallel
1230 This fix also affects the $(mkdir_p) variable defined since
1231 Automake 1.8. It will be set to `mkdir -p' only if mkdir is GNU
1232 mkdir, and to `mkinstalldirs' or `install-sh -d' otherwise.
1234 - Secure temporary directory creation in `make distcheck'. (PR/413)
1236 - Do not generate two build rules for `parser.h' when the
1237 parser appears in two different conditionals.
1239 - Work around a Solaris 8 /bin/sh bug in the test for dependency
1240 checking. Usually ./configure will not pick this shell; so this
1241 fix only helps cases where the shell is forced to /bin/sh.
1243 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1245 - In some situations (hand-written `m4_include's), aclocal would
1246 call the `File::Spec->rel2abs' method, which was only introduced
1247 in Perl 5.6. This new version reestablish support Perl 5.005.
1249 It is likely that the next major Automake releases will require at
1250 least Perl 5.6. Consider upgrading your development environment
1251 if you are still using the five-year-old Perl 5.005.
1253 - Automake would sometimes fail to define rules for targets listed
1254 in variables defined in multiple conditions. For instance on
1260 it would define only the `a.$(OBJEXT): a.c' rule and omit the
1261 `b.$(OBJEXT): b.c' rule.
1263 * New sections in manual:
1265 - Third-Party Makefiles: how to interface third party Makefiles.
1266 - Upgrading: upgrading packages to newer Automake versions.
1267 - Multiple Outputs: handling tools that produce many outputs.
1269 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1273 * A (well known) portability bug slipped in the changes made to
1274 install-sh in Automake 1.8.1. The broken install-sh would refuse to
1275 install anything on Tru64.
1277 * Fix install rules for conditionally built python files. (This never
1280 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1284 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1286 - Fix Config.pm import error with old Perl versions (at least
1287 5.005_03). One symptom is that aclocal could not find its macro
1290 - Automake 1.8 used `mkdir -m 0755 -p --' to ensure that directories
1291 created by `make install' are always world readable, even if the
1292 installer happens to have an overly restrictive umask (e.g. 077).
1293 This was a mistake and has been reverted. There are at least two
1294 reasons why we must not use `-m 0755':
1295 - it causes special bits like SGID to be ignored,
1296 - it may be too restrictive (some setups expect 775 directories).
1298 - Fix aclocal to honor definitions located in files which have been
1299 m4_included manually. aclocal 1.8 had been updated to check
1300 m4_included files for new requirements, but forgot that these
1301 m4_included files can also provide new definitions.
1303 Note that if you have such a setup, we recommend you get rid of
1304 it. In the past, there was a reason to m4_include files manually:
1305 aclocal used to duplicate entire M4 files into aclocal.m4, even
1306 files that were distributed. Some packages were therefore
1307 m4_including the distributed file directly, and playing some
1308 tricks to ensure aclocal would not copy that file to aclocal.m4,
1309 in order to limit the amount of duplication. Since aclocal 1.8.x
1310 will precisely output m4_includes for local M4 files, we recommend
1311 that you clean up your setup, removing all manual m4_includes and
1312 letting aclocal output them.
1314 - Output detailed menus in the Info version if the Automake manual,
1315 so that Emacs can locate the indexes.
1317 - configure.ac and configure were listed twice in DIST_COMMON (an
1318 internal variable where Automake lists configury files to
1319 distribute). This was harmless, but unaesthetic.
1321 - Use `chmod a-w' instead of `chmod -w' as the latter honors umask.
1322 This was an issue only in the Automake package itself, not in
1325 - Automake assumed that all AC_CONFIG_LINKS arguments had the form
1326 DEST:SRC. This was wrong, as some packages do
1327 AC_CONFIG_LINKS($computedlinks). This version no longer abort in
1330 - Contrary to mkinstalldirs, $(mkdir_p) was expecting exactly one
1331 argument. This caused two kinds of failures:
1332 - Rules installing data in a conditionally defined directory
1333 failed when that directory was undefined. In this case no
1334 argument was supplied.
1335 - `make installdirs' failed, because several directories were
1336 passed to $(mkdir_p). This was an issue only on platform
1337 were $(mkdir_p) is implemented with `install-sh -d'.
1338 $(mkdir_p) as been changed to accept 0 or more arguments, as
1341 * Long-standing bugs:
1343 - Fix an unexpected diagnostic occurring when users attempt
1344 to override some internal variables that Automake appends to.
1346 - aclocal now scans configure.ac for macro definitions (PR/319).
1348 - Fix a portability issue with OSF1/Tru64 Make. If a directory
1349 distributes files which are outside itself (this usually occurs
1350 when using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([../dir]) to use auxiliary files
1351 from a parent package), then `make distcheck' fails due to an
1352 optimization performed by OSF1/Tru64 Make in its VPATH handling.
1353 (tests/subpkg2.test failure)
1355 - Fix another portability issue with Sun and OSF1/Tru64 Make.
1356 In a VPATH-build configuration, `make install' would install
1357 nobase_ files to wrong locations.
1359 - Fix a Perl `uninitialized value' diagnostic occurring when
1360 automake complains that a Texinfo file does not have a
1361 @setfilename statement.
1363 - Erase config.status.lineno during `make distclean'. This file
1364 can be created by config.status. Automake already knew about
1365 configure.lineno, but forgot config.status.lineno.
1367 - Distribute all files, even those which are built and installed
1368 conditionally. This change affects files listed in conditionally
1369 defined *_HEADERS and *_PYTHON variable (unless they are nodist_*)
1370 as well as those listed in conditionally defined dist_*_DATA,
1371 dist_*_JAVA, dist_*_LISP, and dist_*_SCRIPTS variables.
1373 - Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to avoid \? in sed regular expressions; it
1374 doesn't conform to POSIX.
1376 - Normalize help strings for configure variables and options added
1381 - Check for python2.4 in AM_PATH_PYTHON.
1383 * Spurious failures in test suite:
1385 - tests/libtool5.test, tests/ltcond.test, tests/ltcond2.test,
1386 tests/ltconv.test: fix failures with CVS Libtool.
1387 - tests/aclocal6.test: fix failure if autom4te.cache is disabled.
1388 - tests/txinfo24.test, tests/txinfo25.test, tests/txinfo28.test:
1389 fix failures with old Texinfo versions.
1391 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1397 - The NEWS file is more verbose.
1401 - Autoconf 2.58 or greater is required.
1405 - Default source file names in the absence of a _SOURCES declaration
1406 are made by removing any target extension before appending `.c', so
1407 to make the libtool module `foo.la' from `foo.c', you only need to
1410 lib_LTLIBRARIES = foo.la
1411 foo_la_LDFLAGS = -module
1413 For backward compatibility, foo_la.c will be used instead of
1414 foo.c if this file exists or is the explicit target of a rule.
1415 However -Wobsolete will warn about this deprecated naming.
1417 - AR's `cru' flags are now set in a global ARFLAGS variable instead
1418 of being hard-coded in each $(AR) invocation, so they can be
1419 substituted from configure.ac. This has been requested by people
1420 dealing with non-POSIX ar implementations.
1422 - New warning option: -Woverride. This will warn about any user
1423 target or variable definitions which override Automake
1426 - Texinfo rules back up and restore info files when makeinfo fails.
1428 - Texinfo rules now support the `html' target.
1429 Running this requires Texinfo 4.0 or greater.
1431 `html' is a new recursive target, so if your package mixes
1432 hand-crafted `Makefile.in's with Automake-generated
1433 `Makefile.in's, you should adjust the former to support (or
1434 ignore) this target so that `make html' recurses successfully. If
1435 you had a custom `html' rule in your `Makefile.am', it's better to
1436 rename it as `html-local', otherwise your rule will override
1437 Automake's new rule (you can check that by running `automake
1438 -Woverride') and that will stop the recursion to subdirectories.
1440 Last but not least, this `html' rule is declared PHONY, even when
1441 overridden. Fortunately, it appears that few packages use a
1442 non-PHONY `html' rule.
1444 - Any file which is m4_included from configure.ac will appear as a
1445 configure and Makefile.in dependency, and will be automatically
1448 - The rules for rebuilding Makefiles and Makefile.ins will now
1449 rebuild all Makefiles and all Makefile.ins at once when one of
1450 configure's dependencies has changed. This is considerably faster
1451 than previous implementations, where config.status and automake
1452 were run separately in each directory (this still happens when you
1453 change a Makefile.am locally, without touching configure.ac or
1454 friends). Doing this also solves a longstanding issue: these
1455 rebuild rules failed to work when adding new directories to the
1456 tree, forcing you to run automake manually.
1458 - For similar reasons, the rules to rebuild configure,
1459 config.status, and aclocal.m4 are now defined in all directories.
1460 Note that if you were using the CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES and
1461 CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES (formerly undocumented) variables, you
1462 should better define them in all directories. This is easily done
1463 using an AC_SUBST (make sure you prefix these dependencies with
1464 $(top_srcdir) since this variable will appear at different
1465 levels of the build tree).
1467 - aclocal will now use `m4_include' instead of copying local m4
1468 files into aclocal.m4. (Local m4 files are those you ship with
1469 your project, other files will be copied as usual.)
1471 Because m4_included files are automatically distributed, it means
1472 for most projects there is no point in EXTRA_DISTing the list of
1473 m4 files which are used. (You can probably get rid of
1474 m4/Makefile.am if you had one.)
1476 - aclocal will avoid touching aclocal.m4 when possible, so that
1477 Autom4te's cache isn't needlessly invalidated. This behavior can
1478 be switched off with the new `--force' option.
1480 - aclocal now uses Autoconf's --trace to detect macros which are
1481 actually used and will no longer include unused macros simply
1482 because they where mentioned. This was often the case for macros
1483 called conditionally.
1485 - New options no-dist and no-dist-gzip.
1487 - compile, depcomp, elisp-comp, install-sh, mdate-sh, mkinstalldirs,
1488 py-compile, and ylwrap, now all understand --version and --help.
1490 - Automake will now recognize AC_CONFIG_LINKS so far as removing created
1491 links as part of the distclean target and including source files in
1494 - AM_PATH_PYTHON now supports ACTION-IF-FOUND and ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND
1495 argument. The latter can be used to override the default behavior
1496 (which is to abort).
1498 - Automake will exit with $? = 63 on version mismatch. (So does
1499 Autoconf 2.58) missing knows this, and in this case it will
1500 emulate the tools as if they were absent. Because older versions
1501 of Automake and Autoconf did not use this exit code, this change
1502 will only be useful in projects generated with future versions of
1505 - When using AC_CONFIG_FILES with multiple input files, Automake
1506 generates the first ".in" input file for which a ".am" exists.
1507 (Former versions would try to use only the first input file.)
1509 - lisp_DATA is now allowed. If you are using the empty ELCFILES
1510 idiom to disable byte-compilation of lisp_LISP files, it is
1511 recommended that you switch to using lisp_DATA. Note that
1512 this is not strictly equivalent: lisp_DATA will install elisp
1513 files even if emacs is not installed, while *_LISP do not
1514 install anything unless emacs is found.
1516 - Makefiles will prefer `mkdir -p' over mkinstalldirs if it is
1517 available. This selection is achieved through the Makefile
1518 variable $(mkdir_p) that is set by AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE to either
1519 `mkdir -m 0755 -p --', `$(mkinstalldirs) -m 0755', or
1520 `$(install_sh) -m 0755 -d'.
1524 - Because `mkdir -p' is available on most platforms, and we can use
1525 `install-sh -d' when it is not, the use of the mkinstalldirs
1526 script is being phased out. `automake --add-missing' no longer
1527 installs it, and if you remove mkinstalldirs from your package,
1528 automake will define $(mkinstalldirs) as an alias for $(mkdir_p).
1530 Gettext 0.12.1 still requires mkinstalldirs. Fortunately
1531 gettextize and autopoint will install it when needed. Automake
1532 will continue to define the $(mkinstalldirs) and to distribute
1533 mkinstalldirs when this script is in the source tree.
1535 - AM_PROG_CC_STDC is now empty. The content of this macro was
1536 merged in AC_PROG_CC. If your code uses $am_cv_prog_cc_stdc, you
1537 should adjust it to use $ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc instead. (This
1538 renaming should be safe, even if you have to support several,
1539 versions of Automake, because AC_PROG_CC defines this variable
1540 since Autoconf 2.54.)
1542 - Some users where using the undocumented ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES
1543 variable to override the aclocal.m4 dependencies computed
1544 (inaccurately) by older versions of Automake. Because Automake
1545 now tracks configure's m4 dependencies accurately (see m4_include
1546 above), the use of ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES should be considered
1547 obsolete and will be flagged as such when running `automake
1552 - Defining programs conditionally using Automake conditionals no
1553 longer leads to a combinatorial explosion. The following
1554 construct used to be troublesome when used with dozens of
1569 Likewise for _SOURCES, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables.
1571 - Due to implementation constraints, previous versions of Automake
1572 proscribed multiple conditional definitions of some variables
1582 All _PROGRAMS, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables were affected.
1583 This restriction has been lifted, and these variables now
1584 support multiple conditional definitions as do other variables.
1586 - Cleanup the definitions of $(distdir) and $(top_distdir).
1587 $(top_distdir) now points to the root of the distribution
1588 directory created during `make dist', as it did in Automake 1.4,
1589 not to the root of the build tree as it did in intervening
1590 versions. Furthermore these two variables are now only defined in
1591 the top level Makefile, and passed to sub-directories when running
1594 - The --no-force option now correctly checks the Makefile.in's
1595 dependencies before deciding not to update it.
1597 - Do not assume that make files are called Makefile in cleaning rules.
1599 - Update .info files in the source tree, not in the build tree. This
1600 is what the GNU Coding Standard recommend. Only Automake 1.7.x
1601 used to update these files in the build tree (previous versions did
1602 it in the source tree too), and it caused several problems, varying
1603 from mere annoyance to portability issues.
1605 - COPYING, COPYING.LIB, and COPYING.LESSER are no longer overwritten
1606 when --add-missing and --force-missing are used. For backward
1607 compatibility --add-missing will continue to install COPYING (in
1608 `gnu' strictness) when none of these three files exist, but this
1609 use is deprecated: you should better choose a license yourself and
1610 install it once for all in your source tree (and in your code
1613 - Fix ylwrap so that it does not overwrite header files that haven't
1614 changed, as the inline rule already does.
1616 - User-defined rules override automake-defined rules for the same
1617 targets, even when rules do not have commands. This is not new
1618 (and was documented), however some of the automake-generated
1619 rules have escaped this principle in former Automake versions.
1620 Rules for the following targets are affected by this fix:
1622 clean, clean-am, dist-all, distclean, distclean-am, dvi, dvi-am,
1623 info, info-am, install-data-am, install-exec-am, install-info,
1624 install-info-am, install-man, installcheck-am, maintainer-clean,
1625 maintainer-clean-am, mostlyclean, mostlyclean-am, pdf, pdf-am,
1626 ps, ps-am, uninstall-am, uninstall-info, uninstall-man
1628 Practically it means that an attempt to supplement the dependencies
1629 of some target, as in
1631 clean: my-clean-rule
1633 will now *silently override* the automake definition of the
1634 rule for this target. Running `automake -Woverride' will diagnose
1635 all such overriding definitions.
1637 It should be noted that almost all these targets support a *-local
1638 variant that is meant to supplement the automake-defined rule
1639 (See node `Extending' in the manual). The above rule should
1642 clean-local: my-clean-rule
1644 These *-local targets have been documented since at least
1645 Automake 1.2, so you should not fear the change if you have
1646 to support multiple automake versions.
1650 - The Automake manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
1652 - Targets dist-gzip, dist-bzip2, dist-tarZ, dist-zip are always defined.
1654 - core dumps are no longer removed by the cleaning rules. There are
1655 at least three reasons for this:
1656 1. These files should not be created by any build step,
1657 so their removal do not fit any of the cleaning rules.
1658 Actually, they may be precious to the developer.
1659 2. If such file is created during a build, then it's clearly a
1660 bug Automake should not hide. Not removing the file will
1661 cause `make distcheck' to complain about its presence.
1662 3. Operating systems have different naming conventions for
1663 core dump files. A core file on one system might be a
1664 completely legitimate data file on another system.
1666 - RUNTESTFLAGS, CTAGSFLAGS, ETAGSFLAGS, JAVACFLAGS are no longer
1667 defined by Automake. This means that any definition in the
1668 environment will be used, unless overridden in the Makefile.am or
1669 on the command line. The old behavior, where these variables were
1670 defined empty in each Makefile, can be obtained by AC_SUBSTing or
1671 AC_ARG_VARing each variable from configure.ac.
1673 - CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES and CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES are now
1674 documented. (The is not a new feature, these variables have
1675 been there since at least Automake 1.4.)
1677 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1679 Bugs fixed in 1.7.9:
1680 * Fix install-strip to work with nobase_ binaries.
1681 * Fix renaming of #line directives in ylwrap.
1682 * Rebuild with Autoconf 2.59. (1.7.8 was not installable with pdksh.)
1684 Bugs fixed in 1.7.8:
1685 * Remove spurious blank lines in cleaning rules introduced in 1.7.7.
1686 * Fix detection of Debian's install-info, broken since version 1.5.
1687 (Debian bug #213524).
1688 * Honor -module if it appears in AM_LDFLAGS (i.e., relax name checking)
1689 This was only done for libfoo_LDFLAGS and LDFLAGS in previous versions.
1691 Bugs fixed in 1.7.7:
1692 * The implementation of automake's --no-force option is unreliable,
1693 so this option is ignored in this version. A real fix will appear in
1694 Automake 1.8. (Debian Bug #206299)
1695 * AM_PATH_PYTHON: really check the whole list of interpreters if no
1696 argument is given. (PR/399)
1697 * Do not warn about leading `_' in variable names, even with -Wportability.
1698 * Support user redefinitions of TEXINFO_TEX.
1699 * depcomp: support AIX Compiler version 6.
1700 * Fix missing rebuilds during `make dist' with BSD make.
1701 (Could produce tarballs containing out-of-date files.)
1702 * Resurrect multilib support.
1703 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1704 - Extending aclocal: how to write m4 macros that won't trigger warnings
1706 - A Shared Library: Rewrite and split into subsections.
1708 Bugs fixed in 1.7.6:
1709 * Fix depcomp's icc mode for ICC 7.1.
1710 * Diagnose calls to AC_CONFIG_FILES and friends with not enough arguments.
1711 * Fix maintainer-clean's removal of autom4te.cache in VPATH builds.
1712 * Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to work with POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
1713 * Fix the location reported in some diagnostics related to AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
1714 * Remove Latin-1 characters from elisp-comp.
1715 * Update the manual's @dircategory to match the Free Software Directory.
1717 Bugs fixed in 1.7.5:
1718 * Update install-sh's license to remove an advertising clause.
1719 (Debian bug #191717)
1720 * Fix a bug introduced in 1.7.4, related to BUILT_SOURCE handling,
1721 that caused invalid Makefile.ins to be generated.
1722 * Make sure AM_MAKE_INCLUDE doesn't fail when a `doit' file exists.
1723 * New FAQ entry: renamed objects.
1725 Bugs fixed in 1.7.4:
1726 * Tweak the TAGS rule to support Exuberant Ctags (in addition to
1727 the Emacs implementation)
1728 * Fix output of aclocal.m4 dependencies in subdirectories.
1729 * Use `mv -f' instead of `mv' in fastdep rules.
1730 * Upgrade mdate-sh to work on OS/2.
1731 * Don't byte-compile elisp files when ELCFILES is set empty.
1732 (this documented feature was broken by 1.7.3)
1733 * Diagnose trailing backslashes on last line of Makefile.am.
1734 * Diagnose whitespace following trailing backslashes.
1735 * Multiple tests are now correctly supported in DEJATOOL. (PR/388)
1736 * Fix rebuilt rules for AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.bot])
1738 * `make install' will build `BUILT_SOURCES' first.
1739 * Minor documentation fixes.
1741 Bugs fixed in 1.7.3:
1742 * Fix stamp files numbering (when using multiple AC_CONFIG_HEADERS).
1743 * Query distutils for `pythondir' and `pythonexecdir', instead of
1744 using an hardcoded path. This should allow builds on 64-bit
1745 distributions that usually use lib64/ instead of lib/.
1746 * AM_PATH_PYTHON will also search for python2.3.
1747 * elisp files are now built all at once instead of one by one. Besides
1748 incurring a speed-up, this is required to support interdependent elisp files.
1749 * Support for DJGPP:
1750 - `make distcheck' will now work in `_inst/' and `_build' instead
1751 of `=inst/' and `=build/'
1752 - use `_dirstamp' when the file-system doesn't support `.dirstamp'
1753 - install/uninstall `*.i[0-9][0-9]'-style info files
1754 - more changes that affect only the Automake package (not its output)
1755 * Fix some incompatibilities with upcoming perl-5.10.
1756 * Properly quote AC_PACKAGE_TARNAME and AC_PACKAGE_VERSION when defining
1757 PACKAGE and VERSION.
1759 - dashmstdout and dashXmstdout modes: don't use `-o /dev/null', this
1760 is troublesome with gcc and Solaris compilers. (PR/385)
1761 - makedepend mode: work with Libtool. (PR/385 too)
1763 * better support for unusual gettext setups, such as multiple po/ directories
1765 - Flag missing po/ and intl/ directories as warnings, not errors.
1766 - Disable these warnings if po/ does not exist.
1767 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1769 - Document how AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR interacts with missing files.
1771 - Document `AM_YFLAGS = -d'. (PR/382)
1773 Bugs fixed in 1.7.2:
1774 * Fix installation and uninstallation of Info files built in subdirectories.
1775 * Do not run `./configure --with-included-gettext' during `make distcheck'
1776 if AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) is used.
1777 * Correctly uninstall renamed man pages.
1778 * Do not strip escaped newline in variables defined in one condition
1779 and augmented in another condition.
1780 * Fix ansi2knr rules for LIBOBJS sources.
1781 * Clean all known Texinfo index files, not only those which appear to
1782 be used, because we cannot know which indexes are used in included files.
1783 (PR/375, Debian Bug #168671)
1784 * Honor only the first @setfilename seen in a Texinfo file.
1785 * Treat "required file X not found" diagnostics as errors (exit status 1).
1786 * Don't complain that a required file is not found when it is a Makefile
1788 * Don't use single suffix inference rules when building `.info'-less
1789 Info files, for the sake of Solaris make.
1790 * The `check' target now depends on `$(BUILT_SOURCES)'. (PR/359)
1791 * Recognize multiple inference rules such as `.a.b .c.d:'. (PR/371)
1792 * Warn about multiple inference rules when -Wportability is used. (PR/372)
1793 * Fix building of deansified files from subdirectories. (PR/370)
1794 * Add missing `fi' in the .c->.obj rules.
1795 * Improve install-sh to work even when names contain spaces or certain
1796 (but not all) shell metachars.
1797 * Fix the following spurious failures in the test suite:
1798 depcomp2.test, gnits2.test, gnits3.test, python3.test, texinfo13.test
1799 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1800 - Augment the section about BUILT_SOURCES.
1801 - Mention that AM_PROG_CC_STDC is a relic that is better avoided today.
1803 Bugs fixed in 1.7.1:
1804 * Honor `ansi2knr' for files built in subdirectories, or using per-targets
1806 * Aclocal should now recognize macro names containing parentheses, e.g.
1807 AC_DEFUN([AC_LANG_PREPROC(Fortran 90)], [...]).
1808 * Erase *.sum and *.log files created by DejaGnu, during `make distclean'.
1810 * Install Python files even if they were built. (PR/369)
1811 * Have stamp-vti dependent upon configure instead of configure.ac, as the
1812 version might not be defined in the latter. (PR/358)
1813 * Reorder arguments passed to a couple of commands, so things works
1814 when POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
1815 * Fix a regex that can cause Perl to segfault on large input.
1817 * Fix distribution of packages that have some sources defined conditionally,
1818 as in the `Conditional compilation using Automake conditionals' example
1820 * Fix spurious test suite failures on IRIX.
1821 * Don't report a required variable as undefined if it has been
1822 defined conditionally for the "right" conditions.
1823 * Fix cleaning of the /tmp subdirectory used by `make distcheck', in case
1824 `make distcheck' fails.
1825 * Fix distribution of included Makefile fragment, so we don't create
1826 spurious directories in the distribution. (PR/366)
1827 * Don't complain that a target lacks `.$(EXEEXT)' when it has it.
1830 * Autoconf 2.54 is required.
1831 * `aclocal' and `automake' will no longer warn about obsolete
1832 configure macros. This is done by `autoconf -Wobsolete'.
1833 * AM_CONFIG_HEADER, AM_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS and
1834 AM_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ_NEEDS_SYS_IOCTL are obsolete (although still
1835 supported). You should use AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS,
1836 and AC_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ instead. `autoupdate' can upgrade
1837 `configure.ac' for you.
1838 * Support for per-program and per-library `_CPPFLAGS'.
1839 * New `ctags' target (builds CTAGS files).
1840 * Support for -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble, where mumble is a warning category
1841 (see `automake --help' or the manual for a list of them).
1842 * Honor the WARNINGS environment variable.
1843 * Omit the call to depcomp when using gcc3: call the compiler directly.
1844 * A new option, std-options, tests that programs support --help and --version
1845 when `make installcheck' is run. This is enabled by --gnits.
1846 * Texinfo rules now support the `ps' and `pdf' targets.
1847 * Info files are now created in the build directory, not the source directory.
1848 * info_TEXINFOS supports files in subdirectories (this requires Texinfo 4.1
1850 * `make distcheck' will enforce DESTDIR support by attempting
1852 * `+=' can be used in conditionals, even if the augmented variable
1853 was defined for another condition.
1854 * Makefile fragments (inserted with `include') are always distributed.
1855 * Use Autoconf's --trace interface to inspect configure.ac and get
1856 a more accurate view of it.
1857 * Add support for extending aclocal's default macro search path
1858 using a `dirlist' file within the aclocal directory.
1859 * automake --output-dir is deprecated.
1860 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether uninstall actually
1861 removes all installed files has been moved in a separate target,
1862 distuninstallcheck, so it can be overridden easily.
1866 * Support for AM_INIT_GETTEXT([external])
1867 * Bug fixes, including:
1868 - Fix Automake's own `make install' so it works even if `ln' doesn't.
1869 - nobase_ programs and scripts honor --program-transform correctly.
1870 - Erase configure.lineno during `make distclean'.
1871 - Erase YACC and LEX outputs during `make maintainer-clean'.
1874 * Many bug fixes, including:
1875 - Requiring the current version works.
1876 - Fix "$@" portability issues (for Zsh).
1877 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
1879 - Don't compute dependencies in background to avoid races with libtool.
1880 - Fix handling of _OBJECTS variables for targets sharing source variables.
1881 - Check dependency mode for Java when AM_PROG_GCJ is used.
1884 * automake --output-dir is deprecated
1885 * Many bug fixes, including:
1886 - Don't choke on AM_LDFLAGS definitions.
1887 - Clean libtool objects from subdirectories.
1888 - Allow configure variables with reserved suffix and unknown prefix
1889 (e.g. AC_SUBST(mumble_LDFLAGS) when 'mumble' is not a target).
1890 - Fix the definition of AUTOMAKE and ACLOCAL in configure.
1893 * Autoconf 2.52 is required.
1894 * automake no longer run libtoolize.
1895 This is the job of autoreconf (from GNU Autoconf).
1896 * `dist' generates all the archive flavors, as did `dist-all'.
1897 * `dist-gzip' generates the Gzip tar file only.
1898 * Combining Automake Makefile conditionals no longer lead to a combinatorial
1899 explosion. Makefile.in's keep a reasonable size.
1900 * AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_STRTOD, AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, AM_PTRDIFF_T
1901 are no longer shipped, since Autoconf 2.52 provides them (both as AM_
1903 * `#line' of Lex and Yacc files are properly set.
1904 * EXTRA_DIST can contain generated directories.
1905 * Support for dot-less extensions in suffix rules.
1906 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether distclean actually
1907 cleans all built files has been moved in a separate target, distcleancheck,
1908 so it can be overridden easily.
1909 * `make distcheck' will pass additional options defined in
1910 $(DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS) to configure.
1911 * Fixed CDPATH portability problems, in particular for MacOS X.
1912 * Fixed handling of nobase_ targets.
1913 * Fixed support of implicit rules leading to .lo objects.
1914 * Fixed late inclusion of --add-missing files (e.g. depcomp) in DIST_COMMON
1915 * Added uninstall-hook target
1916 * `AC_INIT AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(tarname,version)' is an obsolete construct.
1917 You can now use `AC_INIT(pkgname,version) AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE' instead.
1918 (Note that "pkgname" is not "tarname", see the manual for details.)
1919 It is also possible to pass a list of global Automake options as
1920 first argument to this new form of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.
1921 * Compiler-based assembler is now called `CCAS'; people expected `AS'
1922 to be a real assembler.
1923 * AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE will set STRIP itself when it needs it. Adding
1924 AC_CHECK_TOOL([STRIP], [strip]) manually is no longer required.
1925 * aclocal and automake are also installed with the version number
1926 appended, and some of the install directory names have changed.
1927 This lets you have multiple versions installed simultaneously.
1928 * Support for parsers and lexers in subdirectories.
1931 * Support for `configure.ac'.
1932 * Support for `else COND', `endif COND' and negated conditions `!COND'.
1933 * `make dist-all' is much faster.
1934 * Allows '@' AC_SUBSTs in macro names.
1935 * Faster AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE (requires update of `missing' script)
1936 * User-side dependency tracking. Developers no longer need GNU make
1938 * Uses DIST_SUBDIRS in some situations when SUBDIRS is conditional
1939 * Most files are correctly handled if they appear in subdirs
1940 For instance, a _DATA file can appear in a subdir
1941 * GNU tar is no longer required for `make dist'
1942 * Added support for `dist_' and `nodist_' prefixes
1943 * Added support for `nobase_' prefix
1944 * Compiled Java support
1945 * Support for per-executable and per-library compilation flags
1949 * Added support for the Fortran 77 programming language.
1950 * Re-indexed the Automake Texinfo manual.
1951 * Added `AM_FOOFLAGS' variable for each compiler invocation;
1952 e.g. AM_CFLAGS can be used in Makefile.am to set C compiler flags
1953 * Support for latest autoconf, including support for objext
1954 * Can now put `.' in SUBDIRS to control build order
1955 * `include' command and `+=' support for macro assignment
1956 * Dependency tracking no long susceptible to deleted header file problem
1957 * Maintainer mode now a conditional. @MAINT@ is now an anachronism.
1962 * Better Cygwin32 support
1963 * Support for suffix rules with _SOURCES variables
1964 * New options `readme-alpha' and `check-news'; Gnits mode sets these
1965 * @LEXLIB@ no longer required when lex source seen
1966 Lex support in `missing', and new lex macro. Update your missing script.
1967 * Built-in support for assembly
1968 * aclocal gives error if `AM_' macro not found
1969 * Passed YFLAGS, not YACCFLAGS, to yacc
1970 * AM_PROG_CC_STDC does not have to come before AC_PROG_CPP
1971 * Dependencies computed as a side effect of compilation
1972 * Preliminary support for Java
1973 * DESTDIR support at "make install" time
1974 * Improved ansi2knr support; you must use the latest ansi2knr.c (included)
1978 * Better DejaGnu support
1979 * Added no-installinfo option
1980 * Added Emacs Lisp support
1981 * Added --no-force option
1982 * Included `aclocal' program
1983 * Automake will now generate rules to regenerate aclocal.m4, if appropriate
1984 * Now uses `AM_' macro names everywhere
1985 * ansi2knr option can have directory prefix (eg `../lib/ansi2knr')
1986 ansi2knr now works correctly on K&R sources
1987 * Better C++, yacc, lex support
1988 * Will compute _DEPENDENCIES variables automatically if not supplied
1989 * Will interpolate $(...) and ${...} when examining contents of a variable
1990 * .deps files now in build directory, not source directory; dependency
1991 handling generally rewritten
1992 * DATA, MANS and BUILT_SOURCES no longer included in distribution
1993 * can now put config.h into a subdir
1994 * Added dist-all target
1995 * Support for install-info program (see texinfo 3.9)
1996 * Support for "yacc -d"
1997 * configure substitutions are automatically discovered and included
1998 in generated Makefile.in
1999 * Special --cygnus mode
2000 * OMIT_DEPENDENCIES can now hold list of dependencies to be omitted
2001 when making distribution. Some dependencies are auto-ignored.
2002 * Changed how libraries are specified in _LIBRARIES variable
2003 * Full libtool support, from Gord Matzigkeit
2004 * No longer have to explicitly touch stamp-h when using AC_CONFIG_HEADER;
2005 AM_CONFIG_HEADER handles it automatically
2006 * Texinfo output files no longer need .info extension
2007 * Added `missing' support
2009 * Conditionals in Makefile.am, from Ian Taylor
2013 * distcheck target runs install and installcheck targets
2014 * Added preliminary support for DejaGnu.
2019 * More libtool fixes from Gord Matzigkeit; libtool support is still
2021 * Added support for jm_MAINTAINER_MODE
2023 * New "distcheck" target
2027 * mkinstalldirs and mdate-sh now appear in directory specified by
2029 * Removed DIST_SUBDIRS, DIST_OTHER
2030 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM only required when an actual program exists
2031 * dist-hook target now run before distribution packaged up; idea from
2032 Dieter Baron. Other hooks exist, too.
2033 * Preliminary (unfinished) support for libtool
2034 * Added short option names.
2035 * Better "dist" support when gluing together multiple packages
2039 * Documentation updates (many from François Pinard)
2040 * strictness `normal' now renamed to `foreign'
2041 * Renamed --install-missing to --add-missing
2042 * Now handles AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
2043 * Now handles TESTS macro
2044 * DIST_OTHER renamed to EXTRA_DIST
2045 * DIST_SUBDIRS is deprecated
2046 * @ALLOCA@ and @LIBOBJS@ now work in _LDADD variables
2047 * Better error messages in many cases
2048 * Program names are canonicalized
2049 * Added "check" prefix; from Gord Matzigkeit
2053 * configure.in scanner knows about AC_PATH_XTRA, AC_OUTPUT ":" syntax
2054 * Beginnings of a test suite
2055 * Automatically adds -I options for $(srcdir), ".", and path to config.h
2056 * Doesn't print anything when running
2057 * Beginnings of MAINT_CHARSET support
2058 * Can specify version in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS
2059 * Most errors recognizable by Emacs' M-x next-error
2060 * Added --verbose option
2061 * All "primary" variables now obsolete; use EXTRA_PRIMARY to supply
2062 configure-generated names
2063 * Required macros now distributed in aclocal.m4
2065 * --strictness=gnu is default
2069 * More sophisticated configure.in scanning; now understands ALLOCA and
2070 LIBOBJS directly, handles AC_CONFIG_HEADER more precisely, etc.
2071 * TEXINFOS and MANS now obsolete; use info_TEXINFOS and man_MANS instead.
2072 * CONFIG_HEADER variable now obsolete
2073 * Can handle multiple Texinfo sources
2074 * Allow hierarchies deeper than 2. From Gord Matzigkeit.
2075 * HEADERS variable no longer needed; now can put .h files directly into
2076 foo_SOURCES variable.
2077 * Automake automatically rebuilds files listed in AC_OUTPUT. The
2078 corresponding ".in" files are included in the distribution.
2081 * Added --gnu and --gnits options
2082 * More standards checking
2084 * Cleaned up 'dist' targets
2085 * Added AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS variable and several options
2086 * Now scans configure.in to get some information (preliminary)
2089 * Works with Perl 4 again
2092 * Added --install-missing option.
2093 * Pretty-prints generated macros and rules
2094 * Comments in Makefile.am are placed more intelligently in Makefile.in
2095 * Generates .PHONY target
2096 * Rule or macro in Makefile.am now overrides contents of Automake file
2097 * Substantial cleanups from François Pinard
2101 * Works with Perl 4 again.
2104 * New uniform naming scheme.
2105 * --strictness option
2107 * '.c' files corresponding to '.y' or '.l' files are automatically
2109 * Many bug fixes and cleanups
2112 * Allow objects to be conditionally included in libraries via lib_LIBADD.
2115 * Bug fixes in 'clean' code.
2116 * Now generates 'installdirs' target.
2117 * man page installation reworked.
2118 * 'make dist' no longer re-creates all Makefile.in's.
2121 * Reimplemented in Perl
2122 * Added --amdir option (for debugging)
2123 * Texinfo support cleaned up.
2124 * Automatic de-ANSI-fication cleaned up.
2125 * Cleaned up 'clean' targets.
2128 * Automatic dependency tracking
2129 * More documentation
2130 * New variables DATA and PACKAGEDATA
2131 * SCRIPTS installed using $(INSTALL_SCRIPT)
2132 * No longer uses double-colon rules
2134 * Changes in advance of internationalization
2138 Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2140 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
2141 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2142 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
2145 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2146 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2147 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2148 GNU General Public License for more details.
2150 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2151 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.