-New in 1.12.1:
+New in 1.13:
-* Deprecated obsolescent features:
+* Version requirements:
- - The long-obsolete (since 1.10) automake-provided $(mkdir_p) make
- variable, @mkdir_p@ configure-time substitution and AM_PROG_MKDIR
- m4 macro are deprecated, eliciting a warning in the 'obsolete'
- category. They will be removed in the next major version (1.13).
+ - 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.
-New in 1.12:
+* Obsolete features removed:
-* WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
+ - 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 '--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.
+ - 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) make variable, @mkdir_p@ configure
+ time 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.
+
+ - 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 will be removed in the
- next major Automake version (1.13):
+ - 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AM_PROG_CC_STDC: superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002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).
- - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (enabled by the 'cygnus' option)
- will be deprecated in the next minor version of Automake (1.12.1) and
- removed in the next major version (1.13).
+* 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.
+
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+New in 1.12.2:
+
+* 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 will be deprecated in the next minor version
of Automake (1.12.1) and removed in the next major 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).
+* Warnings and deprecations:
+
+ - Automake now issues a warning (in the 'portability' category) if
+ 'configure.in' is used instead of 'configure.ac' as the Autoconf
+ input file. Such a warning will also be present in the next
+ Autoconf version (2.70).
+
+* Cleaning rules:
+
+ - Recursive cleaning rules descends into the $(SUBDIRS) in the natural
+ order (as done by the other recursive rules), rather than in the
+ inverse order. They used to do that in order to work a round a
+ limitation in an older implementation of the automatic dependency
+ tracking support, but that limitation had been lifted years ago
+ already, when the automatic dependency tracking based on side-effects
+ of compilation had been introduced.
+
+ - Cleaning rules for compiled objects (both "plain" and libtool) work
+ better when subdir objects are involved, not triggering a distinct
+ 'rm' invocation for each such object. They do so by removing *any*
+ compiled object file that is in the same directory of a subdir
+ object. See automake bug#10697.
+
+* Silent rules support:
+
+ - A new predefined $(AM_V_P) make variable is provided; it expands
+ to a shell conditional that can be used in recipes to know whether
+ make is being run in silent or verbose mode.
+
+Bugs fixed in 1.12.2:
+
+* Long-standing bugs:
+
+ - The "recheck" targets behaves better in the face of build failures
+ related to previously failed tests. For example, if a test is a
+ compiled program that must be rerun by "make recheck", and its
+ compilation fails, it will still be rerun by further "make recheck"
+ invocations. See automake bug#11791.
+
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+New in 1.12.1:
+
+* New supported languages:
+
+ - Support for Objective C++ has been added; it should work similarly to
+ the support for Objective C.
+
+* Deprecated obsolescent features:
+
+ - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
+ of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro now elicits a warning in the 'obsolete'
+ category. Starting from the next major Automake release (1.13), such
+ usages won't be allowed anymore.
+
+ - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (enabled by the 'cygnus' option) is
+ now deprecated (its use triggers a warning in the 'obsolete' category).
+ It will be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13).
+
+ - The long-obsolete (since 1.10) automake-provided $(mkdir_p) make
+ variable, @mkdir_p@ configure-time substitution and AM_PROG_MKDIR
+ m4 macro are deprecated, eliciting a warning in the 'obsolete'
+ category. They will be removed in the next major version (1.13).
+
+* Miscellaneous changes:
+
+ - The Automake test cases now require a proper POSIX-conforming shell.
+ Older non-POSIX Bourne shells (like Solaris 10 /bin/sh) won't be
+ accepted anymore. In most cases, the user shouldn't have to specify
+ such POSIX shell explicitly, since it will be looked up at configure
+ time. Still, when this lookup fails, or when the user wants to
+ override its conclusion, the variable 'AM_TEST_RUNNER_SHELL' can be
+ used (pointing to the shell that will be used to run the Automake
+ test cases).
+
+Bugs fixed in 1.12.1:
+
+* Bugs introduced by 1.12:
+
+ - Several weaknesses in Automake's own build system and test suite
+ have been fixed.
+
+* Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
+
+ - When given non-option arguments, aclocal rejects them, instead of
+ silently ignoring them.
+
+* Long-standing bugs:
+
+ - When the 'color-tests' option is in use, forcing of colored testsuite
+ output through "AM_COLOR_TESTS=always" works even if the terminal is
+ a non-ANSI one, i.e., if the TERM environment variable has a value of
+ "dumb".
+
+ - Several inefficiencies and poor performances in the implementation
+ of the parallel-tests 'check' and 'recheck' targets have been fixed.
+
+ - The post-processing of output "#line" directives done the ylwrap
+ script is more faithful w.r.t. files in a subdirectory; for example,
+ if the processed file is "src/grammar.y", ylwrap will correctly
+ produce directives like:
+ #line 7 "src/grammar.y"
+ rather than like
+ #line 7 "grammar.y"
+ as it did before.
+
+* Bugs with new Perl versions:
+
+ - Aclocal works correctly with perl 5.16.0 (automake bug#11543).
+
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+New in 1.12:
+
* Obsolete features removed:
- The never documented nor truly used script 'acinstall' has been
rule for this target. Running `automake -Woverride' will diagnose
all such overriding definitions.
- It should be noted that almost all these targets support a *-local
+ It should be noted that almost all of these targets support a *-local
variant that is meant to supplement the automake-defined rule
(See node `Extending' in the manual). The above rule should
be rewritten as