-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.
+
+* Obsolete features removed:
- - 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
- $(MKDIR_P)) for the moment, for better backward compatibility.
+ - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
+ of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is not supported anymore.
- - Autoconf 2.65 or later will be required by the next major Automake
- version (1.13). Until now, Automake has required Autoconf version
- 2.62 or later.
+ - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (once enabled by the 'cygnus'
+ option) has been removed. See discussion about automake bug#11034
+ for more background.
- - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the rules
- to build pdf, ps and dvi output from Texinfo input will use the
- '--build-dir' option by default. Since such an option was only
- introduced in Texinfo 4.9, this means that Makefiles generated by
- future Automake versions will require at least that version of
- Texinfo.
+ - The automake-provided '@mkdir_p@' configure substitution and
+ AM_PROG_MKDIR m4 macro have been removed. They had been obsolete
+ since automake 1.10, and actively deprecated since Automake 1.12.1.
+ However, to maintain a degree of backward-compatibility, the make
+ variable '$(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).
- - 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 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).
+
+* 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).
giving more useful warnings than a bare "command not found" from a
make recipe would.
+* Miscellaneous changes:
+
+ - The '.m4' files provided by Automake does not define serial numbers
+ anymore. This should cause no difference in the behaviour of aclocal
+ though.
+
+ - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
+
+Bugs fixed in 1.12.3:
+
* Long-standing bugs:
- Instead of renaming only self-references of files (typically for
C++ support for Bison (automake bug#7648): location.hh and the
like are no longer discarded.
-* Automake Testsuite:
-
- - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New in 1.12.2: