3 * Version requirements:
5 - Autoconf 2.65 or greater is required.
7 - The rules to build PDF and DVI output from Texinfo input now
8 requires Texinfo 4.9 or later.
10 * Obsolete features removed:
12 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
13 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is not supported anymore.
15 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (once enabled by the 'cygnus'
16 option) has been removed. See discussion about automake bug#11034
19 - The automake-provided '@mkdir_p@' configure substitution and
20 AM_PROG_MKDIR m4 macro have been removed. They had been obsolete
21 since automake 1.10, and actively deprecated since Automake 1.12.1.
22 However, to maintain a degree of backward-compatibility, the make
23 variable '$(mkdir_p)' is still defined (now simple as an alias to
24 '$(MKDIR_P)'). It will probably be removed in future major versions
25 of Automake (probably 1.14).
27 - The deprecated aclocal option '--acdir' has been removed. You
28 should use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir'
29 instead (which have been introduced in Automake 1.11.2).
31 - The following long-obsolete m4 macros have been removed:
33 AM_PROG_CC_STDC: superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002
34 fp_PROG_CC_STDC: broken alias for AM_PROG_CC_STDC
35 fp_WITH_DMALLOC: old alias for AM_WITH_DMALLOC
36 AM_CONFIG_HEADER: superseded by AC_CONFIG_HEADERS since July 2002
37 ud_PATH_LISPDIR: old alias for AM_PATH_LISPDIR
38 jm_MAINTAINER_MODE: old alias for AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
39 ud_GNU_GETTEXT: old alias for AM_GNU_GETTEXT
40 gm_PROG_LIBTOOL: old alias for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
41 fp_C_PROTOTYPES: old alias for AM_C_PROTOTYPES (which was part
42 of the now-removed automatic de-ANSI-fication
45 - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' have been removed.
47 * Elisp byte-compilation:
49 - The byte compilation of '.el' files into '.elc' files is now done
50 with a suffix rule. This has simplified the compilation process, and
51 more importantly made it less brittle. The downside is that emacs is
52 now invoked once for each '.el' files, which cause some noticeable
53 slowdowns. These should however be mitigated on multicore machines
54 (which are becoming the norm today) if concurrent make ("make -j")
57 - Elisp files placed in a subdirectory are now byte-compiled to '.elc'
58 files in the same subdirectory; for example, byte-compiling of file
59 'sub/foo.el' file will result in 'sub/foo.elc' rather than in
60 'foo.elc'. This behaviour is backward-incompatible with older
61 Automake versions, but it is more natural and more sane. See also
64 - The Emacs invocation performing byte-compilation of '.el' files honors
65 the $(AM_ELCFLAGS) and $(ELCFLAGS) variables; as typical, the former
66 one is developer-reserved and the latter one user-reserved.
68 - The 'elisp-comp' script, once provided by Automake, has been rendered
69 obsoleted by the just-described changes, and thus removed.
71 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
73 - The parallel testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the
74 'parallel-tests' option) is the default one; the older serial
75 testsuite harness will still be available through the use of the
76 'serial-tests' option (introduced in Automake 1.12).
78 * Silent rules support:
80 - Support for silent rules is now always active in Automake-generated
81 Makefiles. So, although the verbose output is still the default,
82 the user can now always use "./configure --enable-silent-rules" or
83 "make V=0" to enable quieter output in the package he's building.
85 - The 'silent-rules' option has now become a no-op, preserved for
86 backward-compatibility only. In particular, its use does not disable
87 the warnings in the 'portability-recursive' category anymore.
91 - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now use the
92 ' --build-dir' option, to keep the auxiliary files used by texi2dvi
93 and texi2pdf around without cluttering the build directory, and to
94 make it possible to run the "dvi" and "pdf" recipes in parallel.
96 * Automatic remake rules and 'missing' script:
98 - The 'missing' script does not try anymore to update the timestamp
99 of out-of-date files that require a maintainer-specific tool to be
100 remade, in case the user lacks such a tool (or has a too-old version
101 of it). It just give a useful warning, and in some cases also a tip
102 about how to obtain such a tool.
104 - The missing script has thus become useless as a (poor) way to work
105 around the sketched-timestamps issues that can happen for projects
106 that keep generated files committed in their VCS repository. Such
107 projects are now encouraged to write a custom "fix-timestamps.sh"
108 script to avoid such issues; a simple example is provided in the
109 "CVS and generated files" chapter of the automake manual.
113 The user can now define his own recursive targets that recurse
114 in the directories specified in $(SUBDIRS). This can be done by
115 specifying the name of such targets in invocations of the new
116 'AM_EXTRA_RECURSIVE_TARGETS' m4 macro.
118 * Improvements to aclocal and related rebuilds rules:
120 - The Autoconf-provided macro AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR is now traced by
121 aclocal, and can be used to declare the local m4 include directory.
122 Formerly, one had to specify it with an explicit '-I' option to the
123 'aclocal' invocation.
125 - The special make variable ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS is deprecated; future
126 Automake versions will warn about its use, and later version will
127 remove support for it altogether.
129 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
133 * WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
135 - Future versions of Automake will likely drop support for the
136 long-deprecated 'configure.in' name for the Autoconf input file.
137 You are advised to use the recommended name 'configure.ac' instead.
139 - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the rules to
140 build pdf, ps and dvi output from Texinfo input will use the '--tidy'
141 option by default. Since such an option was introduced in Texinfo
142 4.9, this means that Makefiles generated by future Automake versions
143 will require at least that version of Texinfo.
145 - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the parallel
146 testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the 'parallel-tests'
147 option) will become the default one; the older serial testsuite
148 harness will still be available through the use of the 'serial-tests'
151 - Support for the two- and three-arguments invocation forms of the
152 AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro is deprecated, and will be removed in the
153 next major Automake version (1.13).
155 - The exact order in which the directories in the aclocal macro
156 search path are looked up is probably going to be changed in the
157 next Automake release (1.13).
159 - The 'missing' script will not try anymore to update the timestamp
160 of out-of-date files that require a maintainer-specific tool to be
161 remade, in case the user lacks such a tool (or has a too-old version
162 of it). In fact, starting from Automake 1.13, all it'll do will be
163 giving more useful warnings than a bare "command not found" from a
166 * Automake Testsuite:
168 - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
170 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
174 * Warnings and deprecations:
176 - Automake now issues a warning (in the 'portability' category) if
177 'configure.in' is used instead of 'configure.ac' as the Autoconf
178 input file. Such a warning will also be present in the next
179 Autoconf version (2.70).
183 - Recursive cleaning rules descends into the $(SUBDIRS) in the natural
184 order (as done by the other recursive rules), rather than in the
185 inverse order. They used to do that in order to work a round a
186 limitation in an older implementation of the automatic dependency
187 tracking support, but that limitation had been lifted years ago
188 already, when the automatic dependency tracking based on side-effects
189 of compilation had been introduced.
191 - Cleaning rules for compiled objects (both "plain" and libtool) work
192 better when subdir objects are involved, not triggering a distinct
193 'rm' invocation for each such object. They do so by removing *any*
194 compiled object file that is in the same directory of a subdir
195 object. See automake bug#10697.
197 * Silent rules support:
199 - A new predefined $(AM_V_P) make variable is provided; it expands
200 to a shell conditional that can be used in recipes to know whether
201 make is being run in silent or verbose mode.
203 Bugs fixed in 1.12.2:
205 * SECURITY VULNERABILITIES!
207 - The 'distcheck' recipe no longer grants temporary world-write
208 permissions on the extracted distdir. Even if such rights were
209 only granted for a vanishingly small time window, the implied
210 race condition proved to be enough to allow a local attacker
211 to run arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running
212 "make distcheck". This is CVE-2012-3386.
214 * Long-standing bugs:
216 - The "recheck" targets behaves better in the face of build failures
217 related to previously failed tests. For example, if a test is a
218 compiled program that must be rerun by "make recheck", and its
219 compilation fails, it will still be rerun by further "make recheck"
220 invocations. See automake bug#11791.
222 * Bugs introduced by 1.12.1:
224 - Automake provides once again the '$(mkdir_p)' make variable and the
225 '@mkdir_p@' substitution (both as simple aliases for '$(MKDIR_P)'),
226 for better backward-compatibility.
228 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
232 * New supported languages:
234 - Support for Objective C++ has been added; it should work similarly to
235 the support for Objective C.
237 * Deprecated obsolescent features:
239 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
240 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro now elicits a warning in the 'obsolete'
241 category. Starting from the next major Automake release (1.13), such
242 usages won't be allowed anymore.
244 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (enabled by the 'cygnus' option) is
245 now deprecated (its use triggers a warning in the 'obsolete' category).
246 It will be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13).
248 - The long-obsolete (since 1.10) automake-provided $(mkdir_p) make
249 variable, @mkdir_p@ configure-time substitution and AM_PROG_MKDIR
250 m4 macro are deprecated, eliciting a warning in the 'obsolete'
253 * Miscellaneous changes:
255 - The Automake test cases now require a proper POSIX-conforming shell.
256 Older non-POSIX Bourne shells (like Solaris 10 /bin/sh) won't be
257 accepted anymore. In most cases, the user shouldn't have to specify
258 such POSIX shell explicitly, since it will be looked up at configure
259 time. Still, when this lookup fails, or when the user wants to
260 override its conclusion, the variable 'AM_TEST_RUNNER_SHELL' can be
261 used (pointing to the shell that will be used to run the Automake
264 Bugs fixed in 1.12.1:
266 * Bugs introduced by 1.12:
268 - Several weaknesses in Automake's own build system and test suite
271 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
273 - When given non-option arguments, aclocal rejects them, instead of
274 silently ignoring them.
276 * Long-standing bugs:
278 - When the 'color-tests' option is in use, forcing of colored testsuite
279 output through "AM_COLOR_TESTS=always" works even if the terminal is
280 a non-ANSI one, i.e., if the TERM environment variable has a value of
283 - Several inefficiencies and poor performances in the implementation
284 of the parallel-tests 'check' and 'recheck' targets have been fixed.
286 - The post-processing of output "#line" directives done the ylwrap
287 script is more faithful w.r.t. files in a subdirectory; for example,
288 if the processed file is "src/grammar.y", ylwrap will correctly
289 produce directives like:
290 #line 7 "src/grammar.y"
295 * Bugs with new Perl versions:
297 - Aclocal works correctly with perl 5.16.0 (automake bug#11543).
299 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
303 * Obsolete features removed:
305 - The never documented nor truly used script 'acinstall' has been
308 - Support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been removed.
310 - The support for the "obscure" multilib feature has been removed
311 from Automake core (but remains available in the 'contrib/'
312 directory of the Automake distribution).
314 - Support for ".log -> .html" conversion and the check-html and
315 recheck-html targets has been removed from Automake core (but
316 remains available in the 'contrib/' directory of the Automake
319 - The deprecated 'lzma' compression format for distribution archives
320 has been removed, in favor of 'xz' and 'lzip'.
322 - The obsolete AM_WITH_REGEX macro has been removed.
324 - The long-deprecated options '--output-dir', '--Werror' and
325 '--Wno-error' have been removed.
327 - The chapter on the history of Automake has been moved out of the
328 reference manual, into a new dedicated Texinfo file.
332 - New 'cscope' target to build a cscope database for the source tree.
334 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
336 - The new automake option 'serial-tests' has been introduced. It can
337 be used to explicitly instruct automake to use the older serial
338 testsuite harness. This is still the default at the moment, but it
339 might change in future versions.
341 - The 'recheck' target (provided by the parallel testsuite harness) now
342 depends on the 'all' target. This allows for a better user-experience
343 in test-driven development. See automake bug#11252.
345 - Test scripts that exit with status 99 to signal an "hard error" (e.g.,
346 and unexpected or internal error, or a failure to set up the test case
347 scenario) have their outcome reported as an 'ERROR' now. Previous
348 versions of automake reported such an outcome as a 'FAIL' (the only
349 difference with normal failures being that hard errors were counted
350 as failures even when the test originating them was listed in
353 - The testsuite summary displayed by the parallel-test harness has a
354 completely new format, that always list the numbers of passed, failed,
355 xfailed, xpassed, skipped and errored tests, even when these numbers
356 are zero (but using smart coloring when the color-tests option is in
359 - The default testsuite driver offered by the 'parallel-tests' option is
360 now implemented (partly at least) with the help of automake-provided
361 auxiliary scripts (e.g., 'test-driver'), instead of relying entirely
362 on code in the generated Makefile.in.
363 This has two noteworthy implications. The first one is that projects
364 using the 'parallel-tests' option should now either run automake with
365 the '--add-missing' option, or manually copy the 'test-driver' script
366 into their tree. The second, and more important, implication is that
367 now, when the 'parallel-tests' option is in use, TESTS_ENVIRONMENT can
368 not be used anymore to define a test runner, and the command specified
369 in LOG_COMPILER (and <ext>_LOG_COMPILER) must be a *real* executable
370 program or script. For example, this is still a valid usage (albeit
373 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
374 if test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS)'; then \
375 maybe_errexit='-e'; \
379 LOG_COMPILER = $(SHELL) $$maybe_errexit
381 while this is not anymore:
383 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
384 $(SHELL) `test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS_CHECKING)' && echo ' -e'`
388 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
389 run_with_perl_or_shell () \
391 if grep -q '^#!.*perl' $$1; then
397 LOG_COMPILER = run_with_perl_or_shell
399 - The package authors can now use customary testsuite drivers within
400 the framework provided by the 'parallel-tests' testsuite harness.
401 Consistently with the existing syntax, this can be done by defining
402 special makefile variables 'LOG_DRIVER' and '<ext>_LOG_DRIVER'.
404 - A new developer-reserved variable 'AM_TESTS_FD_REDIRECT' can be used
405 to redirect/define file descriptors used by the test scripts.
407 - The parallel-tests harness generates now, in addition the '.log' files
408 holding the output produced by the test scripts, a new set of '.trs'
409 files, holding "metadata" derived by the execution of the test scripts;
410 among such metadata are the outcomes of the test cases run by a script.
412 - Initial and still experimental support for the TAP test protocol is
415 * Changes to Yacc and Lex support:
417 - C source and header files derived from non-distributed Yacc and/or
418 Lex sources are now removed by a simple "make clean" (while they were
419 previously removed only by "make maintainer-clean").
421 - Slightly backward-incompatible change, relevant only for use of Yacc
422 with C++: the extensions of the header files produced by the Yacc
423 rules are now modelled after the extension of the corresponding
424 sources. For example, yacc files named "foo.y++" and "bar.yy" will
425 produce header files named "foo.h++" and "bar.hh" respectively, where
426 they would have previously produced header files named simply "foo.h"
427 and "bar.h". This change offers better compatibility with 'bison -o'.
429 * Miscellaneous changes:
431 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro now causes configure to exit with status 77,
432 rather than 1, if the vala compiler found is too old.
434 - The build system of Automake itself now avoids the use of make
435 recursion as much as possible.
437 - Automake now prefers to quote 'like this' or "like this", rather
438 than `like this', in diagnostic message and generated Makefiles,
439 to accommodate the new GNU Coding Standards recommendations.
441 - Automake has a new option '--print-libdir' that prints the path of the
442 directory containing the Automake-provided scripts and data files.
444 - The 'dist' and 'dist-all' targets now can run compressors in parallel.
446 - The rules to create pdf, dvi and ps output from Texinfo files now
447 works better with modern 'texi2dvi' script, by explicitly passing
448 it the '--clean' option to ensure stray auxiliary files are not
449 left to clutter the build directory.
451 - Automake can now generate silenced rules for texinfo outputs.
453 - Some auxiliary files that are automatically distributed by Automake
454 (e.g., 'install-sh', or the 'depcomp' script for packages compiling
455 C sources) might now be listed in the DIST_COMMON variable in many
456 Makefile.in files, rather than in the top-level one.
458 - Messages of types warning or error from 'automake' and 'aclocal'
459 are now prefixed with the respective type, and presence of -Werror
462 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now tries to avoid
463 sleeping for a second, which slowed down cached configure runs
464 noticeably. In that case, it will check back at the end of the
465 configure script to ensure that at least one second has passed, to
466 avoid time stamp issues with makefile rules rerunning autotools
469 - The warnings in the category 'extra-portability' are now enabled by
470 '-Wall'. In previous versions, one has to use '-Wextra-portability'
475 - Various minor bugfixes for recent or long-standing bugs.
477 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
479 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
480 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
482 - The automake-provided parallel testsuite harness does not fail anymore
483 with BSD make used in parallel mode when there are test scripts in a
484 subdirectory, like in:
486 TESTS = sub/foo.test sub/bar.test
488 * Long-standing bugs:
490 - Automake's own build system finally have a real "installcheck" target.
492 - Vala-related cleanup rules are now more complete, and work better in
495 - Files listed with the AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE macro in configure.ac are
496 now automatically distributed also if the directory of the auxiliary
497 files coincides with the top-level directory.
499 - Automake now detects the presence of the '-d' flag in the various
500 '*YFLAGS' variables even when their definitions involve indirections
501 through other variables, such as in:
503 AM_YFLAGS = $(foo_opts)
505 - Automake now complains if a '*YFLAGS' variable has any conditional
506 content, not only a conditional definition.
508 - Explicit enabling and/or disabling of Automake warning categories
509 through the '-W...' options now always takes precedence over the
510 implicit warning level implied by Automake strictness (foreign, gnu
511 or gnits), regardless of the order in which such strictness and
512 warning flags appear. For example, a setting like:
513 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = -Wall --foreign
514 will cause the warnings in category 'portability' to be enabled, even
515 if those warnings are by default disabled in 'foreign' strictness.
517 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
519 Bugs fixed in 1.11.5:
521 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
523 - Vala files with '.vapi' extension are now recognized and handled
524 correctly again. See automake bug#11222.
526 - Vala support work again for projects that contain some program
527 built from '.vala' (and possibly '.c') sources and some other
528 program built from '.c' sources *only*. See automake bug#11229.
530 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
534 * Miscellaneous changes:
536 - The 'ar-lib' script now ignores the "s" (symbol index) and "S" (no
537 symbol index) modifiers as well as the "s" action, as the symbol index
538 is created unconditionally by Microsoft lib. Also, the "q" (quick)
539 action is now a synonym for "r" (replace). Also, the script has been
540 ignoring the "v" (verbose) modifier already since Automake 1.11.3.
542 - When the 'compile' script is used to wrap MSVC, it now accepts an
543 optional space between the -I, -L and -l options and their respective
544 arguments, for better POSIX compliance.
546 - There is an initial, experimental support for automatic dependency
547 tracking with tcc (the Tiny C Compiler). Its associated depmode is
548 currently recognized as "icc" (but this and other details are likely
549 to change in future versions).
551 - Automatic dependency tracking now works also with the IBM XL C/C++
552 compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'xlc'.
554 Bugs fixed in 1.11.4:
556 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
558 - A definition of 'noinst_PYTHON' before 'python_PYTHON' (or similar)
559 don't cause spurious failures upon "make install" anymore.
561 - The user can now instruct the 'uninstall-info' rule not to update
562 the '${infodir}/dir' file by exporting the environment variable
563 'AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no". This is done for consistency
564 with how the 'install-info' rule operates since automake 1.11.2.
566 * Long-standing bugs:
568 - It is now possible for a foo_SOURCES variable to hold Vala sources
569 together with C header files, as well as with sources and headers for
570 other supported languages (e.g., C++). Previously, only mixing C and
571 Vala sources was supported.
573 - If "aclocal --install" is used, and the first directory specified with
574 '-I' is non-existent, aclocal will now create it before trying to copy
577 - An empty declaration of a "foo_PRIMARY" don't cause anymore the
578 generated install rules to create an empty $(foodir) directory;
579 for example, if Makefile.am contains something like:
583 pkglibexec_SCRIPTS += bar.sh
586 the $(pkglibexec) directory will not be created upon "make install".
588 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
592 * Miscellaneous changes:
594 - Automake's own build system is more silent by default, making use of
595 the 'silent-rules' option.
597 - The master copy of the `gnupload' script is now maintained in gnulib,
600 - The `missing' script doesn't try to wrap calls to `tar' anymore.
602 - "make dist" doesn't wrap `tar' invocations with the `missing' script
603 anymore. Similarly, the obsolescent variable `$(AMTAR)' (which you
604 shouldn't be using BTW ;-) does not invoke the missing script anymore
605 to wrap tar, but simply invokes the `tar' program itself.
607 - "make dist" can now create lzip-compressed tarballs.
609 - In the Automake info documentation, the Top node and the nodes about
610 the invocation of the automake and aclocal programs have been renamed;
611 now, calling "info automake" will open the Top node, while calling
612 "info automake-invocation" and "info aclocal-invocation" will access
613 the nodes about the invocation of respectively automake and aclocal.
615 - Automake is now distributed as a gzip-compressed and an xz-compressed
616 tarball. Previously, bzip2 was used instead of xz.
618 - The last relics of Python 1.5 support have been removed from the
619 AM_PATH_PYTHON macro.
621 - For programs and libraries, automake now detects EXTRA_foo_DEPENDENCIES
622 and adds them to the normal list of dependencies, but without
623 overwriting the foo_DEPENDENCIES variable, which is normally computed
626 Bugs fixed in 1.11.3:
628 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
630 - Automake now correctly recognizes the prefix/primary combination
631 `pkglibexec_SCRIPTS' as valid.
633 - The parallel-tests harness doesn't trip anymore on sed implementations
634 with stricter limits on the length of input lines (problem seen at
637 * Long-standing bugs:
639 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.am files is avoided by stub
640 rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `automake' also if
641 some previously needed `.am' file has been removed.
643 - The `silent-rules' option now generates working makefiles even
644 for the uncommon `make' implementations that do not support the
645 nested-variables extension to POSIX 2008. For such `make'
646 implementations, whether a build is silent is determined at
647 configure time, and cannot be overridden at make time with
648 `make V=0' or `make V=1'.
650 - Vala support now works better in VPATH setups.
652 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
656 * Changes to aclocal:
658 - The `--acdir' option is deprecated. Now you should use the new options
659 `--automake-acdir' and `--system-acdir' instead.
661 - The `ACLOCAL_PATH' environment variable is now interpreted as a
662 colon-separated list of additional directories to search after the
663 automake internal acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal-APIVERSION)
664 and before the system acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal).
666 * Miscellaneous changes:
668 - The Automake support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been
669 deprecated. It will probably be removed in the next major Automake
672 - The `lzma' compression scheme and associated automake option `dist-lzma'
673 is obsoleted by `xz' and `dist-xz' due to upstream changes.
675 - You may adjust the compression options used in dist-xz and dist-bzip2.
676 The default is now merely -e for xz, but still -9 for bzip; you may
677 specify a different level via the XZ_OPT and BZIP2 envvars respectively.
678 E.g., "make dist-xz XZ_OPT=-7" or "make dist-bzip2 BZIP2=-5"
680 - The `compile' script now converts some options for MSVC for a better
681 user experience. Similarly, the new `ar-lib' script wraps Microsoft lib.
683 - The py-compile script now accepts empty arguments passed to the options
684 `--destdir' and `--basedir', and complains about unrecognized options.
685 Moreover, a non-option argument or a special `--' argument terminates
688 - A developer that needs to pass specific flags to configure at "make
689 distcheck" time can now, and indeed is advised to, do so by defining
690 the developer-reserved makefile variable AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS,
691 instead of the old DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS.
692 The DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS variable should now be reserved for the
693 user; still, the old Makefile.am files that used to define it will
694 still continue to work as before.
696 - New macro AM_PROG_AR that looks for an archiver and wraps it in the new
697 'ar-lib' auxiliary script if the selected archiver is Microsoft lib.
698 This new macro is required for LIBRARIES and LTLIBRARIES when automake
699 is run with -Wextra-portability and -Werror.
701 - When using DejaGnu-based testsuites, the user can extend the `site.exp'
702 file generated by automake-provided rules by defining the special make
703 variable `$(EXTRA_DEJAGNU_SITE_CONFIG)'.
705 - The `install-info' rule can now be instructed not to create/update
706 the `${infodir}/dir' file, by exporting the new environment variable
707 `AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no".
709 Bugs fixed in 1.11.2:
711 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
713 - The parallel-tests driver no longer produces erroneous results with
714 Tru64/OSF 5.1 sh upon unreadable log files.
716 - The `parallel-tests' test driver does not report spurious successes
717 when used with concurrent FreeBSD make (e.g., "make check -j3").
719 - When the parallel-tests driver is in use, automake now explicitly
720 rejects invalid entries and conditional contents in TEST_EXTENSIONS,
721 instead of issuing confusing and apparently unrelated error messages
722 (e.g., "non-POSIX variable name", "bad characters in variable name",
723 or "redefinition of TEST_EXTENSIONS), or even, in some situations,
724 silently producing broken `Makefile.in' files.
726 - The `silent-rules' option now truly silences all compile rules, even
727 when dependency tracking is disabled. Also, when `silent-rules' is
728 not used, `make' output no longer contains spurious backslash-only
729 lines, thus once again matching what Automake did before 1.11.
731 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
732 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
734 * Long-standing bugs:
736 - The order of Yacc and Lex flags is fixed to be consistent with other
737 languages: $(AM_YFLAGS) comes before $(YFLAGS), and $(AM_LFLAGS) before
738 $(LFLAGS), so that the user variables override the developer variables.
740 - "make distcheck" now correctly complains also when "make uninstall"
741 leaves one and only one file installed in $(prefix).
743 - A "make uninstall" issued before a "make install", or after a mere
744 "make install-data" or a mere "make install-exec" does not spuriously
747 - Automake now warns about more primary/directory invalid combinations,
748 such as "doc_LIBRARIES" or "pkglib_PROGRAMS".
750 - Rules generated by Automake now try harder to not change any files when
751 `make -n' is invoked. Fixes include compilation of Emacs Lisp, Vala, or
752 Yacc source files and the rule to update config.h.
754 - Several scripts and the parallel-tests testsuite driver now exit with
755 the right exit status upon receiving a signal.
757 - A per-Makefile.am setting of -Werror does not erroneously carry over
758 to the handling of other Makefile.am files.
760 - The code for automatic dependency tracking works around a Solaris
761 make bug triggered by sources containing repeated slashes when the
762 `subdir-objects' option was used.
764 - The makedepend and hp depmodes now work better with VPATH builds.
766 - Java sources specified with check_JAVA are no longer compiled for
767 "make all", but only for "make check".
769 - An usage like "java_JAVA = foo.java" will now cause Automake to warn
770 and error out if `javadir' is undefined, instead of silently producing
771 a broken Makefile.in.
773 - aclocal and automake now honour the configure-time definitions of
774 AUTOCONF and AUTOM4TE when they spawn autoconf or autom4te processes.
776 - The `install-info' recipe no longer tries to guess whether the
777 `install-info' program is from Debian or from GNU, and adaptively
778 change its behaviour; this has proven to be frail and easy to
781 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
783 Bugs fixed in 1.11.1:
785 - Lots of minor bugfixes.
787 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
789 - The `parallel-tests' test driver works around a GNU make 3.80 bug with
790 trailing white space in the test list (`TESTS = foo $(EMPTY)').
792 * Long standing bugs:
794 - On Darwin 9, `pythondir' and `pyexecdir' pointed below `/Library/Python'
795 even if the `--prefix' argument pointed outside of a system directory.
796 AM_PATH_PYTHON has been fixed to ignore the value returned from python's
797 `get_python_lib' function if it points outside the configured prefix,
798 unless the `--prefix' argument was either `/usr' or below `/System'.
800 - The testsuite does not try to change the mode of `ltmain.sh' files from
801 a Libtool installation (symlinked to test directories) any more.
803 - AM_PROG_GCJ uses AC_CHECK_TOOLS to look for `gcj' now, so that prefixed
804 tools are preferred in a cross-compile setup.
806 - The distribution is tarred up with mode 755 now by the `dist*' targets.
807 This fixes a race condition where untrusted users could modify files
808 in the $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION) distdir before packing if the toplevel
809 build directory was world-searchable. This is CVE-2009-4029.
811 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
815 * Version requirements:
817 - Autoconf 2.62 or greater is required.
819 * Changes to aclocal:
821 - The autoconf version check implemented by aclocal in aclocal.m4
822 (and new in Automake 1.10) is degraded to a warning. This helps
823 in the common case where the Autoconf versions used are compatible.
825 * Changes to automake:
827 - The automake program can run multiple threads for creating most
828 Makefile.in files concurrently, if at least Perl 5.7.2 is available
829 with interpreter-based threads enabled. Set the environment variable
830 AUTOMAKE_JOBS to the maximum number of threads to use, in order to
831 enable this experimental feature.
833 * Changes to Libtool support:
835 - Libtool generic flags are now passed to the install and uninstall
838 - distcheck works with Libtool 2.x even when LT_OUTPUT is used, as
839 config.lt is removed correctly now.
843 - subdir-object mode works now with Fortran (F77, FC, preprocessed
844 Fortran, and Ratfor).
846 - For files with extension .f90, .f95, .f03, or .f08, the flag
847 $(FCFLAGS_f[09]x) computed by AC_FC_SRCEXT is now used in compile rules.
849 - Files with extension .sx are also treated as preprocessed assembler.
851 - The default source file extension (.c) can be overridden with
852 AM_DEFAULT_SOURCE_EXT now.
854 - Python 3.0 is supported now, Python releases prior to 2.0 are no
857 - AM_PATH_PYTHON honors python's idea about the site directory.
859 - There is initial support for the Vala programming language, when using
862 * Miscellaneous changes:
864 - Automake development is done in a git repository on Savannah now, see
866 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=automake.git
868 A read-only CVS mirror is provided at
870 cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@pserver.git.sv.gnu.org:/automake.git \
871 checkout -d automake HEAD
873 - "make dist" can now create xz-compressed tarballs,
874 as well as (deprecated?) lzma-compressed tarballs.
876 - `automake --add-missing' will by default install the GPLv3 file as
877 COPYING if it is missing. It will also warn that the license file
878 should be added to source control. Note that Automake will never
879 overwrite an existing COPYING file, even when the `--force-missing'
882 - The manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL 1.3.
884 - Automake ships and installs man pages for automake and aclocal now.
886 - New shorthand `$(pkglibexecdir)' for `$(libexecdir)/@PACKAGE@'.
888 - install-sh supports -C, which does not update the installed file
889 (and its time stamps) if the contents did not change.
891 - The `gnupload' script has been revamped.
893 - The `depcomp' and `compile' scripts now work with MSVC under MSYS.
895 - The targets `install' and `uninstall' are more efficient now, in that
896 for example multiple files from one Automake variable such as
897 `bin_SCRIPTS' are copied in one `install' (or `libtool --mode=install')
898 invocation if they do not have to be renamed.
900 Both install and uninstall may sometimes enter (`cd' into) the target
901 installation directory now, when no build-local scripts are used.
903 Both install and uninstall do not fail anymore but do nothing if an
904 installation directory variable like `bindir' is set to the empty string.
906 For built-in rules, `make install' now fails reliably if installation
907 of a file failed. Conversely, `make uninstall' even succeeds when
908 issued multiple times.
910 These changes may need some adjustments from users: For example,
911 some `install' programs refuse to install multiple copies of the
912 same file in one invocation, so you may need to remove duplicate
913 entries from file lists.
915 Also, within one set of files, say, nobase_data_DATA, the order of
916 installation may be changed, or even unstable among different hosts,
917 due to the use of associative arrays in awk. The increased use of
918 awk matches a similar move in Autoconf to provide for better scaling.
920 Further, most undocumented per-rule install command variables such as
921 binSCRIPT_INSTALL have been removed because they are not needed any
922 more. Packages which use them should be using the appropriate one of
923 INSTALL_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT} or their install_sh_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT}
924 counterpart, depending on the type of files and the need for automatic
925 target directory creation.
927 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.m4 files is avoided by
928 stub rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `aclocal'
929 also if some previously needed macro file has been removed.
931 - Rebuild rules now also work for a removed `subdir/Makefile.in' in
932 an otherwise up to date tree.
934 - The `color-tests' option causes colored test result output on terminals.
936 - The `parallel-tests' option enables a new test driver that allows for
937 parallel test execution, inter-test dependencies, lazy test execution
938 for unit-testing, re-testing only failed tests, and formatted result output
939 as RST (reStructuredText) and HTML. Enabling this option may require some
940 changes to your test suite setup; see the manual for details.
942 - The `silent-rules' option enables Linux kernel-style silent build output.
943 This option requires the widely supported but non-POSIX `make' feature
944 of recursive variable expansion, so do not use it if your package needs
945 to build with `make' implementations that do not support it.
947 To enable less verbose build output, the developer has to use the Automake
948 option `silent-rules' in `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE', or call the `AM_SILENT_RULES'
949 macro. The user may then set the default verbosity by passing the
950 `--enable-silent-rules' option to `configure'. At `make' run time, this
951 default may be overridden using `make V=0' for less verbose, and `make V=1'
952 for backward-compatible verbose output.
954 - New prefix `notrans_' for manpages which should not be transformed
955 by --program-transform.
957 - New macro AM_COND_IF for conditional evaluation and conditional
960 - For AC_CONFIG_LINKS, if source and destination are equal, do not
961 remove the file in a non-VPATH build. Such setups work with Autoconf
964 - AM_MAINTAINER_MODE now allows for an optional argument specifying
967 - AM_SUBST_NOTMAKE may prevent substitution of AC_SUBSTed variables,
968 useful especially for multi-line values.
970 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now diagnoses an
971 unsafe absolute source directory name and makes configure fail.
973 - The Automake macros and rules cope better with whitespace in the
974 current directory name, as long as the relative path to `configure'
975 does not contain whitespace. To this end, the values of `$(MISSING)'
976 and `$(install_sh)' may contain suitable quoting, and their expansion
977 might need `eval'uation if used outside of a makefile. These
978 undocumented variables may be used in several documented macros such
979 as $(AUTOCONF) or $(MAKEINFO).
983 * Long-standing bugs:
985 - Fix aix dependency tracking for libtool objects.
987 - Work around AIX sh quoting issue in AC_PROG_CC_C_O, leading to
988 unnecessary use of the `compile' script.
990 - For nobase_*_LTLIBRARIES with nonempty directory components, the
991 correct `-rpath' argument is used now.
993 - `config.status --file=Makefile depfiles' now also works with the
994 extra quoting used internally by Autoconf 2.62 and newer
995 (it used to work only without the `--file=' bit).
997 - The `missing' script works better with versioned tool names.
999 - Semantics for `missing help2man' have been revamped:
1001 Previously, if `help2man' was not present, `missing help2man' would have
1002 the following semantics: if some man page was out of date but present, then
1003 a warning would be printed, but the exit status was 0. If the man page was
1004 not present at all, then `missing' would create a replacement man page
1005 containing an error message, and exit with a status of 2. This does not play
1006 well with `make': the next run will see this particular man page as being up
1007 to date, and will only error out on the next generated man page, if any;
1008 repeat until all pages are done. This was not desirable.
1010 These are the new semantics: if some man page is not present, and help2man
1011 is not either, then `missing' will warn and generate the replacement page
1012 containing the error message, but exit successfully. However, `make dist'
1013 will ensure that no such bogus man pages are packaged into a tarball.
1015 - Targets provided by automake behave better with `make -n', in that they
1016 take care not to create files.
1018 - `config.status Makefile... depfiles' works fine again in the presence of
1019 disabled dependency tracking.
1021 - The default no-op recursive rules for these targets also work with BSD make
1022 now: html, install-html, install-dvi, install-pdf, install-pdf, install-info.
1024 - `make distcheck' works also when both a directory and some file below it
1025 have been added to a distribution variable, such as EXTRA_DIST or *_SOURCES.
1027 - Texinfo dvi, ps, pdf, and html output files are not removed upon
1028 `make mostlyclean' any more; only the LaTeX by-products are.
1030 - Renamed objects also work with the `subdir-objects' option and
1031 source file languages which Automake does not know itself.
1033 - `automake' now correctly complains about variable assignments which are
1034 preceded by a comment, extend over multiple lines with backslash-escaped
1035 newlines, and end in a comment sign. Previous versions would silently
1036 and wrongly ignore such assignments completely.
1038 * Bugs introduced by 1.10:
1040 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
1041 Makefile.in's again, but also cope with long lines.
1043 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of XFAIL_TESTS
1044 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1045 This is for consistency with the analogous change to TESTS in 1.10.
1047 - Fix order of standard includes to again be `-I. -I$(srcdir)',
1048 followed by directories containing config headers.
1050 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1054 * Version requirements:
1056 - Autoconf 2.60 or greater is required.
1058 - Perl 5.6 or greater is required.
1060 * Changes to aclocal:
1062 - aclocal now also supports -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble options.
1064 - `dirlist' entries (for the aclocal search path) may use shell
1065 wildcards such as `*', `?', or `[...]'.
1067 - aclocal supports an --install option that will cause system-wide
1068 third-party macros to be installed in the local directory
1069 specified with the first -I flag. This option also uses #serial
1070 lines in M4 files to upgrade local macros.
1072 The new aclocal options --dry-run and --diff help to review changes
1073 before they are installed.
1075 - aclocal now outputs an autoconf version check in aclocal.m4 in
1076 projects using automake.
1078 For a few years, automake and aclocal have been calling autoconf
1079 (or its underlying engine autom4te) to accurately retrieve the
1080 data they need from configure.ac and its siblings. Doing so can
1081 only work if all autotools use the same version of autoconf. For
1082 instance a Makefile.in generated by automake for one version of
1083 autoconf may stop working if configure is regenerated with another
1084 version of autoconf, and vice versa.
1086 This new version check ensures that the whole build system has
1087 been generated using the same autoconf version.
1089 * Support for new Autoconf macros:
1091 - The new AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE Autoconf macro is supported.
1093 - If `subdir-objects' is set, and AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR is specified,
1094 $(LIBOBJS), $(LTLIBOBJS), $(ALLOCA), and $(LTALLOCA) can be used
1095 in different directories. However, only one instance of such a
1096 library objects directory is supported.
1098 * Change to Libtool support:
1100 - Libtool generic flags (those that go before the --mode=MODE option)
1101 can be specified using AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS and target_LIBTOOLFLAGS.
1103 * Yacc and Lex changes:
1105 - The rebuild rules for distributed Yacc and Lex output will avoid
1106 overwriting existing files if AM_MAINTAINER_MODE and maintainer-mode
1109 - ylwrap is now always used for lex and yacc source files,
1110 regardless of whether there is more than one source per directory.
1112 * Languages changes:
1114 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now honors CPPFLAGS,
1115 AM_CPPFLAGS and per-target _CPPFLAGS, and supports dependency
1116 tracking, unlike non-preprocessed assembler (*.s).
1118 - subdir-object mode works now with Assembler. Automake assumes
1119 that the compiler understands `-c -o'.
1121 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now also honors
1122 $(DEFS) $(DEFAULT_INCLUDES) $(INCLUDES).
1124 - Improved support for Objective C:
1125 - Autoconf's new AC_PROG_OBJC will enable automatic dependency tracking.
1126 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1128 - New support for Unified Parallel C:
1129 - AM_PROG_UPC looks for a UPC compiler.
1130 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1132 - Per-target flags are now correctly handled in link rules.
1134 For instance maude_CFLAGS correctly overrides AM_CFLAGS; likewise
1135 for maude_LDFLAGS and AM_LDFLAGS. Previous versions bogusly
1136 preferred AM_CFLAGS over maude_CFLAGS while linking, and they
1137 used both AM_LDFLAGS and maude_LDFLAGS on the same link command.
1139 The fix for compiler flags (i.e., using maude_CFLAGS instead of
1140 AM_CFLAGS) should not hurt any package since that is how _CFLAGS
1141 is expected to work (and actually works during compilation).
1143 However using maude_LDFLAGS "instead of" AM_LDFLAGS rather than
1144 "in addition to" breaks backward compatibility with older versions.
1145 If your package used both variables, as in
1147 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1148 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1149 a_LDFLAGS = more flags
1152 and assumed *_LDFLAGS would sum up, you should rewrite it as
1154 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1155 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1156 a_LDFLAGS = $(AM_LDFLAGS) more flags
1159 This new behavior of *_LDFLAGS is more coherent with other
1160 per-target variables, and the way *_LDFLAGS variables were
1161 considered internally.
1163 * New installation targets:
1165 - New targets mandated by GNU Coding Standards:
1170 By default they will only install Texinfo manuals.
1171 You can customize them with *-local variants:
1177 - The undocumented recursive target `uninstall-info' no longer exists.
1178 (`uninstall' is in charge of removing all possible documentation
1179 flavors, including optional formats such as dvi, ps, or info even
1180 when `no-installinfo' is used.)
1182 * Miscellaneous changes:
1184 - Automake no longer complains if input files for AC_CONFIG_FILES
1185 are specified using shell variables.
1187 - clean, distribution, or rebuild rules are normally disabled for
1188 inputs and outputs of AC_CONFIG_FILES, AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, and
1189 AC_CONFIG_LINK specified using shell variables. However, if these
1190 variables are used as ${VAR}, and AC_SUBSTed, then Automake will
1191 be able to output rules anyway.
1192 (See the Automake documentation for AC_CONFIG_FILES.)
1194 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of TESTS
1195 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1196 This is mostly useful when some check_PROGRAMS are listed in TESTS.
1198 - `-Wportability' has finally been turned on by default for `gnu' and
1199 `gnits' strictness. This means, automake will complain about %-rules
1200 or $(GNU Make functions) unless you switch to `foreign' strictness or
1201 use `-Wno-portability'.
1203 - Automake now uses AC_PROG_MKDIR_P (new in Autoconf 2.60), and uses
1204 $(MKDIR_P) instead of $(mkdir_p) to create directories. The
1205 $(mkdir_p) variable is still defined (to the same value as
1206 $(MKDIR_P)) but should be considered obsolete. If you are using
1207 $(mkdir_p) in some of your rules, please plan to update them to
1208 $(MKDIR_P) at some point.
1210 - AM_C_PROTOTYPES and ansi2knr are now documented as being obsolete.
1211 They still work in this release, but may be withdrawn in a future one.
1213 - Inline compilation rules for gcc3-style dependency tracking are
1216 - Automake installs a "Hello World!" example package in $(docdir).
1217 This example is used throughout the new "Autotools Introduction"
1218 chapter of the manual.
1220 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1224 * Makefile.in bloat reduction:
1226 - Inference rules are used to compile sources in subdirectories when
1227 the `subdir-objects' option is used and no per-target flags are
1228 used. This should reduce the size of some projects a lot, because
1229 Automake used to output an explicit rule for each such object in
1232 - Automake no longer outputs three rules (.o, .obj, .lo) for each
1233 object that must be built with explicit rules. It just outputs
1234 the rules required to build the kind of object considered: either
1235 the two .o and .obj rules for usual objects, or the .lo rule for
1238 * Change to Libtool support:
1240 - Libtool tags are used with libtool versions that support them.
1241 (I.e., with Libtool 1.5 or greater.)
1243 - Automake is now able to handle setups where a libtool library is
1244 conditionally installed in different directories, as in
1247 lib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1249 pkglib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1251 liba_la_SOURCES = ...
1253 * Changes to aclocal:
1255 - aclocal now ensures that AC_DEFUNs and AU_DEFUNs it discovers are
1256 really evaluated, before it decides to include them in aclocal.m4.
1257 This solves nasty problems with conditional redefinitions of
1258 Autoconf macros in /usr/share/aclocal/*.m4 files causing extraneous
1259 *.m4 files to be included in any project using these macros.
1260 (Calls to AC_PROG_EGREP causing libtool.m4 to be included is the
1261 most famous instance of this bug.)
1263 - Do not complain about missing conditionally AC_REQUIREd macros
1264 that are not actually used. In 1.8.x aclocal would correctly
1265 determine which of these macros were really needed (and include
1266 only these in the package); unfortunately it would also require
1267 all of them to be present in order to run. This created
1268 situations were aclocal would not work on a tarball distributing
1269 all the macros it uses. For instance running aclocal on a project
1270 containing only the subset of the Gettext macros in use by the
1271 project did not work, because gettext conditionally requires other
1274 * Portability improvements:
1276 - Tar format can be chosen with the new options tar-v7, tar-ustar, and
1277 tar-pax. The new option filename-length-max=99 helps diagnosing
1278 filenames that are too long for tar-v7. (PR/414)
1280 - Variables aumented with `+=' are now automatically flattened (i.e.,
1281 trailing backslashes removed) and then wrapped around 80 colummns
1282 (adding trailing backslashes). In previous versions, a long series
1288 would result in a single-line definition of VAR that could possibly
1289 exceed the maximum line length of some make implementations.
1291 Non-augmented variables are still output as they are defined in
1296 - Support Fortran 90/95 with the new "fc" and "ppfc" languages.
1297 Works the same as the old Fortran 77 implementation; just replace
1298 F77 with FC everywhere (exception: FFLAGS becomes FCFLAGS).
1299 Requires a version of autoconf which provides AC_PROG_FC (>=2.59).
1301 - Support for conditional _LISP.
1303 - Support for conditional -hook and -local rules (PR/428).
1305 - Diagnose AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR calls following AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. (PR/49)
1307 - Automake will not write any Makefile.ins after the first error it
1308 encounters. The previous Makefile.ins (if any) will be left in
1309 place. (Warnings will not prevent output, but remember they can
1310 be turned into errors with -Werror.)
1312 - The restriction that SUBDIRS must contain direct children is gone.
1315 - The manual tells more about SUBDIRS vs. DIST_SUBDIRS.
1316 It also gives an example of nested packages using AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS.
1318 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1320 Bugs fixed in 1.8.5:
1322 * Long-standing bugs:
1324 - Define DIST_SUBDIRS even when the `no-dist' or `cygnus' options are used
1325 so that `make distclean' and `make maintainer-clean' can work.
1327 - Define AR and ARFLAGS even when only EXTRA_LIBRARIES are defined.
1329 - Fix many rules to please FreeBSD make, which runs commands with `sh -e'.
1331 - Polish diagnostic when no input file is found.
1333 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1335 Bugs fixed in 1.8.4:
1337 * Long-standing bugs:
1339 - Fix AM_PATH_PYTHON to correctly display $PYTHON when it has been
1340 overridden by the user.
1342 - Honor PATH_SEPARATOR in various places of the Automake package, for
1345 - Adjust dependency tracking mode detection to ICC 8.0's new output.
1348 - Fix install-sh so it can install the `mv' binary... using `mv'.
1350 - Fix tru64 dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1352 - Work around Exuberant Ctags when creating a TAGS files in a directory
1353 without files to scan but with subdirectories to include.
1355 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1357 - Fix an "internal error" when @LIBOBJS@ is used in a variable that is
1358 not defined in the same conditions as the _LDADD that uses it.
1360 - Do not warn when JAVAROOT is overridden, this is legitimate.
1362 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1364 Bugs fixed in 1.8.3:
1366 * Long-standing bugs:
1368 - Quote filenames in installation rules, in case $DESTDIR, $prefix,
1369 or any of the other *dir variables contain a space.
1371 Please note that Automake does not and cannot support spaces in
1372 filenames that are involved during the build. This change affects
1373 only installation paths, so that `make install' does not bomb out
1374 in packages configured with
1375 ./configure --prefix '/c/Program Files'
1377 - Fix the depfiles output so it works with GNU sed (<4.1) even when
1378 POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.
1380 - Do not AC_SUBST(LIBOBJS) in AM_WITH_REGEX. This macro was unusable
1381 since Autoconf 2.54, which defines LIBOBJS itself.
1383 - Fix a potential (but unlikely) race condition in parallel elisp
1384 builds. (Introduced in 1.7.3.)
1386 - Do not assume that users override _DEPENDENCIES in all conditions
1387 where Automake will try to define them.
1389 - Do not use `mkdir -p' in mkinstalldirs, unless this is GNU mkdir.
1390 Solaris 8's `mkdir -p' is not thread-safe and can break parallel
1393 This fix also affects the $(mkdir_p) variable defined since
1394 Automake 1.8. It will be set to `mkdir -p' only if mkdir is GNU
1395 mkdir, and to `mkinstalldirs' or `install-sh -d' otherwise.
1397 - Secure temporary directory creation in `make distcheck'. (PR/413)
1399 - Do not generate two build rules for `parser.h' when the
1400 parser appears in two different conditionals.
1402 - Work around a Solaris 8 /bin/sh bug in the test for dependency
1403 checking. Usually ./configure will not pick this shell; so this
1404 fix only helps cases where the shell is forced to /bin/sh.
1406 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1408 - In some situations (hand-written `m4_include's), aclocal would
1409 call the `File::Spec->rel2abs' method, which was only introduced
1410 in Perl 5.6. This new version reestablish support Perl 5.005.
1412 It is likely that the next major Automake releases will require at
1413 least Perl 5.6. Consider upgrading your development environment
1414 if you are still using the five-year-old Perl 5.005.
1416 - Automake would sometimes fail to define rules for targets listed
1417 in variables defined in multiple conditions. For instance on
1423 it would define only the `a.$(OBJEXT): a.c' rule and omit the
1424 `b.$(OBJEXT): b.c' rule.
1426 * New sections in manual:
1428 - Third-Party Makefiles: how to interface third party Makefiles.
1429 - Upgrading: upgrading packages to newer Automake versions.
1430 - Multiple Outputs: handling tools that produce many outputs.
1432 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1436 * A (well known) portability bug slipped in the changes made to
1437 install-sh in Automake 1.8.1. The broken install-sh would refuse to
1438 install anything on Tru64.
1440 * Fix install rules for conditionally built python files. (This never
1443 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1447 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1449 - Fix Config.pm import error with old Perl versions (at least
1450 5.005_03). One symptom is that aclocal could not find its macro
1453 - Automake 1.8 used `mkdir -m 0755 -p --' to ensure that directories
1454 created by `make install' are always world readable, even if the
1455 installer happens to have an overly restrictive umask (e.g. 077).
1456 This was a mistake and has been reverted. There are at least two
1457 reasons why we must not use `-m 0755':
1458 - it causes special bits like SGID to be ignored,
1459 - it may be too restrictive (some setups expect 775 directories).
1461 - Fix aclocal to honor definitions located in files which have been
1462 m4_included manually. aclocal 1.8 had been updated to check
1463 m4_included files for new requirements, but forgot that these
1464 m4_included files can also provide new definitions.
1466 Note that if you have such a setup, we recommend you get rid of
1467 it. In the past, there was a reason to m4_include files manually:
1468 aclocal used to duplicate entire M4 files into aclocal.m4, even
1469 files that were distributed. Some packages were therefore
1470 m4_including the distributed file directly, and playing some
1471 tricks to ensure aclocal would not copy that file to aclocal.m4,
1472 in order to limit the amount of duplication. Since aclocal 1.8.x
1473 will precisely output m4_includes for local M4 files, we recommend
1474 that you clean up your setup, removing all manual m4_includes and
1475 letting aclocal output them.
1477 - Output detailed menus in the Info version if the Automake manual,
1478 so that Emacs can locate the indexes.
1480 - configure.ac and configure were listed twice in DIST_COMMON (an
1481 internal variable where Automake lists configury files to
1482 distribute). This was harmless, but unaesthetic.
1484 - Use `chmod a-w' instead of `chmod -w' as the latter honors umask.
1485 This was an issue only in the Automake package itself, not in
1488 - Automake assumed that all AC_CONFIG_LINKS arguments had the form
1489 DEST:SRC. This was wrong, as some packages do
1490 AC_CONFIG_LINKS($computedlinks). This version no longer abort in
1493 - Contrary to mkinstalldirs, $(mkdir_p) was expecting exactly one
1494 argument. This caused two kinds of failures:
1495 - Rules installing data in a conditionally defined directory
1496 failed when that directory was undefined. In this case no
1497 argument was supplied.
1498 - `make installdirs' failed, because several directories were
1499 passed to $(mkdir_p). This was an issue only on platform
1500 were $(mkdir_p) is implemented with `install-sh -d'.
1501 $(mkdir_p) as been changed to accept 0 or more arguments, as
1504 * Long-standing bugs:
1506 - Fix an unexpected diagnostic occurring when users attempt
1507 to override some internal variables that Automake appends to.
1509 - aclocal now scans configure.ac for macro definitions (PR/319).
1511 - Fix a portability issue with OSF1/Tru64 Make. If a directory
1512 distributes files which are outside itself (this usually occurs
1513 when using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([../dir]) to use auxiliary files
1514 from a parent package), then `make distcheck' fails due to an
1515 optimization performed by OSF1/Tru64 Make in its VPATH handling.
1516 (tests/subpkg2.test failure)
1518 - Fix another portability issue with Sun and OSF1/Tru64 Make.
1519 In a VPATH-build configuration, `make install' would install
1520 nobase_ files to wrong locations.
1522 - Fix a Perl `uninitialized value' diagnostic occurring when
1523 automake complains that a Texinfo file does not have a
1524 @setfilename statement.
1526 - Erase config.status.lineno during `make distclean'. This file
1527 can be created by config.status. Automake already knew about
1528 configure.lineno, but forgot config.status.lineno.
1530 - Distribute all files, even those which are built and installed
1531 conditionally. This change affects files listed in conditionally
1532 defined *_HEADERS and *_PYTHON variable (unless they are nodist_*)
1533 as well as those listed in conditionally defined dist_*_DATA,
1534 dist_*_JAVA, dist_*_LISP, and dist_*_SCRIPTS variables.
1536 - Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to avoid \? in sed regular expressions; it
1537 doesn't conform to POSIX.
1539 - Normalize help strings for configure variables and options added
1544 - Check for python2.4 in AM_PATH_PYTHON.
1546 * Spurious failures in test suite:
1548 - tests/libtool5.test, tests/ltcond.test, tests/ltcond2.test,
1549 tests/ltconv.test: fix failures with CVS Libtool.
1550 - tests/aclocal6.test: fix failure if autom4te.cache is disabled.
1551 - tests/txinfo24.test, tests/txinfo25.test, tests/txinfo28.test:
1552 fix failures with old Texinfo versions.
1554 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1560 - The NEWS file is more verbose.
1564 - Autoconf 2.58 or greater is required.
1568 - Default source file names in the absence of a _SOURCES declaration
1569 are made by removing any target extension before appending `.c', so
1570 to make the libtool module `foo.la' from `foo.c', you only need to
1573 lib_LTLIBRARIES = foo.la
1574 foo_la_LDFLAGS = -module
1576 For backward compatibility, foo_la.c will be used instead of
1577 foo.c if this file exists or is the explicit target of a rule.
1578 However -Wobsolete will warn about this deprecated naming.
1580 - AR's `cru' flags are now set in a global ARFLAGS variable instead
1581 of being hard-coded in each $(AR) invocation, so they can be
1582 substituted from configure.ac. This has been requested by people
1583 dealing with non-POSIX ar implementations.
1585 - New warning option: -Woverride. This will warn about any user
1586 target or variable definitions which override Automake
1589 - Texinfo rules back up and restore info files when makeinfo fails.
1591 - Texinfo rules now support the `html' target.
1592 Running this requires Texinfo 4.0 or greater.
1594 `html' is a new recursive target, so if your package mixes
1595 hand-crafted `Makefile.in's with Automake-generated
1596 `Makefile.in's, you should adjust the former to support (or
1597 ignore) this target so that `make html' recurses successfully. If
1598 you had a custom `html' rule in your `Makefile.am', it's better to
1599 rename it as `html-local', otherwise your rule will override
1600 Automake's new rule (you can check that by running `automake
1601 -Woverride') and that will stop the recursion to subdirectories.
1603 Last but not least, this `html' rule is declared PHONY, even when
1604 overridden. Fortunately, it appears that few packages use a
1605 non-PHONY `html' rule.
1607 - Any file which is m4_included from configure.ac will appear as a
1608 configure and Makefile.in dependency, and will be automatically
1611 - The rules for rebuilding Makefiles and Makefile.ins will now
1612 rebuild all Makefiles and all Makefile.ins at once when one of
1613 configure's dependencies has changed. This is considerably faster
1614 than previous implementations, where config.status and automake
1615 were run separately in each directory (this still happens when you
1616 change a Makefile.am locally, without touching configure.ac or
1617 friends). Doing this also solves a longstanding issue: these
1618 rebuild rules failed to work when adding new directories to the
1619 tree, forcing you to run automake manually.
1621 - For similar reasons, the rules to rebuild configure,
1622 config.status, and aclocal.m4 are now defined in all directories.
1623 Note that if you were using the CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES and
1624 CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES (formerly undocumented) variables, you
1625 should better define them in all directories. This is easily done
1626 using an AC_SUBST (make sure you prefix these dependencies with
1627 $(top_srcdir) since this variable will appear at different
1628 levels of the build tree).
1630 - aclocal will now use `m4_include' instead of copying local m4
1631 files into aclocal.m4. (Local m4 files are those you ship with
1632 your project, other files will be copied as usual.)
1634 Because m4_included files are automatically distributed, it means
1635 for most projects there is no point in EXTRA_DISTing the list of
1636 m4 files which are used. (You can probably get rid of
1637 m4/Makefile.am if you had one.)
1639 - aclocal will avoid touching aclocal.m4 when possible, so that
1640 Autom4te's cache isn't needlessly invalidated. This behavior can
1641 be switched off with the new `--force' option.
1643 - aclocal now uses Autoconf's --trace to detect macros which are
1644 actually used and will no longer include unused macros simply
1645 because they where mentioned. This was often the case for macros
1646 called conditionally.
1648 - New options no-dist and no-dist-gzip.
1650 - compile, depcomp, elisp-comp, install-sh, mdate-sh, mkinstalldirs,
1651 py-compile, and ylwrap, now all understand --version and --help.
1653 - Automake will now recognize AC_CONFIG_LINKS so far as removing created
1654 links as part of the distclean target and including source files in
1657 - AM_PATH_PYTHON now supports ACTION-IF-FOUND and ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND
1658 argument. The latter can be used to override the default behavior
1659 (which is to abort).
1661 - Automake will exit with $? = 63 on version mismatch. (So does
1662 Autoconf 2.58) missing knows this, and in this case it will
1663 emulate the tools as if they were absent. Because older versions
1664 of Automake and Autoconf did not use this exit code, this change
1665 will only be useful in projects generated with future versions of
1668 - When using AC_CONFIG_FILES with multiple input files, Automake
1669 generates the first ".in" input file for which a ".am" exists.
1670 (Former versions would try to use only the first input file.)
1672 - lisp_DATA is now allowed. If you are using the empty ELCFILES
1673 idiom to disable byte-compilation of lisp_LISP files, it is
1674 recommended that you switch to using lisp_DATA. Note that
1675 this is not strictly equivalent: lisp_DATA will install elisp
1676 files even if emacs is not installed, while *_LISP do not
1677 install anything unless emacs is found.
1679 - Makefiles will prefer `mkdir -p' over mkinstalldirs if it is
1680 available. This selection is achieved through the Makefile
1681 variable $(mkdir_p) that is set by AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE to either
1682 `mkdir -m 0755 -p --', `$(mkinstalldirs) -m 0755', or
1683 `$(install_sh) -m 0755 -d'.
1687 - Because `mkdir -p' is available on most platforms, and we can use
1688 `install-sh -d' when it is not, the use of the mkinstalldirs
1689 script is being phased out. `automake --add-missing' no longer
1690 installs it, and if you remove mkinstalldirs from your package,
1691 automake will define $(mkinstalldirs) as an alias for $(mkdir_p).
1693 Gettext 0.12.1 still requires mkinstalldirs. Fortunately
1694 gettextize and autopoint will install it when needed. Automake
1695 will continue to define the $(mkinstalldirs) and to distribute
1696 mkinstalldirs when this script is in the source tree.
1698 - AM_PROG_CC_STDC is now empty. The content of this macro was
1699 merged in AC_PROG_CC. If your code uses $am_cv_prog_cc_stdc, you
1700 should adjust it to use $ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc instead. (This
1701 renaming should be safe, even if you have to support several,
1702 versions of Automake, because AC_PROG_CC defines this variable
1703 since Autoconf 2.54.)
1705 - Some users where using the undocumented ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES
1706 variable to override the aclocal.m4 dependencies computed
1707 (inaccurately) by older versions of Automake. Because Automake
1708 now tracks configure's m4 dependencies accurately (see m4_include
1709 above), the use of ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES should be considered
1710 obsolete and will be flagged as such when running `automake
1715 - Defining programs conditionally using Automake conditionals no
1716 longer leads to a combinatorial explosion. The following
1717 construct used to be troublesome when used with dozens of
1732 Likewise for _SOURCES, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables.
1734 - Due to implementation constraints, previous versions of Automake
1735 proscribed multiple conditional definitions of some variables
1745 All _PROGRAMS, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables were affected.
1746 This restriction has been lifted, and these variables now
1747 support multiple conditional definitions as do other variables.
1749 - Cleanup the definitions of $(distdir) and $(top_distdir).
1750 $(top_distdir) now points to the root of the distribution
1751 directory created during `make dist', as it did in Automake 1.4,
1752 not to the root of the build tree as it did in intervening
1753 versions. Furthermore these two variables are now only defined in
1754 the top level Makefile, and passed to sub-directories when running
1757 - The --no-force option now correctly checks the Makefile.in's
1758 dependencies before deciding not to update it.
1760 - Do not assume that make files are called Makefile in cleaning rules.
1762 - Update .info files in the source tree, not in the build tree. This
1763 is what the GNU Coding Standard recommend. Only Automake 1.7.x
1764 used to update these files in the build tree (previous versions did
1765 it in the source tree too), and it caused several problems, varying
1766 from mere annoyance to portability issues.
1768 - COPYING, COPYING.LIB, and COPYING.LESSER are no longer overwritten
1769 when --add-missing and --force-missing are used. For backward
1770 compatibility --add-missing will continue to install COPYING (in
1771 `gnu' strictness) when none of these three files exist, but this
1772 use is deprecated: you should better choose a license yourself and
1773 install it once for all in your source tree (and in your code
1776 - Fix ylwrap so that it does not overwrite header files that haven't
1777 changed, as the inline rule already does.
1779 - User-defined rules override automake-defined rules for the same
1780 targets, even when rules do not have commands. This is not new
1781 (and was documented), however some of the automake-generated
1782 rules have escaped this principle in former Automake versions.
1783 Rules for the following targets are affected by this fix:
1785 clean, clean-am, dist-all, distclean, distclean-am, dvi, dvi-am,
1786 info, info-am, install-data-am, install-exec-am, install-info,
1787 install-info-am, install-man, installcheck-am, maintainer-clean,
1788 maintainer-clean-am, mostlyclean, mostlyclean-am, pdf, pdf-am,
1789 ps, ps-am, uninstall-am, uninstall-info, uninstall-man
1791 Practically it means that an attempt to supplement the dependencies
1792 of some target, as in
1794 clean: my-clean-rule
1796 will now *silently override* the automake definition of the
1797 rule for this target. Running `automake -Woverride' will diagnose
1798 all such overriding definitions.
1800 It should be noted that almost all of these targets support a *-local
1801 variant that is meant to supplement the automake-defined rule
1802 (See node `Extending' in the manual). The above rule should
1805 clean-local: my-clean-rule
1807 These *-local targets have been documented since at least
1808 Automake 1.2, so you should not fear the change if you have
1809 to support multiple automake versions.
1813 - The Automake manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
1815 - Targets dist-gzip, dist-bzip2, dist-tarZ, dist-zip are always defined.
1817 - core dumps are no longer removed by the cleaning rules. There are
1818 at least three reasons for this:
1819 1. These files should not be created by any build step,
1820 so their removal do not fit any of the cleaning rules.
1821 Actually, they may be precious to the developer.
1822 2. If such file is created during a build, then it's clearly a
1823 bug Automake should not hide. Not removing the file will
1824 cause `make distcheck' to complain about its presence.
1825 3. Operating systems have different naming conventions for
1826 core dump files. A core file on one system might be a
1827 completely legitimate data file on another system.
1829 - RUNTESTFLAGS, CTAGSFLAGS, ETAGSFLAGS, JAVACFLAGS are no longer
1830 defined by Automake. This means that any definition in the
1831 environment will be used, unless overridden in the Makefile.am or
1832 on the command line. The old behavior, where these variables were
1833 defined empty in each Makefile, can be obtained by AC_SUBSTing or
1834 AC_ARG_VARing each variable from configure.ac.
1836 - CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES and CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES are now
1837 documented. (The is not a new feature, these variables have
1838 been there since at least Automake 1.4.)
1840 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1842 Bugs fixed in 1.7.9:
1843 * Fix install-strip to work with nobase_ binaries.
1844 * Fix renaming of #line directives in ylwrap.
1845 * Rebuild with Autoconf 2.59. (1.7.8 was not installable with pdksh.)
1847 Bugs fixed in 1.7.8:
1848 * Remove spurious blank lines in cleaning rules introduced in 1.7.7.
1849 * Fix detection of Debian's install-info, broken since version 1.5.
1850 (Debian bug #213524).
1851 * Honor -module if it appears in AM_LDFLAGS (i.e., relax name checking)
1852 This was only done for libfoo_LDFLAGS and LDFLAGS in previous versions.
1854 Bugs fixed in 1.7.7:
1855 * The implementation of automake's --no-force option is unreliable,
1856 so this option is ignored in this version. A real fix will appear in
1857 Automake 1.8. (Debian Bug #206299)
1858 * AM_PATH_PYTHON: really check the whole list of interpreters if no
1859 argument is given. (PR/399)
1860 * Do not warn about leading `_' in variable names, even with -Wportability.
1861 * Support user redefinitions of TEXINFO_TEX.
1862 * depcomp: support AIX Compiler version 6.
1863 * Fix missing rebuilds during `make dist' with BSD make.
1864 (Could produce tarballs containing out-of-date files.)
1865 * Resurrect multilib support.
1866 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1867 - Extending aclocal: how to write m4 macros that won't trigger warnings
1869 - A Shared Library: Rewrite and split into subsections.
1871 Bugs fixed in 1.7.6:
1872 * Fix depcomp's icc mode for ICC 7.1.
1873 * Diagnose calls to AC_CONFIG_FILES and friends with not enough arguments.
1874 * Fix maintainer-clean's removal of autom4te.cache in VPATH builds.
1875 * Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to work with POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
1876 * Fix the location reported in some diagnostics related to AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
1877 * Remove Latin-1 characters from elisp-comp.
1878 * Update the manual's @dircategory to match the Free Software Directory.
1880 Bugs fixed in 1.7.5:
1881 * Update install-sh's license to remove an advertising clause.
1882 (Debian bug #191717)
1883 * Fix a bug introduced in 1.7.4, related to BUILT_SOURCE handling,
1884 that caused invalid Makefile.ins to be generated.
1885 * Make sure AM_MAKE_INCLUDE doesn't fail when a `doit' file exists.
1886 * New FAQ entry: renamed objects.
1888 Bugs fixed in 1.7.4:
1889 * Tweak the TAGS rule to support Exuberant Ctags (in addition to
1890 the Emacs implementation)
1891 * Fix output of aclocal.m4 dependencies in subdirectories.
1892 * Use `mv -f' instead of `mv' in fastdep rules.
1893 * Upgrade mdate-sh to work on OS/2.
1894 * Don't byte-compile elisp files when ELCFILES is set empty.
1895 (this documented feature was broken by 1.7.3)
1896 * Diagnose trailing backslashes on last line of Makefile.am.
1897 * Diagnose whitespace following trailing backslashes.
1898 * Multiple tests are now correctly supported in DEJATOOL. (PR/388)
1899 * Fix rebuilt rules for AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.bot])
1901 * `make install' will build `BUILT_SOURCES' first.
1902 * Minor documentation fixes.
1904 Bugs fixed in 1.7.3:
1905 * Fix stamp files numbering (when using multiple AC_CONFIG_HEADERS).
1906 * Query distutils for `pythondir' and `pythonexecdir', instead of
1907 using an hardcoded path. This should allow builds on 64-bit
1908 distributions that usually use lib64/ instead of lib/.
1909 * AM_PATH_PYTHON will also search for python2.3.
1910 * elisp files are now built all at once instead of one by one. Besides
1911 incurring a speed-up, this is required to support interdependent elisp files.
1912 * Support for DJGPP:
1913 - `make distcheck' will now work in `_inst/' and `_build' instead
1914 of `=inst/' and `=build/'
1915 - use `_dirstamp' when the file-system doesn't support `.dirstamp'
1916 - install/uninstall `*.i[0-9][0-9]'-style info files
1917 - more changes that affect only the Automake package (not its output)
1918 * Fix some incompatibilities with upcoming perl-5.10.
1919 * Properly quote AC_PACKAGE_TARNAME and AC_PACKAGE_VERSION when defining
1920 PACKAGE and VERSION.
1922 - dashmstdout and dashXmstdout modes: don't use `-o /dev/null', this
1923 is troublesome with gcc and Solaris compilers. (PR/385)
1924 - makedepend mode: work with Libtool. (PR/385 too)
1926 * better support for unusual gettext setups, such as multiple po/ directories
1928 - Flag missing po/ and intl/ directories as warnings, not errors.
1929 - Disable these warnings if po/ does not exist.
1930 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1932 - Document how AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR interacts with missing files.
1934 - Document `AM_YFLAGS = -d'. (PR/382)
1936 Bugs fixed in 1.7.2:
1937 * Fix installation and uninstallation of Info files built in subdirectories.
1938 * Do not run `./configure --with-included-gettext' during `make distcheck'
1939 if AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) is used.
1940 * Correctly uninstall renamed man pages.
1941 * Do not strip escaped newline in variables defined in one condition
1942 and augmented in another condition.
1943 * Fix ansi2knr rules for LIBOBJS sources.
1944 * Clean all known Texinfo index files, not only those which appear to
1945 be used, because we cannot know which indexes are used in included files.
1946 (PR/375, Debian Bug #168671)
1947 * Honor only the first @setfilename seen in a Texinfo file.
1948 * Treat "required file X not found" diagnostics as errors (exit status 1).
1949 * Don't complain that a required file is not found when it is a Makefile
1951 * Don't use single suffix inference rules when building `.info'-less
1952 Info files, for the sake of Solaris make.
1953 * The `check' target now depends on `$(BUILT_SOURCES)'. (PR/359)
1954 * Recognize multiple inference rules such as `.a.b .c.d:'. (PR/371)
1955 * Warn about multiple inference rules when -Wportability is used. (PR/372)
1956 * Fix building of deansified files from subdirectories. (PR/370)
1957 * Add missing `fi' in the .c->.obj rules.
1958 * Improve install-sh to work even when names contain spaces or certain
1959 (but not all) shell metachars.
1960 * Fix the following spurious failures in the test suite:
1961 depcomp2.test, gnits2.test, gnits3.test, python3.test, texinfo13.test
1962 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1963 - Augment the section about BUILT_SOURCES.
1964 - Mention that AM_PROG_CC_STDC is a relic that is better avoided today.
1966 Bugs fixed in 1.7.1:
1967 * Honor `ansi2knr' for files built in subdirectories, or using per-targets
1969 * Aclocal should now recognize macro names containing parentheses, e.g.
1970 AC_DEFUN([AC_LANG_PREPROC(Fortran 90)], [...]).
1971 * Erase *.sum and *.log files created by DejaGnu, during `make distclean'.
1973 * Install Python files even if they were built. (PR/369)
1974 * Have stamp-vti dependent upon configure instead of configure.ac, as the
1975 version might not be defined in the latter. (PR/358)
1976 * Reorder arguments passed to a couple of commands, so things works
1977 when POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
1978 * Fix a regex that can cause Perl to segfault on large input.
1980 * Fix distribution of packages that have some sources defined conditionally,
1981 as in the `Conditional compilation using Automake conditionals' example
1983 * Fix spurious test suite failures on IRIX.
1984 * Don't report a required variable as undefined if it has been
1985 defined conditionally for the "right" conditions.
1986 * Fix cleaning of the /tmp subdirectory used by `make distcheck', in case
1987 `make distcheck' fails.
1988 * Fix distribution of included Makefile fragment, so we don't create
1989 spurious directories in the distribution. (PR/366)
1990 * Don't complain that a target lacks `.$(EXEEXT)' when it has it.
1993 * Autoconf 2.54 is required.
1994 * `aclocal' and `automake' will no longer warn about obsolete
1995 configure macros. This is done by `autoconf -Wobsolete'.
1996 * AM_CONFIG_HEADER, AM_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS and
1997 AM_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ_NEEDS_SYS_IOCTL are obsolete (although still
1998 supported). You should use AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS,
1999 and AC_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ instead. `autoupdate' can upgrade
2000 `configure.ac' for you.
2001 * Support for per-program and per-library `_CPPFLAGS'.
2002 * New `ctags' target (builds CTAGS files).
2003 * Support for -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble, where mumble is a warning category
2004 (see `automake --help' or the manual for a list of them).
2005 * Honor the WARNINGS environment variable.
2006 * Omit the call to depcomp when using gcc3: call the compiler directly.
2007 * A new option, std-options, tests that programs support --help and --version
2008 when `make installcheck' is run. This is enabled by --gnits.
2009 * Texinfo rules now support the `ps' and `pdf' targets.
2010 * Info files are now created in the build directory, not the source directory.
2011 * info_TEXINFOS supports files in subdirectories (this requires Texinfo 4.1
2013 * `make distcheck' will enforce DESTDIR support by attempting
2015 * `+=' can be used in conditionals, even if the augmented variable
2016 was defined for another condition.
2017 * Makefile fragments (inserted with `include') are always distributed.
2018 * Use Autoconf's --trace interface to inspect configure.ac and get
2019 a more accurate view of it.
2020 * Add support for extending aclocal's default macro search path
2021 using a `dirlist' file within the aclocal directory.
2022 * automake --output-dir is deprecated.
2023 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether uninstall actually
2024 removes all installed files has been moved in a separate target,
2025 distuninstallcheck, so it can be overridden easily.
2029 * Support for AM_INIT_GETTEXT([external])
2030 * Bug fixes, including:
2031 - Fix Automake's own `make install' so it works even if `ln' doesn't.
2032 - nobase_ programs and scripts honor --program-transform correctly.
2033 - Erase configure.lineno during `make distclean'.
2034 - Erase YACC and LEX outputs during `make maintainer-clean'.
2037 * Many bug fixes, including:
2038 - Requiring the current version works.
2039 - Fix "$@" portability issues (for Zsh).
2040 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
2042 - Don't compute dependencies in background to avoid races with libtool.
2043 - Fix handling of _OBJECTS variables for targets sharing source variables.
2044 - Check dependency mode for Java when AM_PROG_GCJ is used.
2047 * automake --output-dir is deprecated
2048 * Many bug fixes, including:
2049 - Don't choke on AM_LDFLAGS definitions.
2050 - Clean libtool objects from subdirectories.
2051 - Allow configure variables with reserved suffix and unknown prefix
2052 (e.g. AC_SUBST(mumble_LDFLAGS) when 'mumble' is not a target).
2053 - Fix the definition of AUTOMAKE and ACLOCAL in configure.
2056 * Autoconf 2.52 is required.
2057 * automake no longer run libtoolize.
2058 This is the job of autoreconf (from GNU Autoconf).
2059 * `dist' generates all the archive flavors, as did `dist-all'.
2060 * `dist-gzip' generates the Gzip tar file only.
2061 * Combining Automake Makefile conditionals no longer lead to a combinatorial
2062 explosion. Makefile.in's keep a reasonable size.
2063 * AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_STRTOD, AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, AM_PTRDIFF_T
2064 are no longer shipped, since Autoconf 2.52 provides them (both as AM_
2066 * `#line' of Lex and Yacc files are properly set.
2067 * EXTRA_DIST can contain generated directories.
2068 * Support for dot-less extensions in suffix rules.
2069 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether distclean actually
2070 cleans all built files has been moved in a separate target, distcleancheck,
2071 so it can be overridden easily.
2072 * `make distcheck' will pass additional options defined in
2073 $(DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS) to configure.
2074 * Fixed CDPATH portability problems, in particular for MacOS X.
2075 * Fixed handling of nobase_ targets.
2076 * Fixed support of implicit rules leading to .lo objects.
2077 * Fixed late inclusion of --add-missing files (e.g. depcomp) in DIST_COMMON
2078 * Added uninstall-hook target
2079 * `AC_INIT AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(tarname,version)' is an obsolete construct.
2080 You can now use `AC_INIT(pkgname,version) AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE' instead.
2081 (Note that "pkgname" is not "tarname", see the manual for details.)
2082 It is also possible to pass a list of global Automake options as
2083 first argument to this new form of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.
2084 * Compiler-based assembler is now called `CCAS'; people expected `AS'
2085 to be a real assembler.
2086 * AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE will set STRIP itself when it needs it. Adding
2087 AC_CHECK_TOOL([STRIP], [strip]) manually is no longer required.
2088 * aclocal and automake are also installed with the version number
2089 appended, and some of the install directory names have changed.
2090 This lets you have multiple versions installed simultaneously.
2091 * Support for parsers and lexers in subdirectories.
2094 * Support for `configure.ac'.
2095 * Support for `else COND', `endif COND' and negated conditions `!COND'.
2096 * `make dist-all' is much faster.
2097 * Allows '@' AC_SUBSTs in macro names.
2098 * Faster AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE (requires update of `missing' script)
2099 * User-side dependency tracking. Developers no longer need GNU make
2101 * Uses DIST_SUBDIRS in some situations when SUBDIRS is conditional
2102 * Most files are correctly handled if they appear in subdirs
2103 For instance, a _DATA file can appear in a subdir
2104 * GNU tar is no longer required for `make dist'
2105 * Added support for `dist_' and `nodist_' prefixes
2106 * Added support for `nobase_' prefix
2107 * Compiled Java support
2108 * Support for per-executable and per-library compilation flags
2112 * Added support for the Fortran 77 programming language.
2113 * Re-indexed the Automake Texinfo manual.
2114 * Added `AM_FOOFLAGS' variable for each compiler invocation;
2115 e.g. AM_CFLAGS can be used in Makefile.am to set C compiler flags
2116 * Support for latest autoconf, including support for objext
2117 * Can now put `.' in SUBDIRS to control build order
2118 * `include' command and `+=' support for macro assignment
2119 * Dependency tracking no long susceptible to deleted header file problem
2120 * Maintainer mode now a conditional. @MAINT@ is now an anachronism.
2125 * Better Cygwin32 support
2126 * Support for suffix rules with _SOURCES variables
2127 * New options `readme-alpha' and `check-news'; Gnits mode sets these
2128 * @LEXLIB@ no longer required when lex source seen
2129 Lex support in `missing', and new lex macro. Update your missing script.
2130 * Built-in support for assembly
2131 * aclocal gives error if `AM_' macro not found
2132 * Passed YFLAGS, not YACCFLAGS, to yacc
2133 * AM_PROG_CC_STDC does not have to come before AC_PROG_CPP
2134 * Dependencies computed as a side effect of compilation
2135 * Preliminary support for Java
2136 * DESTDIR support at "make install" time
2137 * Improved ansi2knr support; you must use the latest ansi2knr.c (included)
2141 * Better DejaGnu support
2142 * Added no-installinfo option
2143 * Added Emacs Lisp support
2144 * Added --no-force option
2145 * Included `aclocal' program
2146 * Automake will now generate rules to regenerate aclocal.m4, if appropriate
2147 * Now uses `AM_' macro names everywhere
2148 * ansi2knr option can have directory prefix (eg `../lib/ansi2knr')
2149 ansi2knr now works correctly on K&R sources
2150 * Better C++, yacc, lex support
2151 * Will compute _DEPENDENCIES variables automatically if not supplied
2152 * Will interpolate $(...) and ${...} when examining contents of a variable
2153 * .deps files now in build directory, not source directory; dependency
2154 handling generally rewritten
2155 * DATA, MANS and BUILT_SOURCES no longer included in distribution
2156 * can now put config.h into a subdir
2157 * Added dist-all target
2158 * Support for install-info program (see texinfo 3.9)
2159 * Support for "yacc -d"
2160 * configure substitutions are automatically discovered and included
2161 in generated Makefile.in
2162 * Special --cygnus mode
2163 * OMIT_DEPENDENCIES can now hold list of dependencies to be omitted
2164 when making distribution. Some dependencies are auto-ignored.
2165 * Changed how libraries are specified in _LIBRARIES variable
2166 * Full libtool support, from Gord Matzigkeit
2167 * No longer have to explicitly touch stamp-h when using AC_CONFIG_HEADER;
2168 AM_CONFIG_HEADER handles it automatically
2169 * Texinfo output files no longer need .info extension
2170 * Added `missing' support
2172 * Conditionals in Makefile.am, from Ian Taylor
2176 * distcheck target runs install and installcheck targets
2177 * Added preliminary support for DejaGnu.
2182 * More libtool fixes from Gord Matzigkeit; libtool support is still
2184 * Added support for jm_MAINTAINER_MODE
2186 * New "distcheck" target
2190 * mkinstalldirs and mdate-sh now appear in directory specified by
2192 * Removed DIST_SUBDIRS, DIST_OTHER
2193 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM only required when an actual program exists
2194 * dist-hook target now run before distribution packaged up; idea from
2195 Dieter Baron. Other hooks exist, too.
2196 * Preliminary (unfinished) support for libtool
2197 * Added short option names.
2198 * Better "dist" support when gluing together multiple packages
2202 * Documentation updates (many from François Pinard)
2203 * strictness `normal' now renamed to `foreign'
2204 * Renamed --install-missing to --add-missing
2205 * Now handles AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
2206 * Now handles TESTS macro
2207 * DIST_OTHER renamed to EXTRA_DIST
2208 * DIST_SUBDIRS is deprecated
2209 * @ALLOCA@ and @LIBOBJS@ now work in _LDADD variables
2210 * Better error messages in many cases
2211 * Program names are canonicalized
2212 * Added "check" prefix; from Gord Matzigkeit
2216 * configure.in scanner knows about AC_PATH_XTRA, AC_OUTPUT ":" syntax
2217 * Beginnings of a test suite
2218 * Automatically adds -I options for $(srcdir), ".", and path to config.h
2219 * Doesn't print anything when running
2220 * Beginnings of MAINT_CHARSET support
2221 * Can specify version in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS
2222 * Most errors recognizable by Emacs' M-x next-error
2223 * Added --verbose option
2224 * All "primary" variables now obsolete; use EXTRA_PRIMARY to supply
2225 configure-generated names
2226 * Required macros now distributed in aclocal.m4
2228 * --strictness=gnu is default
2232 * More sophisticated configure.in scanning; now understands ALLOCA and
2233 LIBOBJS directly, handles AC_CONFIG_HEADER more precisely, etc.
2234 * TEXINFOS and MANS now obsolete; use info_TEXINFOS and man_MANS instead.
2235 * CONFIG_HEADER variable now obsolete
2236 * Can handle multiple Texinfo sources
2237 * Allow hierarchies deeper than 2. From Gord Matzigkeit.
2238 * HEADERS variable no longer needed; now can put .h files directly into
2239 foo_SOURCES variable.
2240 * Automake automatically rebuilds files listed in AC_OUTPUT. The
2241 corresponding ".in" files are included in the distribution.
2244 * Added --gnu and --gnits options
2245 * More standards checking
2247 * Cleaned up 'dist' targets
2248 * Added AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS variable and several options
2249 * Now scans configure.in to get some information (preliminary)
2252 * Works with Perl 4 again
2255 * Added --install-missing option.
2256 * Pretty-prints generated macros and rules
2257 * Comments in Makefile.am are placed more intelligently in Makefile.in
2258 * Generates .PHONY target
2259 * Rule or macro in Makefile.am now overrides contents of Automake file
2260 * Substantial cleanups from François Pinard
2264 * Works with Perl 4 again.
2267 * New uniform naming scheme.
2268 * --strictness option
2270 * '.c' files corresponding to '.y' or '.l' files are automatically
2272 * Many bug fixes and cleanups
2275 * Allow objects to be conditionally included in libraries via lib_LIBADD.
2278 * Bug fixes in 'clean' code.
2279 * Now generates 'installdirs' target.
2280 * man page installation reworked.
2281 * 'make dist' no longer re-creates all Makefile.in's.
2284 * Reimplemented in Perl
2285 * Added --amdir option (for debugging)
2286 * Texinfo support cleaned up.
2287 * Automatic de-ANSI-fication cleaned up.
2288 * Cleaned up 'clean' targets.
2291 * Automatic dependency tracking
2292 * More documentation
2293 * New variables DATA and PACKAGEDATA
2294 * SCRIPTS installed using $(INSTALL_SCRIPT)
2295 * No longer uses double-colon rules
2297 * Changes in advance of internationalization
2301 Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2303 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
2304 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2305 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
2308 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2309 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2310 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2311 GNU General Public License for more details.
2313 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2314 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.