3 * WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
5 - Future versions of Automake will likely drop support for the
6 long-deprecated 'configure.in' name for the Autoconf input file.
7 You are advised to use the recommended name 'configure.ac' instead.
9 - Autoconf 2.65 or later will be required by the next major Automake
10 version (1.13). Until now, Automake has required Autoconf version
13 - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the rules
14 to build pdf, ps and dvi output from Texinfo input will use the
15 '--build-dir' option by default. Since such an option was only
16 introduced in Texinfo 4.9, this means that Makefiles generated by
17 future Automake versions will require at least that version of
20 - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the parallel
21 testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the 'parallel-tests'
22 option) will become the default one; the older serial testsuite
23 harness will still be available through the use of the 'serial-tests'
26 - The following long-obsolete m4 macros will be removed in the
27 next major Automake version (1.13):
29 AM_PROG_CC_STDC: superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002
30 fp_PROG_CC_STDC: broken alias for AM_PROG_CC_STDC
31 fp_WITH_DMALLOC: old alias for AM_WITH_DMALLOC
32 AM_CONFIG_HEADER: superseded by AC_CONFIG_HEADERS since July 2002
33 ud_PATH_LISPDIR: old alias for AM_PATH_LISPDIR
34 jm_MAINTAINER_MODE: old alias for AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
35 ud_GNU_GETTEXT: old alias for AM_GNU_GETTEXT
36 gm_PROG_LIBTOOL: old alias for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
37 fp_C_PROTOTYPES: old alias for AM_C_PROTOTYPES (which was part
38 of the now-removed automatic de-ANSI-fication
41 - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' will be removed in
42 the next major Automake version (1.13).
44 - Support for the two- and three-arguments invocation forms of the
45 AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro is deprecated, and will be removed in the
46 next major Automake version (1.13).
48 - The '--acdir' option of aclocal is deprecated, and will probably
49 be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13). You should
50 use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir' instead
51 (which have been introduced in Automake 1.11.2).
53 - The exact order in which the directories in the aclocal macro
54 search path are looked up is probably going to be changed in the
55 next Automake release (1.13).
57 - The 'missing' script will not try anymore to update the timestamp
58 of out-of-date files that require a maintainer-specific tool to be
59 remade, in case the user lacks such a tool (or has a too-old version
60 of it). In fact, starting from Automake 1.13, all it'll do will be
61 giving more useful warnings than a bare "command not found" from a
64 * Warnings and deprecations:
66 - Automake now issues a warning (in the 'portability' category) if
67 'configure.in' is used instead of 'configure.ac' as the Autoconf
68 input file. Such a warning will also be present in the next
69 Autoconf version (2.70).
73 - Recursive cleaning rules descends into the $(SUBDIRS) in the natural
74 order (as done by the other recursive rules), rather than in the
75 inverse order. They used to do that in order to work a round a
76 limitation in an older implementation of the automatic dependency
77 tracking support, but that limitation had been lifted years ago
78 already, when the automatic dependency tracking based on side-effects
79 of compilation had been introduced.
81 - Cleaning rules for compiled objects (both "plain" and libtool) work
82 better when subdir objects are involved, not triggering a distinct
83 'rm' invocation for each such object. They do so by removing *any*
84 compiled object file that is in the same directory of a subdir
85 object. See automake bug#10697.
87 * Silent rules support:
89 - A new predefined $(AM_V_P) make variable is provided; it expands
90 to a shell conditional that can be used in recipes to know whether
91 make is being run in silent or verbose mode.
97 - The "recheck" targets behaves better in the face of build failures
98 related to previously failed tests. For example, if a test is a
99 compiled program that must be rerun by "make recheck", and its
100 compilation fails, it will still be rerun by further "make recheck"
101 invocations. See automake bug#11791.
103 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
107 * New supported languages:
109 - Support for Objective C++ has been added; it should work similarly to
110 the support for Objective C.
112 * Deprecated obsolescent features:
114 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
115 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro now elicits a warning in the 'obsolete'
116 category. Starting from the next major Automake release (1.13), such
117 usages won't be allowed anymore.
119 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (enabled by the 'cygnus' option) is
120 now deprecated (its use triggers a warning in the 'obsolete' category).
121 It will be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13).
123 - The long-obsolete (since 1.10) automake-provided $(mkdir_p) make
124 variable, @mkdir_p@ configure-time substitution and AM_PROG_MKDIR
125 m4 macro are deprecated, eliciting a warning in the 'obsolete'
126 category. They will be removed in the next major version (1.13).
128 * Miscellaneous changes:
130 - The Automake test cases now require a proper POSIX-conforming shell.
131 Older non-POSIX Bourne shells (like Solaris 10 /bin/sh) won't be
132 accepted anymore. In most cases, the user shouldn't have to specify
133 such POSIX shell explicitly, since it will be looked up at configure
134 time. Still, when this lookup fails, or when the user wants to
135 override its conclusion, the variable 'AM_TEST_RUNNER_SHELL' can be
136 used (pointing to the shell that will be used to run the Automake
139 Bugs fixed in 1.12.1:
141 * Bugs introduced by 1.12:
143 - Several weaknesses in Automake's own build system and test suite
146 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
148 - When given non-option arguments, aclocal rejects them, instead of
149 silently ignoring them.
151 * Long-standing bugs:
153 - When the 'color-tests' option is in use, forcing of colored testsuite
154 output through "AM_COLOR_TESTS=always" works even if the terminal is
155 a non-ANSI one, i.e., if the TERM environment variable has a value of
158 - Several inefficiencies and poor performances in the implementation
159 of the parallel-tests 'check' and 'recheck' targets have been fixed.
161 - The post-processing of output "#line" directives done the ylwrap
162 script is more faithful w.r.t. files in a subdirectory; for example,
163 if the processed file is "src/grammar.y", ylwrap will correctly
164 produce directives like:
165 #line 7 "src/grammar.y"
170 * Bugs with new Perl versions:
172 - Aclocal works correctly with perl 5.16.0 (automake bug#11543).
174 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
178 * Obsolete features removed:
180 - The never documented nor truly used script 'acinstall' has been
183 - Support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been removed.
185 - The support for the "obscure" multilib feature has been removed
186 from Automake core (but remains available in the 'contrib/'
187 directory of the Automake distribution).
189 - Support for ".log -> .html" conversion and the check-html and
190 recheck-html targets has been removed from Automake core (but
191 remains available in the 'contrib/' directory of the Automake
194 - The deprecated 'lzma' compression format for distribution archives
195 has been removed, in favor of 'xz' and 'lzip'.
197 - The obsolete AM_WITH_REGEX macro has been removed.
199 - The long-deprecated options '--output-dir', '--Werror' and
200 '--Wno-error' have been removed.
202 - The chapter on the history of Automake has been moved out of the
203 reference manual, into a new dedicated Texinfo file.
207 - New 'cscope' target to build a cscope database for the source tree.
209 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
211 - The new automake option 'serial-tests' has been introduced. It can
212 be used to explicitly instruct automake to use the older serial
213 testsuite harness. This is still the default at the moment, but it
214 might change in future versions.
216 - The 'recheck' target (provided by the parallel testsuite harness) now
217 depends on the 'all' target. This allows for a better user-experience
218 in test-driven development. See automake bug#11252.
220 - Test scripts that exit with status 99 to signal an "hard error" (e.g.,
221 and unexpected or internal error, or a failure to set up the test case
222 scenario) have their outcome reported as an 'ERROR' now. Previous
223 versions of automake reported such an outcome as a 'FAIL' (the only
224 difference with normal failures being that hard errors were counted
225 as failures even when the test originating them was listed in
228 - The testsuite summary displayed by the parallel-test harness has a
229 completely new format, that always list the numbers of passed, failed,
230 xfailed, xpassed, skipped and errored tests, even when these numbers
231 are zero (but using smart coloring when the color-tests option is in
234 - The default testsuite driver offered by the 'parallel-tests' option is
235 now implemented (partly at least) with the help of automake-provided
236 auxiliary scripts (e.g., 'test-driver'), instead of relying entirely
237 on code in the generated Makefile.in.
238 This has two noteworthy implications. The first one is that projects
239 using the 'parallel-tests' option should now either run automake with
240 the '--add-missing' option, or manually copy the 'test-driver' script
241 into their tree. The second, and more important, implication is that
242 now, when the 'parallel-tests' option is in use, TESTS_ENVIRONMENT can
243 not be used anymore to define a test runner, and the command specified
244 in LOG_COMPILER (and <ext>_LOG_COMPILER) must be a *real* executable
245 program or script. For example, this is still a valid usage (albeit
248 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
249 if test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS)'; then \
250 maybe_errexit='-e'; \
254 LOG_COMPILER = $(SHELL) $$maybe_errexit
256 while this is not anymore:
258 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
259 $(SHELL) `test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS_CHECKING)' && echo ' -e'`
263 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
264 run_with_perl_or_shell () \
266 if grep -q '^#!.*perl' $$1; then
272 LOG_COMPILER = run_with_perl_or_shell
274 - The package authors can now use customary testsuite drivers within
275 the framework provided by the 'parallel-tests' testsuite harness.
276 Consistently with the existing syntax, this can be done by defining
277 special makefile variables 'LOG_DRIVER' and '<ext>_LOG_DRIVER'.
279 - A new developer-reserved variable 'AM_TESTS_FD_REDIRECT' can be used
280 to redirect/define file descriptors used by the test scripts.
282 - The parallel-tests harness generates now, in addition the '.log' files
283 holding the output produced by the test scripts, a new set of '.trs'
284 files, holding "metadata" derived by the execution of the test scripts;
285 among such metadata are the outcomes of the test cases run by a script.
287 - Initial and still experimental support for the TAP test protocol is
290 * Changes to Yacc and Lex support:
292 - C source and header files derived from non-distributed Yacc and/or
293 Lex sources are now removed by a simple "make clean" (while they were
294 previously removed only by "make maintainer-clean").
296 - Slightly backward-incompatible change, relevant only for use of Yacc
297 with C++: the extensions of the header files produced by the Yacc
298 rules are now modelled after the extension of the corresponding
299 sources. For example, yacc files named "foo.y++" and "bar.yy" will
300 produce header files named "foo.h++" and "bar.hh" respectively, where
301 they would have previously produced header files named simply "foo.h"
302 and "bar.h". This change offers better compatibility with 'bison -o'.
304 * Miscellaneous changes:
306 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro now causes configure to exit with status 77,
307 rather than 1, if the vala compiler found is too old.
309 - The build system of Automake itself now avoids the use of make
310 recursion as much as possible.
312 - Automake now prefers to quote 'like this' or "like this", rather
313 than `like this', in diagnostic message and generated Makefiles,
314 to accommodate the new GNU Coding Standards recommendations.
316 - Automake has a new option '--print-libdir' that prints the path of the
317 directory containing the Automake-provided scripts and data files.
319 - The 'dist' and 'dist-all' targets now can run compressors in parallel.
321 - The rules to create pdf, dvi and ps output from Texinfo files now
322 works better with modern 'texi2dvi' script, by explicitly passing
323 it the '--clean' option to ensure stray auxiliary files are not
324 left to clutter the build directory.
326 - Automake can now generate silenced rules for texinfo outputs.
328 - Some auxiliary files that are automatically distributed by Automake
329 (e.g., 'install-sh', or the 'depcomp' script for packages compiling
330 C sources) might now be listed in the DIST_COMMON variable in many
331 Makefile.in files, rather than in the top-level one.
333 - Messages of types warning or error from 'automake' and 'aclocal'
334 are now prefixed with the respective type, and presence of -Werror
337 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now tries to avoid
338 sleeping for a second, which slowed down cached configure runs
339 noticeably. In that case, it will check back at the end of the
340 configure script to ensure that at least one second has passed, to
341 avoid time stamp issues with makefile rules rerunning autotools
344 - The warnings in the category 'extra-portability' are now enabled by
345 '-Wall'. In previous versions, one has to use '-Wextra-portability'
350 - Various minor bugfixes for recent or long-standing bugs.
352 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
354 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
355 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
357 - The automake-provided parallel testsuite harness does not fail anymore
358 with BSD make used in parallel mode when there are test scripts in a
359 subdirectory, like in:
361 TESTS = sub/foo.test sub/bar.test
363 * Long-standing bugs:
365 - Automake's own build system finally have a real "installcheck" target.
367 - Vala-related cleanup rules are now more complete, and work better in
370 - Files listed with the AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE macro in configure.ac are
371 now automatically distributed also if the directory of the auxiliary
372 files coincides with the top-level directory.
374 - Automake now detects the presence of the '-d' flag in the various
375 '*YFLAGS' variables even when their definitions involve indirections
376 through other variables, such as in:
378 AM_YFLAGS = $(foo_opts)
380 - Automake now complains if a '*YFLAGS' variable has any conditional
381 content, not only a conditional definition.
383 - Explicit enabling and/or disabling of Automake warning categories
384 through the '-W...' options now always takes precedence over the
385 implicit warning level implied by Automake strictness (foreign, gnu
386 or gnits), regardless of the order in which such strictness and
387 warning flags appear. For example, a setting like:
388 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = -Wall --foreign
389 will cause the warnings in category 'portability' to be enabled, even
390 if those warnings are by default disabled in 'foreign' strictness.
392 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
394 Bugs fixed in 1.11.5:
396 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
398 - Vala files with '.vapi' extension are now recognized and handled
399 correctly again. See automake bug#11222.
401 - Vala support work again for projects that contain some program
402 built from '.vala' (and possibly '.c') sources and some other
403 program built from '.c' sources *only*. See automake bug#11229.
405 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
409 * Miscellaneous changes:
411 - The 'ar-lib' script now ignores the "s" (symbol index) and "S" (no
412 symbol index) modifiers as well as the "s" action, as the symbol index
413 is created unconditionally by Microsoft lib. Also, the "q" (quick)
414 action is now a synonym for "r" (replace). Also, the script has been
415 ignoring the "v" (verbose) modifier already since Automake 1.11.3.
417 - When the 'compile' script is used to wrap MSVC, it now accepts an
418 optional space between the -I, -L and -l options and their respective
419 arguments, for better POSIX compliance.
421 - There is an initial, experimental support for automatic dependency
422 tracking with tcc (the Tiny C Compiler). Its associated depmode is
423 currently recognized as "icc" (but this and other details are likely
424 to change in future versions).
426 - Automatic dependency tracking now works also with the IBM XL C/C++
427 compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'xlc'.
429 Bugs fixed in 1.11.4:
431 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
433 - A definition of 'noinst_PYTHON' before 'python_PYTHON' (or similar)
434 don't cause spurious failures upon "make install" anymore.
436 - The user can now instruct the 'uninstall-info' rule not to update
437 the '${infodir}/dir' file by exporting the environment variable
438 'AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no". This is done for consistency
439 with how the 'install-info' rule operates since automake 1.11.2.
441 * Long-standing bugs:
443 - It is now possible for a foo_SOURCES variable to hold Vala sources
444 together with C header files, as well as with sources and headers for
445 other supported languages (e.g., C++). Previously, only mixing C and
446 Vala sources was supported.
448 - If "aclocal --install" is used, and the first directory specified with
449 '-I' is non-existent, aclocal will now create it before trying to copy
452 - An empty declaration of a "foo_PRIMARY" don't cause anymore the
453 generated install rules to create an empty $(foodir) directory;
454 for example, if Makefile.am contains something like:
458 pkglibexec_SCRIPTS += bar.sh
461 the $(pkglibexec) directory will not be created upon "make install".
463 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
467 * Miscellaneous changes:
469 - Automake's own build system is more silent by default, making use of
470 the 'silent-rules' option.
472 - The master copy of the `gnupload' script is now maintained in gnulib,
475 - The `missing' script doesn't try to wrap calls to `tar' anymore.
477 - "make dist" doesn't wrap `tar' invocations with the `missing' script
478 anymore. Similarly, the obsolescent variable `$(AMTAR)' (which you
479 shouldn't be using BTW ;-) does not invoke the missing script anymore
480 to wrap tar, but simply invokes the `tar' program itself.
482 - "make dist" can now create lzip-compressed tarballs.
484 - In the Automake info documentation, the Top node and the nodes about
485 the invocation of the automake and aclocal programs have been renamed;
486 now, calling "info automake" will open the Top node, while calling
487 "info automake-invocation" and "info aclocal-invocation" will access
488 the nodes about the invocation of respectively automake and aclocal.
490 - Automake is now distributed as a gzip-compressed and an xz-compressed
491 tarball. Previously, bzip2 was used instead of xz.
493 - The last relics of Python 1.5 support have been removed from the
494 AM_PATH_PYTHON macro.
496 - For programs and libraries, automake now detects EXTRA_foo_DEPENDENCIES
497 and adds them to the normal list of dependencies, but without
498 overwriting the foo_DEPENDENCIES variable, which is normally computed
501 Bugs fixed in 1.11.3:
503 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
505 - Automake now correctly recognizes the prefix/primary combination
506 `pkglibexec_SCRIPTS' as valid.
508 - The parallel-tests harness doesn't trip anymore on sed implementations
509 with stricter limits on the length of input lines (problem seen at
512 * Long-standing bugs:
514 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.am files is avoided by stub
515 rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `automake' also if
516 some previously needed `.am' file has been removed.
518 - The `silent-rules' option now generates working makefiles even
519 for the uncommon `make' implementations that do not support the
520 nested-variables extension to POSIX 2008. For such `make'
521 implementations, whether a build is silent is determined at
522 configure time, and cannot be overridden at make time with
523 `make V=0' or `make V=1'.
525 - Vala support now works better in VPATH setups.
527 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
531 * Changes to aclocal:
533 - The `--acdir' option is deprecated. Now you should use the new options
534 `--automake-acdir' and `--system-acdir' instead.
536 - The `ACLOCAL_PATH' environment variable is now interpreted as a
537 colon-separated list of additional directories to search after the
538 automake internal acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal-APIVERSION)
539 and before the system acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal).
541 * Miscellaneous changes:
543 - The Automake support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been
544 deprecated. It will probably be removed in the next major Automake
547 - The `lzma' compression scheme and associated automake option `dist-lzma'
548 is obsoleted by `xz' and `dist-xz' due to upstream changes.
550 - You may adjust the compression options used in dist-xz and dist-bzip2.
551 The default is now merely -e for xz, but still -9 for bzip; you may
552 specify a different level via the XZ_OPT and BZIP2 envvars respectively.
553 E.g., "make dist-xz XZ_OPT=-7" or "make dist-bzip2 BZIP2=-5"
555 - The `compile' script now converts some options for MSVC for a better
556 user experience. Similarly, the new `ar-lib' script wraps Microsoft lib.
558 - The py-compile script now accepts empty arguments passed to the options
559 `--destdir' and `--basedir', and complains about unrecognized options.
560 Moreover, a non-option argument or a special `--' argument terminates
563 - A developer that needs to pass specific flags to configure at "make
564 distcheck" time can now, and indeed is advised to, do so by defining
565 the developer-reserved makefile variable AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS,
566 instead of the old DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS.
567 The DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS variable should now be reserved for the
568 user; still, the old Makefile.am files that used to define it will
569 still continue to work as before.
571 - New macro AM_PROG_AR that looks for an archiver and wraps it in the new
572 'ar-lib' auxiliary script if the selected archiver is Microsoft lib.
573 This new macro is required for LIBRARIES and LTLIBRARIES when automake
574 is run with -Wextra-portability and -Werror.
576 - When using DejaGnu-based testsuites, the user can extend the `site.exp'
577 file generated by automake-provided rules by defining the special make
578 variable `$(EXTRA_DEJAGNU_SITE_CONFIG)'.
580 - The `install-info' rule can now be instructed not to create/update
581 the `${infodir}/dir' file, by exporting the new environment variable
582 `AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no".
584 Bugs fixed in 1.11.2:
586 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
588 - The parallel-tests driver no longer produces erroneous results with
589 Tru64/OSF 5.1 sh upon unreadable log files.
591 - The `parallel-tests' test driver does not report spurious successes
592 when used with concurrent FreeBSD make (e.g., "make check -j3").
594 - When the parallel-tests driver is in use, automake now explicitly
595 rejects invalid entries and conditional contents in TEST_EXTENSIONS,
596 instead of issuing confusing and apparently unrelated error messages
597 (e.g., "non-POSIX variable name", "bad characters in variable name",
598 or "redefinition of TEST_EXTENSIONS), or even, in some situations,
599 silently producing broken `Makefile.in' files.
601 - The `silent-rules' option now truly silences all compile rules, even
602 when dependency tracking is disabled. Also, when `silent-rules' is
603 not used, `make' output no longer contains spurious backslash-only
604 lines, thus once again matching what Automake did before 1.11.
606 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
607 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
609 * Long-standing bugs:
611 - The order of Yacc and Lex flags is fixed to be consistent with other
612 languages: $(AM_YFLAGS) comes before $(YFLAGS), and $(AM_LFLAGS) before
613 $(LFLAGS), so that the user variables override the developer variables.
615 - "make distcheck" now correctly complains also when "make uninstall"
616 leaves one and only one file installed in $(prefix).
618 - A "make uninstall" issued before a "make install", or after a mere
619 "make install-data" or a mere "make install-exec" does not spuriously
622 - Automake now warns about more primary/directory invalid combinations,
623 such as "doc_LIBRARIES" or "pkglib_PROGRAMS".
625 - Rules generated by Automake now try harder to not change any files when
626 `make -n' is invoked. Fixes include compilation of Emacs Lisp, Vala, or
627 Yacc source files and the rule to update config.h.
629 - Several scripts and the parallel-tests testsuite driver now exit with
630 the right exit status upon receiving a signal.
632 - A per-Makefile.am setting of -Werror does not erroneously carry over
633 to the handling of other Makefile.am files.
635 - The code for automatic dependency tracking works around a Solaris
636 make bug triggered by sources containing repeated slashes when the
637 `subdir-objects' option was used.
639 - The makedepend and hp depmodes now work better with VPATH builds.
641 - Java sources specified with check_JAVA are no longer compiled for
642 "make all", but only for "make check".
644 - An usage like "java_JAVA = foo.java" will now cause Automake to warn
645 and error out if `javadir' is undefined, instead of silently producing
646 a broken Makefile.in.
648 - aclocal and automake now honour the configure-time definitions of
649 AUTOCONF and AUTOM4TE when they spawn autoconf or autom4te processes.
651 - The `install-info' recipe no longer tries to guess whether the
652 `install-info' program is from Debian or from GNU, and adaptively
653 change its behaviour; this has proven to be frail and easy to
656 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
658 Bugs fixed in 1.11.1:
660 - Lots of minor bugfixes.
662 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
664 - The `parallel-tests' test driver works around a GNU make 3.80 bug with
665 trailing white space in the test list (`TESTS = foo $(EMPTY)').
667 * Long standing bugs:
669 - On Darwin 9, `pythondir' and `pyexecdir' pointed below `/Library/Python'
670 even if the `--prefix' argument pointed outside of a system directory.
671 AM_PATH_PYTHON has been fixed to ignore the value returned from python's
672 `get_python_lib' function if it points outside the configured prefix,
673 unless the `--prefix' argument was either `/usr' or below `/System'.
675 - The testsuite does not try to change the mode of `ltmain.sh' files from
676 a Libtool installation (symlinked to test directories) any more.
678 - AM_PROG_GCJ uses AC_CHECK_TOOLS to look for `gcj' now, so that prefixed
679 tools are preferred in a cross-compile setup.
681 - The distribution is tarred up with mode 755 now by the `dist*' targets.
682 This fixes a race condition where untrusted users could modify files
683 in the $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION) distdir before packing if the toplevel
684 build directory was world-searchable. This is CVE-2009-4029.
686 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
690 * Version requirements:
692 - Autoconf 2.62 or greater is required.
694 * Changes to aclocal:
696 - The autoconf version check implemented by aclocal in aclocal.m4
697 (and new in Automake 1.10) is degraded to a warning. This helps
698 in the common case where the Autoconf versions used are compatible.
700 * Changes to automake:
702 - The automake program can run multiple threads for creating most
703 Makefile.in files concurrently, if at least Perl 5.7.2 is available
704 with interpreter-based threads enabled. Set the environment variable
705 AUTOMAKE_JOBS to the maximum number of threads to use, in order to
706 enable this experimental feature.
708 * Changes to Libtool support:
710 - Libtool generic flags are now passed to the install and uninstall
713 - distcheck works with Libtool 2.x even when LT_OUTPUT is used, as
714 config.lt is removed correctly now.
718 - subdir-object mode works now with Fortran (F77, FC, preprocessed
719 Fortran, and Ratfor).
721 - For files with extension .f90, .f95, .f03, or .f08, the flag
722 $(FCFLAGS_f[09]x) computed by AC_FC_SRCEXT is now used in compile rules.
724 - Files with extension .sx are also treated as preprocessed assembler.
726 - The default source file extension (.c) can be overridden with
727 AM_DEFAULT_SOURCE_EXT now.
729 - Python 3.0 is supported now, Python releases prior to 2.0 are no
732 - AM_PATH_PYTHON honors python's idea about the site directory.
734 - There is initial support for the Vala programming language, when using
737 * Miscellaneous changes:
739 - Automake development is done in a git repository on Savannah now, see
741 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=automake.git
743 A read-only CVS mirror is provided at
745 cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@pserver.git.sv.gnu.org:/automake.git \
746 checkout -d automake HEAD
748 - "make dist" can now create xz-compressed tarballs,
749 as well as (deprecated?) lzma-compressed tarballs.
751 - `automake --add-missing' will by default install the GPLv3 file as
752 COPYING if it is missing. It will also warn that the license file
753 should be added to source control. Note that Automake will never
754 overwrite an existing COPYING file, even when the `--force-missing'
757 - The manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL 1.3.
759 - Automake ships and installs man pages for automake and aclocal now.
761 - New shorthand `$(pkglibexecdir)' for `$(libexecdir)/@PACKAGE@'.
763 - install-sh supports -C, which does not update the installed file
764 (and its time stamps) if the contents did not change.
766 - The `gnupload' script has been revamped.
768 - The `depcomp' and `compile' scripts now work with MSVC under MSYS.
770 - The targets `install' and `uninstall' are more efficient now, in that
771 for example multiple files from one Automake variable such as
772 `bin_SCRIPTS' are copied in one `install' (or `libtool --mode=install')
773 invocation if they do not have to be renamed.
775 Both install and uninstall may sometimes enter (`cd' into) the target
776 installation directory now, when no build-local scripts are used.
778 Both install and uninstall do not fail anymore but do nothing if an
779 installation directory variable like `bindir' is set to the empty string.
781 For built-in rules, `make install' now fails reliably if installation
782 of a file failed. Conversely, `make uninstall' even succeeds when
783 issued multiple times.
785 These changes may need some adjustments from users: For example,
786 some `install' programs refuse to install multiple copies of the
787 same file in one invocation, so you may need to remove duplicate
788 entries from file lists.
790 Also, within one set of files, say, nobase_data_DATA, the order of
791 installation may be changed, or even unstable among different hosts,
792 due to the use of associative arrays in awk. The increased use of
793 awk matches a similar move in Autoconf to provide for better scaling.
795 Further, most undocumented per-rule install command variables such as
796 binSCRIPT_INSTALL have been removed because they are not needed any
797 more. Packages which use them should be using the appropriate one of
798 INSTALL_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT} or their install_sh_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT}
799 counterpart, depending on the type of files and the need for automatic
800 target directory creation.
802 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.m4 files is avoided by
803 stub rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `aclocal'
804 also if some previously needed macro file has been removed.
806 - Rebuild rules now also work for a removed `subdir/Makefile.in' in
807 an otherwise up to date tree.
809 - The `color-tests' option causes colored test result output on terminals.
811 - The `parallel-tests' option enables a new test driver that allows for
812 parallel test execution, inter-test dependencies, lazy test execution
813 for unit-testing, re-testing only failed tests, and formatted result output
814 as RST (reStructuredText) and HTML. Enabling this option may require some
815 changes to your test suite setup; see the manual for details.
817 - The `silent-rules' option enables Linux kernel-style silent build output.
818 This option requires the widely supported but non-POSIX `make' feature
819 of recursive variable expansion, so do not use it if your package needs
820 to build with `make' implementations that do not support it.
822 To enable less verbose build output, the developer has to use the Automake
823 option `silent-rules' in `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE', or call the `AM_SILENT_RULES'
824 macro. The user may then set the default verbosity by passing the
825 `--enable-silent-rules' option to `configure'. At `make' run time, this
826 default may be overridden using `make V=0' for less verbose, and `make V=1'
827 for backward-compatible verbose output.
829 - New prefix `notrans_' for manpages which should not be transformed
830 by --program-transform.
832 - New macro AM_COND_IF for conditional evaluation and conditional
835 - For AC_CONFIG_LINKS, if source and destination are equal, do not
836 remove the file in a non-VPATH build. Such setups work with Autoconf
839 - AM_MAINTAINER_MODE now allows for an optional argument specifying
842 - AM_SUBST_NOTMAKE may prevent substitution of AC_SUBSTed variables,
843 useful especially for multi-line values.
845 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now diagnoses an
846 unsafe absolute source directory name and makes configure fail.
848 - The Automake macros and rules cope better with whitespace in the
849 current directory name, as long as the relative path to `configure'
850 does not contain whitespace. To this end, the values of `$(MISSING)'
851 and `$(install_sh)' may contain suitable quoting, and their expansion
852 might need `eval'uation if used outside of a makefile. These
853 undocumented variables may be used in several documented macros such
854 as $(AUTOCONF) or $(MAKEINFO).
858 * Long-standing bugs:
860 - Fix aix dependency tracking for libtool objects.
862 - Work around AIX sh quoting issue in AC_PROG_CC_C_O, leading to
863 unnecessary use of the `compile' script.
865 - For nobase_*_LTLIBRARIES with nonempty directory components, the
866 correct `-rpath' argument is used now.
868 - `config.status --file=Makefile depfiles' now also works with the
869 extra quoting used internally by Autoconf 2.62 and newer
870 (it used to work only without the `--file=' bit).
872 - The `missing' script works better with versioned tool names.
874 - Semantics for `missing help2man' have been revamped:
876 Previously, if `help2man' was not present, `missing help2man' would have
877 the following semantics: if some man page was out of date but present, then
878 a warning would be printed, but the exit status was 0. If the man page was
879 not present at all, then `missing' would create a replacement man page
880 containing an error message, and exit with a status of 2. This does not play
881 well with `make': the next run will see this particular man page as being up
882 to date, and will only error out on the next generated man page, if any;
883 repeat until all pages are done. This was not desirable.
885 These are the new semantics: if some man page is not present, and help2man
886 is not either, then `missing' will warn and generate the replacement page
887 containing the error message, but exit successfully. However, `make dist'
888 will ensure that no such bogus man pages are packaged into a tarball.
890 - Targets provided by automake behave better with `make -n', in that they
891 take care not to create files.
893 - `config.status Makefile... depfiles' works fine again in the presence of
894 disabled dependency tracking.
896 - The default no-op recursive rules for these targets also work with BSD make
897 now: html, install-html, install-dvi, install-pdf, install-pdf, install-info.
899 - `make distcheck' works also when both a directory and some file below it
900 have been added to a distribution variable, such as EXTRA_DIST or *_SOURCES.
902 - Texinfo dvi, ps, pdf, and html output files are not removed upon
903 `make mostlyclean' any more; only the LaTeX by-products are.
905 - Renamed objects also work with the `subdir-objects' option and
906 source file languages which Automake does not know itself.
908 - `automake' now correctly complains about variable assignments which are
909 preceded by a comment, extend over multiple lines with backslash-escaped
910 newlines, and end in a comment sign. Previous versions would silently
911 and wrongly ignore such assignments completely.
913 * Bugs introduced by 1.10:
915 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
916 Makefile.in's again, but also cope with long lines.
918 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of XFAIL_TESTS
919 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
920 This is for consistency with the analogous change to TESTS in 1.10.
922 - Fix order of standard includes to again be `-I. -I$(srcdir)',
923 followed by directories containing config headers.
925 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
929 * Version requirements:
931 - Autoconf 2.60 or greater is required.
933 - Perl 5.6 or greater is required.
935 * Changes to aclocal:
937 - aclocal now also supports -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble options.
939 - `dirlist' entries (for the aclocal search path) may use shell
940 wildcards such as `*', `?', or `[...]'.
942 - aclocal supports an --install option that will cause system-wide
943 third-party macros to be installed in the local directory
944 specified with the first -I flag. This option also uses #serial
945 lines in M4 files to upgrade local macros.
947 The new aclocal options --dry-run and --diff help to review changes
948 before they are installed.
950 - aclocal now outputs an autoconf version check in aclocal.m4 in
951 projects using automake.
953 For a few years, automake and aclocal have been calling autoconf
954 (or its underlying engine autom4te) to accurately retrieve the
955 data they need from configure.ac and its siblings. Doing so can
956 only work if all autotools use the same version of autoconf. For
957 instance a Makefile.in generated by automake for one version of
958 autoconf may stop working if configure is regenerated with another
959 version of autoconf, and vice versa.
961 This new version check ensures that the whole build system has
962 been generated using the same autoconf version.
964 * Support for new Autoconf macros:
966 - The new AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE Autoconf macro is supported.
968 - If `subdir-objects' is set, and AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR is specified,
969 $(LIBOBJS), $(LTLIBOBJS), $(ALLOCA), and $(LTALLOCA) can be used
970 in different directories. However, only one instance of such a
971 library objects directory is supported.
973 * Change to Libtool support:
975 - Libtool generic flags (those that go before the --mode=MODE option)
976 can be specified using AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS and target_LIBTOOLFLAGS.
978 * Yacc and Lex changes:
980 - The rebuild rules for distributed Yacc and Lex output will avoid
981 overwriting existing files if AM_MAINTAINER_MODE and maintainer-mode
984 - ylwrap is now always used for lex and yacc source files,
985 regardless of whether there is more than one source per directory.
989 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now honors CPPFLAGS,
990 AM_CPPFLAGS and per-target _CPPFLAGS, and supports dependency
991 tracking, unlike non-preprocessed assembler (*.s).
993 - subdir-object mode works now with Assembler. Automake assumes
994 that the compiler understands `-c -o'.
996 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now also honors
997 $(DEFS) $(DEFAULT_INCLUDES) $(INCLUDES).
999 - Improved support for Objective C:
1000 - Autoconf's new AC_PROG_OBJC will enable automatic dependency tracking.
1001 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1003 - New support for Unified Parallel C:
1004 - AM_PROG_UPC looks for a UPC compiler.
1005 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1007 - Per-target flags are now correctly handled in link rules.
1009 For instance maude_CFLAGS correctly overrides AM_CFLAGS; likewise
1010 for maude_LDFLAGS and AM_LDFLAGS. Previous versions bogusly
1011 preferred AM_CFLAGS over maude_CFLAGS while linking, and they
1012 used both AM_LDFLAGS and maude_LDFLAGS on the same link command.
1014 The fix for compiler flags (i.e., using maude_CFLAGS instead of
1015 AM_CFLAGS) should not hurt any package since that is how _CFLAGS
1016 is expected to work (and actually works during compilation).
1018 However using maude_LDFLAGS "instead of" AM_LDFLAGS rather than
1019 "in addition to" breaks backward compatibility with older versions.
1020 If your package used both variables, as in
1022 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1023 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1024 a_LDFLAGS = more flags
1027 and assumed *_LDFLAGS would sum up, you should rewrite it as
1029 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1030 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1031 a_LDFLAGS = $(AM_LDFLAGS) more flags
1034 This new behavior of *_LDFLAGS is more coherent with other
1035 per-target variables, and the way *_LDFLAGS variables were
1036 considered internally.
1038 * New installation targets:
1040 - New targets mandated by GNU Coding Standards:
1045 By default they will only install Texinfo manuals.
1046 You can customize them with *-local variants:
1052 - The undocumented recursive target `uninstall-info' no longer exists.
1053 (`uninstall' is in charge of removing all possible documentation
1054 flavors, including optional formats such as dvi, ps, or info even
1055 when `no-installinfo' is used.)
1057 * Miscellaneous changes:
1059 - Automake no longer complains if input files for AC_CONFIG_FILES
1060 are specified using shell variables.
1062 - clean, distribution, or rebuild rules are normally disabled for
1063 inputs and outputs of AC_CONFIG_FILES, AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, and
1064 AC_CONFIG_LINK specified using shell variables. However, if these
1065 variables are used as ${VAR}, and AC_SUBSTed, then Automake will
1066 be able to output rules anyway.
1067 (See the Automake documentation for AC_CONFIG_FILES.)
1069 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of TESTS
1070 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1071 This is mostly useful when some check_PROGRAMS are listed in TESTS.
1073 - `-Wportability' has finally been turned on by default for `gnu' and
1074 `gnits' strictness. This means, automake will complain about %-rules
1075 or $(GNU Make functions) unless you switch to `foreign' strictness or
1076 use `-Wno-portability'.
1078 - Automake now uses AC_PROG_MKDIR_P (new in Autoconf 2.60), and uses
1079 $(MKDIR_P) instead of $(mkdir_p) to create directories. The
1080 $(mkdir_p) variable is still defined (to the same value as
1081 $(MKDIR_P)) but should be considered obsolete. If you are using
1082 $(mkdir_p) in some of your rules, please plan to update them to
1083 $(MKDIR_P) at some point.
1085 - AM_C_PROTOTYPES and ansi2knr are now documented as being obsolete.
1086 They still work in this release, but may be withdrawn in a future one.
1088 - Inline compilation rules for gcc3-style dependency tracking are
1091 - Automake installs a "Hello World!" example package in $(docdir).
1092 This example is used throughout the new "Autotools Introduction"
1093 chapter of the manual.
1095 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1099 * Makefile.in bloat reduction:
1101 - Inference rules are used to compile sources in subdirectories when
1102 the `subdir-objects' option is used and no per-target flags are
1103 used. This should reduce the size of some projects a lot, because
1104 Automake used to output an explicit rule for each such object in
1107 - Automake no longer outputs three rules (.o, .obj, .lo) for each
1108 object that must be built with explicit rules. It just outputs
1109 the rules required to build the kind of object considered: either
1110 the two .o and .obj rules for usual objects, or the .lo rule for
1113 * Change to Libtool support:
1115 - Libtool tags are used with libtool versions that support them.
1116 (I.e., with Libtool 1.5 or greater.)
1118 - Automake is now able to handle setups where a libtool library is
1119 conditionally installed in different directories, as in
1122 lib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1124 pkglib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1126 liba_la_SOURCES = ...
1128 * Changes to aclocal:
1130 - aclocal now ensures that AC_DEFUNs and AU_DEFUNs it discovers are
1131 really evaluated, before it decides to include them in aclocal.m4.
1132 This solves nasty problems with conditional redefinitions of
1133 Autoconf macros in /usr/share/aclocal/*.m4 files causing extraneous
1134 *.m4 files to be included in any project using these macros.
1135 (Calls to AC_PROG_EGREP causing libtool.m4 to be included is the
1136 most famous instance of this bug.)
1138 - Do not complain about missing conditionally AC_REQUIREd macros
1139 that are not actually used. In 1.8.x aclocal would correctly
1140 determine which of these macros were really needed (and include
1141 only these in the package); unfortunately it would also require
1142 all of them to be present in order to run. This created
1143 situations were aclocal would not work on a tarball distributing
1144 all the macros it uses. For instance running aclocal on a project
1145 containing only the subset of the Gettext macros in use by the
1146 project did not work, because gettext conditionally requires other
1149 * Portability improvements:
1151 - Tar format can be chosen with the new options tar-v7, tar-ustar, and
1152 tar-pax. The new option filename-length-max=99 helps diagnosing
1153 filenames that are too long for tar-v7. (PR/414)
1155 - Variables aumented with `+=' are now automatically flattened (i.e.,
1156 trailing backslashes removed) and then wrapped around 80 colummns
1157 (adding trailing backslashes). In previous versions, a long series
1163 would result in a single-line definition of VAR that could possibly
1164 exceed the maximum line length of some make implementations.
1166 Non-augmented variables are still output as they are defined in
1171 - Support Fortran 90/95 with the new "fc" and "ppfc" languages.
1172 Works the same as the old Fortran 77 implementation; just replace
1173 F77 with FC everywhere (exception: FFLAGS becomes FCFLAGS).
1174 Requires a version of autoconf which provides AC_PROG_FC (>=2.59).
1176 - Support for conditional _LISP.
1178 - Support for conditional -hook and -local rules (PR/428).
1180 - Diagnose AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR calls following AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. (PR/49)
1182 - Automake will not write any Makefile.ins after the first error it
1183 encounters. The previous Makefile.ins (if any) will be left in
1184 place. (Warnings will not prevent output, but remember they can
1185 be turned into errors with -Werror.)
1187 - The restriction that SUBDIRS must contain direct children is gone.
1190 - The manual tells more about SUBDIRS vs. DIST_SUBDIRS.
1191 It also gives an example of nested packages using AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS.
1193 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1195 Bugs fixed in 1.8.5:
1197 * Long-standing bugs:
1199 - Define DIST_SUBDIRS even when the `no-dist' or `cygnus' options are used
1200 so that `make distclean' and `make maintainer-clean' can work.
1202 - Define AR and ARFLAGS even when only EXTRA_LIBRARIES are defined.
1204 - Fix many rules to please FreeBSD make, which runs commands with `sh -e'.
1206 - Polish diagnostic when no input file is found.
1208 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1210 Bugs fixed in 1.8.4:
1212 * Long-standing bugs:
1214 - Fix AM_PATH_PYTHON to correctly display $PYTHON when it has been
1215 overridden by the user.
1217 - Honor PATH_SEPARATOR in various places of the Automake package, for
1220 - Adjust dependency tracking mode detection to ICC 8.0's new output.
1223 - Fix install-sh so it can install the `mv' binary... using `mv'.
1225 - Fix tru64 dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1227 - Work around Exuberant Ctags when creating a TAGS files in a directory
1228 without files to scan but with subdirectories to include.
1230 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1232 - Fix an "internal error" when @LIBOBJS@ is used in a variable that is
1233 not defined in the same conditions as the _LDADD that uses it.
1235 - Do not warn when JAVAROOT is overridden, this is legitimate.
1237 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1239 Bugs fixed in 1.8.3:
1241 * Long-standing bugs:
1243 - Quote filenames in installation rules, in case $DESTDIR, $prefix,
1244 or any of the other *dir variables contain a space.
1246 Please note that Automake does not and cannot support spaces in
1247 filenames that are involved during the build. This change affects
1248 only installation paths, so that `make install' does not bomb out
1249 in packages configured with
1250 ./configure --prefix '/c/Program Files'
1252 - Fix the depfiles output so it works with GNU sed (<4.1) even when
1253 POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.
1255 - Do not AC_SUBST(LIBOBJS) in AM_WITH_REGEX. This macro was unusable
1256 since Autoconf 2.54, which defines LIBOBJS itself.
1258 - Fix a potential (but unlikely) race condition in parallel elisp
1259 builds. (Introduced in 1.7.3.)
1261 - Do not assume that users override _DEPENDENCIES in all conditions
1262 where Automake will try to define them.
1264 - Do not use `mkdir -p' in mkinstalldirs, unless this is GNU mkdir.
1265 Solaris 8's `mkdir -p' is not thread-safe and can break parallel
1268 This fix also affects the $(mkdir_p) variable defined since
1269 Automake 1.8. It will be set to `mkdir -p' only if mkdir is GNU
1270 mkdir, and to `mkinstalldirs' or `install-sh -d' otherwise.
1272 - Secure temporary directory creation in `make distcheck'. (PR/413)
1274 - Do not generate two build rules for `parser.h' when the
1275 parser appears in two different conditionals.
1277 - Work around a Solaris 8 /bin/sh bug in the test for dependency
1278 checking. Usually ./configure will not pick this shell; so this
1279 fix only helps cases where the shell is forced to /bin/sh.
1281 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1283 - In some situations (hand-written `m4_include's), aclocal would
1284 call the `File::Spec->rel2abs' method, which was only introduced
1285 in Perl 5.6. This new version reestablish support Perl 5.005.
1287 It is likely that the next major Automake releases will require at
1288 least Perl 5.6. Consider upgrading your development environment
1289 if you are still using the five-year-old Perl 5.005.
1291 - Automake would sometimes fail to define rules for targets listed
1292 in variables defined in multiple conditions. For instance on
1298 it would define only the `a.$(OBJEXT): a.c' rule and omit the
1299 `b.$(OBJEXT): b.c' rule.
1301 * New sections in manual:
1303 - Third-Party Makefiles: how to interface third party Makefiles.
1304 - Upgrading: upgrading packages to newer Automake versions.
1305 - Multiple Outputs: handling tools that produce many outputs.
1307 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1311 * A (well known) portability bug slipped in the changes made to
1312 install-sh in Automake 1.8.1. The broken install-sh would refuse to
1313 install anything on Tru64.
1315 * Fix install rules for conditionally built python files. (This never
1318 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1322 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1324 - Fix Config.pm import error with old Perl versions (at least
1325 5.005_03). One symptom is that aclocal could not find its macro
1328 - Automake 1.8 used `mkdir -m 0755 -p --' to ensure that directories
1329 created by `make install' are always world readable, even if the
1330 installer happens to have an overly restrictive umask (e.g. 077).
1331 This was a mistake and has been reverted. There are at least two
1332 reasons why we must not use `-m 0755':
1333 - it causes special bits like SGID to be ignored,
1334 - it may be too restrictive (some setups expect 775 directories).
1336 - Fix aclocal to honor definitions located in files which have been
1337 m4_included manually. aclocal 1.8 had been updated to check
1338 m4_included files for new requirements, but forgot that these
1339 m4_included files can also provide new definitions.
1341 Note that if you have such a setup, we recommend you get rid of
1342 it. In the past, there was a reason to m4_include files manually:
1343 aclocal used to duplicate entire M4 files into aclocal.m4, even
1344 files that were distributed. Some packages were therefore
1345 m4_including the distributed file directly, and playing some
1346 tricks to ensure aclocal would not copy that file to aclocal.m4,
1347 in order to limit the amount of duplication. Since aclocal 1.8.x
1348 will precisely output m4_includes for local M4 files, we recommend
1349 that you clean up your setup, removing all manual m4_includes and
1350 letting aclocal output them.
1352 - Output detailed menus in the Info version if the Automake manual,
1353 so that Emacs can locate the indexes.
1355 - configure.ac and configure were listed twice in DIST_COMMON (an
1356 internal variable where Automake lists configury files to
1357 distribute). This was harmless, but unaesthetic.
1359 - Use `chmod a-w' instead of `chmod -w' as the latter honors umask.
1360 This was an issue only in the Automake package itself, not in
1363 - Automake assumed that all AC_CONFIG_LINKS arguments had the form
1364 DEST:SRC. This was wrong, as some packages do
1365 AC_CONFIG_LINKS($computedlinks). This version no longer abort in
1368 - Contrary to mkinstalldirs, $(mkdir_p) was expecting exactly one
1369 argument. This caused two kinds of failures:
1370 - Rules installing data in a conditionally defined directory
1371 failed when that directory was undefined. In this case no
1372 argument was supplied.
1373 - `make installdirs' failed, because several directories were
1374 passed to $(mkdir_p). This was an issue only on platform
1375 were $(mkdir_p) is implemented with `install-sh -d'.
1376 $(mkdir_p) as been changed to accept 0 or more arguments, as
1379 * Long-standing bugs:
1381 - Fix an unexpected diagnostic occurring when users attempt
1382 to override some internal variables that Automake appends to.
1384 - aclocal now scans configure.ac for macro definitions (PR/319).
1386 - Fix a portability issue with OSF1/Tru64 Make. If a directory
1387 distributes files which are outside itself (this usually occurs
1388 when using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([../dir]) to use auxiliary files
1389 from a parent package), then `make distcheck' fails due to an
1390 optimization performed by OSF1/Tru64 Make in its VPATH handling.
1391 (tests/subpkg2.test failure)
1393 - Fix another portability issue with Sun and OSF1/Tru64 Make.
1394 In a VPATH-build configuration, `make install' would install
1395 nobase_ files to wrong locations.
1397 - Fix a Perl `uninitialized value' diagnostic occurring when
1398 automake complains that a Texinfo file does not have a
1399 @setfilename statement.
1401 - Erase config.status.lineno during `make distclean'. This file
1402 can be created by config.status. Automake already knew about
1403 configure.lineno, but forgot config.status.lineno.
1405 - Distribute all files, even those which are built and installed
1406 conditionally. This change affects files listed in conditionally
1407 defined *_HEADERS and *_PYTHON variable (unless they are nodist_*)
1408 as well as those listed in conditionally defined dist_*_DATA,
1409 dist_*_JAVA, dist_*_LISP, and dist_*_SCRIPTS variables.
1411 - Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to avoid \? in sed regular expressions; it
1412 doesn't conform to POSIX.
1414 - Normalize help strings for configure variables and options added
1419 - Check for python2.4 in AM_PATH_PYTHON.
1421 * Spurious failures in test suite:
1423 - tests/libtool5.test, tests/ltcond.test, tests/ltcond2.test,
1424 tests/ltconv.test: fix failures with CVS Libtool.
1425 - tests/aclocal6.test: fix failure if autom4te.cache is disabled.
1426 - tests/txinfo24.test, tests/txinfo25.test, tests/txinfo28.test:
1427 fix failures with old Texinfo versions.
1429 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1435 - The NEWS file is more verbose.
1439 - Autoconf 2.58 or greater is required.
1443 - Default source file names in the absence of a _SOURCES declaration
1444 are made by removing any target extension before appending `.c', so
1445 to make the libtool module `foo.la' from `foo.c', you only need to
1448 lib_LTLIBRARIES = foo.la
1449 foo_la_LDFLAGS = -module
1451 For backward compatibility, foo_la.c will be used instead of
1452 foo.c if this file exists or is the explicit target of a rule.
1453 However -Wobsolete will warn about this deprecated naming.
1455 - AR's `cru' flags are now set in a global ARFLAGS variable instead
1456 of being hard-coded in each $(AR) invocation, so they can be
1457 substituted from configure.ac. This has been requested by people
1458 dealing with non-POSIX ar implementations.
1460 - New warning option: -Woverride. This will warn about any user
1461 target or variable definitions which override Automake
1464 - Texinfo rules back up and restore info files when makeinfo fails.
1466 - Texinfo rules now support the `html' target.
1467 Running this requires Texinfo 4.0 or greater.
1469 `html' is a new recursive target, so if your package mixes
1470 hand-crafted `Makefile.in's with Automake-generated
1471 `Makefile.in's, you should adjust the former to support (or
1472 ignore) this target so that `make html' recurses successfully. If
1473 you had a custom `html' rule in your `Makefile.am', it's better to
1474 rename it as `html-local', otherwise your rule will override
1475 Automake's new rule (you can check that by running `automake
1476 -Woverride') and that will stop the recursion to subdirectories.
1478 Last but not least, this `html' rule is declared PHONY, even when
1479 overridden. Fortunately, it appears that few packages use a
1480 non-PHONY `html' rule.
1482 - Any file which is m4_included from configure.ac will appear as a
1483 configure and Makefile.in dependency, and will be automatically
1486 - The rules for rebuilding Makefiles and Makefile.ins will now
1487 rebuild all Makefiles and all Makefile.ins at once when one of
1488 configure's dependencies has changed. This is considerably faster
1489 than previous implementations, where config.status and automake
1490 were run separately in each directory (this still happens when you
1491 change a Makefile.am locally, without touching configure.ac or
1492 friends). Doing this also solves a longstanding issue: these
1493 rebuild rules failed to work when adding new directories to the
1494 tree, forcing you to run automake manually.
1496 - For similar reasons, the rules to rebuild configure,
1497 config.status, and aclocal.m4 are now defined in all directories.
1498 Note that if you were using the CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES and
1499 CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES (formerly undocumented) variables, you
1500 should better define them in all directories. This is easily done
1501 using an AC_SUBST (make sure you prefix these dependencies with
1502 $(top_srcdir) since this variable will appear at different
1503 levels of the build tree).
1505 - aclocal will now use `m4_include' instead of copying local m4
1506 files into aclocal.m4. (Local m4 files are those you ship with
1507 your project, other files will be copied as usual.)
1509 Because m4_included files are automatically distributed, it means
1510 for most projects there is no point in EXTRA_DISTing the list of
1511 m4 files which are used. (You can probably get rid of
1512 m4/Makefile.am if you had one.)
1514 - aclocal will avoid touching aclocal.m4 when possible, so that
1515 Autom4te's cache isn't needlessly invalidated. This behavior can
1516 be switched off with the new `--force' option.
1518 - aclocal now uses Autoconf's --trace to detect macros which are
1519 actually used and will no longer include unused macros simply
1520 because they where mentioned. This was often the case for macros
1521 called conditionally.
1523 - New options no-dist and no-dist-gzip.
1525 - compile, depcomp, elisp-comp, install-sh, mdate-sh, mkinstalldirs,
1526 py-compile, and ylwrap, now all understand --version and --help.
1528 - Automake will now recognize AC_CONFIG_LINKS so far as removing created
1529 links as part of the distclean target and including source files in
1532 - AM_PATH_PYTHON now supports ACTION-IF-FOUND and ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND
1533 argument. The latter can be used to override the default behavior
1534 (which is to abort).
1536 - Automake will exit with $? = 63 on version mismatch. (So does
1537 Autoconf 2.58) missing knows this, and in this case it will
1538 emulate the tools as if they were absent. Because older versions
1539 of Automake and Autoconf did not use this exit code, this change
1540 will only be useful in projects generated with future versions of
1543 - When using AC_CONFIG_FILES with multiple input files, Automake
1544 generates the first ".in" input file for which a ".am" exists.
1545 (Former versions would try to use only the first input file.)
1547 - lisp_DATA is now allowed. If you are using the empty ELCFILES
1548 idiom to disable byte-compilation of lisp_LISP files, it is
1549 recommended that you switch to using lisp_DATA. Note that
1550 this is not strictly equivalent: lisp_DATA will install elisp
1551 files even if emacs is not installed, while *_LISP do not
1552 install anything unless emacs is found.
1554 - Makefiles will prefer `mkdir -p' over mkinstalldirs if it is
1555 available. This selection is achieved through the Makefile
1556 variable $(mkdir_p) that is set by AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE to either
1557 `mkdir -m 0755 -p --', `$(mkinstalldirs) -m 0755', or
1558 `$(install_sh) -m 0755 -d'.
1562 - Because `mkdir -p' is available on most platforms, and we can use
1563 `install-sh -d' when it is not, the use of the mkinstalldirs
1564 script is being phased out. `automake --add-missing' no longer
1565 installs it, and if you remove mkinstalldirs from your package,
1566 automake will define $(mkinstalldirs) as an alias for $(mkdir_p).
1568 Gettext 0.12.1 still requires mkinstalldirs. Fortunately
1569 gettextize and autopoint will install it when needed. Automake
1570 will continue to define the $(mkinstalldirs) and to distribute
1571 mkinstalldirs when this script is in the source tree.
1573 - AM_PROG_CC_STDC is now empty. The content of this macro was
1574 merged in AC_PROG_CC. If your code uses $am_cv_prog_cc_stdc, you
1575 should adjust it to use $ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc instead. (This
1576 renaming should be safe, even if you have to support several,
1577 versions of Automake, because AC_PROG_CC defines this variable
1578 since Autoconf 2.54.)
1580 - Some users where using the undocumented ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES
1581 variable to override the aclocal.m4 dependencies computed
1582 (inaccurately) by older versions of Automake. Because Automake
1583 now tracks configure's m4 dependencies accurately (see m4_include
1584 above), the use of ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES should be considered
1585 obsolete and will be flagged as such when running `automake
1590 - Defining programs conditionally using Automake conditionals no
1591 longer leads to a combinatorial explosion. The following
1592 construct used to be troublesome when used with dozens of
1607 Likewise for _SOURCES, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables.
1609 - Due to implementation constraints, previous versions of Automake
1610 proscribed multiple conditional definitions of some variables
1620 All _PROGRAMS, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables were affected.
1621 This restriction has been lifted, and these variables now
1622 support multiple conditional definitions as do other variables.
1624 - Cleanup the definitions of $(distdir) and $(top_distdir).
1625 $(top_distdir) now points to the root of the distribution
1626 directory created during `make dist', as it did in Automake 1.4,
1627 not to the root of the build tree as it did in intervening
1628 versions. Furthermore these two variables are now only defined in
1629 the top level Makefile, and passed to sub-directories when running
1632 - The --no-force option now correctly checks the Makefile.in's
1633 dependencies before deciding not to update it.
1635 - Do not assume that make files are called Makefile in cleaning rules.
1637 - Update .info files in the source tree, not in the build tree. This
1638 is what the GNU Coding Standard recommend. Only Automake 1.7.x
1639 used to update these files in the build tree (previous versions did
1640 it in the source tree too), and it caused several problems, varying
1641 from mere annoyance to portability issues.
1643 - COPYING, COPYING.LIB, and COPYING.LESSER are no longer overwritten
1644 when --add-missing and --force-missing are used. For backward
1645 compatibility --add-missing will continue to install COPYING (in
1646 `gnu' strictness) when none of these three files exist, but this
1647 use is deprecated: you should better choose a license yourself and
1648 install it once for all in your source tree (and in your code
1651 - Fix ylwrap so that it does not overwrite header files that haven't
1652 changed, as the inline rule already does.
1654 - User-defined rules override automake-defined rules for the same
1655 targets, even when rules do not have commands. This is not new
1656 (and was documented), however some of the automake-generated
1657 rules have escaped this principle in former Automake versions.
1658 Rules for the following targets are affected by this fix:
1660 clean, clean-am, dist-all, distclean, distclean-am, dvi, dvi-am,
1661 info, info-am, install-data-am, install-exec-am, install-info,
1662 install-info-am, install-man, installcheck-am, maintainer-clean,
1663 maintainer-clean-am, mostlyclean, mostlyclean-am, pdf, pdf-am,
1664 ps, ps-am, uninstall-am, uninstall-info, uninstall-man
1666 Practically it means that an attempt to supplement the dependencies
1667 of some target, as in
1669 clean: my-clean-rule
1671 will now *silently override* the automake definition of the
1672 rule for this target. Running `automake -Woverride' will diagnose
1673 all such overriding definitions.
1675 It should be noted that almost all of these targets support a *-local
1676 variant that is meant to supplement the automake-defined rule
1677 (See node `Extending' in the manual). The above rule should
1680 clean-local: my-clean-rule
1682 These *-local targets have been documented since at least
1683 Automake 1.2, so you should not fear the change if you have
1684 to support multiple automake versions.
1688 - The Automake manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
1690 - Targets dist-gzip, dist-bzip2, dist-tarZ, dist-zip are always defined.
1692 - core dumps are no longer removed by the cleaning rules. There are
1693 at least three reasons for this:
1694 1. These files should not be created by any build step,
1695 so their removal do not fit any of the cleaning rules.
1696 Actually, they may be precious to the developer.
1697 2. If such file is created during a build, then it's clearly a
1698 bug Automake should not hide. Not removing the file will
1699 cause `make distcheck' to complain about its presence.
1700 3. Operating systems have different naming conventions for
1701 core dump files. A core file on one system might be a
1702 completely legitimate data file on another system.
1704 - RUNTESTFLAGS, CTAGSFLAGS, ETAGSFLAGS, JAVACFLAGS are no longer
1705 defined by Automake. This means that any definition in the
1706 environment will be used, unless overridden in the Makefile.am or
1707 on the command line. The old behavior, where these variables were
1708 defined empty in each Makefile, can be obtained by AC_SUBSTing or
1709 AC_ARG_VARing each variable from configure.ac.
1711 - CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES and CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES are now
1712 documented. (The is not a new feature, these variables have
1713 been there since at least Automake 1.4.)
1715 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1717 Bugs fixed in 1.7.9:
1718 * Fix install-strip to work with nobase_ binaries.
1719 * Fix renaming of #line directives in ylwrap.
1720 * Rebuild with Autoconf 2.59. (1.7.8 was not installable with pdksh.)
1722 Bugs fixed in 1.7.8:
1723 * Remove spurious blank lines in cleaning rules introduced in 1.7.7.
1724 * Fix detection of Debian's install-info, broken since version 1.5.
1725 (Debian bug #213524).
1726 * Honor -module if it appears in AM_LDFLAGS (i.e., relax name checking)
1727 This was only done for libfoo_LDFLAGS and LDFLAGS in previous versions.
1729 Bugs fixed in 1.7.7:
1730 * The implementation of automake's --no-force option is unreliable,
1731 so this option is ignored in this version. A real fix will appear in
1732 Automake 1.8. (Debian Bug #206299)
1733 * AM_PATH_PYTHON: really check the whole list of interpreters if no
1734 argument is given. (PR/399)
1735 * Do not warn about leading `_' in variable names, even with -Wportability.
1736 * Support user redefinitions of TEXINFO_TEX.
1737 * depcomp: support AIX Compiler version 6.
1738 * Fix missing rebuilds during `make dist' with BSD make.
1739 (Could produce tarballs containing out-of-date files.)
1740 * Resurrect multilib support.
1741 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1742 - Extending aclocal: how to write m4 macros that won't trigger warnings
1744 - A Shared Library: Rewrite and split into subsections.
1746 Bugs fixed in 1.7.6:
1747 * Fix depcomp's icc mode for ICC 7.1.
1748 * Diagnose calls to AC_CONFIG_FILES and friends with not enough arguments.
1749 * Fix maintainer-clean's removal of autom4te.cache in VPATH builds.
1750 * Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to work with POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
1751 * Fix the location reported in some diagnostics related to AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
1752 * Remove Latin-1 characters from elisp-comp.
1753 * Update the manual's @dircategory to match the Free Software Directory.
1755 Bugs fixed in 1.7.5:
1756 * Update install-sh's license to remove an advertising clause.
1757 (Debian bug #191717)
1758 * Fix a bug introduced in 1.7.4, related to BUILT_SOURCE handling,
1759 that caused invalid Makefile.ins to be generated.
1760 * Make sure AM_MAKE_INCLUDE doesn't fail when a `doit' file exists.
1761 * New FAQ entry: renamed objects.
1763 Bugs fixed in 1.7.4:
1764 * Tweak the TAGS rule to support Exuberant Ctags (in addition to
1765 the Emacs implementation)
1766 * Fix output of aclocal.m4 dependencies in subdirectories.
1767 * Use `mv -f' instead of `mv' in fastdep rules.
1768 * Upgrade mdate-sh to work on OS/2.
1769 * Don't byte-compile elisp files when ELCFILES is set empty.
1770 (this documented feature was broken by 1.7.3)
1771 * Diagnose trailing backslashes on last line of Makefile.am.
1772 * Diagnose whitespace following trailing backslashes.
1773 * Multiple tests are now correctly supported in DEJATOOL. (PR/388)
1774 * Fix rebuilt rules for AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.bot])
1776 * `make install' will build `BUILT_SOURCES' first.
1777 * Minor documentation fixes.
1779 Bugs fixed in 1.7.3:
1780 * Fix stamp files numbering (when using multiple AC_CONFIG_HEADERS).
1781 * Query distutils for `pythondir' and `pythonexecdir', instead of
1782 using an hardcoded path. This should allow builds on 64-bit
1783 distributions that usually use lib64/ instead of lib/.
1784 * AM_PATH_PYTHON will also search for python2.3.
1785 * elisp files are now built all at once instead of one by one. Besides
1786 incurring a speed-up, this is required to support interdependent elisp files.
1787 * Support for DJGPP:
1788 - `make distcheck' will now work in `_inst/' and `_build' instead
1789 of `=inst/' and `=build/'
1790 - use `_dirstamp' when the file-system doesn't support `.dirstamp'
1791 - install/uninstall `*.i[0-9][0-9]'-style info files
1792 - more changes that affect only the Automake package (not its output)
1793 * Fix some incompatibilities with upcoming perl-5.10.
1794 * Properly quote AC_PACKAGE_TARNAME and AC_PACKAGE_VERSION when defining
1795 PACKAGE and VERSION.
1797 - dashmstdout and dashXmstdout modes: don't use `-o /dev/null', this
1798 is troublesome with gcc and Solaris compilers. (PR/385)
1799 - makedepend mode: work with Libtool. (PR/385 too)
1801 * better support for unusual gettext setups, such as multiple po/ directories
1803 - Flag missing po/ and intl/ directories as warnings, not errors.
1804 - Disable these warnings if po/ does not exist.
1805 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1807 - Document how AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR interacts with missing files.
1809 - Document `AM_YFLAGS = -d'. (PR/382)
1811 Bugs fixed in 1.7.2:
1812 * Fix installation and uninstallation of Info files built in subdirectories.
1813 * Do not run `./configure --with-included-gettext' during `make distcheck'
1814 if AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) is used.
1815 * Correctly uninstall renamed man pages.
1816 * Do not strip escaped newline in variables defined in one condition
1817 and augmented in another condition.
1818 * Fix ansi2knr rules for LIBOBJS sources.
1819 * Clean all known Texinfo index files, not only those which appear to
1820 be used, because we cannot know which indexes are used in included files.
1821 (PR/375, Debian Bug #168671)
1822 * Honor only the first @setfilename seen in a Texinfo file.
1823 * Treat "required file X not found" diagnostics as errors (exit status 1).
1824 * Don't complain that a required file is not found when it is a Makefile
1826 * Don't use single suffix inference rules when building `.info'-less
1827 Info files, for the sake of Solaris make.
1828 * The `check' target now depends on `$(BUILT_SOURCES)'. (PR/359)
1829 * Recognize multiple inference rules such as `.a.b .c.d:'. (PR/371)
1830 * Warn about multiple inference rules when -Wportability is used. (PR/372)
1831 * Fix building of deansified files from subdirectories. (PR/370)
1832 * Add missing `fi' in the .c->.obj rules.
1833 * Improve install-sh to work even when names contain spaces or certain
1834 (but not all) shell metachars.
1835 * Fix the following spurious failures in the test suite:
1836 depcomp2.test, gnits2.test, gnits3.test, python3.test, texinfo13.test
1837 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1838 - Augment the section about BUILT_SOURCES.
1839 - Mention that AM_PROG_CC_STDC is a relic that is better avoided today.
1841 Bugs fixed in 1.7.1:
1842 * Honor `ansi2knr' for files built in subdirectories, or using per-targets
1844 * Aclocal should now recognize macro names containing parentheses, e.g.
1845 AC_DEFUN([AC_LANG_PREPROC(Fortran 90)], [...]).
1846 * Erase *.sum and *.log files created by DejaGnu, during `make distclean'.
1848 * Install Python files even if they were built. (PR/369)
1849 * Have stamp-vti dependent upon configure instead of configure.ac, as the
1850 version might not be defined in the latter. (PR/358)
1851 * Reorder arguments passed to a couple of commands, so things works
1852 when POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
1853 * Fix a regex that can cause Perl to segfault on large input.
1855 * Fix distribution of packages that have some sources defined conditionally,
1856 as in the `Conditional compilation using Automake conditionals' example
1858 * Fix spurious test suite failures on IRIX.
1859 * Don't report a required variable as undefined if it has been
1860 defined conditionally for the "right" conditions.
1861 * Fix cleaning of the /tmp subdirectory used by `make distcheck', in case
1862 `make distcheck' fails.
1863 * Fix distribution of included Makefile fragment, so we don't create
1864 spurious directories in the distribution. (PR/366)
1865 * Don't complain that a target lacks `.$(EXEEXT)' when it has it.
1868 * Autoconf 2.54 is required.
1869 * `aclocal' and `automake' will no longer warn about obsolete
1870 configure macros. This is done by `autoconf -Wobsolete'.
1871 * AM_CONFIG_HEADER, AM_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS and
1872 AM_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ_NEEDS_SYS_IOCTL are obsolete (although still
1873 supported). You should use AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS,
1874 and AC_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ instead. `autoupdate' can upgrade
1875 `configure.ac' for you.
1876 * Support for per-program and per-library `_CPPFLAGS'.
1877 * New `ctags' target (builds CTAGS files).
1878 * Support for -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble, where mumble is a warning category
1879 (see `automake --help' or the manual for a list of them).
1880 * Honor the WARNINGS environment variable.
1881 * Omit the call to depcomp when using gcc3: call the compiler directly.
1882 * A new option, std-options, tests that programs support --help and --version
1883 when `make installcheck' is run. This is enabled by --gnits.
1884 * Texinfo rules now support the `ps' and `pdf' targets.
1885 * Info files are now created in the build directory, not the source directory.
1886 * info_TEXINFOS supports files in subdirectories (this requires Texinfo 4.1
1888 * `make distcheck' will enforce DESTDIR support by attempting
1890 * `+=' can be used in conditionals, even if the augmented variable
1891 was defined for another condition.
1892 * Makefile fragments (inserted with `include') are always distributed.
1893 * Use Autoconf's --trace interface to inspect configure.ac and get
1894 a more accurate view of it.
1895 * Add support for extending aclocal's default macro search path
1896 using a `dirlist' file within the aclocal directory.
1897 * automake --output-dir is deprecated.
1898 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether uninstall actually
1899 removes all installed files has been moved in a separate target,
1900 distuninstallcheck, so it can be overridden easily.
1904 * Support for AM_INIT_GETTEXT([external])
1905 * Bug fixes, including:
1906 - Fix Automake's own `make install' so it works even if `ln' doesn't.
1907 - nobase_ programs and scripts honor --program-transform correctly.
1908 - Erase configure.lineno during `make distclean'.
1909 - Erase YACC and LEX outputs during `make maintainer-clean'.
1912 * Many bug fixes, including:
1913 - Requiring the current version works.
1914 - Fix "$@" portability issues (for Zsh).
1915 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
1917 - Don't compute dependencies in background to avoid races with libtool.
1918 - Fix handling of _OBJECTS variables for targets sharing source variables.
1919 - Check dependency mode for Java when AM_PROG_GCJ is used.
1922 * automake --output-dir is deprecated
1923 * Many bug fixes, including:
1924 - Don't choke on AM_LDFLAGS definitions.
1925 - Clean libtool objects from subdirectories.
1926 - Allow configure variables with reserved suffix and unknown prefix
1927 (e.g. AC_SUBST(mumble_LDFLAGS) when 'mumble' is not a target).
1928 - Fix the definition of AUTOMAKE and ACLOCAL in configure.
1931 * Autoconf 2.52 is required.
1932 * automake no longer run libtoolize.
1933 This is the job of autoreconf (from GNU Autoconf).
1934 * `dist' generates all the archive flavors, as did `dist-all'.
1935 * `dist-gzip' generates the Gzip tar file only.
1936 * Combining Automake Makefile conditionals no longer lead to a combinatorial
1937 explosion. Makefile.in's keep a reasonable size.
1938 * AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_STRTOD, AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, AM_PTRDIFF_T
1939 are no longer shipped, since Autoconf 2.52 provides them (both as AM_
1941 * `#line' of Lex and Yacc files are properly set.
1942 * EXTRA_DIST can contain generated directories.
1943 * Support for dot-less extensions in suffix rules.
1944 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether distclean actually
1945 cleans all built files has been moved in a separate target, distcleancheck,
1946 so it can be overridden easily.
1947 * `make distcheck' will pass additional options defined in
1948 $(DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS) to configure.
1949 * Fixed CDPATH portability problems, in particular for MacOS X.
1950 * Fixed handling of nobase_ targets.
1951 * Fixed support of implicit rules leading to .lo objects.
1952 * Fixed late inclusion of --add-missing files (e.g. depcomp) in DIST_COMMON
1953 * Added uninstall-hook target
1954 * `AC_INIT AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(tarname,version)' is an obsolete construct.
1955 You can now use `AC_INIT(pkgname,version) AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE' instead.
1956 (Note that "pkgname" is not "tarname", see the manual for details.)
1957 It is also possible to pass a list of global Automake options as
1958 first argument to this new form of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.
1959 * Compiler-based assembler is now called `CCAS'; people expected `AS'
1960 to be a real assembler.
1961 * AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE will set STRIP itself when it needs it. Adding
1962 AC_CHECK_TOOL([STRIP], [strip]) manually is no longer required.
1963 * aclocal and automake are also installed with the version number
1964 appended, and some of the install directory names have changed.
1965 This lets you have multiple versions installed simultaneously.
1966 * Support for parsers and lexers in subdirectories.
1969 * Support for `configure.ac'.
1970 * Support for `else COND', `endif COND' and negated conditions `!COND'.
1971 * `make dist-all' is much faster.
1972 * Allows '@' AC_SUBSTs in macro names.
1973 * Faster AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE (requires update of `missing' script)
1974 * User-side dependency tracking. Developers no longer need GNU make
1976 * Uses DIST_SUBDIRS in some situations when SUBDIRS is conditional
1977 * Most files are correctly handled if they appear in subdirs
1978 For instance, a _DATA file can appear in a subdir
1979 * GNU tar is no longer required for `make dist'
1980 * Added support for `dist_' and `nodist_' prefixes
1981 * Added support for `nobase_' prefix
1982 * Compiled Java support
1983 * Support for per-executable and per-library compilation flags
1987 * Added support for the Fortran 77 programming language.
1988 * Re-indexed the Automake Texinfo manual.
1989 * Added `AM_FOOFLAGS' variable for each compiler invocation;
1990 e.g. AM_CFLAGS can be used in Makefile.am to set C compiler flags
1991 * Support for latest autoconf, including support for objext
1992 * Can now put `.' in SUBDIRS to control build order
1993 * `include' command and `+=' support for macro assignment
1994 * Dependency tracking no long susceptible to deleted header file problem
1995 * Maintainer mode now a conditional. @MAINT@ is now an anachronism.
2000 * Better Cygwin32 support
2001 * Support for suffix rules with _SOURCES variables
2002 * New options `readme-alpha' and `check-news'; Gnits mode sets these
2003 * @LEXLIB@ no longer required when lex source seen
2004 Lex support in `missing', and new lex macro. Update your missing script.
2005 * Built-in support for assembly
2006 * aclocal gives error if `AM_' macro not found
2007 * Passed YFLAGS, not YACCFLAGS, to yacc
2008 * AM_PROG_CC_STDC does not have to come before AC_PROG_CPP
2009 * Dependencies computed as a side effect of compilation
2010 * Preliminary support for Java
2011 * DESTDIR support at "make install" time
2012 * Improved ansi2knr support; you must use the latest ansi2knr.c (included)
2016 * Better DejaGnu support
2017 * Added no-installinfo option
2018 * Added Emacs Lisp support
2019 * Added --no-force option
2020 * Included `aclocal' program
2021 * Automake will now generate rules to regenerate aclocal.m4, if appropriate
2022 * Now uses `AM_' macro names everywhere
2023 * ansi2knr option can have directory prefix (eg `../lib/ansi2knr')
2024 ansi2knr now works correctly on K&R sources
2025 * Better C++, yacc, lex support
2026 * Will compute _DEPENDENCIES variables automatically if not supplied
2027 * Will interpolate $(...) and ${...} when examining contents of a variable
2028 * .deps files now in build directory, not source directory; dependency
2029 handling generally rewritten
2030 * DATA, MANS and BUILT_SOURCES no longer included in distribution
2031 * can now put config.h into a subdir
2032 * Added dist-all target
2033 * Support for install-info program (see texinfo 3.9)
2034 * Support for "yacc -d"
2035 * configure substitutions are automatically discovered and included
2036 in generated Makefile.in
2037 * Special --cygnus mode
2038 * OMIT_DEPENDENCIES can now hold list of dependencies to be omitted
2039 when making distribution. Some dependencies are auto-ignored.
2040 * Changed how libraries are specified in _LIBRARIES variable
2041 * Full libtool support, from Gord Matzigkeit
2042 * No longer have to explicitly touch stamp-h when using AC_CONFIG_HEADER;
2043 AM_CONFIG_HEADER handles it automatically
2044 * Texinfo output files no longer need .info extension
2045 * Added `missing' support
2047 * Conditionals in Makefile.am, from Ian Taylor
2051 * distcheck target runs install and installcheck targets
2052 * Added preliminary support for DejaGnu.
2057 * More libtool fixes from Gord Matzigkeit; libtool support is still
2059 * Added support for jm_MAINTAINER_MODE
2061 * New "distcheck" target
2065 * mkinstalldirs and mdate-sh now appear in directory specified by
2067 * Removed DIST_SUBDIRS, DIST_OTHER
2068 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM only required when an actual program exists
2069 * dist-hook target now run before distribution packaged up; idea from
2070 Dieter Baron. Other hooks exist, too.
2071 * Preliminary (unfinished) support for libtool
2072 * Added short option names.
2073 * Better "dist" support when gluing together multiple packages
2077 * Documentation updates (many from François Pinard)
2078 * strictness `normal' now renamed to `foreign'
2079 * Renamed --install-missing to --add-missing
2080 * Now handles AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
2081 * Now handles TESTS macro
2082 * DIST_OTHER renamed to EXTRA_DIST
2083 * DIST_SUBDIRS is deprecated
2084 * @ALLOCA@ and @LIBOBJS@ now work in _LDADD variables
2085 * Better error messages in many cases
2086 * Program names are canonicalized
2087 * Added "check" prefix; from Gord Matzigkeit
2091 * configure.in scanner knows about AC_PATH_XTRA, AC_OUTPUT ":" syntax
2092 * Beginnings of a test suite
2093 * Automatically adds -I options for $(srcdir), ".", and path to config.h
2094 * Doesn't print anything when running
2095 * Beginnings of MAINT_CHARSET support
2096 * Can specify version in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS
2097 * Most errors recognizable by Emacs' M-x next-error
2098 * Added --verbose option
2099 * All "primary" variables now obsolete; use EXTRA_PRIMARY to supply
2100 configure-generated names
2101 * Required macros now distributed in aclocal.m4
2103 * --strictness=gnu is default
2107 * More sophisticated configure.in scanning; now understands ALLOCA and
2108 LIBOBJS directly, handles AC_CONFIG_HEADER more precisely, etc.
2109 * TEXINFOS and MANS now obsolete; use info_TEXINFOS and man_MANS instead.
2110 * CONFIG_HEADER variable now obsolete
2111 * Can handle multiple Texinfo sources
2112 * Allow hierarchies deeper than 2. From Gord Matzigkeit.
2113 * HEADERS variable no longer needed; now can put .h files directly into
2114 foo_SOURCES variable.
2115 * Automake automatically rebuilds files listed in AC_OUTPUT. The
2116 corresponding ".in" files are included in the distribution.
2119 * Added --gnu and --gnits options
2120 * More standards checking
2122 * Cleaned up 'dist' targets
2123 * Added AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS variable and several options
2124 * Now scans configure.in to get some information (preliminary)
2127 * Works with Perl 4 again
2130 * Added --install-missing option.
2131 * Pretty-prints generated macros and rules
2132 * Comments in Makefile.am are placed more intelligently in Makefile.in
2133 * Generates .PHONY target
2134 * Rule or macro in Makefile.am now overrides contents of Automake file
2135 * Substantial cleanups from François Pinard
2139 * Works with Perl 4 again.
2142 * New uniform naming scheme.
2143 * --strictness option
2145 * '.c' files corresponding to '.y' or '.l' files are automatically
2147 * Many bug fixes and cleanups
2150 * Allow objects to be conditionally included in libraries via lib_LIBADD.
2153 * Bug fixes in 'clean' code.
2154 * Now generates 'installdirs' target.
2155 * man page installation reworked.
2156 * 'make dist' no longer re-creates all Makefile.in's.
2159 * Reimplemented in Perl
2160 * Added --amdir option (for debugging)
2161 * Texinfo support cleaned up.
2162 * Automatic de-ANSI-fication cleaned up.
2163 * Cleaned up 'clean' targets.
2166 * Automatic dependency tracking
2167 * More documentation
2168 * New variables DATA and PACKAGEDATA
2169 * SCRIPTS installed using $(INSTALL_SCRIPT)
2170 * No longer uses double-colon rules
2172 * Changes in advance of internationalization
2176 Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2178 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
2179 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2180 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
2183 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2184 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2185 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2186 GNU General Public License for more details.
2188 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2189 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.