-New in 1.12.5:
+* WARNING: New versioning scheme for Automake.
+
+ - Starting with this version onward, Automake will use an update and
+ more rational versioning scheme, one that will allow users to know
+ which kind of changes can be expected from a new version, based on
+ its version number.
+
+ + Micro versions (e.g., 1.13.3, 2.0.1, 3.2.8) will introduce only
+ documentation updates and bug and regression fixes; they will
+ not introduce new features, nor any backward-incompatibility (any
+ such incompatibility would be considered a bug, to be fixed with
+ a further micro release).
+
+ + Minor versions (e.g., 1.14, 2.1) can introduce new backward
+ compatible features; the only backward-incompatibilities allowed
+ in such a release are new *non-fatal* deprecations and warnings,
+ and possibly fixes for old or non-trivial bugs (or even inefficient
+ behaviours) that could unfortunately have been seen, and used, by
+ some developers as "corner case features". This kind of fixes
+ should hopefully be quite rare.
+
+ + Major versions (now expected to be released every 18 or 24 months,
+ and not more often) can introduce new big features (possibly with
+ rough edges and not-fully-stabilized APIs), removal of deprecated
+ features, backward-incompatible changes of behaviour, and possibly
+ major refactorings (that, while ideally transparent to the user,
+ could introduce new bugs). Incompatibilities should however not
+ be introduced gratuitously and abruptly; a proper deprecation path
+ should be duly implemented in the preceding minor releases.
+
+ - According to this new scheme, the next major version of Automake
+ (the one that has until now been labelled as '1.14') will actually
+ become "Automake 2.0". Automake 1.14 will be the next minor version,
+ which will introduce new features and deprecation, but no backward
+ incompatibility.
+
+ - See discussion about automake bug#13578 for more details and
+ background: <http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=13578>
* 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.
+ - Automake 2.0 will require Autoconf 2.70 or later (which is still
+ unreleased at the moment of writing, but is planned to be released
+ before Automake 2.0 is).
+
+ - Automake 2.0 will drop support for the long-deprecated 'configure.in'
+ name for the Autoconf input file. You are advised to start using the
+ recommended name 'configure.ac' instead, ASAP.
+
+ - The ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS special make variable will be fully deprecated
+ in Automake 2.0 (where it will raise warnings in the "obsolete"
+ category). You are advised to start relying on the new Automake
+ support for AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS instead (which was introduced in
+ Automake 1.13).
+
+ - Automake 2.0 will remove support for automatic dependency tracking
+ with the SGI C/C++ compilers on IRIX. The SGI depmode has been
+ reported broken "in the wild" already, and we don't think investing
+ time in debugging and fixing is worthwhile, especially considering
+ that SGI has last updated those compilers in 2006, and is expected
+ to retire support for them in December 2013:
+ <http://www.sgi.com/services/support/irix_mips_support.html>
+
+ - Future versions of Automake might remove support for MS-DOS and
+ Windows 95/98/ME (support for them was offered by relying on the
+ DJGPP project). Note however that both Cygwin and MSYS/MinGW on
+ modern Windows versions will continue to be fully supported.
+
+ - Automake-provided scripts and makefile recipes might (finally!)
+ start assuming a POSIX shell in Automake 2.0.
+
+ - Starting from Automake 2.0, third-party m4 files located in the
+ system-wide aclocal directory, as well as in any directory listed
+ in the ACLOCAL_PATH environment variable, will take precedence
+ over "built-in" Automake macros. For example (assuming Automake
+ is installed in the /usr/local hierarchy), a definition of the
+ AM_PROG_VALAC macro found in '/usr/local/share/aclocal/my-vala.m4'
+ should take precedence over the same-named automake-provided macro
+ (defined in '/usr/local/share/aclocal-2.0/vala.m4').
+
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+New in 1.13.2:
+
+* Obsolescent features:
+
+ - Use of suffix-less info files (that can be specified through the
+ '@setfilename' macro in Texinfo input files) is discouraged, and
+ its use will raise warnings in the 'obsolete' category.
+
+ - Use of Texinfo input files with '.txi' or '.texinfo' extensions
+ is discouraged, and its use will raise warnings in the 'obsolete'
+ category. You are advised to simply use the '.texi' extension
+ instead.
+
+* Documentation fixes:
+
+ - The long-deprecated but still supported two-arguments invocation form
+ of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is documented once again. This seems the sanest
+ thing to do, given that support for such an usage might need to remain
+ in place for a unspecified amount of time in order to cater for people
+ who want to define the version number for their package dynamically at
+ configure runtime (unfortunately, Autoconf does not yet support this
+ scenario, so we cannot delegate the work to it).
+
+ - The serial testsuite harness is no longer reported as "deprecated",
+ but as "discouraged". We have no plan to remove it, not to make its
+ use cause runtime warnings.
+
+ - The parallel testsuite is no longer reported as "experimental"; it
+ is well tested, and should be stable now.
+
+ - The 'shar' and 'tarZ' distribution formats and the 'dist-shar' and
+ 'dist-tarZ' options are obsolescent, and their use is deprecated
+ in the documentation.
+
+ - Other minor miscellaneous fixes and improvements; in particular,
+ some improvements in cross-references.
+
+* Bugs fixed:
+
+ - When the 'ustar' option is used, the generated configure script no
+ longer risks hanging during the tests for the availability of the
+ 'pax' utility, even if the user running configure has a UID or GID
+ that requires more than 21 bits to be represented.
+ See automake bug#8343 and bug#13588.
+
+ - The obsolete macros AM_CONFIG_HEADER or AM_PROG_CC_STDC work once
+ again, as they did in Automake 1.12.x (albeit printing runtime
+ warnings in the 'obsolete' category). Removing them has turned
+ out to be a very bad idea, because it complicated distro packing
+ enormously. Making them issue fatal warnings, as we did in
+ Automake 1.13, has turned out to be a similarly very bad idea,
+ for exactly the same reason.
+
+ - aclocal will no longer error out if the first local m4 directory
+ (as specified by the '-I' option or the 'AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS' or
+ 'AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR' macros) doesn't exist; it will merely report
+ a warning in the 'unsupported' category. This is done to support
+ some pre-existing real-world usages. See automake bug#13514.
+
+ - aclocal will no longer consider directories for extra m4 files more
+ than once, even if they are specified multiple times. This ensures
+ packages that specify both
+
+ AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4]) in configure.ac
+ ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4 in Makefile.am
+
+ will work correctly, even when the 'm4' directory contains no
+ package-specific files, but is used only to install third-party
+ m4 files (as can happen with e.g., "libtoolize --install").
+ See automake bug#13514.
+
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+New in 1.13.1:
- - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (as enabled by the 'cygnus'
- option) will be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13).
+* Bugs fixed:
- - 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 obsolete macros AM_CONFIG_HEADER or AM_PROG_CC_STDC now
+ causes a clear and helpful error message, instead of obscure ones
+ (issue introduced in Automake 1.13).
- - 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.
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+New in 1.13:
+
+* Bugs fixed:
+
+ - ylwrap renames properly header guards in generated header files
+ (*.h), instead of leaving Y_TAB_H.
+
+ - ylwrap now also converts header guards in implementation files
+ (*.c). Because ylwrap failed to rename properly #include in the
+ implementation files, current versions of Bison (e.g., 2.7)
+ duplicate the generated header file in the implementation file.
+ The header guard then protects the implementation file from
+ duplicate definitions from the header file.
+
+* Version requirements:
+
+ - Autoconf 2.65 or greater is now required.
+
+ - The rules to build PDF and DVI output from Texinfo input now
+ require Texinfo 4.9 or later.
- - 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.
+* Obsolete features:
- - 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 "Cygnus-style" trees (once enabled by the 'cygnus'
+ option) has been removed. See discussion about automake bug#11034
+ for more background: <http://debbugs.gnu.org/11034>.
- - 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.
+
+ - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
+ of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is no longer documented. It's still supported
+ though (albeit with a warning in the 'obsolete' category), to cater
+ for people who want to define the version number for their package
+ dynamically (e.g., from the current VCS revision). We'll have to
+ continue this support until Autoconf itself is fixed to allow better
+ support for such dynamic version numbers.
+
+* Elisp byte-compilation:
+
+ - The byte compilation of '.el' files into '.elc' files is now done
+ with a suffix rule. This has simplified the compilation process, and
+ more importantly made it less brittle. The downside is that emacs is
+ now invoked once for each '.el' files, which cause some noticeable
+ slowdowns. These should however be mitigated on multicore machines
+ (which are becoming the norm today) if concurrent make ("make -j")
+ is used.
+
+ - Elisp files placed in a subdirectory are now byte-compiled to '.elc'
+ files in the same subdirectory; for example, byte-compiling of file
+ 'sub/foo.el' file will result in 'sub/foo.elc' rather than in
+ 'foo.elc'. This behaviour is backward-incompatible with older
+ Automake versions, but it is more natural and more sane. See also
+ automake bug#7441.
+
+ - The Emacs invocation performing byte-compilation of '.el' files honors
+ the $(AM_ELCFLAGS) and $(ELCFLAGS) variables; as typical, the former
+ one is developer-reserved and the latter one user-reserved.
+
+ - The 'elisp-comp' script, once provided by Automake, has been rendered
+ obsoleted by the just-described changes, and thus 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).
+
+ - The 'color-tests' option is now unconditionally activated by default.
+ In particular, this means that testsuite output is now colorized by
+ default if the attached terminal seems to support ANSI escapes, and
+ that the user can force output colorization by setting the variable
+ AM_COLOR_TESTS to "always". The 'color-tests' is still recognized
+ for backward-compatibility, although it's a handled as a no-op now.
+
+* 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 no longer
+ disables the warnings in the 'portability-recursive' category.
+
+* Texinfo Support:
+
+ - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now require
+ Texinfo 4.9 or later.
+
+ - 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.
- - 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).
+* Automatic remake rules and 'missing' script:
- - The 'missing' script will no longer try to update the timestamp
- of out-of-date files that require a maintainer-specific tool to be
+ - The 'missing' script no longer tries 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). In fact, starting from Automake 1.13, all it'll do will be
- giving more useful warnings than a bare "command not found" from a
- make recipe would.
+ of it). It just gives 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.
+
+* Tags:
+
+ - Any failure in the recipe of the "tags", "ctags", "cscope" or
+ "cscopelist" targets in a subdirectory is now propagated to the
+ top-level make invocation.
+
+ - Tags are correctly computed also for files in _SOURCES variables that
+ only list files with non-standard suffixes (see automake bug#12372).
+
+* Improvements to aclocal and related rebuilds rules:
+
+ - Autoconf-provided macros AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR and AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS
+ are now traced by aclocal, and can be used to declare the local m4
+ include directories. 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.
+
+* The depcomp script:
+
+ - Dropped support for libtool 1.4.
+
+ - Various internal refactorings. They should cause no visible change,
+ but the chance for regression is there anyway, so please report any
+ unexpected or suspicious behaviour.
+
+ - Support for pre-8.0 versions of the Intel C Compiler has been dropped.
+ This should cause no problem, since icc 8.0 has been released in
+ December 2003 -- almost nine years ago.
+
+ - Support for tcc (the Tiny C Compiler) has been improved, and is now
+ handled through a dedicated 'tcc' mode.
+
+* The ylwrap script:
+
+ - ylwrap generates header guards with a single '_' for series of non
+ alphabetic characters, instead of several. This is what Bison >=
+ 2.5.1 does.
+
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Bugs fixed in 1.12.6:
+
+* Python-related bugs:
+
+ - The default installation location for python modules has been improved
+ for Python 3 on Debian and Ubuntu systems, changing from:
+
+ ${prefix}/lib/python3/dist-packages
+
+ to
+
+ ${prefix}/lib/python3.x/site-packages
+
+ This change should ensure modules installed using the default ${prefix}
+ "/usr/local" are found by default by system python 3.x installations.
+ See automake bug#10227.
+
+ - Python byte-compilation supports the new layout mandated by PEP-3147,
+ with its __pycache__ directory (automake bug#8847).
+
+* Build system issues:
+
+ - The maintainer rebuild rules for Makefiles and aclocal.m4 in
+ Automake's own build system works correctly again (bug introduced
+ in Automake 1.12.5).
+
+* Testsuite issues:
+
+ - The Vala-related tests has been changed to adjust to the removal of
+ the 'posix' profile in the valac compiler. See automake bug#12934
+ a.k.a. bug#12522.
+
+ - Some spurious testsuite failures related to older tools and systems
+ have been fixed.
+
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+New in 1.12.5:
+
+* Vala support:
+
+ - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro has been enhanced to takes two further
+ optional arguments; it's signature now being
+
+ AM_PROG_VALAC([MINIMUM-VERSION], [ACTION-IF-FOUND],
+ [ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND])
+
+ - By default, AM_PROG_VALAC no longer aborts the configure invocation
+ if the Vala compiler found is too old, but simply prints a warning
+ messages (as it did when the Vala compiler was not found). This
+ should avoid unnecessary difficulties for end users that just want
+ to compile the unmodified, distributed Vala-generated C sources,
+ but happens to have an old Vala compiler in their PATH. This fixes
+ automake bug#12688.
+
+ - If no proper Vala compiler is found at configure runtime, AM_PROG_VALAC
+ will set the AC_SUBST'd variable 'VALAC' to 'valac' rather than to ':'.
+ This is a better default, because with it a triggered makefile rule
+ invoking a Vala compilation will clearly fail with an informative error
+ message like "valac: command not found", rather than silently, with
+ the error possibly going unnoticed or triggering harder-to-diagnose
+ fallout failures in later steps.
+
+* Miscellaneous changes:
+
+ - automake and aclocal no longer honours the 'perllibdir' environment
+ variable. That had always been intended only as an hack required in
+ the testsuite, not meant for any use beyond that.
Bugs fixed in 1.12.5:
to regenerate the template corresponding to header files specified after
the first one in AC_CONFIG_HEADERS (automake bug#12495).
+ - When wrapping Microsoft tools, the 'compile' script falls back to
+ finding classic 'libname.a' style libraries when 'name.lib' and
+ 'name.dll.lib' aren't available.
+
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New in 1.12.4:
- 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 some future major Automake release (likely
- post-1.13), such usages will be no longer allowed.
+ post-1.13), such usages will no longer be allowed.
- Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (enabled by the 'cygnus' option) is
now deprecated (its use triggers a warning in the 'obsolete' category).
* Miscellaneous changes:
- The Automake test cases now require a proper POSIX-conforming shell.
- Older non-POSIX Bourne shells (like Solaris 10 /bin/sh) will be no
- longer accepted. 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).
+ Older non-POSIX Bourne shells (like Solaris 10 /bin/sh) will no longer
+ be accepted. 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:
- Automake now correctly recognizes the prefix/primary combination
'pkglibexec_SCRIPTS' as valid.
- - The parallel-tests harness now doesn't trip on sed implementations
+ - The parallel-tests harness no longer trips on sed implementations
with stricter limits on the length of input lines (problem seen at
least on Solaris 8).
-----
-Copyright (C) 1995-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+Copyright (C) 1995-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by