-New in 1.12.3:
+New in 1.13:
-* WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
+* Version requirements:
- - Future versions of Automake will likely drop support for the
- long-deprecated 'configure.in' name for the Autoconf input file.
- You are advised to use the recommended name 'configure.ac' instead.
+ - Autoconf 2.65 or greater is required.
+
+ - The rules to build PDF and DVI output from Texinfo input now
+ requires Texinfo 4.9 or later.
- - The long-obsolete (since automake 1.10) AM_PROG_MKDIR m4 macro will
- be removed in Automake 1.13. The $(mkdir_p) make variable and the
- @mkdir_p@ substitution will still remain available (as aliases of
- $(MKDIR_P)) for the moment, for better backward compatibility.
+* Obsolete features removed:
- - Autoconf 2.65 or later will be required by the next major Automake
- version (1.13). Until now, Automake has required Autoconf version
- 2.62 or later.
+ - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
+ of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is not supported anymore.
- - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the rules
- to build pdf, ps and dvi output from Texinfo input will use the
- '--build-dir' option by default. Since such an option was only
- introduced in Texinfo 4.9, this means that Makefiles generated by
- future Automake versions will require at least that version of
- Texinfo.
+ - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (once enabled by the 'cygnus'
+ option) has been removed. See discussion about automake bug#11034
+ for more background.
- - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the parallel
- testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the 'parallel-tests'
- option) will become the default one; the older serial testsuite
- harness will still be available through the use of the 'serial-tests'
- option.
+ - The automake-provided '@mkdir_p@' configure substitution and
+ AM_PROG_MKDIR m4 macro have been removed. They had been obsolete
+ since automake 1.10, and actively deprecated since Automake 1.12.1.
+ However, to maintain a degree of backward-compatibility, the make
+ variable '$(mkdir_p)' is still defined (now simple as an alias to
+ '$(MKDIR_P)'). It will probably be removed in future major versions
+ of Automake (probably 1.14).
- - The following long-obsolete m4 macros will be removed in the
- next major Automake version (1.13):
+ - The deprecated aclocal option '--acdir' has been removed. You
+ should use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir'
+ instead (which have been introduced in Automake 1.11.2).
+
+ - The following long-obsolete m4 macros have been removed:
AM_PROG_CC_STDC: superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002
fp_PROG_CC_STDC: broken alias for AM_PROG_CC_STDC
of the now-removed automatic de-ANSI-fication
support of Automake)
- - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' will be removed in
- the next major Automake version (1.13).
+ - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' have been removed.
+
+* Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
+
+ - The parallel testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the
+ 'parallel-tests' option) is the default one; the older serial
+ testsuite harness will still be available through the use of the
+ 'serial-tests' option (introduced in Automake 1.12).
+
+* Silent rules support:
+
+ - Support for silent rules is now always active in Automake-generated
+ Makefiles. So, although the verbose output is still the default,
+ the user can now always use "./configure --enable-silent-rules" or
+ "make V=0" to enable quieter output in the package he's building.
+
+ - The 'silent-rules' option has now become a no-op, preserved for
+ backward-compatibility only. In particular, its use does not disable
+ the warnings in the 'portability-recursive' category anymore.
+
+* Texinfo Support:
+
+ - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now use the
+ ' --build-dir' option, to keep the auxiliary files used by texi2dvi
+ and texi2pdf around without cluttering the build directory, and to
+ make it possible to run the "dvi" and "pdf" recipes in parallel.
+
+* Automatic remake rules and 'missing' script:
+
+ - The 'missing' script does not try anymore to update the timestamp
+ of out-of-date files that require a maintainer-specific tool to be
+ remade, in case the user lacks such a tool (or has a too-old version
+ of it). It just give a useful warning, and in some cases also a tip
+ about how to obtain such a tool.
+
+ - The missing script has thus become useless as a (poor) way to work
+ around the sketched-timestamps issues that can happen for projects
+ that keep generated files committed in their VCS repository. Such
+ projects are now encouraged to write a custom "fix-timestamps.sh"
+ script to avoid such issues; a simple example is provided in the
+ "CVS and generated files" chapter of the automake manual.
+
+* Recursive targets:
+
+ The user can now define his own recursive targets that recurse
+ in the directories specified in $(SUBDIRS). This can be done by
+ specifying the name of such targets in invocations of the new
+ 'AM_EXTRA_RECURSIVE_TARGETS' m4 macro.
+
+* Improvements to aclocal and related rebuilds rules:
+
+ - The Autoconf-provided macro AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR is now traced by
+ aclocal, and can be used to declare the local m4 include directory.
+ Formerly, one had to specify it with an explicit '-I' option to the
+ 'aclocal' invocation.
+
+ - The special make variable ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS is deprecated; future
+ Automake versions will warn about its use, and later version will
+ remove support for it altogether.
+
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+New in 1.12.3:
+
+* WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
+
+ - Future versions of Automake will likely drop support for the
+ long-deprecated 'configure.in' name for the Autoconf input file.
+ You are advised to use the recommended name 'configure.ac' instead.
+
+ - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the rules to
+ build pdf, ps and dvi output from Texinfo input will use the '--tidy'
+ option by default. Since such an option was introduced in Texinfo
+ 4.9, this means that Makefiles generated by future Automake versions
+ will require at least that version of Texinfo.
+
+ - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the parallel
+ testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the 'parallel-tests'
+ option) will become the default one; the older serial testsuite
+ harness will still be available through the use of the 'serial-tests'
+ option.
- Support for the two- and three-arguments invocation forms of the
AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro is deprecated, and will be removed in the
next major Automake version (1.13).
- - The '--acdir' option of aclocal is deprecated, and will probably
- be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13). You should
- use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir' instead
- (which have been introduced in Automake 1.11.2).
-
- The exact order in which the directories in the aclocal macro
search path are looked up is probably going to be changed in the
next Automake release (1.13).
- Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
New in 1.12.2:
* Warnings and deprecations: