3 * Obsolete features removed:
5 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
6 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is not supported anymore.
10 * WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
12 - Autoconf 2.65 or later will be required by the next major Automake
13 version (1.13). Until now, Automake has required Autoconf version
16 - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the rules to
17 build pdf, ps and dvi output from Texinfo input will use the '--tidy'
18 option by default. Since such an option was introduced in Texinfo
19 4.9, this means that Makefiles generated by future Automake versions
20 will require at least that version of Texinfo.
22 - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the parallel
23 testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the 'parallel-tests'
24 option) will become the default one; the older serial testsuite
25 harness will still be available through the use of the 'serial-tests'
28 - The following long-obsolete m4 macros will be removed in the
29 next major Automake version (1.13):
31 AM_PROG_CC_STDC: superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002
32 fp_PROG_CC_STDC: broken alias for AM_PROG_CC_STDC
33 fp_WITH_DMALLOC: old alias for AM_WITH_DMALLOC
34 AM_CONFIG_HEADER: superseded by AC_CONFIG_HEADERS since July 2002
35 ud_PATH_LISPDIR: old alias for AM_PATH_LISPDIR
36 jm_MAINTAINER_MODE: old alias for AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
37 ud_GNU_GETTEXT: old alias for AM_GNU_GETTEXT
38 gm_PROG_LIBTOOL: old alias for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
39 fp_C_PROTOTYPES: old alias for AM_C_PROTOTYPES (which was part
40 of the now-removed automatic de-ANSI-fication
43 - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' will be removed in
44 the next major Automake version (1.13).
46 - Support for the two- and three-arguments invocation forms of the
47 AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro will be deprecated in the next minor version
48 of Automake (1.12.1) and removed in the next major version (1.13).
50 - The '--acdir' option of aclocal is deprecated, and will probably
51 be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13). You should
52 use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir' instead
53 (which have been introduced in Automake 1.11.2).
55 - The exact order in which the directories in the aclocal macro
56 search path are looked up is probably going to be changed in the
57 next Automake release (1.13).
59 * New supported languages:
61 - Support for Objective C++ has been added; it should work similarly to
62 the support for Objective C.
64 * Deprecated obsolescent features:
66 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
67 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro now elicits a warning in the 'obsolete'
68 category. Starting from the next major Automake release (1.13), such
69 usages won't be allowed anymore.
71 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (enabled by the 'cygnus' option) is
72 now deprecated (its use triggers a warning in the 'obsolete' category).
73 It will be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13).
75 - The long-obsolete (since 1.10) automake-provided $(mkdir_p) make
76 variable, @mkdir_p@ configure-time substitution and AM_PROG_MKDIR
77 m4 macro are deprecated, eliciting a warning in the 'obsolete'
78 category. They will be removed in the next major version (1.13).
82 * Bugs introduced by 1.12:
84 - Several weaknesses in Automake's own build system and test suite
87 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
89 - When given non-option arguments, aclocal rejects them, instead of
90 silently ignoring them.
94 - When the 'color-tests' option is in use, forcing of colored testsuite
95 output through "AM_COLOR_TESTS=always" works even if the terminal is
96 a non-ANSI one, i.e., if the TERM environment variable has a value of
99 - Several inefficiencies and poor performances in the implementation
100 of the parallel-tests 'check' and 'recheck' targets have been fixed.
102 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
106 * Obsolete features removed:
108 - The never documented nor truly used script 'acinstall' has been
111 - Support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been removed.
113 - The support for the "obscure" multilib feature has been removed
114 from Automake core (but remains available in the 'contrib/'
115 directory of the Automake distribution).
117 - Support for ".log -> .html" conversion and the check-html and
118 recheck-html targets has been removed from Automake core (but
119 remains available in the 'contrib/' directory of the Automake
122 - The deprecated 'lzma' compression format for distribution archives
123 has been removed, in favor of 'xz' and 'lzip'.
125 - The obsolete AM_WITH_REGEX macro has been removed.
127 - The long-deprecated options '--output-dir', '--Werror' and
128 '--Wno-error' have been removed.
130 - The chapter on the history of Automake has been moved out of the
131 reference manual, into a new dedicated Texinfo file.
135 - New 'cscope' target to build a cscope database for the source tree.
137 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
139 - The new automake option 'serial-tests' has been introduced. It can
140 be used to explicitly instruct automake to use the older serial
141 testsuite harness. This is still the default at the moment, but it
142 might change in future versions.
144 - The 'recheck' target (provided by the parallel testsuite harness) now
145 depends on the 'all' target. This allows for a better user-experience
146 in test-driven development. See automake bug#11252.
148 - Test scripts that exit with status 99 to signal an "hard error" (e.g.,
149 and unexpected or internal error, or a failure to set up the test case
150 scenario) have their outcome reported as an 'ERROR' now. Previous
151 versions of automake reported such an outcome as a 'FAIL' (the only
152 difference with normal failures being that hard errors were counted
153 as failures even when the test originating them was listed in
156 - The testsuite summary displayed by the parallel-test harness has a
157 completely new format, that always list the numbers of passed, failed,
158 xfailed, xpassed, skipped and errored tests, even when these numbers
159 are zero (but using smart coloring when the color-tests option is in
162 - The default testsuite driver offered by the 'parallel-tests' option is
163 now implemented (partly at least) with the help of automake-provided
164 auxiliary scripts (e.g., 'test-driver'), instead of relying entirely
165 on code in the generated Makefile.in.
166 This has two noteworthy implications. The first one is that projects
167 using the 'parallel-tests' option should now either run automake with
168 the '--add-missing' option, or manually copy the 'test-driver' script
169 into their tree. The second, and more important, implication is that
170 now, when the 'parallel-tests' option is in use, TESTS_ENVIRONMENT can
171 not be used anymore to define a test runner, and the command specified
172 in LOG_COMPILER (and <ext>_LOG_COMPILER) must be a *real* executable
173 program or script. For example, this is still a valid usage (albeit
176 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
177 if test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS)'; then \
178 maybe_errexit='-e'; \
182 LOG_COMPILER = $(SHELL) $$maybe_errexit
184 while this is not anymore:
186 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
187 $(SHELL) `test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS_CHECKING)' && echo ' -e'`
191 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
192 run_with_perl_or_shell () \
194 if grep -q '^#!.*perl' $$1; then
200 LOG_COMPILER = run_with_perl_or_shell
202 - The package authors can now use customary testsuite drivers within
203 the framework provided by the 'parallel-tests' testsuite harness.
204 Consistently with the existing syntax, this can be done by defining
205 special makefile variables 'LOG_DRIVER' and '<ext>_LOG_DRIVER'.
207 - A new developer-reserved variable 'AM_TESTS_FD_REDIRECT' can be used
208 to redirect/define file descriptors used by the test scripts.
210 - The parallel-tests harness generates now, in addition the '.log' files
211 holding the output produced by the test scripts, a new set of '.trs'
212 files, holding "metadata" derived by the execution of the test scripts;
213 among such metadata are the outcomes of the test cases run by a script.
215 - Initial and still experimental support for the TAP test protocol is
218 * Changes to Yacc and Lex support:
220 - C source and header files derived from non-distributed Yacc and/or
221 Lex sources are now removed by a simple "make clean" (while they were
222 previously removed only by "make maintainer-clean").
224 - Slightly backward-incompatible change, relevant only for use of Yacc
225 with C++: the extensions of the header files produced by the Yacc
226 rules are now modelled after the extension of the corresponding
227 sources. For example, yacc files named "foo.y++" and "bar.yy" will
228 produce header files named "foo.h++" and "bar.hh" respectively, where
229 they would have previously produced header files named simply "foo.h"
230 and "bar.h". This change offers better compatibility with 'bison -o'.
232 * Miscellaneous changes:
234 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro now causes configure to exit with status 77,
235 rather than 1, if the vala compiler found is too old.
237 - The build system of Automake itself now avoids the use of make
238 recursion as much as possible.
240 - Automake now prefers to quote 'like this' or "like this", rather
241 than `like this', in diagnostic message and generated Makefiles,
242 to accommodate the new GNU Coding Standards recommendations.
244 - Automake has a new option '--print-libdir' that prints the path of the
245 directory containing the Automake-provided scripts and data files.
247 - The 'dist' and 'dist-all' targets now can run compressors in parallel.
249 - The rules to create pdf, dvi and ps output from Texinfo files now
250 works better with modern 'texi2dvi' script, by explicitly passing
251 it the '--clean' option to ensure stray auxiliary files are not
252 left to clutter the build directory.
254 - Automake can now generate silenced rules for texinfo outputs.
256 - Some auxiliary files that are automatically distributed by Automake
257 (e.g., 'install-sh', or the 'depcomp' script for packages compiling
258 C sources) might now be listed in the DIST_COMMON variable in many
259 Makefile.in files, rather than in the top-level one.
261 - Messages of types warning or error from 'automake' and 'aclocal'
262 are now prefixed with the respective type, and presence of -Werror
265 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now tries to avoid
266 sleeping for a second, which slowed down cached configure runs
267 noticeably. In that case, it will check back at the end of the
268 configure script to ensure that at least one second has passed, to
269 avoid time stamp issues with makefile rules rerunning autotools
272 - The warnings in the category 'extra-portability' are now enabled by
273 '-Wall'. In previous versions, one has to use '-Wextra-portability'
278 - Various minor bugfixes for recent or long-standing bugs.
280 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
282 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
283 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
285 - The automake-provided parallel testsuite harness does not fail anymore
286 with BSD make used in parallel mode when there are test scripts in a
287 subdirectory, like in:
289 TESTS = sub/foo.test sub/bar.test
291 * Long-standing bugs:
293 - Automake's own build system finally have a real "installcheck" target.
295 - Vala-related cleanup rules are now more complete, and work better in
298 - Files listed with the AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE macro in configure.ac are
299 now automatically distributed also if the directory of the auxiliary
300 files coincides with the top-level directory.
302 - Automake now detects the presence of the '-d' flag in the various
303 '*YFLAGS' variables even when their definitions involve indirections
304 through other variables, such as in:
306 AM_YFLAGS = $(foo_opts)
308 - Automake now complains if a '*YFLAGS' variable has any conditional
309 content, not only a conditional definition.
311 - Explicit enabling and/or disabling of Automake warning categories
312 through the '-W...' options now always takes precedence over the
313 implicit warning level implied by Automake strictness (foreign, gnu
314 or gnits), regardless of the order in which such strictness and
315 warning flags appear. For example, a setting like:
316 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = -Wall --foreign
317 will cause the warnings in category 'portability' to be enabled, even
318 if those warnings are by default disabled in 'foreign' strictness.
320 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
322 Bugs fixed in 1.11.5:
324 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
326 - Vala files with '.vapi' extension are now recognized and handled
327 correctly again. See automake bug#11222.
329 - Vala support work again for projects that contain some program
330 built from '.vala' (and possibly '.c') sources and some other
331 program built from '.c' sources *only*. See automake bug#11229.
333 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
337 * Miscellaneous changes:
339 - The 'ar-lib' script now ignores the "s" (symbol index) and "S" (no
340 symbol index) modifiers as well as the "s" action, as the symbol index
341 is created unconditionally by Microsoft lib. Also, the "q" (quick)
342 action is now a synonym for "r" (replace). Also, the script has been
343 ignoring the "v" (verbose) modifier already since Automake 1.11.3.
345 - When the 'compile' script is used to wrap MSVC, it now accepts an
346 optional space between the -I, -L and -l options and their respective
347 arguments, for better POSIX compliance.
349 - There is an initial, experimental support for automatic dependency
350 tracking with tcc (the Tiny C Compiler). Its associated depmode is
351 currently recognized as "icc" (but this and other details are likely
352 to change in future versions).
354 - Automatic dependency tracking now works also with the IBM XL C/C++
355 compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'xlc'.
357 Bugs fixed in 1.11.4:
359 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
361 - A definition of 'noinst_PYTHON' before 'python_PYTHON' (or similar)
362 don't cause spurious failures upon "make install" anymore.
364 - The user can now instruct the 'uninstall-info' rule not to update
365 the '${infodir}/dir' file by exporting the environment variable
366 'AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no". This is done for consistency
367 with how the 'install-info' rule operates since automake 1.11.2.
369 * Long-standing bugs:
371 - It is now possible for a foo_SOURCES variable to hold Vala sources
372 together with C header files, as well as with sources and headers for
373 other supported languages (e.g., C++). Previously, only mixing C and
374 Vala sources was supported.
376 - If "aclocal --install" is used, and the first directory specified with
377 '-I' is non-existent, aclocal will now create it before trying to copy
380 - An empty declaration of a "foo_PRIMARY" don't cause anymore the
381 generated install rules to create an empty $(foodir) directory;
382 for example, if Makefile.am contains something like:
386 pkglibexec_SCRIPTS += bar.sh
389 the $(pkglibexec) directory will not be created upon "make install".
391 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
395 * Miscellaneous changes:
397 - Automake's own build system is more silent by default, making use of
398 the 'silent-rules' option.
400 - The master copy of the `gnupload' script is now maintained in gnulib,
403 - The `missing' script doesn't try to wrap calls to `tar' anymore.
405 - "make dist" doesn't wrap `tar' invocations with the `missing' script
406 anymore. Similarly, the obsolescent variable `$(AMTAR)' (which you
407 shouldn't be using BTW ;-) does not invoke the missing script anymore
408 to wrap tar, but simply invokes the `tar' program itself.
410 - "make dist" can now create lzip-compressed tarballs.
412 - In the Automake info documentation, the Top node and the nodes about
413 the invocation of the automake and aclocal programs have been renamed;
414 now, calling "info automake" will open the Top node, while calling
415 "info automake-invocation" and "info aclocal-invocation" will access
416 the nodes about the invocation of respectively automake and aclocal.
418 - Automake is now distributed as a gzip-compressed and an xz-compressed
419 tarball. Previously, bzip2 was used instead of xz.
421 - The last relics of Python 1.5 support have been removed from the
422 AM_PATH_PYTHON macro.
424 - For programs and libraries, automake now detects EXTRA_foo_DEPENDENCIES
425 and adds them to the normal list of dependencies, but without
426 overwriting the foo_DEPENDENCIES variable, which is normally computed
429 Bugs fixed in 1.11.3:
431 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
433 - Automake now correctly recognizes the prefix/primary combination
434 `pkglibexec_SCRIPTS' as valid.
436 - The parallel-tests harness doesn't trip anymore on sed implementations
437 with stricter limits on the length of input lines (problem seen at
440 * Long-standing bugs:
442 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.am files is avoided by stub
443 rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `automake' also if
444 some previously needed `.am' file has been removed.
446 - The `silent-rules' option now generates working makefiles even
447 for the uncommon `make' implementations that do not support the
448 nested-variables extension to POSIX 2008. For such `make'
449 implementations, whether a build is silent is determined at
450 configure time, and cannot be overridden at make time with
451 `make V=0' or `make V=1'.
453 - Vala support now works better in VPATH setups.
455 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
459 * Changes to aclocal:
461 - The `--acdir' option is deprecated. Now you should use the new options
462 `--automake-acdir' and `--system-acdir' instead.
464 - The `ACLOCAL_PATH' environment variable is now interpreted as a
465 colon-separated list of additional directories to search after the
466 automake internal acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal-APIVERSION)
467 and before the system acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal).
469 * Miscellaneous changes:
471 - The Automake support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been
472 deprecated. It will probably be removed in the next major Automake
475 - The `lzma' compression scheme and associated automake option `dist-lzma'
476 is obsoleted by `xz' and `dist-xz' due to upstream changes.
478 - You may adjust the compression options used in dist-xz and dist-bzip2.
479 The default is now merely -e for xz, but still -9 for bzip; you may
480 specify a different level via the XZ_OPT and BZIP2 envvars respectively.
481 E.g., "make dist-xz XZ_OPT=-7" or "make dist-bzip2 BZIP2=-5"
483 - The `compile' script now converts some options for MSVC for a better
484 user experience. Similarly, the new `ar-lib' script wraps Microsoft lib.
486 - The py-compile script now accepts empty arguments passed to the options
487 `--destdir' and `--basedir', and complains about unrecognized options.
488 Moreover, a non-option argument or a special `--' argument terminates
491 - A developer that needs to pass specific flags to configure at "make
492 distcheck" time can now, and indeed is advised to, do so by defining
493 the developer-reserved makefile variable AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS,
494 instead of the old DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS.
495 The DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS variable should now be reserved for the
496 user; still, the old Makefile.am files that used to define it will
497 still continue to work as before.
499 - New macro AM_PROG_AR that looks for an archiver and wraps it in the new
500 'ar-lib' auxiliary script if the selected archiver is Microsoft lib.
501 This new macro is required for LIBRARIES and LTLIBRARIES when automake
502 is run with -Wextra-portability and -Werror.
504 - When using DejaGnu-based testsuites, the user can extend the `site.exp'
505 file generated by automake-provided rules by defining the special make
506 variable `$(EXTRA_DEJAGNU_SITE_CONFIG)'.
508 - The `install-info' rule can now be instructed not to create/update
509 the `${infodir}/dir' file, by exporting the new environment variable
510 `AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no".
512 Bugs fixed in 1.11.2:
514 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
516 - The parallel-tests driver no longer produces erroneous results with
517 Tru64/OSF 5.1 sh upon unreadable log files.
519 - The `parallel-tests' test driver does not report spurious successes
520 when used with concurrent FreeBSD make (e.g., "make check -j3").
522 - When the parallel-tests driver is in use, automake now explicitly
523 rejects invalid entries and conditional contents in TEST_EXTENSIONS,
524 instead of issuing confusing and apparently unrelated error messages
525 (e.g., "non-POSIX variable name", "bad characters in variable name",
526 or "redefinition of TEST_EXTENSIONS), or even, in some situations,
527 silently producing broken `Makefile.in' files.
529 - The `silent-rules' option now truly silences all compile rules, even
530 when dependency tracking is disabled. Also, when `silent-rules' is
531 not used, `make' output no longer contains spurious backslash-only
532 lines, thus once again matching what Automake did before 1.11.
534 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
535 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
537 * Long-standing bugs:
539 - The order of Yacc and Lex flags is fixed to be consistent with other
540 languages: $(AM_YFLAGS) comes before $(YFLAGS), and $(AM_LFLAGS) before
541 $(LFLAGS), so that the user variables override the developer variables.
543 - "make distcheck" now correctly complains also when "make uninstall"
544 leaves one and only one file installed in $(prefix).
546 - A "make uninstall" issued before a "make install", or after a mere
547 "make install-data" or a mere "make install-exec" does not spuriously
550 - Automake now warns about more primary/directory invalid combinations,
551 such as "doc_LIBRARIES" or "pkglib_PROGRAMS".
553 - Rules generated by Automake now try harder to not change any files when
554 `make -n' is invoked. Fixes include compilation of Emacs Lisp, Vala, or
555 Yacc source files and the rule to update config.h.
557 - Several scripts and the parallel-tests testsuite driver now exit with
558 the right exit status upon receiving a signal.
560 - A per-Makefile.am setting of -Werror does not erroneously carry over
561 to the handling of other Makefile.am files.
563 - The code for automatic dependency tracking works around a Solaris
564 make bug triggered by sources containing repeated slashes when the
565 `subdir-objects' option was used.
567 - The makedepend and hp depmodes now work better with VPATH builds.
569 - Java sources specified with check_JAVA are no longer compiled for
570 "make all", but only for "make check".
572 - An usage like "java_JAVA = foo.java" will now cause Automake to warn
573 and error out if `javadir' is undefined, instead of silently producing
574 a broken Makefile.in.
576 - aclocal and automake now honour the configure-time definitions of
577 AUTOCONF and AUTOM4TE when they spawn autoconf or autom4te processes.
579 - The `install-info' recipe no longer tries to guess whether the
580 `install-info' program is from Debian or from GNU, and adaptively
581 change its behaviour; this has proven to be frail and easy to
584 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
586 Bugs fixed in 1.11.1:
588 - Lots of minor bugfixes.
590 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
592 - The `parallel-tests' test driver works around a GNU make 3.80 bug with
593 trailing white space in the test list (`TESTS = foo $(EMPTY)').
595 * Long standing bugs:
597 - On Darwin 9, `pythondir' and `pyexecdir' pointed below `/Library/Python'
598 even if the `--prefix' argument pointed outside of a system directory.
599 AM_PATH_PYTHON has been fixed to ignore the value returned from python's
600 `get_python_lib' function if it points outside the configured prefix,
601 unless the `--prefix' argument was either `/usr' or below `/System'.
603 - The testsuite does not try to change the mode of `ltmain.sh' files from
604 a Libtool installation (symlinked to test directories) any more.
606 - AM_PROG_GCJ uses AC_CHECK_TOOLS to look for `gcj' now, so that prefixed
607 tools are preferred in a cross-compile setup.
609 - The distribution is tarred up with mode 755 now by the `dist*' targets.
610 This fixes a race condition where untrusted users could modify files
611 in the $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION) distdir before packing if the toplevel
612 build directory was world-searchable. This is CVE-2009-4029.
614 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
618 * Version requirements:
620 - Autoconf 2.62 or greater is required.
622 * Changes to aclocal:
624 - The autoconf version check implemented by aclocal in aclocal.m4
625 (and new in Automake 1.10) is degraded to a warning. This helps
626 in the common case where the Autoconf versions used are compatible.
628 * Changes to automake:
630 - The automake program can run multiple threads for creating most
631 Makefile.in files concurrently, if at least Perl 5.7.2 is available
632 with interpreter-based threads enabled. Set the environment variable
633 AUTOMAKE_JOBS to the maximum number of threads to use, in order to
634 enable this experimental feature.
636 * Changes to Libtool support:
638 - Libtool generic flags are now passed to the install and uninstall
641 - distcheck works with Libtool 2.x even when LT_OUTPUT is used, as
642 config.lt is removed correctly now.
646 - subdir-object mode works now with Fortran (F77, FC, preprocessed
647 Fortran, and Ratfor).
649 - For files with extension .f90, .f95, .f03, or .f08, the flag
650 $(FCFLAGS_f[09]x) computed by AC_FC_SRCEXT is now used in compile rules.
652 - Files with extension .sx are also treated as preprocessed assembler.
654 - The default source file extension (.c) can be overridden with
655 AM_DEFAULT_SOURCE_EXT now.
657 - Python 3.0 is supported now, Python releases prior to 2.0 are no
660 - AM_PATH_PYTHON honors python's idea about the site directory.
662 - There is initial support for the Vala programming language, when using
665 * Miscellaneous changes:
667 - Automake development is done in a git repository on Savannah now, see
669 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=automake.git
671 A read-only CVS mirror is provided at
673 cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@pserver.git.sv.gnu.org:/automake.git \
674 checkout -d automake HEAD
676 - "make dist" can now create xz-compressed tarballs,
677 as well as (deprecated?) lzma-compressed tarballs.
679 - `automake --add-missing' will by default install the GPLv3 file as
680 COPYING if it is missing. It will also warn that the license file
681 should be added to source control. Note that Automake will never
682 overwrite an existing COPYING file, even when the `--force-missing'
685 - The manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL 1.3.
687 - Automake ships and installs man pages for automake and aclocal now.
689 - New shorthand `$(pkglibexecdir)' for `$(libexecdir)/@PACKAGE@'.
691 - install-sh supports -C, which does not update the installed file
692 (and its time stamps) if the contents did not change.
694 - The `gnupload' script has been revamped.
696 - The `depcomp' and `compile' scripts now work with MSVC under MSYS.
698 - The targets `install' and `uninstall' are more efficient now, in that
699 for example multiple files from one Automake variable such as
700 `bin_SCRIPTS' are copied in one `install' (or `libtool --mode=install')
701 invocation if they do not have to be renamed.
703 Both install and uninstall may sometimes enter (`cd' into) the target
704 installation directory now, when no build-local scripts are used.
706 Both install and uninstall do not fail anymore but do nothing if an
707 installation directory variable like `bindir' is set to the empty string.
709 For built-in rules, `make install' now fails reliably if installation
710 of a file failed. Conversely, `make uninstall' even succeeds when
711 issued multiple times.
713 These changes may need some adjustments from users: For example,
714 some `install' programs refuse to install multiple copies of the
715 same file in one invocation, so you may need to remove duplicate
716 entries from file lists.
718 Also, within one set of files, say, nobase_data_DATA, the order of
719 installation may be changed, or even unstable among different hosts,
720 due to the use of associative arrays in awk. The increased use of
721 awk matches a similar move in Autoconf to provide for better scaling.
723 Further, most undocumented per-rule install command variables such as
724 binSCRIPT_INSTALL have been removed because they are not needed any
725 more. Packages which use them should be using the appropriate one of
726 INSTALL_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT} or their install_sh_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT}
727 counterpart, depending on the type of files and the need for automatic
728 target directory creation.
730 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.m4 files is avoided by
731 stub rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `aclocal'
732 also if some previously needed macro file has been removed.
734 - Rebuild rules now also work for a removed `subdir/Makefile.in' in
735 an otherwise up to date tree.
737 - The `color-tests' option causes colored test result output on terminals.
739 - The `parallel-tests' option enables a new test driver that allows for
740 parallel test execution, inter-test dependencies, lazy test execution
741 for unit-testing, re-testing only failed tests, and formatted result output
742 as RST (reStructuredText) and HTML. Enabling this option may require some
743 changes to your test suite setup; see the manual for details.
745 - The `silent-rules' option enables Linux kernel-style silent build output.
746 This option requires the widely supported but non-POSIX `make' feature
747 of recursive variable expansion, so do not use it if your package needs
748 to build with `make' implementations that do not support it.
750 To enable less verbose build output, the developer has to use the Automake
751 option `silent-rules' in `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE', or call the `AM_SILENT_RULES'
752 macro. The user may then set the default verbosity by passing the
753 `--enable-silent-rules' option to `configure'. At `make' run time, this
754 default may be overridden using `make V=0' for less verbose, and `make V=1'
755 for backward-compatible verbose output.
757 - New prefix `notrans_' for manpages which should not be transformed
758 by --program-transform.
760 - New macro AM_COND_IF for conditional evaluation and conditional
763 - For AC_CONFIG_LINKS, if source and destination are equal, do not
764 remove the file in a non-VPATH build. Such setups work with Autoconf
767 - AM_MAINTAINER_MODE now allows for an optional argument specifying
770 - AM_SUBST_NOTMAKE may prevent substitution of AC_SUBSTed variables,
771 useful especially for multi-line values.
773 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now diagnoses an
774 unsafe absolute source directory name and makes configure fail.
776 - The Automake macros and rules cope better with whitespace in the
777 current directory name, as long as the relative path to `configure'
778 does not contain whitespace. To this end, the values of `$(MISSING)'
779 and `$(install_sh)' may contain suitable quoting, and their expansion
780 might need `eval'uation if used outside of a makefile. These
781 undocumented variables may be used in several documented macros such
782 as $(AUTOCONF) or $(MAKEINFO).
786 * Long-standing bugs:
788 - Fix aix dependency tracking for libtool objects.
790 - Work around AIX sh quoting issue in AC_PROG_CC_C_O, leading to
791 unnecessary use of the `compile' script.
793 - For nobase_*_LTLIBRARIES with nonempty directory components, the
794 correct `-rpath' argument is used now.
796 - `config.status --file=Makefile depfiles' now also works with the
797 extra quoting used internally by Autoconf 2.62 and newer
798 (it used to work only without the `--file=' bit).
800 - The `missing' script works better with versioned tool names.
802 - Semantics for `missing help2man' have been revamped:
804 Previously, if `help2man' was not present, `missing help2man' would have
805 the following semantics: if some man page was out of date but present, then
806 a warning would be printed, but the exit status was 0. If the man page was
807 not present at all, then `missing' would create a replacement man page
808 containing an error message, and exit with a status of 2. This does not play
809 well with `make': the next run will see this particular man page as being up
810 to date, and will only error out on the next generated man page, if any;
811 repeat until all pages are done. This was not desirable.
813 These are the new semantics: if some man page is not present, and help2man
814 is not either, then `missing' will warn and generate the replacement page
815 containing the error message, but exit successfully. However, `make dist'
816 will ensure that no such bogus man pages are packaged into a tarball.
818 - Targets provided by automake behave better with `make -n', in that they
819 take care not to create files.
821 - `config.status Makefile... depfiles' works fine again in the presence of
822 disabled dependency tracking.
824 - The default no-op recursive rules for these targets also work with BSD make
825 now: html, install-html, install-dvi, install-pdf, install-pdf, install-info.
827 - `make distcheck' works also when both a directory and some file below it
828 have been added to a distribution variable, such as EXTRA_DIST or *_SOURCES.
830 - Texinfo dvi, ps, pdf, and html output files are not removed upon
831 `make mostlyclean' any more; only the LaTeX by-products are.
833 - Renamed objects also work with the `subdir-objects' option and
834 source file languages which Automake does not know itself.
836 - `automake' now correctly complains about variable assignments which are
837 preceded by a comment, extend over multiple lines with backslash-escaped
838 newlines, and end in a comment sign. Previous versions would silently
839 and wrongly ignore such assignments completely.
841 * Bugs introduced by 1.10:
843 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
844 Makefile.in's again, but also cope with long lines.
846 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of XFAIL_TESTS
847 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
848 This is for consistency with the analogous change to TESTS in 1.10.
850 - Fix order of standard includes to again be `-I. -I$(srcdir)',
851 followed by directories containing config headers.
853 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
857 * Version requirements:
859 - Autoconf 2.60 or greater is required.
861 - Perl 5.6 or greater is required.
863 * Changes to aclocal:
865 - aclocal now also supports -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble options.
867 - `dirlist' entries (for the aclocal search path) may use shell
868 wildcards such as `*', `?', or `[...]'.
870 - aclocal supports an --install option that will cause system-wide
871 third-party macros to be installed in the local directory
872 specified with the first -I flag. This option also uses #serial
873 lines in M4 files to upgrade local macros.
875 The new aclocal options --dry-run and --diff help to review changes
876 before they are installed.
878 - aclocal now outputs an autoconf version check in aclocal.m4 in
879 projects using automake.
881 For a few years, automake and aclocal have been calling autoconf
882 (or its underlying engine autom4te) to accurately retrieve the
883 data they need from configure.ac and its siblings. Doing so can
884 only work if all autotools use the same version of autoconf. For
885 instance a Makefile.in generated by automake for one version of
886 autoconf may stop working if configure is regenerated with another
887 version of autoconf, and vice versa.
889 This new version check ensures that the whole build system has
890 been generated using the same autoconf version.
892 * Support for new Autoconf macros:
894 - The new AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE Autoconf macro is supported.
896 - If `subdir-objects' is set, and AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR is specified,
897 $(LIBOBJS), $(LTLIBOBJS), $(ALLOCA), and $(LTALLOCA) can be used
898 in different directories. However, only one instance of such a
899 library objects directory is supported.
901 * Change to Libtool support:
903 - Libtool generic flags (those that go before the --mode=MODE option)
904 can be specified using AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS and target_LIBTOOLFLAGS.
906 * Yacc and Lex changes:
908 - The rebuild rules for distributed Yacc and Lex output will avoid
909 overwriting existing files if AM_MAINTAINER_MODE and maintainer-mode
912 - ylwrap is now always used for lex and yacc source files,
913 regardless of whether there is more than one source per directory.
917 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now honors CPPFLAGS,
918 AM_CPPFLAGS and per-target _CPPFLAGS, and supports dependency
919 tracking, unlike non-preprocessed assembler (*.s).
921 - subdir-object mode works now with Assembler. Automake assumes
922 that the compiler understands `-c -o'.
924 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now also honors
925 $(DEFS) $(DEFAULT_INCLUDES) $(INCLUDES).
927 - Improved support for Objective C:
928 - Autoconf's new AC_PROG_OBJC will enable automatic dependency tracking.
929 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
931 - New support for Unified Parallel C:
932 - AM_PROG_UPC looks for a UPC compiler.
933 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
935 - Per-target flags are now correctly handled in link rules.
937 For instance maude_CFLAGS correctly overrides AM_CFLAGS; likewise
938 for maude_LDFLAGS and AM_LDFLAGS. Previous versions bogusly
939 preferred AM_CFLAGS over maude_CFLAGS while linking, and they
940 used both AM_LDFLAGS and maude_LDFLAGS on the same link command.
942 The fix for compiler flags (i.e., using maude_CFLAGS instead of
943 AM_CFLAGS) should not hurt any package since that is how _CFLAGS
944 is expected to work (and actually works during compilation).
946 However using maude_LDFLAGS "instead of" AM_LDFLAGS rather than
947 "in addition to" breaks backward compatibility with older versions.
948 If your package used both variables, as in
950 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
952 a_LDFLAGS = more flags
955 and assumed *_LDFLAGS would sum up, you should rewrite it as
957 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
959 a_LDFLAGS = $(AM_LDFLAGS) more flags
962 This new behavior of *_LDFLAGS is more coherent with other
963 per-target variables, and the way *_LDFLAGS variables were
964 considered internally.
966 * New installation targets:
968 - New targets mandated by GNU Coding Standards:
973 By default they will only install Texinfo manuals.
974 You can customize them with *-local variants:
980 - The undocumented recursive target `uninstall-info' no longer exists.
981 (`uninstall' is in charge of removing all possible documentation
982 flavors, including optional formats such as dvi, ps, or info even
983 when `no-installinfo' is used.)
985 * Miscellaneous changes:
987 - Automake no longer complains if input files for AC_CONFIG_FILES
988 are specified using shell variables.
990 - clean, distribution, or rebuild rules are normally disabled for
991 inputs and outputs of AC_CONFIG_FILES, AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, and
992 AC_CONFIG_LINK specified using shell variables. However, if these
993 variables are used as ${VAR}, and AC_SUBSTed, then Automake will
994 be able to output rules anyway.
995 (See the Automake documentation for AC_CONFIG_FILES.)
997 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of TESTS
998 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
999 This is mostly useful when some check_PROGRAMS are listed in TESTS.
1001 - `-Wportability' has finally been turned on by default for `gnu' and
1002 `gnits' strictness. This means, automake will complain about %-rules
1003 or $(GNU Make functions) unless you switch to `foreign' strictness or
1004 use `-Wno-portability'.
1006 - Automake now uses AC_PROG_MKDIR_P (new in Autoconf 2.60), and uses
1007 $(MKDIR_P) instead of $(mkdir_p) to create directories. The
1008 $(mkdir_p) variable is still defined (to the same value as
1009 $(MKDIR_P)) but should be considered obsolete. If you are using
1010 $(mkdir_p) in some of your rules, please plan to update them to
1011 $(MKDIR_P) at some point.
1013 - AM_C_PROTOTYPES and ansi2knr are now documented as being obsolete.
1014 They still work in this release, but may be withdrawn in a future one.
1016 - Inline compilation rules for gcc3-style dependency tracking are
1019 - Automake installs a "Hello World!" example package in $(docdir).
1020 This example is used throughout the new "Autotools Introduction"
1021 chapter of the manual.
1023 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1027 * Makefile.in bloat reduction:
1029 - Inference rules are used to compile sources in subdirectories when
1030 the `subdir-objects' option is used and no per-target flags are
1031 used. This should reduce the size of some projects a lot, because
1032 Automake used to output an explicit rule for each such object in
1035 - Automake no longer outputs three rules (.o, .obj, .lo) for each
1036 object that must be built with explicit rules. It just outputs
1037 the rules required to build the kind of object considered: either
1038 the two .o and .obj rules for usual objects, or the .lo rule for
1041 * Change to Libtool support:
1043 - Libtool tags are used with libtool versions that support them.
1044 (I.e., with Libtool 1.5 or greater.)
1046 - Automake is now able to handle setups where a libtool library is
1047 conditionally installed in different directories, as in
1050 lib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1052 pkglib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1054 liba_la_SOURCES = ...
1056 * Changes to aclocal:
1058 - aclocal now ensures that AC_DEFUNs and AU_DEFUNs it discovers are
1059 really evaluated, before it decides to include them in aclocal.m4.
1060 This solves nasty problems with conditional redefinitions of
1061 Autoconf macros in /usr/share/aclocal/*.m4 files causing extraneous
1062 *.m4 files to be included in any project using these macros.
1063 (Calls to AC_PROG_EGREP causing libtool.m4 to be included is the
1064 most famous instance of this bug.)
1066 - Do not complain about missing conditionally AC_REQUIREd macros
1067 that are not actually used. In 1.8.x aclocal would correctly
1068 determine which of these macros were really needed (and include
1069 only these in the package); unfortunately it would also require
1070 all of them to be present in order to run. This created
1071 situations were aclocal would not work on a tarball distributing
1072 all the macros it uses. For instance running aclocal on a project
1073 containing only the subset of the Gettext macros in use by the
1074 project did not work, because gettext conditionally requires other
1077 * Portability improvements:
1079 - Tar format can be chosen with the new options tar-v7, tar-ustar, and
1080 tar-pax. The new option filename-length-max=99 helps diagnosing
1081 filenames that are too long for tar-v7. (PR/414)
1083 - Variables aumented with `+=' are now automatically flattened (i.e.,
1084 trailing backslashes removed) and then wrapped around 80 colummns
1085 (adding trailing backslashes). In previous versions, a long series
1091 would result in a single-line definition of VAR that could possibly
1092 exceed the maximum line length of some make implementations.
1094 Non-augmented variables are still output as they are defined in
1099 - Support Fortran 90/95 with the new "fc" and "ppfc" languages.
1100 Works the same as the old Fortran 77 implementation; just replace
1101 F77 with FC everywhere (exception: FFLAGS becomes FCFLAGS).
1102 Requires a version of autoconf which provides AC_PROG_FC (>=2.59).
1104 - Support for conditional _LISP.
1106 - Support for conditional -hook and -local rules (PR/428).
1108 - Diagnose AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR calls following AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. (PR/49)
1110 - Automake will not write any Makefile.ins after the first error it
1111 encounters. The previous Makefile.ins (if any) will be left in
1112 place. (Warnings will not prevent output, but remember they can
1113 be turned into errors with -Werror.)
1115 - The restriction that SUBDIRS must contain direct children is gone.
1118 - The manual tells more about SUBDIRS vs. DIST_SUBDIRS.
1119 It also gives an example of nested packages using AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS.
1121 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1123 Bugs fixed in 1.8.5:
1125 * Long-standing bugs:
1127 - Define DIST_SUBDIRS even when the `no-dist' or `cygnus' options are used
1128 so that `make distclean' and `make maintainer-clean' can work.
1130 - Define AR and ARFLAGS even when only EXTRA_LIBRARIES are defined.
1132 - Fix many rules to please FreeBSD make, which runs commands with `sh -e'.
1134 - Polish diagnostic when no input file is found.
1136 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1138 Bugs fixed in 1.8.4:
1140 * Long-standing bugs:
1142 - Fix AM_PATH_PYTHON to correctly display $PYTHON when it has been
1143 overridden by the user.
1145 - Honor PATH_SEPARATOR in various places of the Automake package, for
1148 - Adjust dependency tracking mode detection to ICC 8.0's new output.
1151 - Fix install-sh so it can install the `mv' binary... using `mv'.
1153 - Fix tru64 dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1155 - Work around Exuberant Ctags when creating a TAGS files in a directory
1156 without files to scan but with subdirectories to include.
1158 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1160 - Fix an "internal error" when @LIBOBJS@ is used in a variable that is
1161 not defined in the same conditions as the _LDADD that uses it.
1163 - Do not warn when JAVAROOT is overridden, this is legitimate.
1165 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1167 Bugs fixed in 1.8.3:
1169 * Long-standing bugs:
1171 - Quote filenames in installation rules, in case $DESTDIR, $prefix,
1172 or any of the other *dir variables contain a space.
1174 Please note that Automake does not and cannot support spaces in
1175 filenames that are involved during the build. This change affects
1176 only installation paths, so that `make install' does not bomb out
1177 in packages configured with
1178 ./configure --prefix '/c/Program Files'
1180 - Fix the depfiles output so it works with GNU sed (<4.1) even when
1181 POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.
1183 - Do not AC_SUBST(LIBOBJS) in AM_WITH_REGEX. This macro was unusable
1184 since Autoconf 2.54, which defines LIBOBJS itself.
1186 - Fix a potential (but unlikely) race condition in parallel elisp
1187 builds. (Introduced in 1.7.3.)
1189 - Do not assume that users override _DEPENDENCIES in all conditions
1190 where Automake will try to define them.
1192 - Do not use `mkdir -p' in mkinstalldirs, unless this is GNU mkdir.
1193 Solaris 8's `mkdir -p' is not thread-safe and can break parallel
1196 This fix also affects the $(mkdir_p) variable defined since
1197 Automake 1.8. It will be set to `mkdir -p' only if mkdir is GNU
1198 mkdir, and to `mkinstalldirs' or `install-sh -d' otherwise.
1200 - Secure temporary directory creation in `make distcheck'. (PR/413)
1202 - Do not generate two build rules for `parser.h' when the
1203 parser appears in two different conditionals.
1205 - Work around a Solaris 8 /bin/sh bug in the test for dependency
1206 checking. Usually ./configure will not pick this shell; so this
1207 fix only helps cases where the shell is forced to /bin/sh.
1209 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1211 - In some situations (hand-written `m4_include's), aclocal would
1212 call the `File::Spec->rel2abs' method, which was only introduced
1213 in Perl 5.6. This new version reestablish support Perl 5.005.
1215 It is likely that the next major Automake releases will require at
1216 least Perl 5.6. Consider upgrading your development environment
1217 if you are still using the five-year-old Perl 5.005.
1219 - Automake would sometimes fail to define rules for targets listed
1220 in variables defined in multiple conditions. For instance on
1226 it would define only the `a.$(OBJEXT): a.c' rule and omit the
1227 `b.$(OBJEXT): b.c' rule.
1229 * New sections in manual:
1231 - Third-Party Makefiles: how to interface third party Makefiles.
1232 - Upgrading: upgrading packages to newer Automake versions.
1233 - Multiple Outputs: handling tools that produce many outputs.
1235 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1239 * A (well known) portability bug slipped in the changes made to
1240 install-sh in Automake 1.8.1. The broken install-sh would refuse to
1241 install anything on Tru64.
1243 * Fix install rules for conditionally built python files. (This never
1246 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1250 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1252 - Fix Config.pm import error with old Perl versions (at least
1253 5.005_03). One symptom is that aclocal could not find its macro
1256 - Automake 1.8 used `mkdir -m 0755 -p --' to ensure that directories
1257 created by `make install' are always world readable, even if the
1258 installer happens to have an overly restrictive umask (e.g. 077).
1259 This was a mistake and has been reverted. There are at least two
1260 reasons why we must not use `-m 0755':
1261 - it causes special bits like SGID to be ignored,
1262 - it may be too restrictive (some setups expect 775 directories).
1264 - Fix aclocal to honor definitions located in files which have been
1265 m4_included manually. aclocal 1.8 had been updated to check
1266 m4_included files for new requirements, but forgot that these
1267 m4_included files can also provide new definitions.
1269 Note that if you have such a setup, we recommend you get rid of
1270 it. In the past, there was a reason to m4_include files manually:
1271 aclocal used to duplicate entire M4 files into aclocal.m4, even
1272 files that were distributed. Some packages were therefore
1273 m4_including the distributed file directly, and playing some
1274 tricks to ensure aclocal would not copy that file to aclocal.m4,
1275 in order to limit the amount of duplication. Since aclocal 1.8.x
1276 will precisely output m4_includes for local M4 files, we recommend
1277 that you clean up your setup, removing all manual m4_includes and
1278 letting aclocal output them.
1280 - Output detailed menus in the Info version if the Automake manual,
1281 so that Emacs can locate the indexes.
1283 - configure.ac and configure were listed twice in DIST_COMMON (an
1284 internal variable where Automake lists configury files to
1285 distribute). This was harmless, but unaesthetic.
1287 - Use `chmod a-w' instead of `chmod -w' as the latter honors umask.
1288 This was an issue only in the Automake package itself, not in
1291 - Automake assumed that all AC_CONFIG_LINKS arguments had the form
1292 DEST:SRC. This was wrong, as some packages do
1293 AC_CONFIG_LINKS($computedlinks). This version no longer abort in
1296 - Contrary to mkinstalldirs, $(mkdir_p) was expecting exactly one
1297 argument. This caused two kinds of failures:
1298 - Rules installing data in a conditionally defined directory
1299 failed when that directory was undefined. In this case no
1300 argument was supplied.
1301 - `make installdirs' failed, because several directories were
1302 passed to $(mkdir_p). This was an issue only on platform
1303 were $(mkdir_p) is implemented with `install-sh -d'.
1304 $(mkdir_p) as been changed to accept 0 or more arguments, as
1307 * Long-standing bugs:
1309 - Fix an unexpected diagnostic occurring when users attempt
1310 to override some internal variables that Automake appends to.
1312 - aclocal now scans configure.ac for macro definitions (PR/319).
1314 - Fix a portability issue with OSF1/Tru64 Make. If a directory
1315 distributes files which are outside itself (this usually occurs
1316 when using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([../dir]) to use auxiliary files
1317 from a parent package), then `make distcheck' fails due to an
1318 optimization performed by OSF1/Tru64 Make in its VPATH handling.
1319 (tests/subpkg2.test failure)
1321 - Fix another portability issue with Sun and OSF1/Tru64 Make.
1322 In a VPATH-build configuration, `make install' would install
1323 nobase_ files to wrong locations.
1325 - Fix a Perl `uninitialized value' diagnostic occurring when
1326 automake complains that a Texinfo file does not have a
1327 @setfilename statement.
1329 - Erase config.status.lineno during `make distclean'. This file
1330 can be created by config.status. Automake already knew about
1331 configure.lineno, but forgot config.status.lineno.
1333 - Distribute all files, even those which are built and installed
1334 conditionally. This change affects files listed in conditionally
1335 defined *_HEADERS and *_PYTHON variable (unless they are nodist_*)
1336 as well as those listed in conditionally defined dist_*_DATA,
1337 dist_*_JAVA, dist_*_LISP, and dist_*_SCRIPTS variables.
1339 - Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to avoid \? in sed regular expressions; it
1340 doesn't conform to POSIX.
1342 - Normalize help strings for configure variables and options added
1347 - Check for python2.4 in AM_PATH_PYTHON.
1349 * Spurious failures in test suite:
1351 - tests/libtool5.test, tests/ltcond.test, tests/ltcond2.test,
1352 tests/ltconv.test: fix failures with CVS Libtool.
1353 - tests/aclocal6.test: fix failure if autom4te.cache is disabled.
1354 - tests/txinfo24.test, tests/txinfo25.test, tests/txinfo28.test:
1355 fix failures with old Texinfo versions.
1357 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1363 - The NEWS file is more verbose.
1367 - Autoconf 2.58 or greater is required.
1371 - Default source file names in the absence of a _SOURCES declaration
1372 are made by removing any target extension before appending `.c', so
1373 to make the libtool module `foo.la' from `foo.c', you only need to
1376 lib_LTLIBRARIES = foo.la
1377 foo_la_LDFLAGS = -module
1379 For backward compatibility, foo_la.c will be used instead of
1380 foo.c if this file exists or is the explicit target of a rule.
1381 However -Wobsolete will warn about this deprecated naming.
1383 - AR's `cru' flags are now set in a global ARFLAGS variable instead
1384 of being hard-coded in each $(AR) invocation, so they can be
1385 substituted from configure.ac. This has been requested by people
1386 dealing with non-POSIX ar implementations.
1388 - New warning option: -Woverride. This will warn about any user
1389 target or variable definitions which override Automake
1392 - Texinfo rules back up and restore info files when makeinfo fails.
1394 - Texinfo rules now support the `html' target.
1395 Running this requires Texinfo 4.0 or greater.
1397 `html' is a new recursive target, so if your package mixes
1398 hand-crafted `Makefile.in's with Automake-generated
1399 `Makefile.in's, you should adjust the former to support (or
1400 ignore) this target so that `make html' recurses successfully. If
1401 you had a custom `html' rule in your `Makefile.am', it's better to
1402 rename it as `html-local', otherwise your rule will override
1403 Automake's new rule (you can check that by running `automake
1404 -Woverride') and that will stop the recursion to subdirectories.
1406 Last but not least, this `html' rule is declared PHONY, even when
1407 overridden. Fortunately, it appears that few packages use a
1408 non-PHONY `html' rule.
1410 - Any file which is m4_included from configure.ac will appear as a
1411 configure and Makefile.in dependency, and will be automatically
1414 - The rules for rebuilding Makefiles and Makefile.ins will now
1415 rebuild all Makefiles and all Makefile.ins at once when one of
1416 configure's dependencies has changed. This is considerably faster
1417 than previous implementations, where config.status and automake
1418 were run separately in each directory (this still happens when you
1419 change a Makefile.am locally, without touching configure.ac or
1420 friends). Doing this also solves a longstanding issue: these
1421 rebuild rules failed to work when adding new directories to the
1422 tree, forcing you to run automake manually.
1424 - For similar reasons, the rules to rebuild configure,
1425 config.status, and aclocal.m4 are now defined in all directories.
1426 Note that if you were using the CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES and
1427 CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES (formerly undocumented) variables, you
1428 should better define them in all directories. This is easily done
1429 using an AC_SUBST (make sure you prefix these dependencies with
1430 $(top_srcdir) since this variable will appear at different
1431 levels of the build tree).
1433 - aclocal will now use `m4_include' instead of copying local m4
1434 files into aclocal.m4. (Local m4 files are those you ship with
1435 your project, other files will be copied as usual.)
1437 Because m4_included files are automatically distributed, it means
1438 for most projects there is no point in EXTRA_DISTing the list of
1439 m4 files which are used. (You can probably get rid of
1440 m4/Makefile.am if you had one.)
1442 - aclocal will avoid touching aclocal.m4 when possible, so that
1443 Autom4te's cache isn't needlessly invalidated. This behavior can
1444 be switched off with the new `--force' option.
1446 - aclocal now uses Autoconf's --trace to detect macros which are
1447 actually used and will no longer include unused macros simply
1448 because they where mentioned. This was often the case for macros
1449 called conditionally.
1451 - New options no-dist and no-dist-gzip.
1453 - compile, depcomp, elisp-comp, install-sh, mdate-sh, mkinstalldirs,
1454 py-compile, and ylwrap, now all understand --version and --help.
1456 - Automake will now recognize AC_CONFIG_LINKS so far as removing created
1457 links as part of the distclean target and including source files in
1460 - AM_PATH_PYTHON now supports ACTION-IF-FOUND and ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND
1461 argument. The latter can be used to override the default behavior
1462 (which is to abort).
1464 - Automake will exit with $? = 63 on version mismatch. (So does
1465 Autoconf 2.58) missing knows this, and in this case it will
1466 emulate the tools as if they were absent. Because older versions
1467 of Automake and Autoconf did not use this exit code, this change
1468 will only be useful in projects generated with future versions of
1471 - When using AC_CONFIG_FILES with multiple input files, Automake
1472 generates the first ".in" input file for which a ".am" exists.
1473 (Former versions would try to use only the first input file.)
1475 - lisp_DATA is now allowed. If you are using the empty ELCFILES
1476 idiom to disable byte-compilation of lisp_LISP files, it is
1477 recommended that you switch to using lisp_DATA. Note that
1478 this is not strictly equivalent: lisp_DATA will install elisp
1479 files even if emacs is not installed, while *_LISP do not
1480 install anything unless emacs is found.
1482 - Makefiles will prefer `mkdir -p' over mkinstalldirs if it is
1483 available. This selection is achieved through the Makefile
1484 variable $(mkdir_p) that is set by AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE to either
1485 `mkdir -m 0755 -p --', `$(mkinstalldirs) -m 0755', or
1486 `$(install_sh) -m 0755 -d'.
1490 - Because `mkdir -p' is available on most platforms, and we can use
1491 `install-sh -d' when it is not, the use of the mkinstalldirs
1492 script is being phased out. `automake --add-missing' no longer
1493 installs it, and if you remove mkinstalldirs from your package,
1494 automake will define $(mkinstalldirs) as an alias for $(mkdir_p).
1496 Gettext 0.12.1 still requires mkinstalldirs. Fortunately
1497 gettextize and autopoint will install it when needed. Automake
1498 will continue to define the $(mkinstalldirs) and to distribute
1499 mkinstalldirs when this script is in the source tree.
1501 - AM_PROG_CC_STDC is now empty. The content of this macro was
1502 merged in AC_PROG_CC. If your code uses $am_cv_prog_cc_stdc, you
1503 should adjust it to use $ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc instead. (This
1504 renaming should be safe, even if you have to support several,
1505 versions of Automake, because AC_PROG_CC defines this variable
1506 since Autoconf 2.54.)
1508 - Some users where using the undocumented ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES
1509 variable to override the aclocal.m4 dependencies computed
1510 (inaccurately) by older versions of Automake. Because Automake
1511 now tracks configure's m4 dependencies accurately (see m4_include
1512 above), the use of ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES should be considered
1513 obsolete and will be flagged as such when running `automake
1518 - Defining programs conditionally using Automake conditionals no
1519 longer leads to a combinatorial explosion. The following
1520 construct used to be troublesome when used with dozens of
1535 Likewise for _SOURCES, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables.
1537 - Due to implementation constraints, previous versions of Automake
1538 proscribed multiple conditional definitions of some variables
1548 All _PROGRAMS, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables were affected.
1549 This restriction has been lifted, and these variables now
1550 support multiple conditional definitions as do other variables.
1552 - Cleanup the definitions of $(distdir) and $(top_distdir).
1553 $(top_distdir) now points to the root of the distribution
1554 directory created during `make dist', as it did in Automake 1.4,
1555 not to the root of the build tree as it did in intervening
1556 versions. Furthermore these two variables are now only defined in
1557 the top level Makefile, and passed to sub-directories when running
1560 - The --no-force option now correctly checks the Makefile.in's
1561 dependencies before deciding not to update it.
1563 - Do not assume that make files are called Makefile in cleaning rules.
1565 - Update .info files in the source tree, not in the build tree. This
1566 is what the GNU Coding Standard recommend. Only Automake 1.7.x
1567 used to update these files in the build tree (previous versions did
1568 it in the source tree too), and it caused several problems, varying
1569 from mere annoyance to portability issues.
1571 - COPYING, COPYING.LIB, and COPYING.LESSER are no longer overwritten
1572 when --add-missing and --force-missing are used. For backward
1573 compatibility --add-missing will continue to install COPYING (in
1574 `gnu' strictness) when none of these three files exist, but this
1575 use is deprecated: you should better choose a license yourself and
1576 install it once for all in your source tree (and in your code
1579 - Fix ylwrap so that it does not overwrite header files that haven't
1580 changed, as the inline rule already does.
1582 - User-defined rules override automake-defined rules for the same
1583 targets, even when rules do not have commands. This is not new
1584 (and was documented), however some of the automake-generated
1585 rules have escaped this principle in former Automake versions.
1586 Rules for the following targets are affected by this fix:
1588 clean, clean-am, dist-all, distclean, distclean-am, dvi, dvi-am,
1589 info, info-am, install-data-am, install-exec-am, install-info,
1590 install-info-am, install-man, installcheck-am, maintainer-clean,
1591 maintainer-clean-am, mostlyclean, mostlyclean-am, pdf, pdf-am,
1592 ps, ps-am, uninstall-am, uninstall-info, uninstall-man
1594 Practically it means that an attempt to supplement the dependencies
1595 of some target, as in
1597 clean: my-clean-rule
1599 will now *silently override* the automake definition of the
1600 rule for this target. Running `automake -Woverride' will diagnose
1601 all such overriding definitions.
1603 It should be noted that almost all these targets support a *-local
1604 variant that is meant to supplement the automake-defined rule
1605 (See node `Extending' in the manual). The above rule should
1608 clean-local: my-clean-rule
1610 These *-local targets have been documented since at least
1611 Automake 1.2, so you should not fear the change if you have
1612 to support multiple automake versions.
1616 - The Automake manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
1618 - Targets dist-gzip, dist-bzip2, dist-tarZ, dist-zip are always defined.
1620 - core dumps are no longer removed by the cleaning rules. There are
1621 at least three reasons for this:
1622 1. These files should not be created by any build step,
1623 so their removal do not fit any of the cleaning rules.
1624 Actually, they may be precious to the developer.
1625 2. If such file is created during a build, then it's clearly a
1626 bug Automake should not hide. Not removing the file will
1627 cause `make distcheck' to complain about its presence.
1628 3. Operating systems have different naming conventions for
1629 core dump files. A core file on one system might be a
1630 completely legitimate data file on another system.
1632 - RUNTESTFLAGS, CTAGSFLAGS, ETAGSFLAGS, JAVACFLAGS are no longer
1633 defined by Automake. This means that any definition in the
1634 environment will be used, unless overridden in the Makefile.am or
1635 on the command line. The old behavior, where these variables were
1636 defined empty in each Makefile, can be obtained by AC_SUBSTing or
1637 AC_ARG_VARing each variable from configure.ac.
1639 - CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES and CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES are now
1640 documented. (The is not a new feature, these variables have
1641 been there since at least Automake 1.4.)
1643 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1645 Bugs fixed in 1.7.9:
1646 * Fix install-strip to work with nobase_ binaries.
1647 * Fix renaming of #line directives in ylwrap.
1648 * Rebuild with Autoconf 2.59. (1.7.8 was not installable with pdksh.)
1650 Bugs fixed in 1.7.8:
1651 * Remove spurious blank lines in cleaning rules introduced in 1.7.7.
1652 * Fix detection of Debian's install-info, broken since version 1.5.
1653 (Debian bug #213524).
1654 * Honor -module if it appears in AM_LDFLAGS (i.e., relax name checking)
1655 This was only done for libfoo_LDFLAGS and LDFLAGS in previous versions.
1657 Bugs fixed in 1.7.7:
1658 * The implementation of automake's --no-force option is unreliable,
1659 so this option is ignored in this version. A real fix will appear in
1660 Automake 1.8. (Debian Bug #206299)
1661 * AM_PATH_PYTHON: really check the whole list of interpreters if no
1662 argument is given. (PR/399)
1663 * Do not warn about leading `_' in variable names, even with -Wportability.
1664 * Support user redefinitions of TEXINFO_TEX.
1665 * depcomp: support AIX Compiler version 6.
1666 * Fix missing rebuilds during `make dist' with BSD make.
1667 (Could produce tarballs containing out-of-date files.)
1668 * Resurrect multilib support.
1669 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1670 - Extending aclocal: how to write m4 macros that won't trigger warnings
1672 - A Shared Library: Rewrite and split into subsections.
1674 Bugs fixed in 1.7.6:
1675 * Fix depcomp's icc mode for ICC 7.1.
1676 * Diagnose calls to AC_CONFIG_FILES and friends with not enough arguments.
1677 * Fix maintainer-clean's removal of autom4te.cache in VPATH builds.
1678 * Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to work with POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
1679 * Fix the location reported in some diagnostics related to AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
1680 * Remove Latin-1 characters from elisp-comp.
1681 * Update the manual's @dircategory to match the Free Software Directory.
1683 Bugs fixed in 1.7.5:
1684 * Update install-sh's license to remove an advertising clause.
1685 (Debian bug #191717)
1686 * Fix a bug introduced in 1.7.4, related to BUILT_SOURCE handling,
1687 that caused invalid Makefile.ins to be generated.
1688 * Make sure AM_MAKE_INCLUDE doesn't fail when a `doit' file exists.
1689 * New FAQ entry: renamed objects.
1691 Bugs fixed in 1.7.4:
1692 * Tweak the TAGS rule to support Exuberant Ctags (in addition to
1693 the Emacs implementation)
1694 * Fix output of aclocal.m4 dependencies in subdirectories.
1695 * Use `mv -f' instead of `mv' in fastdep rules.
1696 * Upgrade mdate-sh to work on OS/2.
1697 * Don't byte-compile elisp files when ELCFILES is set empty.
1698 (this documented feature was broken by 1.7.3)
1699 * Diagnose trailing backslashes on last line of Makefile.am.
1700 * Diagnose whitespace following trailing backslashes.
1701 * Multiple tests are now correctly supported in DEJATOOL. (PR/388)
1702 * Fix rebuilt rules for AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.bot])
1704 * `make install' will build `BUILT_SOURCES' first.
1705 * Minor documentation fixes.
1707 Bugs fixed in 1.7.3:
1708 * Fix stamp files numbering (when using multiple AC_CONFIG_HEADERS).
1709 * Query distutils for `pythondir' and `pythonexecdir', instead of
1710 using an hardcoded path. This should allow builds on 64-bit
1711 distributions that usually use lib64/ instead of lib/.
1712 * AM_PATH_PYTHON will also search for python2.3.
1713 * elisp files are now built all at once instead of one by one. Besides
1714 incurring a speed-up, this is required to support interdependent elisp files.
1715 * Support for DJGPP:
1716 - `make distcheck' will now work in `_inst/' and `_build' instead
1717 of `=inst/' and `=build/'
1718 - use `_dirstamp' when the file-system doesn't support `.dirstamp'
1719 - install/uninstall `*.i[0-9][0-9]'-style info files
1720 - more changes that affect only the Automake package (not its output)
1721 * Fix some incompatibilities with upcoming perl-5.10.
1722 * Properly quote AC_PACKAGE_TARNAME and AC_PACKAGE_VERSION when defining
1723 PACKAGE and VERSION.
1725 - dashmstdout and dashXmstdout modes: don't use `-o /dev/null', this
1726 is troublesome with gcc and Solaris compilers. (PR/385)
1727 - makedepend mode: work with Libtool. (PR/385 too)
1729 * better support for unusual gettext setups, such as multiple po/ directories
1731 - Flag missing po/ and intl/ directories as warnings, not errors.
1732 - Disable these warnings if po/ does not exist.
1733 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1735 - Document how AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR interacts with missing files.
1737 - Document `AM_YFLAGS = -d'. (PR/382)
1739 Bugs fixed in 1.7.2:
1740 * Fix installation and uninstallation of Info files built in subdirectories.
1741 * Do not run `./configure --with-included-gettext' during `make distcheck'
1742 if AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) is used.
1743 * Correctly uninstall renamed man pages.
1744 * Do not strip escaped newline in variables defined in one condition
1745 and augmented in another condition.
1746 * Fix ansi2knr rules for LIBOBJS sources.
1747 * Clean all known Texinfo index files, not only those which appear to
1748 be used, because we cannot know which indexes are used in included files.
1749 (PR/375, Debian Bug #168671)
1750 * Honor only the first @setfilename seen in a Texinfo file.
1751 * Treat "required file X not found" diagnostics as errors (exit status 1).
1752 * Don't complain that a required file is not found when it is a Makefile
1754 * Don't use single suffix inference rules when building `.info'-less
1755 Info files, for the sake of Solaris make.
1756 * The `check' target now depends on `$(BUILT_SOURCES)'. (PR/359)
1757 * Recognize multiple inference rules such as `.a.b .c.d:'. (PR/371)
1758 * Warn about multiple inference rules when -Wportability is used. (PR/372)
1759 * Fix building of deansified files from subdirectories. (PR/370)
1760 * Add missing `fi' in the .c->.obj rules.
1761 * Improve install-sh to work even when names contain spaces or certain
1762 (but not all) shell metachars.
1763 * Fix the following spurious failures in the test suite:
1764 depcomp2.test, gnits2.test, gnits3.test, python3.test, texinfo13.test
1765 * Noteworthy manual updates:
1766 - Augment the section about BUILT_SOURCES.
1767 - Mention that AM_PROG_CC_STDC is a relic that is better avoided today.
1769 Bugs fixed in 1.7.1:
1770 * Honor `ansi2knr' for files built in subdirectories, or using per-targets
1772 * Aclocal should now recognize macro names containing parentheses, e.g.
1773 AC_DEFUN([AC_LANG_PREPROC(Fortran 90)], [...]).
1774 * Erase *.sum and *.log files created by DejaGnu, during `make distclean'.
1776 * Install Python files even if they were built. (PR/369)
1777 * Have stamp-vti dependent upon configure instead of configure.ac, as the
1778 version might not be defined in the latter. (PR/358)
1779 * Reorder arguments passed to a couple of commands, so things works
1780 when POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
1781 * Fix a regex that can cause Perl to segfault on large input.
1783 * Fix distribution of packages that have some sources defined conditionally,
1784 as in the `Conditional compilation using Automake conditionals' example
1786 * Fix spurious test suite failures on IRIX.
1787 * Don't report a required variable as undefined if it has been
1788 defined conditionally for the "right" conditions.
1789 * Fix cleaning of the /tmp subdirectory used by `make distcheck', in case
1790 `make distcheck' fails.
1791 * Fix distribution of included Makefile fragment, so we don't create
1792 spurious directories in the distribution. (PR/366)
1793 * Don't complain that a target lacks `.$(EXEEXT)' when it has it.
1796 * Autoconf 2.54 is required.
1797 * `aclocal' and `automake' will no longer warn about obsolete
1798 configure macros. This is done by `autoconf -Wobsolete'.
1799 * AM_CONFIG_HEADER, AM_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS and
1800 AM_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ_NEEDS_SYS_IOCTL are obsolete (although still
1801 supported). You should use AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS,
1802 and AC_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ instead. `autoupdate' can upgrade
1803 `configure.ac' for you.
1804 * Support for per-program and per-library `_CPPFLAGS'.
1805 * New `ctags' target (builds CTAGS files).
1806 * Support for -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble, where mumble is a warning category
1807 (see `automake --help' or the manual for a list of them).
1808 * Honor the WARNINGS environment variable.
1809 * Omit the call to depcomp when using gcc3: call the compiler directly.
1810 * A new option, std-options, tests that programs support --help and --version
1811 when `make installcheck' is run. This is enabled by --gnits.
1812 * Texinfo rules now support the `ps' and `pdf' targets.
1813 * Info files are now created in the build directory, not the source directory.
1814 * info_TEXINFOS supports files in subdirectories (this requires Texinfo 4.1
1816 * `make distcheck' will enforce DESTDIR support by attempting
1818 * `+=' can be used in conditionals, even if the augmented variable
1819 was defined for another condition.
1820 * Makefile fragments (inserted with `include') are always distributed.
1821 * Use Autoconf's --trace interface to inspect configure.ac and get
1822 a more accurate view of it.
1823 * Add support for extending aclocal's default macro search path
1824 using a `dirlist' file within the aclocal directory.
1825 * automake --output-dir is deprecated.
1826 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether uninstall actually
1827 removes all installed files has been moved in a separate target,
1828 distuninstallcheck, so it can be overridden easily.
1832 * Support for AM_INIT_GETTEXT([external])
1833 * Bug fixes, including:
1834 - Fix Automake's own `make install' so it works even if `ln' doesn't.
1835 - nobase_ programs and scripts honor --program-transform correctly.
1836 - Erase configure.lineno during `make distclean'.
1837 - Erase YACC and LEX outputs during `make maintainer-clean'.
1840 * Many bug fixes, including:
1841 - Requiring the current version works.
1842 - Fix "$@" portability issues (for Zsh).
1843 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
1845 - Don't compute dependencies in background to avoid races with libtool.
1846 - Fix handling of _OBJECTS variables for targets sharing source variables.
1847 - Check dependency mode for Java when AM_PROG_GCJ is used.
1850 * automake --output-dir is deprecated
1851 * Many bug fixes, including:
1852 - Don't choke on AM_LDFLAGS definitions.
1853 - Clean libtool objects from subdirectories.
1854 - Allow configure variables with reserved suffix and unknown prefix
1855 (e.g. AC_SUBST(mumble_LDFLAGS) when 'mumble' is not a target).
1856 - Fix the definition of AUTOMAKE and ACLOCAL in configure.
1859 * Autoconf 2.52 is required.
1860 * automake no longer run libtoolize.
1861 This is the job of autoreconf (from GNU Autoconf).
1862 * `dist' generates all the archive flavors, as did `dist-all'.
1863 * `dist-gzip' generates the Gzip tar file only.
1864 * Combining Automake Makefile conditionals no longer lead to a combinatorial
1865 explosion. Makefile.in's keep a reasonable size.
1866 * AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_STRTOD, AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, AM_PTRDIFF_T
1867 are no longer shipped, since Autoconf 2.52 provides them (both as AM_
1869 * `#line' of Lex and Yacc files are properly set.
1870 * EXTRA_DIST can contain generated directories.
1871 * Support for dot-less extensions in suffix rules.
1872 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether distclean actually
1873 cleans all built files has been moved in a separate target, distcleancheck,
1874 so it can be overridden easily.
1875 * `make distcheck' will pass additional options defined in
1876 $(DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS) to configure.
1877 * Fixed CDPATH portability problems, in particular for MacOS X.
1878 * Fixed handling of nobase_ targets.
1879 * Fixed support of implicit rules leading to .lo objects.
1880 * Fixed late inclusion of --add-missing files (e.g. depcomp) in DIST_COMMON
1881 * Added uninstall-hook target
1882 * `AC_INIT AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(tarname,version)' is an obsolete construct.
1883 You can now use `AC_INIT(pkgname,version) AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE' instead.
1884 (Note that "pkgname" is not "tarname", see the manual for details.)
1885 It is also possible to pass a list of global Automake options as
1886 first argument to this new form of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.
1887 * Compiler-based assembler is now called `CCAS'; people expected `AS'
1888 to be a real assembler.
1889 * AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE will set STRIP itself when it needs it. Adding
1890 AC_CHECK_TOOL([STRIP], [strip]) manually is no longer required.
1891 * aclocal and automake are also installed with the version number
1892 appended, and some of the install directory names have changed.
1893 This lets you have multiple versions installed simultaneously.
1894 * Support for parsers and lexers in subdirectories.
1897 * Support for `configure.ac'.
1898 * Support for `else COND', `endif COND' and negated conditions `!COND'.
1899 * `make dist-all' is much faster.
1900 * Allows '@' AC_SUBSTs in macro names.
1901 * Faster AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE (requires update of `missing' script)
1902 * User-side dependency tracking. Developers no longer need GNU make
1904 * Uses DIST_SUBDIRS in some situations when SUBDIRS is conditional
1905 * Most files are correctly handled if they appear in subdirs
1906 For instance, a _DATA file can appear in a subdir
1907 * GNU tar is no longer required for `make dist'
1908 * Added support for `dist_' and `nodist_' prefixes
1909 * Added support for `nobase_' prefix
1910 * Compiled Java support
1911 * Support for per-executable and per-library compilation flags
1915 * Added support for the Fortran 77 programming language.
1916 * Re-indexed the Automake Texinfo manual.
1917 * Added `AM_FOOFLAGS' variable for each compiler invocation;
1918 e.g. AM_CFLAGS can be used in Makefile.am to set C compiler flags
1919 * Support for latest autoconf, including support for objext
1920 * Can now put `.' in SUBDIRS to control build order
1921 * `include' command and `+=' support for macro assignment
1922 * Dependency tracking no long susceptible to deleted header file problem
1923 * Maintainer mode now a conditional. @MAINT@ is now an anachronism.
1928 * Better Cygwin32 support
1929 * Support for suffix rules with _SOURCES variables
1930 * New options `readme-alpha' and `check-news'; Gnits mode sets these
1931 * @LEXLIB@ no longer required when lex source seen
1932 Lex support in `missing', and new lex macro. Update your missing script.
1933 * Built-in support for assembly
1934 * aclocal gives error if `AM_' macro not found
1935 * Passed YFLAGS, not YACCFLAGS, to yacc
1936 * AM_PROG_CC_STDC does not have to come before AC_PROG_CPP
1937 * Dependencies computed as a side effect of compilation
1938 * Preliminary support for Java
1939 * DESTDIR support at "make install" time
1940 * Improved ansi2knr support; you must use the latest ansi2knr.c (included)
1944 * Better DejaGnu support
1945 * Added no-installinfo option
1946 * Added Emacs Lisp support
1947 * Added --no-force option
1948 * Included `aclocal' program
1949 * Automake will now generate rules to regenerate aclocal.m4, if appropriate
1950 * Now uses `AM_' macro names everywhere
1951 * ansi2knr option can have directory prefix (eg `../lib/ansi2knr')
1952 ansi2knr now works correctly on K&R sources
1953 * Better C++, yacc, lex support
1954 * Will compute _DEPENDENCIES variables automatically if not supplied
1955 * Will interpolate $(...) and ${...} when examining contents of a variable
1956 * .deps files now in build directory, not source directory; dependency
1957 handling generally rewritten
1958 * DATA, MANS and BUILT_SOURCES no longer included in distribution
1959 * can now put config.h into a subdir
1960 * Added dist-all target
1961 * Support for install-info program (see texinfo 3.9)
1962 * Support for "yacc -d"
1963 * configure substitutions are automatically discovered and included
1964 in generated Makefile.in
1965 * Special --cygnus mode
1966 * OMIT_DEPENDENCIES can now hold list of dependencies to be omitted
1967 when making distribution. Some dependencies are auto-ignored.
1968 * Changed how libraries are specified in _LIBRARIES variable
1969 * Full libtool support, from Gord Matzigkeit
1970 * No longer have to explicitly touch stamp-h when using AC_CONFIG_HEADER;
1971 AM_CONFIG_HEADER handles it automatically
1972 * Texinfo output files no longer need .info extension
1973 * Added `missing' support
1975 * Conditionals in Makefile.am, from Ian Taylor
1979 * distcheck target runs install and installcheck targets
1980 * Added preliminary support for DejaGnu.
1985 * More libtool fixes from Gord Matzigkeit; libtool support is still
1987 * Added support for jm_MAINTAINER_MODE
1989 * New "distcheck" target
1993 * mkinstalldirs and mdate-sh now appear in directory specified by
1995 * Removed DIST_SUBDIRS, DIST_OTHER
1996 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM only required when an actual program exists
1997 * dist-hook target now run before distribution packaged up; idea from
1998 Dieter Baron. Other hooks exist, too.
1999 * Preliminary (unfinished) support for libtool
2000 * Added short option names.
2001 * Better "dist" support when gluing together multiple packages
2005 * Documentation updates (many from François Pinard)
2006 * strictness `normal' now renamed to `foreign'
2007 * Renamed --install-missing to --add-missing
2008 * Now handles AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
2009 * Now handles TESTS macro
2010 * DIST_OTHER renamed to EXTRA_DIST
2011 * DIST_SUBDIRS is deprecated
2012 * @ALLOCA@ and @LIBOBJS@ now work in _LDADD variables
2013 * Better error messages in many cases
2014 * Program names are canonicalized
2015 * Added "check" prefix; from Gord Matzigkeit
2019 * configure.in scanner knows about AC_PATH_XTRA, AC_OUTPUT ":" syntax
2020 * Beginnings of a test suite
2021 * Automatically adds -I options for $(srcdir), ".", and path to config.h
2022 * Doesn't print anything when running
2023 * Beginnings of MAINT_CHARSET support
2024 * Can specify version in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS
2025 * Most errors recognizable by Emacs' M-x next-error
2026 * Added --verbose option
2027 * All "primary" variables now obsolete; use EXTRA_PRIMARY to supply
2028 configure-generated names
2029 * Required macros now distributed in aclocal.m4
2031 * --strictness=gnu is default
2035 * More sophisticated configure.in scanning; now understands ALLOCA and
2036 LIBOBJS directly, handles AC_CONFIG_HEADER more precisely, etc.
2037 * TEXINFOS and MANS now obsolete; use info_TEXINFOS and man_MANS instead.
2038 * CONFIG_HEADER variable now obsolete
2039 * Can handle multiple Texinfo sources
2040 * Allow hierarchies deeper than 2. From Gord Matzigkeit.
2041 * HEADERS variable no longer needed; now can put .h files directly into
2042 foo_SOURCES variable.
2043 * Automake automatically rebuilds files listed in AC_OUTPUT. The
2044 corresponding ".in" files are included in the distribution.
2047 * Added --gnu and --gnits options
2048 * More standards checking
2050 * Cleaned up 'dist' targets
2051 * Added AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS variable and several options
2052 * Now scans configure.in to get some information (preliminary)
2055 * Works with Perl 4 again
2058 * Added --install-missing option.
2059 * Pretty-prints generated macros and rules
2060 * Comments in Makefile.am are placed more intelligently in Makefile.in
2061 * Generates .PHONY target
2062 * Rule or macro in Makefile.am now overrides contents of Automake file
2063 * Substantial cleanups from François Pinard
2067 * Works with Perl 4 again.
2070 * New uniform naming scheme.
2071 * --strictness option
2073 * '.c' files corresponding to '.y' or '.l' files are automatically
2075 * Many bug fixes and cleanups
2078 * Allow objects to be conditionally included in libraries via lib_LIBADD.
2081 * Bug fixes in 'clean' code.
2082 * Now generates 'installdirs' target.
2083 * man page installation reworked.
2084 * 'make dist' no longer re-creates all Makefile.in's.
2087 * Reimplemented in Perl
2088 * Added --amdir option (for debugging)
2089 * Texinfo support cleaned up.
2090 * Automatic de-ANSI-fication cleaned up.
2091 * Cleaned up 'clean' targets.
2094 * Automatic dependency tracking
2095 * More documentation
2096 * New variables DATA and PACKAGEDATA
2097 * SCRIPTS installed using $(INSTALL_SCRIPT)
2098 * No longer uses double-colon rules
2100 * Changes in advance of internationalization
2104 Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2106 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
2107 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2108 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
2111 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2112 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2113 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2114 GNU General Public License for more details.
2116 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2117 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.