- New in 1.12.3:
+New in 1.13:
+
+* Version requirements:
+
+ - 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.
+
+ - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (once enabled by the 'cygnus'
+ option) has been removed. See discussion about automake bug#11034
+ for more background.
+
+ - 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 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+ AM_PROG_CC_STDC: superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002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
+ fp_WITH_DMALLOC: old alias for AM_WITH_DMALLOC
+ AM_CONFIG_HEADER: superseded by AC_CONFIG_HEADERS since July 2002
+ ud_PATH_LISPDIR: old alias for AM_PATH_LISPDIR
+ jm_MAINTAINER_MODE: old alias for AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
+ ud_GNU_GETTEXT: old alias for AM_GNU_GETTEXT
+ gm_PROG_LIBTOOL: old alias for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
+ fp_C_PROTOTYPES: old alias for AM_C_PROTOTYPES (which was part
+ of the now-removed automatic de-ANSI-fication
+ support of Automake)
+
+ - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' have been removed.
+
+* Obsolescent features:
+
+ - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
+ of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is not documented anymore. 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 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.
+
+ - 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.
+
+* 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 1.12.4:
* WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
giving more useful warnings than a bare "command not found" from a
make recipe would.
+ * Warnings and deprecations:
+
+ - Warnings in the 'obsolete' category are enabled by default both in
+ automake and aclocal.
+
++* Miscellaneous changes:
++
+ - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
+
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+ New in 1.12.3:
+
* Miscellaneous changes:
- The '.m4' files provided by Automake does not define serial numbers