1 * WARNING: New versioning scheme for Automake.
3 - Starting with this version onward, Automake will use an update and
4 more rational versioning scheme, one that will allow users to know
5 which kind of changes can be expected from a new version, based on
8 + Micro versions (e.g., 1.13.3, 2.0.1, 3.2.8) will introduce only
9 documentation updates and bug and regression fixes; they will
10 not introduce new features, nor any backward-incompatibility (any
11 such incompatibility would be considered a bug, to be fixed with
12 a further micro release).
14 + Minor versions (e.g., 1.14, 2.1) can introduce new backward
15 compatible features; the only backward-incompatibilities allowed
16 in such a release are new *non-fatal* deprecations and warnings,
17 and possibly fixes for old or non-trivial bugs (or even inefficient
18 behaviours) that could unfortunately have been seen, and used, by
19 some developers as "corner case features". Possible disruptions
20 caused by this kind of fixes should hopefully be quite rare.
22 + Major versions (now expected to be released every 18 or 24 months,
23 and not more often) can introduce new big features (possibly with
24 rough edges and not-fully-stabilized APIs), removal of deprecated
25 features, backward-incompatible changes of behaviour, and possibly
26 major refactorings (that, while ideally transparent to the user,
27 could introduce new bugs). Incompatibilities should however not
28 be introduced gratuitously and abruptly; a proper deprecation path
29 should be duly implemented in the preceding minor releases.
31 - According to this new scheme, the next major version of Automake
32 (the one that has until now been labelled as '1.14') will actually
33 become "Automake 2.0". Automake 1.14 will be the next minor version,
34 which will introduce new features, deprecations and bug fixes, but
35 no real backward incompatibility.
37 - See discussion about automake bug#13578 for more details and
38 background: <http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=13578>
40 * WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
42 - Automake 2.0 will require Autoconf 2.70 or later (which is still
43 unreleased at the moment of writing, but is planned to be released
44 before Automake 2.0 is).
46 - Automake 2.0 will drop support for the long-deprecated 'configure.in'
47 name for the Autoconf input file. You are advised to start using the
48 recommended name 'configure.ac' instead, ASAP.
50 - The ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS special make variable will be fully deprecated
51 in Automake 2.0 (where it will raise warnings in the "obsolete"
52 category). You are advised to start relying on the new Automake
53 support for AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS instead (which was introduced in
56 - Automake 2.0 will remove support for automatic dependency tracking
57 with the SGI C/C++ compilers on IRIX. The SGI depmode has been
58 reported broken "in the wild" already, and we don't think investing
59 time in debugging and fixing is worthwhile, especially considering
60 that SGI has last updated those compilers in 2006, and is expected
61 to retire support for them in December 2013:
62 <http://www.sgi.com/services/support/irix_mips_support.html>
64 - Future versions of Automake might remove support for MS-DOS and
65 Windows 95/98/ME (support for them was offered by relying on the
66 DJGPP project). Note however that both Cygwin and MSYS/MinGW on
67 modern Windows versions will continue to be fully supported.
69 - Automake-provided scripts and makefile recipes might (finally!)
70 start assuming a POSIX shell in Automake 2.0.
72 - Starting from Automake 2.0, third-party m4 files located in the
73 system-wide aclocal directory, as well as in any directory listed
74 in the ACLOCAL_PATH environment variable, will take precedence
75 over "built-in" Automake macros. For example (assuming Automake
76 is installed in the /usr/local hierarchy), a definition of the
77 AM_PROG_VALAC macro found in '/usr/local/share/aclocal/my-vala.m4'
78 should take precedence over the same-named automake-provided macro
79 (defined in '/usr/local/share/aclocal-2.0/vala.m4').
81 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
85 * C compilation, and the AC_PROG_CC and AM_PROG_CC_C_O macros:
87 - The 'compile' script is now unconditionally required for all
88 packages that perform C compilation (note that if you are using
89 the '--add-missing' option, automake will fetch that script for
90 you, so you shouldn't need any explicit adjustment).
91 This new behaviour is needed to avoid obscure errors when the
92 'subdir-objects' option is used, and the compiler is an inferior
93 one that doesn't grasp the combined use of both the "-c -o"
94 options; see discussion about automake bug#13378 for more details:
95 <http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=13378#35>
96 <http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=13378#44>
98 - The next major Automake version (2.0) will unconditionally turn on
99 the 'subdir-objects' option. In order to smooth out the transition,
100 we now give a warning (in the category 'unsupported') whenever a
101 source file is present in a subdirectory but the 'subdir-object' is
102 not enabled. For example, the following usage will trigger such a
103 warning (of course, assuming the 'subdir-objects' option is off):
105 bin_PROGRAMS = sub/foo
106 sub_foo_SOURCES = sub/main.c sub/bar.c
108 - Automake will automatically enhance the AC_PROG_CC autoconf macro
109 to make it check, at configure time, that the C compiler supports
110 the combined use of both the "-c -o" options. This "rewrite" of
111 AC_PROG_CC is only meant to be temporary, since future Autoconf
112 versions should provide all the features Automake needs.
114 - The AM_PROG_CC_C_O is no longer useful, and its use is a no-op
115 now. Future Automake versions might start warning that this
116 macro is obsolete. For better backward-compatibility, this macro
117 still sets a proper 'ac_cv_prog_cc_*_c_o' cache variable, and
118 define the 'NO_MINUS_C_MINUS_O' C preprocessor symbol, but you
119 should really stop relying on that.
123 - Automake can now be instructed to place '.info' files generated from
124 Texinfo input in the builddir rather than in the srcdir; this is done
125 specifying the new automake option 'info-in-builddir'. This feature
126 was requested by the developers of GCC, GDB, GNU binutils and the GNU
127 bfd library. See the extensive discussion about automake bug#11034
130 - For quite a long time, Automake has been implementing an undocumented
131 hack which ensured that '.info' files which appeared to be cleaned
132 (by e.g. being listed in the CLEANFILES or DISTCLEANFILES variables)
133 were built in the builddir rather than in the srcdir; this hack was
134 introduced to ensure better backward-compatibility with packages such
135 as Texinfo, which did things like:
137 info_TEXINFOS = texinfo.txi info-stnd.texi info.texi
138 DISTCLEANFILES = texinfo texinfo-* info*.info*
139 # Do not create info files for distribution.
143 in order not to distribute generated '.info' files.
145 Now that we have the 'info-in-builddir' option that explicitly causes
146 generated '.info' files to be placed in the builddir, this hack should
147 be longer necessary, so we deprecate it with runtime warnings. It will
148 likely be removed altogether in Automake 2.0.
150 * Relative directory in Makefile fragments:
152 - The special Automake-time substitutions '%reldir%' and '%canon_reldir%'
153 (and their short versions, '%D%' and '%C%' respectively) can now be used
154 in an included Makefile fragment. The former is substituted with the
155 relative directory of the included fragment (compared to the top level
156 including Makefile), and the latter with the canonicalized version of
157 the same relative directory:
159 bin_PROGRAMS += %reldir%/foo
160 %canon_reldir%_foo_SOURCES = %reldir%/bar.c
162 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
168 - Byte-compilation of Emacs lisp files could fail spuriously on Solaris,
169 when /bin/ksh or /usr/xpg4/bin/sh were used as shell.
171 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
175 * Documentation fixes:
177 - The long-deprecated but still supported two-arguments invocation form
178 of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is documented once again. This seems the sanest
179 thing to do, given that support for such an usage might need to remain
180 in place for a unspecified amount of time in order to cater for people
181 who want to define the version number for their package dynamically at
182 configure runtime (unfortunately, Autoconf does not yet support this
183 scenario, so we cannot delegate the work to it).
185 - The serial testsuite harness is no longer reported as "deprecated",
186 but as "discouraged". We have no plan to remove it, not to make its
187 use cause runtime warnings.
189 - The parallel testsuite is no longer reported as "experimental"; it
190 is well tested, and should be stable now.
192 - The 'shar' and 'tarZ' distribution formats and the 'dist-shar' and
193 'dist-tarZ' options are obsolescent, and their use is deprecated
194 in the documentation.
196 - Other minor miscellaneous fixes and improvements; in particular,
197 some improvements in cross-references.
199 * Obsolescent features:
201 - Use of suffix-less info files (that can be specified through the
202 '@setfilename' macro in Texinfo input files) is discouraged, and
203 its use will raise warnings in the 'obsolete' category. Simply
204 use the '.info' extension for all your info files, transforming
207 @setfilename myprogram
211 @setfilename myprogram.info
213 - Use of Texinfo input files with '.txi' or '.texinfo' extensions
214 is discouraged, and its use will raise warnings in the 'obsolete'
215 category. You are advised to simply use the '.texi' extension
220 - When the 'ustar' option is used, the generated configure script no
221 longer risks hanging during the tests for the availability of the
222 'pax' utility, even if the user running configure has a UID or GID
223 that requires more than 21 bits to be represented.
224 See automake bug#8343 and bug#13588.
226 - The obsolete macros AM_CONFIG_HEADER or AM_PROG_CC_STDC work once
227 again, as they did in Automake 1.12.x (albeit printing runtime
228 warnings in the 'obsolete' category). Removing them has turned
229 out to be a very bad idea, because it complicated distro packing
230 enormously. Making them issue fatal warnings, as we did in
231 Automake 1.13, has turned out to be a similarly very bad idea,
232 for exactly the same reason.
234 - aclocal will no longer error out if the first local m4 directory
235 (as specified by the '-I' option or the 'AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS' or
236 'AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR' macros) doesn't exist; it will merely report
237 a warning in the 'unsupported' category. This is done to support
238 some pre-existing real-world usages. See automake bug#13514.
240 - aclocal will no longer consider directories for extra m4 files more
241 than once, even if they are specified multiple times. This ensures
242 packages that specify both
244 AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4]) in configure.ac
245 ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4 in Makefile.am
247 will work correctly, even when the 'm4' directory contains no
248 package-specific files, but is used only to install third-party
249 m4 files (as can happen with e.g., "libtoolize --install").
250 See automake bug#13514.
252 - Analysis of make flags in Automake-generated rules has been made more
253 robust, and more future-proof. For example, in presence of make that
254 (like '-I') take an argument, the characters in said argument will no
255 longer be spuriously considered as a set of additional make options.
256 In particular, automake-generated rules will no longer spuriously
257 believe to be running in dry mode ("make -n") if run with an invocation
258 like "make -I noob"; nor will they believe to be running in keep-going
259 mode ("make -k") if run with an invocation like "make -I kool"
260 (automake bug#12554).
262 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
268 - Use of the obsolete macros AM_CONFIG_HEADER or AM_PROG_CC_STDC now
269 causes a clear and helpful error message, instead of obscure ones
270 (issue introduced in Automake 1.13).
272 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
278 - ylwrap renames properly header guards in generated header files
279 (*.h), instead of leaving Y_TAB_H.
281 - ylwrap now also converts header guards in implementation files
282 (*.c). Because ylwrap failed to rename properly #include in the
283 implementation files, current versions of Bison (e.g., 2.7)
284 duplicate the generated header file in the implementation file.
285 The header guard then protects the implementation file from
286 duplicate definitions from the header file.
288 * Version requirements:
290 - Autoconf 2.65 or greater is now required.
292 - The rules to build PDF and DVI output from Texinfo input now
293 require Texinfo 4.9 or later.
297 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (once enabled by the 'cygnus'
298 option) has been removed. See discussion about automake bug#11034
299 for more background: <http://debbugs.gnu.org/11034>.
301 - The deprecated aclocal option '--acdir' has been removed. You
302 should use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir'
303 instead (which have been introduced in Automake 1.11.2).
305 - The following long-obsolete m4 macros have been removed:
307 AM_PROG_CC_STDC: superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002
308 fp_PROG_CC_STDC: broken alias for AM_PROG_CC_STDC
309 fp_WITH_DMALLOC: old alias for AM_WITH_DMALLOC
310 AM_CONFIG_HEADER: superseded by AC_CONFIG_HEADERS since July 2002
311 ud_PATH_LISPDIR: old alias for AM_PATH_LISPDIR
312 jm_MAINTAINER_MODE: old alias for AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
313 ud_GNU_GETTEXT: old alias for AM_GNU_GETTEXT
314 gm_PROG_LIBTOOL: old alias for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
315 fp_C_PROTOTYPES: old alias for AM_C_PROTOTYPES (which was part
316 of the now-removed automatic de-ANSI-fication
319 - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' have been removed.
321 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
322 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is no longer documented. It's still supported
323 though (albeit with a warning in the 'obsolete' category), to cater
324 for people who want to define the version number for their package
325 dynamically (e.g., from the current VCS revision). We'll have to
326 continue this support until Autoconf itself is fixed to allow better
327 support for such dynamic version numbers.
329 * Elisp byte-compilation:
331 - The byte compilation of '.el' files into '.elc' files is now done
332 with a suffix rule. This has simplified the compilation process, and
333 more importantly made it less brittle. The downside is that emacs is
334 now invoked once for each '.el' files, which cause some noticeable
335 slowdowns. These should however be mitigated on multicore machines
336 (which are becoming the norm today) if concurrent make ("make -j")
339 - Elisp files placed in a subdirectory are now byte-compiled to '.elc'
340 files in the same subdirectory; for example, byte-compiling of file
341 'sub/foo.el' file will result in 'sub/foo.elc' rather than in
342 'foo.elc'. This behaviour is backward-incompatible with older
343 Automake versions, but it is more natural and more sane. See also
346 - The Emacs invocation performing byte-compilation of '.el' files honors
347 the $(AM_ELCFLAGS) and $(ELCFLAGS) variables; as typical, the former
348 one is developer-reserved and the latter one user-reserved.
350 - The 'elisp-comp' script, once provided by Automake, has been rendered
351 obsoleted by the just-described changes, and thus removed.
353 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
355 - The parallel testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the
356 'parallel-tests' option) is the default one; the older serial
357 testsuite harness will still be available through the use of the
358 'serial-tests' option (introduced in Automake 1.12).
360 - The 'color-tests' option is now unconditionally activated by default.
361 In particular, this means that testsuite output is now colorized by
362 default if the attached terminal seems to support ANSI escapes, and
363 that the user can force output colorization by setting the variable
364 AM_COLOR_TESTS to "always". The 'color-tests' is still recognized
365 for backward-compatibility, although it's a handled as a no-op now.
367 * Silent rules support:
369 - Support for silent rules is now always active in Automake-generated
370 Makefiles. So, although the verbose output is still the default,
371 the user can now always use "./configure --enable-silent-rules" or
372 "make V=0" to enable quieter output in the package he's building.
374 - The 'silent-rules' option has now become a no-op, preserved for
375 backward-compatibility only. In particular, its use no longer
376 disables the warnings in the 'portability-recursive' category.
380 - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now require
381 Texinfo 4.9 or later.
383 - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now use the
384 '--build-dir' option, to keep the auxiliary files used by texi2dvi
385 and texi2pdf around without cluttering the build directory, and to
386 make it possible to run the "dvi" and "pdf" recipes in parallel.
388 * Automatic remake rules and 'missing' script:
390 - The 'missing' script no longer tries to update the timestamp of
391 out-of-date files that require a maintainer-specific tool to be
392 remade, in case the user lacks such a tool (or has a too-old version
393 of it). It just gives a useful warning, and in some cases also a
394 tip about how to obtain such a tool.
396 - The missing script has thus become useless as a (poor) way to work
397 around the sketched-timestamps issues that can happen for projects
398 that keep generated files committed in their VCS repository. Such
399 projects are now encouraged to write a custom "fix-timestamps.sh"
400 script to avoid such issues; a simple example is provided in the
401 "CVS and generated files" chapter of the automake manual.
405 - The user can now define his own recursive targets that recurse
406 in the directories specified in $(SUBDIRS). This can be done by
407 specifying the name of such targets in invocations of the new
408 'AM_EXTRA_RECURSIVE_TARGETS' m4 macro.
412 - Any failure in the recipe of the "tags", "ctags", "cscope" or
413 "cscopelist" targets in a subdirectory is now propagated to the
414 top-level make invocation.
416 - Tags are correctly computed also for files in _SOURCES variables that
417 only list files with non-standard suffixes (see automake bug#12372).
419 * Improvements to aclocal and related rebuilds rules:
421 - Autoconf-provided macros AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR and AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS
422 are now traced by aclocal, and can be used to declare the local m4
423 include directories. Formerly, one had to specify it with an explicit
424 '-I' option to the 'aclocal' invocation.
426 - The special make variable ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS is deprecated; future
427 Automake versions will warn about its use, and later version will
428 remove support for it altogether.
430 * The depcomp script:
432 - Dropped support for libtool 1.4.
434 - Various internal refactorings. They should cause no visible change,
435 but the chance for regression is there anyway, so please report any
436 unexpected or suspicious behaviour.
438 - Support for pre-8.0 versions of the Intel C Compiler has been dropped.
439 This should cause no problem, since icc 8.0 has been released in
440 December 2003 -- almost nine years ago.
442 - Support for tcc (the Tiny C Compiler) has been improved, and is now
443 handled through a dedicated 'tcc' mode.
447 - ylwrap generates header guards with a single '_' for series of non
448 alphabetic characters, instead of several. This is what Bison >=
451 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
453 Bugs fixed in 1.12.6:
455 * Python-related bugs:
457 - The default installation location for python modules has been improved
458 for Python 3 on Debian and Ubuntu systems, changing from:
460 ${prefix}/lib/python3/dist-packages
464 ${prefix}/lib/python3.x/site-packages
466 This change should ensure modules installed using the default ${prefix}
467 "/usr/local" are found by default by system python 3.x installations.
468 See automake bug#10227.
470 - Python byte-compilation supports the new layout mandated by PEP-3147,
471 with its __pycache__ directory (automake bug#8847).
473 * Build system issues:
475 - The maintainer rebuild rules for Makefiles and aclocal.m4 in
476 Automake's own build system works correctly again (bug introduced
481 - The Vala-related tests has been changed to adjust to the removal of
482 the 'posix' profile in the valac compiler. See automake bug#12934
485 - Some spurious testsuite failures related to older tools and systems
488 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
494 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro has been enhanced to takes two further
495 optional arguments; it's signature now being
497 AM_PROG_VALAC([MINIMUM-VERSION], [ACTION-IF-FOUND],
498 [ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND])
500 - By default, AM_PROG_VALAC no longer aborts the configure invocation
501 if the Vala compiler found is too old, but simply prints a warning
502 messages (as it did when the Vala compiler was not found). This
503 should avoid unnecessary difficulties for end users that just want
504 to compile the unmodified, distributed Vala-generated C sources,
505 but happens to have an old Vala compiler in their PATH. This fixes
508 - If no proper Vala compiler is found at configure runtime, AM_PROG_VALAC
509 will set the AC_SUBST'd variable 'VALAC' to 'valac' rather than to ':'.
510 This is a better default, because with it a triggered makefile rule
511 invoking a Vala compilation will clearly fail with an informative error
512 message like "valac: command not found", rather than silently, with
513 the error possibly going unnoticed or triggering harder-to-diagnose
514 fallout failures in later steps.
516 * Miscellaneous changes:
518 - automake and aclocal no longer honours the 'perllibdir' environment
519 variable. That had always been intended only as an hack required in
520 the testsuite, not meant for any use beyond that.
522 Bugs fixed in 1.12.5:
524 * Long-standing bugs:
526 - Automake no longer generates spurious remake rules invoking autoheader
527 to regenerate the template corresponding to header files specified after
528 the first one in AC_CONFIG_HEADERS (automake bug#12495).
530 - When wrapping Microsoft tools, the 'compile' script falls back to
531 finding classic 'libname.a' style libraries when 'name.lib' and
532 'name.dll.lib' aren't available.
534 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
538 * Warnings and deprecations:
540 - Warnings in the 'obsolete' category are enabled by default both in
541 automake and aclocal.
543 * Miscellaneous changes:
545 - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
547 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
551 * Miscellaneous changes:
553 - The '.m4' files provided by Automake no longer define serial numbers.
554 This should cause no difference in the behaviour of aclocal though.
556 - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
558 - There is initial support for automatic dependency tracking with the
559 Portland Group C/C++ compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'pgcc'.
561 Bugs fixed in 1.12.3:
563 * Long-standing bugs:
565 - Instead of renaming only self-references of files (typically for
566 #lines), ylwrap now also renames references to the other generated
567 files. This fixes support for GLR and C++ parsers from Bison (PR
568 automake/491 and automake bug#7648): 'parser.c' now properly
569 #includes 'parser.h' instead of 'y.tab.h'.
571 - Generated files unknown to ylwrap are now preserved. This fixes
572 C++ support for Bison (automake bug#7648): location.hh and the
573 like are no longer discarded.
575 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
579 * Warnings and deprecations:
581 - Automake now issues a warning (in the 'portability' category) if
582 'configure.in' is used instead of 'configure.ac' as the Autoconf
583 input file. Such a warning will also be present in the next
584 Autoconf version (2.70).
588 - Recursive cleaning rules descends into the $(SUBDIRS) in the natural
589 order (as done by the other recursive rules), rather than in the
590 inverse order. They used to do that in order to work a round a
591 limitation in an older implementation of the automatic dependency
592 tracking support, but that limitation had been lifted years ago
593 already, when the automatic dependency tracking based on side-effects
594 of compilation had been introduced.
596 - Cleaning rules for compiled objects (both "plain" and libtool) work
597 better when subdir objects are involved, not triggering a distinct
598 'rm' invocation for each such object. They do so by removing *any*
599 compiled object file that is in the same directory of a subdir
600 object. See automake bug#10697.
602 * Silent rules support:
604 - A new predefined $(AM_V_P) make variable is provided; it expands
605 to a shell conditional that can be used in recipes to know whether
606 make is being run in silent or verbose mode.
608 Bugs fixed in 1.12.2:
610 * SECURITY VULNERABILITIES!
612 - The 'distcheck' recipe no longer grants temporary world-write
613 permissions on the extracted distdir. Even if such rights were
614 only granted for a vanishingly small time window, the implied
615 race condition proved to be enough to allow a local attacker
616 to run arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running
617 "make distcheck". This is CVE-2012-3386.
619 * Long-standing bugs:
621 - The "recheck" targets behaves better in the face of build failures
622 related to previously failed tests. For example, if a test is a
623 compiled program that must be rerun by "make recheck", and its
624 compilation fails, it will still be rerun by further "make recheck"
625 invocations. See automake bug#11791.
627 * Bugs introduced by 1.12.1:
629 - Automake provides once again the '$(mkdir_p)' make variable and the
630 '@mkdir_p@' substitution (both as simple aliases for '$(MKDIR_P)'),
631 for better backward-compatibility.
633 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
637 * New supported languages:
639 - Support for Objective C++ has been added; it should work similarly to
640 the support for Objective C.
642 * Deprecated obsolescent features:
644 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
645 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro now elicits a warning in the 'obsolete'
646 category. Starting from some future major Automake release (likely
647 post-1.13), such usages will no longer be allowed.
649 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (enabled by the 'cygnus' option) is
650 now deprecated (its use triggers a warning in the 'obsolete' category).
651 It will be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13).
653 - The long-obsolete (since 1.10) automake-provided $(mkdir_p) make
654 variable, @mkdir_p@ configure-time substitution and AM_PROG_MKDIR
655 m4 macro are deprecated, eliciting a warning in the 'obsolete'
658 * Miscellaneous changes:
660 - The Automake test cases now require a proper POSIX-conforming shell.
661 Older non-POSIX Bourne shells (like Solaris 10 /bin/sh) will no longer
662 be accepted. In most cases, the user shouldn't have to specify such
663 POSIX shell explicitly, since it will be looked up at configure time.
664 Still, when this lookup fails, or when the user wants to override its
665 conclusion, the variable 'AM_TEST_RUNNER_SHELL' can be used (pointing
666 to the shell that will be used to run the Automake test cases).
668 Bugs fixed in 1.12.1:
670 * Bugs introduced by 1.12:
672 - Several weaknesses in Automake's own build system and test suite
675 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
677 - When given non-option arguments, aclocal rejects them, instead of
678 silently ignoring them.
680 * Long-standing bugs:
682 - When the 'color-tests' option is in use, forcing of colored testsuite
683 output through "AM_COLOR_TESTS=always" works even if the terminal is
684 a non-ANSI one, i.e., if the TERM environment variable has a value of
687 - Several inefficiencies and poor performances in the implementation
688 of the parallel-tests 'check' and 'recheck' targets have been fixed.
690 - The post-processing of output "#line" directives done the ylwrap
691 script is more faithful w.r.t. files in a subdirectory; for example,
692 if the processed file is "src/grammar.y", ylwrap will correctly
693 produce directives like:
694 #line 7 "src/grammar.y"
699 * Bugs with new Perl versions:
701 - Aclocal works correctly with perl 5.16.0 (automake bug#11543).
703 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
707 * Obsolete features removed:
709 - The never documented nor truly used script 'acinstall' has been
712 - Support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been removed.
714 - The support for the "obscure" multilib feature has been removed
715 from Automake core (but remains available in the 'contrib/'
716 directory of the Automake distribution).
718 - Support for ".log -> .html" conversion and the check-html and
719 recheck-html targets has been removed from Automake core (but
720 remains available in the 'contrib/' directory of the Automake
723 - The deprecated 'lzma' compression format for distribution archives
724 has been removed, in favor of 'xz' and 'lzip'.
726 - The obsolete AM_WITH_REGEX macro has been removed.
728 - The long-deprecated options '--output-dir', '--Werror' and
729 '--Wno-error' have been removed.
731 - The chapter on the history of Automake has been moved out of the
732 reference manual, into a new dedicated Texinfo file.
736 - New 'cscope' target to build a cscope database for the source tree.
738 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
740 - The new automake option 'serial-tests' has been introduced. It can
741 be used to explicitly instruct automake to use the older serial
742 testsuite harness. This is still the default at the moment, but it
743 might change in future versions.
745 - The 'recheck' target (provided by the parallel testsuite harness) now
746 depends on the 'all' target. This allows for a better user-experience
747 in test-driven development. See automake bug#11252.
749 - Test scripts that exit with status 99 to signal an "hard error" (e.g.,
750 and unexpected or internal error, or a failure to set up the test case
751 scenario) have their outcome reported as an 'ERROR' now. Previous
752 versions of automake reported such an outcome as a 'FAIL' (the only
753 difference with normal failures being that hard errors were counted
754 as failures even when the test originating them was listed in
757 - The testsuite summary displayed by the parallel-test harness has a
758 completely new format, that always list the numbers of passed, failed,
759 xfailed, xpassed, skipped and errored tests, even when these numbers
760 are zero (but using smart coloring when the color-tests option is in
763 - The default testsuite driver offered by the 'parallel-tests' option is
764 now implemented (partly at least) with the help of automake-provided
765 auxiliary scripts (e.g., 'test-driver'), instead of relying entirely
766 on code in the generated Makefile.in.
767 This has two noteworthy implications. The first one is that projects
768 using the 'parallel-tests' option should now either run automake with
769 the '--add-missing' option, or manually copy the 'test-driver' script
770 into their tree. The second, and more important, implication is that
771 now, when the 'parallel-tests' option is in use, TESTS_ENVIRONMENT can
772 no longer be used to define a test runner, and the command specified
773 in LOG_COMPILER (and <ext>_LOG_COMPILER) must be a *real* executable
774 program or script. For example, this is still a valid usage (albeit
777 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
778 if test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS)'; then \
779 maybe_errexit='-e'; \
783 LOG_COMPILER = $(SHELL) $$maybe_errexit
785 OTOH, this is no longer a valid usage:
787 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
788 $(SHELL) `test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS_CHECKING)' && echo ' -e'`
792 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
793 run_with_perl_or_shell () \
795 if grep -q '^#!.*perl' $$1; then
801 LOG_COMPILER = run_with_perl_or_shell
803 - The package authors can now use customary testsuite drivers within
804 the framework provided by the 'parallel-tests' testsuite harness.
805 Consistently with the existing syntax, this can be done by defining
806 special makefile variables 'LOG_DRIVER' and '<ext>_LOG_DRIVER'.
808 - A new developer-reserved variable 'AM_TESTS_FD_REDIRECT' can be used
809 to redirect/define file descriptors used by the test scripts.
811 - The parallel-tests harness generates now, in addition the '.log' files
812 holding the output produced by the test scripts, a new set of '.trs'
813 files, holding "metadata" derived by the execution of the test scripts;
814 among such metadata are the outcomes of the test cases run by a script.
816 - Initial and still experimental support for the TAP test protocol is
819 * Changes to Yacc and Lex support:
821 - C source and header files derived from non-distributed Yacc and/or
822 Lex sources are now removed by a simple "make clean" (while they were
823 previously removed only by "make maintainer-clean").
825 - Slightly backward-incompatible change, relevant only for use of Yacc
826 with C++: the extensions of the header files produced by the Yacc
827 rules are now modelled after the extension of the corresponding
828 sources. For example, yacc files named "foo.y++" and "bar.yy" will
829 produce header files named "foo.h++" and "bar.hh" respectively, where
830 they would have previously produced header files named simply "foo.h"
831 and "bar.h". This change offers better compatibility with 'bison -o'.
833 * Miscellaneous changes:
835 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro now causes configure to exit with status 77,
836 rather than 1, if the vala compiler found is too old.
838 - The build system of Automake itself now avoids the use of make
839 recursion as much as possible.
841 - Automake now prefers to quote 'like this' or "like this", rather
842 than `like this', in diagnostic message and generated Makefiles,
843 to accommodate the new GNU Coding Standards recommendations.
845 - Automake has a new option '--print-libdir' that prints the path of the
846 directory containing the Automake-provided scripts and data files.
848 - The 'dist' and 'dist-all' targets now can run compressors in parallel.
850 - The rules to create pdf, dvi and ps output from Texinfo files now
851 works better with modern 'texi2dvi' script, by explicitly passing
852 it the '--clean' option to ensure stray auxiliary files are not
853 left to clutter the build directory.
855 - Automake can now generate silenced rules for texinfo outputs.
857 - Some auxiliary files that are automatically distributed by Automake
858 (e.g., 'install-sh', or the 'depcomp' script for packages compiling
859 C sources) might now be listed in the DIST_COMMON variable in many
860 Makefile.in files, rather than in the top-level one.
862 - Messages of types warning or error from 'automake' and 'aclocal'
863 are now prefixed with the respective type, and presence of -Werror
866 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now tries to avoid
867 sleeping for a second, which slowed down cached configure runs
868 noticeably. In that case, it will check back at the end of the
869 configure script to ensure that at least one second has passed, to
870 avoid time stamp issues with makefile rules rerunning autotools
873 - The warnings in the category 'extra-portability' are now enabled by
874 '-Wall'. In previous versions, one has to use '-Wextra-portability'
879 - Various minor bugfixes for recent or long-standing bugs.
881 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
883 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
884 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
886 - The automake-provided parallel testsuite harness no longer fails
887 with BSD make used in parallel mode when there are test scripts in
888 a subdirectory, like in:
890 TESTS = sub/foo.test sub/bar.test
892 * Long-standing bugs:
894 - Automake's own build system finally have a real "installcheck" target.
896 - Vala-related cleanup rules are now more complete, and work better in
899 - Files listed with the AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE macro in configure.ac are
900 now automatically distributed also if the directory of the auxiliary
901 files coincides with the top-level directory.
903 - Automake now detects the presence of the '-d' flag in the various
904 '*YFLAGS' variables even when their definitions involve indirections
905 through other variables, such as in:
907 AM_YFLAGS = $(foo_opts)
909 - Automake now complains if a '*YFLAGS' variable has any conditional
910 content, not only a conditional definition.
912 - Explicit enabling and/or disabling of Automake warning categories
913 through the '-W...' options now always takes precedence over the
914 implicit warning level implied by Automake strictness (foreign, gnu
915 or gnits), regardless of the order in which such strictness and
916 warning flags appear. For example, a setting like:
917 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = -Wall --foreign
918 will cause the warnings in category 'portability' to be enabled, even
919 if those warnings are by default disabled in 'foreign' strictness.
921 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
923 Bugs fixed in 1.11.5:
925 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
927 - Vala files with '.vapi' extension are now recognized and handled
928 correctly again. See automake bug#11222.
930 - Vala support work again for projects that contain some program
931 built from '.vala' (and possibly '.c') sources and some other
932 program built from '.c' sources *only*. See automake bug#11229.
934 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
938 * Miscellaneous changes:
940 - The 'ar-lib' script now ignores the "s" (symbol index) and "S" (no
941 symbol index) modifiers as well as the "s" action, as the symbol index
942 is created unconditionally by Microsoft lib. Also, the "q" (quick)
943 action is now a synonym for "r" (replace). Also, the script has been
944 ignoring the "v" (verbose) modifier already since Automake 1.11.3.
946 - When the 'compile' script is used to wrap MSVC, it now accepts an
947 optional space between the -I, -L and -l options and their respective
948 arguments, for better POSIX compliance.
950 - There is an initial, experimental support for automatic dependency
951 tracking with tcc (the Tiny C Compiler). Its associated depmode is
952 currently recognized as "icc" (but this and other details are likely
953 to change in future versions).
955 - Automatic dependency tracking now works also with the IBM XL C/C++
956 compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'xlc'.
958 Bugs fixed in 1.11.4:
960 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
962 - A definition of 'noinst_PYTHON' before 'python_PYTHON' (or similar)
963 no longer cause spurious failures upon "make install".
965 - The user can now instruct the 'uninstall-info' rule not to update
966 the '${infodir}/dir' file by exporting the environment variable
967 'AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no". This is done for consistency
968 with how the 'install-info' rule operates since automake 1.11.2.
970 * Long-standing bugs:
972 - It is now possible for a foo_SOURCES variable to hold Vala sources
973 together with C header files, as well as with sources and headers for
974 other supported languages (e.g., C++). Previously, only mixing C and
975 Vala sources was supported.
977 - If "aclocal --install" is used, and the first directory specified with
978 '-I' is non-existent, aclocal will now create it before trying to copy
981 - An empty declaration of a "foo_PRIMARY" no longer cause the generated
982 install rules to create an empty $(foodir) directory; for example, if
983 Makefile.am contains something like:
987 pkglibexec_SCRIPTS += bar.sh
990 the $(pkglibexec) directory will not be created upon "make install".
992 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
996 * Miscellaneous changes:
998 - Automake's own build system is more silent by default, making use of
999 the 'silent-rules' option.
1001 - The master copy of the 'gnupload' script is now maintained in gnulib,
1004 - The 'missing' script no longer tries to wrap calls to 'tar'.
1006 - "make dist" no longer wraps 'tar' invocations with the 'missing'
1007 script. Similarly, the obsolescent variable '$(AMTAR)' (which you
1008 shouldn't be using BTW ;-) no longer invokes the 'missing' script
1009 to wrap tar, but simply invokes the 'tar' program itself.
1011 - "make dist" can now create lzip-compressed tarballs.
1013 - In the Automake info documentation, the Top node and the nodes about
1014 the invocation of the automake and aclocal programs have been renamed;
1015 now, calling "info automake" will open the Top node, while calling
1016 "info automake-invocation" and "info aclocal-invocation" will access
1017 the nodes about the invocation of respectively automake and aclocal.
1019 - Automake is now distributed as a gzip-compressed and an xz-compressed
1020 tarball. Previously, bzip2 was used instead of xz.
1022 - The last relics of Python 1.5 support have been removed from the
1023 AM_PATH_PYTHON macro.
1025 - For programs and libraries, automake now detects EXTRA_foo_DEPENDENCIES
1026 and adds them to the normal list of dependencies, but without
1027 overwriting the foo_DEPENDENCIES variable, which is normally computed
1030 Bugs fixed in 1.11.3:
1032 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
1034 - Automake now correctly recognizes the prefix/primary combination
1035 'pkglibexec_SCRIPTS' as valid.
1037 - The parallel-tests harness no longer trips on sed implementations
1038 with stricter limits on the length of input lines (problem seen at
1039 least on Solaris 8).
1041 * Long-standing bugs:
1043 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.am files is avoided by stub
1044 rules. This allows 'make' to trigger a rerun of 'automake' also if
1045 some previously needed '.am' file has been removed.
1047 - The 'silent-rules' option now generates working makefiles even
1048 for the uncommon 'make' implementations that do not support the
1049 nested-variables extension to POSIX 2008. For such 'make'
1050 implementations, whether a build is silent is determined at
1051 configure time, and cannot be overridden at make time with
1052 "make V=0" or "make V=1".
1054 - Vala support now works better in VPATH setups.
1056 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1060 * Changes to aclocal:
1062 - The `--acdir' option is deprecated. Now you should use the new options
1063 `--automake-acdir' and `--system-acdir' instead.
1065 - The `ACLOCAL_PATH' environment variable is now interpreted as a
1066 colon-separated list of additional directories to search after the
1067 automake internal acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal-APIVERSION)
1068 and before the system acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal).
1070 * Miscellaneous changes:
1072 - The Automake support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been
1073 deprecated. It will probably be removed in the next major Automake
1076 - The `lzma' compression scheme and associated automake option `dist-lzma'
1077 is obsoleted by `xz' and `dist-xz' due to upstream changes.
1079 - You may adjust the compression options used in dist-xz and dist-bzip2.
1080 The default is now merely -e for xz, but still -9 for bzip; you may
1081 specify a different level via the XZ_OPT and BZIP2 envvars respectively.
1082 E.g., "make dist-xz XZ_OPT=-7" or "make dist-bzip2 BZIP2=-5"
1084 - The `compile' script now converts some options for MSVC for a better
1085 user experience. Similarly, the new `ar-lib' script wraps Microsoft lib.
1087 - The py-compile script now accepts empty arguments passed to the options
1088 `--destdir' and `--basedir', and complains about unrecognized options.
1089 Moreover, a non-option argument or a special `--' argument terminates
1090 the list of options.
1092 - A developer that needs to pass specific flags to configure at "make
1093 distcheck" time can now, and indeed is advised to, do so by defining
1094 the developer-reserved makefile variable AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS,
1095 instead of the old DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS.
1096 The DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS variable should now be reserved for the
1097 user; still, the old Makefile.am files that used to define it will
1098 still continue to work as before.
1100 - New macro AM_PROG_AR that looks for an archiver and wraps it in the new
1101 'ar-lib' auxiliary script if the selected archiver is Microsoft lib.
1102 This new macro is required for LIBRARIES and LTLIBRARIES when automake
1103 is run with -Wextra-portability and -Werror.
1105 - When using DejaGnu-based testsuites, the user can extend the `site.exp'
1106 file generated by automake-provided rules by defining the special make
1107 variable `$(EXTRA_DEJAGNU_SITE_CONFIG)'.
1109 - The `install-info' rule can now be instructed not to create/update
1110 the `${infodir}/dir' file, by exporting the new environment variable
1111 `AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no".
1113 Bugs fixed in 1.11.2:
1115 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
1117 - The parallel-tests driver no longer produces erroneous results with
1118 Tru64/OSF 5.1 sh upon unreadable log files.
1120 - The `parallel-tests' test driver does not report spurious successes
1121 when used with concurrent FreeBSD make (e.g., "make check -j3").
1123 - When the parallel-tests driver is in use, automake now explicitly
1124 rejects invalid entries and conditional contents in TEST_EXTENSIONS,
1125 instead of issuing confusing and apparently unrelated error messages
1126 (e.g., "non-POSIX variable name", "bad characters in variable name",
1127 or "redefinition of TEST_EXTENSIONS), or even, in some situations,
1128 silently producing broken `Makefile.in' files.
1130 - The `silent-rules' option now truly silences all compile rules, even
1131 when dependency tracking is disabled. Also, when `silent-rules' is
1132 not used, `make' output no longer contains spurious backslash-only
1133 lines, thus once again matching what Automake did before 1.11.
1135 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
1136 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
1138 * Long-standing bugs:
1140 - The order of Yacc and Lex flags is fixed to be consistent with other
1141 languages: $(AM_YFLAGS) comes before $(YFLAGS), and $(AM_LFLAGS) before
1142 $(LFLAGS), so that the user variables override the developer variables.
1144 - "make distcheck" now correctly complains also when "make uninstall"
1145 leaves one and only one file installed in $(prefix).
1147 - A "make uninstall" issued before a "make install", or after a mere
1148 "make install-data" or a mere "make install-exec" does not spuriously
1151 - Automake now warns about more primary/directory invalid combinations,
1152 such as "doc_LIBRARIES" or "pkglib_PROGRAMS".
1154 - Rules generated by Automake now try harder to not change any files when
1155 `make -n' is invoked. Fixes include compilation of Emacs Lisp, Vala, or
1156 Yacc source files and the rule to update config.h.
1158 - Several scripts and the parallel-tests testsuite driver now exit with
1159 the right exit status upon receiving a signal.
1161 - A per-Makefile.am setting of -Werror does not erroneously carry over
1162 to the handling of other Makefile.am files.
1164 - The code for automatic dependency tracking works around a Solaris
1165 make bug triggered by sources containing repeated slashes when the
1166 `subdir-objects' option was used.
1168 - The makedepend and hp depmodes now work better with VPATH builds.
1170 - Java sources specified with check_JAVA are no longer compiled for
1171 "make all", but only for "make check".
1173 - An usage like "java_JAVA = foo.java" will now cause Automake to warn
1174 and error out if `javadir' is undefined, instead of silently producing
1175 a broken Makefile.in.
1177 - aclocal and automake now honour the configure-time definitions of
1178 AUTOCONF and AUTOM4TE when they spawn autoconf or autom4te processes.
1180 - The `install-info' recipe no longer tries to guess whether the
1181 `install-info' program is from Debian or from GNU, and adaptively
1182 change its behaviour; this has proven to be frail and easy to
1185 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1187 Bugs fixed in 1.11.1:
1189 - Lots of minor bugfixes.
1191 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
1193 - The `parallel-tests' test driver works around a GNU make 3.80 bug with
1194 trailing white space in the test list (`TESTS = foo $(EMPTY)').
1196 * Long standing bugs:
1198 - On Darwin 9, `pythondir' and `pyexecdir' pointed below `/Library/Python'
1199 even if the `--prefix' argument pointed outside of a system directory.
1200 AM_PATH_PYTHON has been fixed to ignore the value returned from python's
1201 `get_python_lib' function if it points outside the configured prefix,
1202 unless the `--prefix' argument was either `/usr' or below `/System'.
1204 - The testsuite does not try to change the mode of `ltmain.sh' files from
1205 a Libtool installation (symlinked to test directories) any more.
1207 - AM_PROG_GCJ uses AC_CHECK_TOOLS to look for `gcj' now, so that prefixed
1208 tools are preferred in a cross-compile setup.
1210 - The distribution is tarred up with mode 755 now by the `dist*' targets.
1211 This fixes a race condition where untrusted users could modify files
1212 in the $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION) distdir before packing if the toplevel
1213 build directory was world-searchable. This is CVE-2009-4029.
1215 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1219 * Version requirements:
1221 - Autoconf 2.62 or greater is required.
1223 * Changes to aclocal:
1225 - The autoconf version check implemented by aclocal in aclocal.m4
1226 (and new in Automake 1.10) is degraded to a warning. This helps
1227 in the common case where the Autoconf versions used are compatible.
1229 * Changes to automake:
1231 - The automake program can run multiple threads for creating most
1232 Makefile.in files concurrently, if at least Perl 5.7.2 is available
1233 with interpreter-based threads enabled. Set the environment variable
1234 AUTOMAKE_JOBS to the maximum number of threads to use, in order to
1235 enable this experimental feature.
1237 * Changes to Libtool support:
1239 - Libtool generic flags are now passed to the install and uninstall
1242 - distcheck works with Libtool 2.x even when LT_OUTPUT is used, as
1243 config.lt is removed correctly now.
1245 * Languages changes:
1247 - subdir-object mode works now with Fortran (F77, FC, preprocessed
1248 Fortran, and Ratfor).
1250 - For files with extension .f90, .f95, .f03, or .f08, the flag
1251 $(FCFLAGS_f[09]x) computed by AC_FC_SRCEXT is now used in compile rules.
1253 - Files with extension .sx are also treated as preprocessed assembler.
1255 - The default source file extension (.c) can be overridden with
1256 AM_DEFAULT_SOURCE_EXT now.
1258 - Python 3.0 is supported now, Python releases prior to 2.0 are no
1261 - AM_PATH_PYTHON honors python's idea about the site directory.
1263 - There is initial support for the Vala programming language, when using
1264 Vala 0.7.0 or later.
1266 * Miscellaneous changes:
1268 - Automake development is done in a git repository on Savannah now, see
1270 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=automake.git
1272 A read-only CVS mirror is provided at
1274 cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@pserver.git.sv.gnu.org:/automake.git \
1275 checkout -d automake HEAD
1277 - "make dist" can now create xz-compressed tarballs,
1278 as well as (deprecated?) lzma-compressed tarballs.
1280 - `automake --add-missing' will by default install the GPLv3 file as
1281 COPYING if it is missing. It will also warn that the license file
1282 should be added to source control. Note that Automake will never
1283 overwrite an existing COPYING file, even when the `--force-missing'
1286 - The manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL 1.3.
1288 - Automake ships and installs man pages for automake and aclocal now.
1290 - New shorthand `$(pkglibexecdir)' for `$(libexecdir)/@PACKAGE@'.
1292 - install-sh supports -C, which does not update the installed file
1293 (and its time stamps) if the contents did not change.
1295 - The `gnupload' script has been revamped.
1297 - The `depcomp' and `compile' scripts now work with MSVC under MSYS.
1299 - The targets `install' and `uninstall' are more efficient now, in that
1300 for example multiple files from one Automake variable such as
1301 `bin_SCRIPTS' are copied in one `install' (or `libtool --mode=install')
1302 invocation if they do not have to be renamed.
1304 Both install and uninstall may sometimes enter (`cd' into) the target
1305 installation directory now, when no build-local scripts are used.
1307 Both install and uninstall do not fail anymore but do nothing if an
1308 installation directory variable like `bindir' is set to the empty string.
1310 For built-in rules, `make install' now fails reliably if installation
1311 of a file failed. Conversely, `make uninstall' even succeeds when
1312 issued multiple times.
1314 These changes may need some adjustments from users: For example,
1315 some `install' programs refuse to install multiple copies of the
1316 same file in one invocation, so you may need to remove duplicate
1317 entries from file lists.
1319 Also, within one set of files, say, nobase_data_DATA, the order of
1320 installation may be changed, or even unstable among different hosts,
1321 due to the use of associative arrays in awk. The increased use of
1322 awk matches a similar move in Autoconf to provide for better scaling.
1324 Further, most undocumented per-rule install command variables such as
1325 binSCRIPT_INSTALL have been removed because they are not needed any
1326 more. Packages which use them should be using the appropriate one of
1327 INSTALL_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT} or their install_sh_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT}
1328 counterpart, depending on the type of files and the need for automatic
1329 target directory creation.
1331 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.m4 files is avoided by
1332 stub rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `aclocal'
1333 also if some previously needed macro file has been removed.
1335 - Rebuild rules now also work for a removed `subdir/Makefile.in' in
1336 an otherwise up to date tree.
1338 - The `color-tests' option causes colored test result output on terminals.
1340 - The `parallel-tests' option enables a new test driver that allows for
1341 parallel test execution, inter-test dependencies, lazy test execution
1342 for unit-testing, re-testing only failed tests, and formatted result output
1343 as RST (reStructuredText) and HTML. Enabling this option may require some
1344 changes to your test suite setup; see the manual for details.
1346 - The `silent-rules' option enables Linux kernel-style silent build output.
1347 This option requires the widely supported but non-POSIX `make' feature
1348 of recursive variable expansion, so do not use it if your package needs
1349 to build with `make' implementations that do not support it.
1351 To enable less verbose build output, the developer has to use the Automake
1352 option `silent-rules' in `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE', or call the `AM_SILENT_RULES'
1353 macro. The user may then set the default verbosity by passing the
1354 `--enable-silent-rules' option to `configure'. At `make' run time, this
1355 default may be overridden using `make V=0' for less verbose, and `make V=1'
1356 for backward-compatible verbose output.
1358 - New prefix `notrans_' for manpages which should not be transformed
1359 by --program-transform.
1361 - New macro AM_COND_IF for conditional evaluation and conditional
1364 - For AC_CONFIG_LINKS, if source and destination are equal, do not
1365 remove the file in a non-VPATH build. Such setups work with Autoconf
1368 - AM_MAINTAINER_MODE now allows for an optional argument specifying
1369 the default setting.
1371 - AM_SUBST_NOTMAKE may prevent substitution of AC_SUBSTed variables,
1372 useful especially for multi-line values.
1374 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now diagnoses an
1375 unsafe absolute source directory name and makes configure fail.
1377 - The Automake macros and rules cope better with whitespace in the
1378 current directory name, as long as the relative path to `configure'
1379 does not contain whitespace. To this end, the values of `$(MISSING)'
1380 and `$(install_sh)' may contain suitable quoting, and their expansion
1381 might need `eval'uation if used outside of a makefile. These
1382 undocumented variables may be used in several documented macros such
1383 as $(AUTOCONF) or $(MAKEINFO).
1387 * Long-standing bugs:
1389 - Fix aix dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1391 - Work around AIX sh quoting issue in AC_PROG_CC_C_O, leading to
1392 unnecessary use of the `compile' script.
1394 - For nobase_*_LTLIBRARIES with nonempty directory components, the
1395 correct `-rpath' argument is used now.
1397 - `config.status --file=Makefile depfiles' now also works with the
1398 extra quoting used internally by Autoconf 2.62 and newer
1399 (it used to work only without the `--file=' bit).
1401 - The `missing' script works better with versioned tool names.
1403 - Semantics for `missing help2man' have been revamped:
1405 Previously, if `help2man' was not present, `missing help2man' would have
1406 the following semantics: if some man page was out of date but present, then
1407 a warning would be printed, but the exit status was 0. If the man page was
1408 not present at all, then `missing' would create a replacement man page
1409 containing an error message, and exit with a status of 2. This does not play
1410 well with `make': the next run will see this particular man page as being up
1411 to date, and will only error out on the next generated man page, if any;
1412 repeat until all pages are done. This was not desirable.
1414 These are the new semantics: if some man page is not present, and help2man
1415 is not either, then `missing' will warn and generate the replacement page
1416 containing the error message, but exit successfully. However, `make dist'
1417 will ensure that no such bogus man pages are packaged into a tarball.
1419 - Targets provided by automake behave better with `make -n', in that they
1420 take care not to create files.
1422 - `config.status Makefile... depfiles' works fine again in the presence of
1423 disabled dependency tracking.
1425 - The default no-op recursive rules for these targets also work with BSD make
1426 now: html, install-html, install-dvi, install-pdf, install-pdf, install-info.
1428 - `make distcheck' works also when both a directory and some file below it
1429 have been added to a distribution variable, such as EXTRA_DIST or *_SOURCES.
1431 - Texinfo dvi, ps, pdf, and html output files are not removed upon
1432 `make mostlyclean' any more; only the LaTeX by-products are.
1434 - Renamed objects also work with the `subdir-objects' option and
1435 source file languages which Automake does not know itself.
1437 - `automake' now correctly complains about variable assignments which are
1438 preceded by a comment, extend over multiple lines with backslash-escaped
1439 newlines, and end in a comment sign. Previous versions would silently
1440 and wrongly ignore such assignments completely.
1442 * Bugs introduced by 1.10:
1444 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
1445 Makefile.in's again, but also cope with long lines.
1447 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of XFAIL_TESTS
1448 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1449 This is for consistency with the analogous change to TESTS in 1.10.
1451 - Fix order of standard includes to again be `-I. -I$(srcdir)',
1452 followed by directories containing config headers.
1454 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1458 * Version requirements:
1460 - Autoconf 2.60 or greater is required.
1462 - Perl 5.6 or greater is required.
1464 * Changes to aclocal:
1466 - aclocal now also supports -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble options.
1468 - `dirlist' entries (for the aclocal search path) may use shell
1469 wildcards such as `*', `?', or `[...]'.
1471 - aclocal supports an --install option that will cause system-wide
1472 third-party macros to be installed in the local directory
1473 specified with the first -I flag. This option also uses #serial
1474 lines in M4 files to upgrade local macros.
1476 The new aclocal options --dry-run and --diff help to review changes
1477 before they are installed.
1479 - aclocal now outputs an autoconf version check in aclocal.m4 in
1480 projects using automake.
1482 For a few years, automake and aclocal have been calling autoconf
1483 (or its underlying engine autom4te) to accurately retrieve the
1484 data they need from configure.ac and its siblings. Doing so can
1485 only work if all autotools use the same version of autoconf. For
1486 instance a Makefile.in generated by automake for one version of
1487 autoconf may stop working if configure is regenerated with another
1488 version of autoconf, and vice versa.
1490 This new version check ensures that the whole build system has
1491 been generated using the same autoconf version.
1493 * Support for new Autoconf macros:
1495 - The new AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE Autoconf macro is supported.
1497 - If `subdir-objects' is set, and AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR is specified,
1498 $(LIBOBJS), $(LTLIBOBJS), $(ALLOCA), and $(LTALLOCA) can be used
1499 in different directories. However, only one instance of such a
1500 library objects directory is supported.
1502 * Change to Libtool support:
1504 - Libtool generic flags (those that go before the --mode=MODE option)
1505 can be specified using AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS and target_LIBTOOLFLAGS.
1507 * Yacc and Lex changes:
1509 - The rebuild rules for distributed Yacc and Lex output will avoid
1510 overwriting existing files if AM_MAINTAINER_MODE and maintainer-mode
1513 - ylwrap is now always used for lex and yacc source files,
1514 regardless of whether there is more than one source per directory.
1516 * Languages changes:
1518 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now honors CPPFLAGS,
1519 AM_CPPFLAGS and per-target _CPPFLAGS, and supports dependency
1520 tracking, unlike non-preprocessed assembler (*.s).
1522 - subdir-object mode works now with Assembler. Automake assumes
1523 that the compiler understands `-c -o'.
1525 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now also honors
1526 $(DEFS) $(DEFAULT_INCLUDES) $(INCLUDES).
1528 - Improved support for Objective C:
1529 - Autoconf's new AC_PROG_OBJC will enable automatic dependency tracking.
1530 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1532 - New support for Unified Parallel C:
1533 - AM_PROG_UPC looks for a UPC compiler.
1534 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1536 - Per-target flags are now correctly handled in link rules.
1538 For instance maude_CFLAGS correctly overrides AM_CFLAGS; likewise
1539 for maude_LDFLAGS and AM_LDFLAGS. Previous versions bogusly
1540 preferred AM_CFLAGS over maude_CFLAGS while linking, and they
1541 used both AM_LDFLAGS and maude_LDFLAGS on the same link command.
1543 The fix for compiler flags (i.e., using maude_CFLAGS instead of
1544 AM_CFLAGS) should not hurt any package since that is how _CFLAGS
1545 is expected to work (and actually works during compilation).
1547 However using maude_LDFLAGS "instead of" AM_LDFLAGS rather than
1548 "in addition to" breaks backward compatibility with older versions.
1549 If your package used both variables, as in
1551 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1552 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1553 a_LDFLAGS = more flags
1556 and assumed *_LDFLAGS would sum up, you should rewrite it as
1558 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1559 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1560 a_LDFLAGS = $(AM_LDFLAGS) more flags
1563 This new behavior of *_LDFLAGS is more coherent with other
1564 per-target variables, and the way *_LDFLAGS variables were
1565 considered internally.
1567 * New installation targets:
1569 - New targets mandated by GNU Coding Standards:
1574 By default they will only install Texinfo manuals.
1575 You can customize them with *-local variants:
1581 - The undocumented recursive target `uninstall-info' no longer exists.
1582 (`uninstall' is in charge of removing all possible documentation
1583 flavors, including optional formats such as dvi, ps, or info even
1584 when `no-installinfo' is used.)
1586 * Miscellaneous changes:
1588 - Automake no longer complains if input files for AC_CONFIG_FILES
1589 are specified using shell variables.
1591 - clean, distribution, or rebuild rules are normally disabled for
1592 inputs and outputs of AC_CONFIG_FILES, AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, and
1593 AC_CONFIG_LINK specified using shell variables. However, if these
1594 variables are used as ${VAR}, and AC_SUBSTed, then Automake will
1595 be able to output rules anyway.
1596 (See the Automake documentation for AC_CONFIG_FILES.)
1598 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of TESTS
1599 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1600 This is mostly useful when some check_PROGRAMS are listed in TESTS.
1602 - `-Wportability' has finally been turned on by default for `gnu' and
1603 `gnits' strictness. This means, automake will complain about %-rules
1604 or $(GNU Make functions) unless you switch to `foreign' strictness or
1605 use `-Wno-portability'.
1607 - Automake now uses AC_PROG_MKDIR_P (new in Autoconf 2.60), and uses
1608 $(MKDIR_P) instead of $(mkdir_p) to create directories. The
1609 $(mkdir_p) variable is still defined (to the same value as
1610 $(MKDIR_P)) but should be considered obsolete. If you are using
1611 $(mkdir_p) in some of your rules, please plan to update them to
1612 $(MKDIR_P) at some point.
1614 - AM_C_PROTOTYPES and ansi2knr are now documented as being obsolete.
1615 They still work in this release, but may be withdrawn in a future one.
1617 - Inline compilation rules for gcc3-style dependency tracking are
1620 - Automake installs a "Hello World!" example package in $(docdir).
1621 This example is used throughout the new "Autotools Introduction"
1622 chapter of the manual.
1624 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1628 * Makefile.in bloat reduction:
1630 - Inference rules are used to compile sources in subdirectories when
1631 the `subdir-objects' option is used and no per-target flags are
1632 used. This should reduce the size of some projects a lot, because
1633 Automake used to output an explicit rule for each such object in
1636 - Automake no longer outputs three rules (.o, .obj, .lo) for each
1637 object that must be built with explicit rules. It just outputs
1638 the rules required to build the kind of object considered: either
1639 the two .o and .obj rules for usual objects, or the .lo rule for
1642 * Change to Libtool support:
1644 - Libtool tags are used with libtool versions that support them.
1645 (I.e., with Libtool 1.5 or greater.)
1647 - Automake is now able to handle setups where a libtool library is
1648 conditionally installed in different directories, as in
1651 lib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1653 pkglib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1655 liba_la_SOURCES = ...
1657 * Changes to aclocal:
1659 - aclocal now ensures that AC_DEFUNs and AU_DEFUNs it discovers are
1660 really evaluated, before it decides to include them in aclocal.m4.
1661 This solves nasty problems with conditional redefinitions of
1662 Autoconf macros in /usr/share/aclocal/*.m4 files causing extraneous
1663 *.m4 files to be included in any project using these macros.
1664 (Calls to AC_PROG_EGREP causing libtool.m4 to be included is the
1665 most famous instance of this bug.)
1667 - Do not complain about missing conditionally AC_REQUIREd macros
1668 that are not actually used. In 1.8.x aclocal would correctly
1669 determine which of these macros were really needed (and include
1670 only these in the package); unfortunately it would also require
1671 all of them to be present in order to run. This created
1672 situations were aclocal would not work on a tarball distributing
1673 all the macros it uses. For instance running aclocal on a project
1674 containing only the subset of the Gettext macros in use by the
1675 project did not work, because gettext conditionally requires other
1678 * Portability improvements:
1680 - Tar format can be chosen with the new options tar-v7, tar-ustar, and
1681 tar-pax. The new option filename-length-max=99 helps diagnosing
1682 filenames that are too long for tar-v7. (PR/414)
1684 - Variables aumented with `+=' are now automatically flattened (i.e.,
1685 trailing backslashes removed) and then wrapped around 80 colummns
1686 (adding trailing backslashes). In previous versions, a long series
1692 would result in a single-line definition of VAR that could possibly
1693 exceed the maximum line length of some make implementations.
1695 Non-augmented variables are still output as they are defined in
1700 - Support Fortran 90/95 with the new "fc" and "ppfc" languages.
1701 Works the same as the old Fortran 77 implementation; just replace
1702 F77 with FC everywhere (exception: FFLAGS becomes FCFLAGS).
1703 Requires a version of autoconf which provides AC_PROG_FC (>=2.59).
1705 - Support for conditional _LISP.
1707 - Support for conditional -hook and -local rules (PR/428).
1709 - Diagnose AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR calls following AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. (PR/49)
1711 - Automake will not write any Makefile.ins after the first error it
1712 encounters. The previous Makefile.ins (if any) will be left in
1713 place. (Warnings will not prevent output, but remember they can
1714 be turned into errors with -Werror.)
1716 - The restriction that SUBDIRS must contain direct children is gone.
1719 - The manual tells more about SUBDIRS vs. DIST_SUBDIRS.
1720 It also gives an example of nested packages using AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS.
1722 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1724 Bugs fixed in 1.8.5:
1726 * Long-standing bugs:
1728 - Define DIST_SUBDIRS even when the `no-dist' or `cygnus' options are used
1729 so that `make distclean' and `make maintainer-clean' can work.
1731 - Define AR and ARFLAGS even when only EXTRA_LIBRARIES are defined.
1733 - Fix many rules to please FreeBSD make, which runs commands with `sh -e'.
1735 - Polish diagnostic when no input file is found.
1737 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1739 Bugs fixed in 1.8.4:
1741 * Long-standing bugs:
1743 - Fix AM_PATH_PYTHON to correctly display $PYTHON when it has been
1744 overridden by the user.
1746 - Honor PATH_SEPARATOR in various places of the Automake package, for
1749 - Adjust dependency tracking mode detection to ICC 8.0's new output.
1752 - Fix install-sh so it can install the `mv' binary... using `mv'.
1754 - Fix tru64 dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1756 - Work around Exuberant Ctags when creating a TAGS files in a directory
1757 without files to scan but with subdirectories to include.
1759 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1761 - Fix an "internal error" when @LIBOBJS@ is used in a variable that is
1762 not defined in the same conditions as the _LDADD that uses it.
1764 - Do not warn when JAVAROOT is overridden, this is legitimate.
1766 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1768 Bugs fixed in 1.8.3:
1770 * Long-standing bugs:
1772 - Quote filenames in installation rules, in case $DESTDIR, $prefix,
1773 or any of the other *dir variables contain a space.
1775 Please note that Automake does not and cannot support spaces in
1776 filenames that are involved during the build. This change affects
1777 only installation paths, so that `make install' does not bomb out
1778 in packages configured with
1779 ./configure --prefix '/c/Program Files'
1781 - Fix the depfiles output so it works with GNU sed (<4.1) even when
1782 POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.
1784 - Do not AC_SUBST(LIBOBJS) in AM_WITH_REGEX. This macro was unusable
1785 since Autoconf 2.54, which defines LIBOBJS itself.
1787 - Fix a potential (but unlikely) race condition in parallel elisp
1788 builds. (Introduced in 1.7.3.)
1790 - Do not assume that users override _DEPENDENCIES in all conditions
1791 where Automake will try to define them.
1793 - Do not use `mkdir -p' in mkinstalldirs, unless this is GNU mkdir.
1794 Solaris 8's `mkdir -p' is not thread-safe and can break parallel
1797 This fix also affects the $(mkdir_p) variable defined since
1798 Automake 1.8. It will be set to `mkdir -p' only if mkdir is GNU
1799 mkdir, and to `mkinstalldirs' or `install-sh -d' otherwise.
1801 - Secure temporary directory creation in `make distcheck'. (PR/413)
1803 - Do not generate two build rules for `parser.h' when the
1804 parser appears in two different conditionals.
1806 - Work around a Solaris 8 /bin/sh bug in the test for dependency
1807 checking. Usually ./configure will not pick this shell; so this
1808 fix only helps cases where the shell is forced to /bin/sh.
1810 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1812 - In some situations (hand-written `m4_include's), aclocal would
1813 call the `File::Spec->rel2abs' method, which was only introduced
1814 in Perl 5.6. This new version reestablish support Perl 5.005.
1816 It is likely that the next major Automake releases will require at
1817 least Perl 5.6. Consider upgrading your development environment
1818 if you are still using the five-year-old Perl 5.005.
1820 - Automake would sometimes fail to define rules for targets listed
1821 in variables defined in multiple conditions. For instance on
1827 it would define only the `a.$(OBJEXT): a.c' rule and omit the
1828 `b.$(OBJEXT): b.c' rule.
1830 * New sections in manual:
1832 - Third-Party Makefiles: how to interface third party Makefiles.
1833 - Upgrading: upgrading packages to newer Automake versions.
1834 - Multiple Outputs: handling tools that produce many outputs.
1836 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1840 * A (well known) portability bug slipped in the changes made to
1841 install-sh in Automake 1.8.1. The broken install-sh would refuse to
1842 install anything on Tru64.
1844 * Fix install rules for conditionally built python files. (This never
1847 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1851 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1853 - Fix Config.pm import error with old Perl versions (at least
1854 5.005_03). One symptom is that aclocal could not find its macro
1857 - Automake 1.8 used `mkdir -m 0755 -p --' to ensure that directories
1858 created by `make install' are always world readable, even if the
1859 installer happens to have an overly restrictive umask (e.g. 077).
1860 This was a mistake and has been reverted. There are at least two
1861 reasons why we must not use `-m 0755':
1862 - it causes special bits like SGID to be ignored,
1863 - it may be too restrictive (some setups expect 775 directories).
1865 - Fix aclocal to honor definitions located in files which have been
1866 m4_included manually. aclocal 1.8 had been updated to check
1867 m4_included files for new requirements, but forgot that these
1868 m4_included files can also provide new definitions.
1870 Note that if you have such a setup, we recommend you get rid of
1871 it. In the past, there was a reason to m4_include files manually:
1872 aclocal used to duplicate entire M4 files into aclocal.m4, even
1873 files that were distributed. Some packages were therefore
1874 m4_including the distributed file directly, and playing some
1875 tricks to ensure aclocal would not copy that file to aclocal.m4,
1876 in order to limit the amount of duplication. Since aclocal 1.8.x
1877 will precisely output m4_includes for local M4 files, we recommend
1878 that you clean up your setup, removing all manual m4_includes and
1879 letting aclocal output them.
1881 - Output detailed menus in the Info version if the Automake manual,
1882 so that Emacs can locate the indexes.
1884 - configure.ac and configure were listed twice in DIST_COMMON (an
1885 internal variable where Automake lists configury files to
1886 distribute). This was harmless, but unaesthetic.
1888 - Use `chmod a-w' instead of `chmod -w' as the latter honors umask.
1889 This was an issue only in the Automake package itself, not in
1892 - Automake assumed that all AC_CONFIG_LINKS arguments had the form
1893 DEST:SRC. This was wrong, as some packages do
1894 AC_CONFIG_LINKS($computedlinks). This version no longer abort in
1897 - Contrary to mkinstalldirs, $(mkdir_p) was expecting exactly one
1898 argument. This caused two kinds of failures:
1899 - Rules installing data in a conditionally defined directory
1900 failed when that directory was undefined. In this case no
1901 argument was supplied.
1902 - `make installdirs' failed, because several directories were
1903 passed to $(mkdir_p). This was an issue only on platform
1904 were $(mkdir_p) is implemented with `install-sh -d'.
1905 $(mkdir_p) as been changed to accept 0 or more arguments, as
1908 * Long-standing bugs:
1910 - Fix an unexpected diagnostic occurring when users attempt
1911 to override some internal variables that Automake appends to.
1913 - aclocal now scans configure.ac for macro definitions (PR/319).
1915 - Fix a portability issue with OSF1/Tru64 Make. If a directory
1916 distributes files which are outside itself (this usually occurs
1917 when using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([../dir]) to use auxiliary files
1918 from a parent package), then `make distcheck' fails due to an
1919 optimization performed by OSF1/Tru64 Make in its VPATH handling.
1920 (tests/subpkg2.test failure)
1922 - Fix another portability issue with Sun and OSF1/Tru64 Make.
1923 In a VPATH-build configuration, `make install' would install
1924 nobase_ files to wrong locations.
1926 - Fix a Perl `uninitialized value' diagnostic occurring when
1927 automake complains that a Texinfo file does not have a
1928 @setfilename statement.
1930 - Erase config.status.lineno during `make distclean'. This file
1931 can be created by config.status. Automake already knew about
1932 configure.lineno, but forgot config.status.lineno.
1934 - Distribute all files, even those which are built and installed
1935 conditionally. This change affects files listed in conditionally
1936 defined *_HEADERS and *_PYTHON variable (unless they are nodist_*)
1937 as well as those listed in conditionally defined dist_*_DATA,
1938 dist_*_JAVA, dist_*_LISP, and dist_*_SCRIPTS variables.
1940 - Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to avoid \? in sed regular expressions; it
1941 doesn't conform to POSIX.
1943 - Normalize help strings for configure variables and options added
1948 - Check for python2.4 in AM_PATH_PYTHON.
1950 * Spurious failures in test suite:
1952 - tests/libtool5.test, tests/ltcond.test, tests/ltcond2.test,
1953 tests/ltconv.test: fix failures with CVS Libtool.
1954 - tests/aclocal6.test: fix failure if autom4te.cache is disabled.
1955 - tests/txinfo24.test, tests/txinfo25.test, tests/txinfo28.test:
1956 fix failures with old Texinfo versions.
1958 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1964 - The NEWS file is more verbose.
1968 - Autoconf 2.58 or greater is required.
1972 - Default source file names in the absence of a _SOURCES declaration
1973 are made by removing any target extension before appending `.c', so
1974 to make the libtool module `foo.la' from `foo.c', you only need to
1977 lib_LTLIBRARIES = foo.la
1978 foo_la_LDFLAGS = -module
1980 For backward compatibility, foo_la.c will be used instead of
1981 foo.c if this file exists or is the explicit target of a rule.
1982 However -Wobsolete will warn about this deprecated naming.
1984 - AR's `cru' flags are now set in a global ARFLAGS variable instead
1985 of being hard-coded in each $(AR) invocation, so they can be
1986 substituted from configure.ac. This has been requested by people
1987 dealing with non-POSIX ar implementations.
1989 - New warning option: -Woverride. This will warn about any user
1990 target or variable definitions which override Automake
1993 - Texinfo rules back up and restore info files when makeinfo fails.
1995 - Texinfo rules now support the `html' target.
1996 Running this requires Texinfo 4.0 or greater.
1998 `html' is a new recursive target, so if your package mixes
1999 hand-crafted `Makefile.in's with Automake-generated
2000 `Makefile.in's, you should adjust the former to support (or
2001 ignore) this target so that `make html' recurses successfully. If
2002 you had a custom `html' rule in your `Makefile.am', it's better to
2003 rename it as `html-local', otherwise your rule will override
2004 Automake's new rule (you can check that by running `automake
2005 -Woverride') and that will stop the recursion to subdirectories.
2007 Last but not least, this `html' rule is declared PHONY, even when
2008 overridden. Fortunately, it appears that few packages use a
2009 non-PHONY `html' rule.
2011 - Any file which is m4_included from configure.ac will appear as a
2012 configure and Makefile.in dependency, and will be automatically
2015 - The rules for rebuilding Makefiles and Makefile.ins will now
2016 rebuild all Makefiles and all Makefile.ins at once when one of
2017 configure's dependencies has changed. This is considerably faster
2018 than previous implementations, where config.status and automake
2019 were run separately in each directory (this still happens when you
2020 change a Makefile.am locally, without touching configure.ac or
2021 friends). Doing this also solves a longstanding issue: these
2022 rebuild rules failed to work when adding new directories to the
2023 tree, forcing you to run automake manually.
2025 - For similar reasons, the rules to rebuild configure,
2026 config.status, and aclocal.m4 are now defined in all directories.
2027 Note that if you were using the CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES and
2028 CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES (formerly undocumented) variables, you
2029 should better define them in all directories. This is easily done
2030 using an AC_SUBST (make sure you prefix these dependencies with
2031 $(top_srcdir) since this variable will appear at different
2032 levels of the build tree).
2034 - aclocal will now use `m4_include' instead of copying local m4
2035 files into aclocal.m4. (Local m4 files are those you ship with
2036 your project, other files will be copied as usual.)
2038 Because m4_included files are automatically distributed, it means
2039 for most projects there is no point in EXTRA_DISTing the list of
2040 m4 files which are used. (You can probably get rid of
2041 m4/Makefile.am if you had one.)
2043 - aclocal will avoid touching aclocal.m4 when possible, so that
2044 Autom4te's cache isn't needlessly invalidated. This behavior can
2045 be switched off with the new `--force' option.
2047 - aclocal now uses Autoconf's --trace to detect macros which are
2048 actually used and will no longer include unused macros simply
2049 because they where mentioned. This was often the case for macros
2050 called conditionally.
2052 - New options no-dist and no-dist-gzip.
2054 - compile, depcomp, elisp-comp, install-sh, mdate-sh, mkinstalldirs,
2055 py-compile, and ylwrap, now all understand --version and --help.
2057 - Automake will now recognize AC_CONFIG_LINKS so far as removing created
2058 links as part of the distclean target and including source files in
2061 - AM_PATH_PYTHON now supports ACTION-IF-FOUND and ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND
2062 argument. The latter can be used to override the default behavior
2063 (which is to abort).
2065 - Automake will exit with $? = 63 on version mismatch. (So does
2066 Autoconf 2.58) missing knows this, and in this case it will
2067 emulate the tools as if they were absent. Because older versions
2068 of Automake and Autoconf did not use this exit code, this change
2069 will only be useful in projects generated with future versions of
2072 - When using AC_CONFIG_FILES with multiple input files, Automake
2073 generates the first ".in" input file for which a ".am" exists.
2074 (Former versions would try to use only the first input file.)
2076 - lisp_DATA is now allowed. If you are using the empty ELCFILES
2077 idiom to disable byte-compilation of lisp_LISP files, it is
2078 recommended that you switch to using lisp_DATA. Note that
2079 this is not strictly equivalent: lisp_DATA will install elisp
2080 files even if emacs is not installed, while *_LISP do not
2081 install anything unless emacs is found.
2083 - Makefiles will prefer `mkdir -p' over mkinstalldirs if it is
2084 available. This selection is achieved through the Makefile
2085 variable $(mkdir_p) that is set by AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE to either
2086 `mkdir -m 0755 -p --', `$(mkinstalldirs) -m 0755', or
2087 `$(install_sh) -m 0755 -d'.
2091 - Because `mkdir -p' is available on most platforms, and we can use
2092 `install-sh -d' when it is not, the use of the mkinstalldirs
2093 script is being phased out. `automake --add-missing' no longer
2094 installs it, and if you remove mkinstalldirs from your package,
2095 automake will define $(mkinstalldirs) as an alias for $(mkdir_p).
2097 Gettext 0.12.1 still requires mkinstalldirs. Fortunately
2098 gettextize and autopoint will install it when needed. Automake
2099 will continue to define the $(mkinstalldirs) and to distribute
2100 mkinstalldirs when this script is in the source tree.
2102 - AM_PROG_CC_STDC is now empty. The content of this macro was
2103 merged in AC_PROG_CC. If your code uses $am_cv_prog_cc_stdc, you
2104 should adjust it to use $ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc instead. (This
2105 renaming should be safe, even if you have to support several,
2106 versions of Automake, because AC_PROG_CC defines this variable
2107 since Autoconf 2.54.)
2109 - Some users where using the undocumented ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES
2110 variable to override the aclocal.m4 dependencies computed
2111 (inaccurately) by older versions of Automake. Because Automake
2112 now tracks configure's m4 dependencies accurately (see m4_include
2113 above), the use of ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES should be considered
2114 obsolete and will be flagged as such when running `automake
2119 - Defining programs conditionally using Automake conditionals no
2120 longer leads to a combinatorial explosion. The following
2121 construct used to be troublesome when used with dozens of
2136 Likewise for _SOURCES, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables.
2138 - Due to implementation constraints, previous versions of Automake
2139 proscribed multiple conditional definitions of some variables
2149 All _PROGRAMS, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables were affected.
2150 This restriction has been lifted, and these variables now
2151 support multiple conditional definitions as do other variables.
2153 - Cleanup the definitions of $(distdir) and $(top_distdir).
2154 $(top_distdir) now points to the root of the distribution
2155 directory created during `make dist', as it did in Automake 1.4,
2156 not to the root of the build tree as it did in intervening
2157 versions. Furthermore these two variables are now only defined in
2158 the top level Makefile, and passed to sub-directories when running
2161 - The --no-force option now correctly checks the Makefile.in's
2162 dependencies before deciding not to update it.
2164 - Do not assume that make files are called Makefile in cleaning rules.
2166 - Update .info files in the source tree, not in the build tree. This
2167 is what the GNU Coding Standard recommend. Only Automake 1.7.x
2168 used to update these files in the build tree (previous versions did
2169 it in the source tree too), and it caused several problems, varying
2170 from mere annoyance to portability issues.
2172 - COPYING, COPYING.LIB, and COPYING.LESSER are no longer overwritten
2173 when --add-missing and --force-missing are used. For backward
2174 compatibility --add-missing will continue to install COPYING (in
2175 `gnu' strictness) when none of these three files exist, but this
2176 use is deprecated: you should better choose a license yourself and
2177 install it once for all in your source tree (and in your code
2180 - Fix ylwrap so that it does not overwrite header files that haven't
2181 changed, as the inline rule already does.
2183 - User-defined rules override automake-defined rules for the same
2184 targets, even when rules do not have commands. This is not new
2185 (and was documented), however some of the automake-generated
2186 rules have escaped this principle in former Automake versions.
2187 Rules for the following targets are affected by this fix:
2189 clean, clean-am, dist-all, distclean, distclean-am, dvi, dvi-am,
2190 info, info-am, install-data-am, install-exec-am, install-info,
2191 install-info-am, install-man, installcheck-am, maintainer-clean,
2192 maintainer-clean-am, mostlyclean, mostlyclean-am, pdf, pdf-am,
2193 ps, ps-am, uninstall-am, uninstall-info, uninstall-man
2195 Practically it means that an attempt to supplement the dependencies
2196 of some target, as in
2198 clean: my-clean-rule
2200 will now *silently override* the automake definition of the
2201 rule for this target. Running `automake -Woverride' will diagnose
2202 all such overriding definitions.
2204 It should be noted that almost all of these targets support a *-local
2205 variant that is meant to supplement the automake-defined rule
2206 (See node `Extending' in the manual). The above rule should
2209 clean-local: my-clean-rule
2211 These *-local targets have been documented since at least
2212 Automake 1.2, so you should not fear the change if you have
2213 to support multiple automake versions.
2217 - The Automake manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
2219 - Targets dist-gzip, dist-bzip2, dist-tarZ, dist-zip are always defined.
2221 - core dumps are no longer removed by the cleaning rules. There are
2222 at least three reasons for this:
2223 1. These files should not be created by any build step,
2224 so their removal do not fit any of the cleaning rules.
2225 Actually, they may be precious to the developer.
2226 2. If such file is created during a build, then it's clearly a
2227 bug Automake should not hide. Not removing the file will
2228 cause `make distcheck' to complain about its presence.
2229 3. Operating systems have different naming conventions for
2230 core dump files. A core file on one system might be a
2231 completely legitimate data file on another system.
2233 - RUNTESTFLAGS, CTAGSFLAGS, ETAGSFLAGS, JAVACFLAGS are no longer
2234 defined by Automake. This means that any definition in the
2235 environment will be used, unless overridden in the Makefile.am or
2236 on the command line. The old behavior, where these variables were
2237 defined empty in each Makefile, can be obtained by AC_SUBSTing or
2238 AC_ARG_VARing each variable from configure.ac.
2240 - CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES and CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES are now
2241 documented. (The is not a new feature, these variables have
2242 been there since at least Automake 1.4.)
2244 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2246 Bugs fixed in 1.7.9:
2247 * Fix install-strip to work with nobase_ binaries.
2248 * Fix renaming of #line directives in ylwrap.
2249 * Rebuild with Autoconf 2.59. (1.7.8 was not installable with pdksh.)
2251 Bugs fixed in 1.7.8:
2252 * Remove spurious blank lines in cleaning rules introduced in 1.7.7.
2253 * Fix detection of Debian's install-info, broken since version 1.5.
2254 (Debian bug #213524).
2255 * Honor -module if it appears in AM_LDFLAGS (i.e., relax name checking)
2256 This was only done for libfoo_LDFLAGS and LDFLAGS in previous versions.
2258 Bugs fixed in 1.7.7:
2259 * The implementation of automake's --no-force option is unreliable,
2260 so this option is ignored in this version. A real fix will appear in
2261 Automake 1.8. (Debian Bug #206299)
2262 * AM_PATH_PYTHON: really check the whole list of interpreters if no
2263 argument is given. (PR/399)
2264 * Do not warn about leading `_' in variable names, even with -Wportability.
2265 * Support user redefinitions of TEXINFO_TEX.
2266 * depcomp: support AIX Compiler version 6.
2267 * Fix missing rebuilds during `make dist' with BSD make.
2268 (Could produce tarballs containing out-of-date files.)
2269 * Resurrect multilib support.
2270 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2271 - Extending aclocal: how to write m4 macros that won't trigger warnings
2273 - A Shared Library: Rewrite and split into subsections.
2275 Bugs fixed in 1.7.6:
2276 * Fix depcomp's icc mode for ICC 7.1.
2277 * Diagnose calls to AC_CONFIG_FILES and friends with not enough arguments.
2278 * Fix maintainer-clean's removal of autom4te.cache in VPATH builds.
2279 * Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to work with POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
2280 * Fix the location reported in some diagnostics related to AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
2281 * Remove Latin-1 characters from elisp-comp.
2282 * Update the manual's @dircategory to match the Free Software Directory.
2284 Bugs fixed in 1.7.5:
2285 * Update install-sh's license to remove an advertising clause.
2286 (Debian bug #191717)
2287 * Fix a bug introduced in 1.7.4, related to BUILT_SOURCE handling,
2288 that caused invalid Makefile.ins to be generated.
2289 * Make sure AM_MAKE_INCLUDE doesn't fail when a `doit' file exists.
2290 * New FAQ entry: renamed objects.
2292 Bugs fixed in 1.7.4:
2293 * Tweak the TAGS rule to support Exuberant Ctags (in addition to
2294 the Emacs implementation)
2295 * Fix output of aclocal.m4 dependencies in subdirectories.
2296 * Use `mv -f' instead of `mv' in fastdep rules.
2297 * Upgrade mdate-sh to work on OS/2.
2298 * Don't byte-compile elisp files when ELCFILES is set empty.
2299 (this documented feature was broken by 1.7.3)
2300 * Diagnose trailing backslashes on last line of Makefile.am.
2301 * Diagnose whitespace following trailing backslashes.
2302 * Multiple tests are now correctly supported in DEJATOOL. (PR/388)
2303 * Fix rebuilt rules for AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.bot])
2305 * `make install' will build `BUILT_SOURCES' first.
2306 * Minor documentation fixes.
2308 Bugs fixed in 1.7.3:
2309 * Fix stamp files numbering (when using multiple AC_CONFIG_HEADERS).
2310 * Query distutils for `pythondir' and `pythonexecdir', instead of
2311 using an hardcoded path. This should allow builds on 64-bit
2312 distributions that usually use lib64/ instead of lib/.
2313 * AM_PATH_PYTHON will also search for python2.3.
2314 * elisp files are now built all at once instead of one by one. Besides
2315 incurring a speed-up, this is required to support interdependent elisp files.
2316 * Support for DJGPP:
2317 - `make distcheck' will now work in `_inst/' and `_build' instead
2318 of `=inst/' and `=build/'
2319 - use `_dirstamp' when the file-system doesn't support `.dirstamp'
2320 - install/uninstall `*.i[0-9][0-9]'-style info files
2321 - more changes that affect only the Automake package (not its output)
2322 * Fix some incompatibilities with upcoming perl-5.10.
2323 * Properly quote AC_PACKAGE_TARNAME and AC_PACKAGE_VERSION when defining
2324 PACKAGE and VERSION.
2326 - dashmstdout and dashXmstdout modes: don't use `-o /dev/null', this
2327 is troublesome with gcc and Solaris compilers. (PR/385)
2328 - makedepend mode: work with Libtool. (PR/385 too)
2330 * better support for unusual gettext setups, such as multiple po/ directories
2332 - Flag missing po/ and intl/ directories as warnings, not errors.
2333 - Disable these warnings if po/ does not exist.
2334 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2336 - Document how AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR interacts with missing files.
2338 - Document `AM_YFLAGS = -d'. (PR/382)
2340 Bugs fixed in 1.7.2:
2341 * Fix installation and uninstallation of Info files built in subdirectories.
2342 * Do not run `./configure --with-included-gettext' during `make distcheck'
2343 if AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) is used.
2344 * Correctly uninstall renamed man pages.
2345 * Do not strip escaped newline in variables defined in one condition
2346 and augmented in another condition.
2347 * Fix ansi2knr rules for LIBOBJS sources.
2348 * Clean all known Texinfo index files, not only those which appear to
2349 be used, because we cannot know which indexes are used in included files.
2350 (PR/375, Debian Bug #168671)
2351 * Honor only the first @setfilename seen in a Texinfo file.
2352 * Treat "required file X not found" diagnostics as errors (exit status 1).
2353 * Don't complain that a required file is not found when it is a Makefile
2355 * Don't use single suffix inference rules when building `.info'-less
2356 Info files, for the sake of Solaris make.
2357 * The `check' target now depends on `$(BUILT_SOURCES)'. (PR/359)
2358 * Recognize multiple inference rules such as `.a.b .c.d:'. (PR/371)
2359 * Warn about multiple inference rules when -Wportability is used. (PR/372)
2360 * Fix building of deansified files from subdirectories. (PR/370)
2361 * Add missing `fi' in the .c->.obj rules.
2362 * Improve install-sh to work even when names contain spaces or certain
2363 (but not all) shell metachars.
2364 * Fix the following spurious failures in the test suite:
2365 depcomp2.test, gnits2.test, gnits3.test, python3.test, texinfo13.test
2366 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2367 - Augment the section about BUILT_SOURCES.
2368 - Mention that AM_PROG_CC_STDC is a relic that is better avoided today.
2370 Bugs fixed in 1.7.1:
2371 * Honor `ansi2knr' for files built in subdirectories, or using per-targets
2373 * Aclocal should now recognize macro names containing parentheses, e.g.
2374 AC_DEFUN([AC_LANG_PREPROC(Fortran 90)], [...]).
2375 * Erase *.sum and *.log files created by DejaGnu, during `make distclean'.
2377 * Install Python files even if they were built. (PR/369)
2378 * Have stamp-vti dependent upon configure instead of configure.ac, as the
2379 version might not be defined in the latter. (PR/358)
2380 * Reorder arguments passed to a couple of commands, so things works
2381 when POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
2382 * Fix a regex that can cause Perl to segfault on large input.
2384 * Fix distribution of packages that have some sources defined conditionally,
2385 as in the `Conditional compilation using Automake conditionals' example
2387 * Fix spurious test suite failures on IRIX.
2388 * Don't report a required variable as undefined if it has been
2389 defined conditionally for the "right" conditions.
2390 * Fix cleaning of the /tmp subdirectory used by `make distcheck', in case
2391 `make distcheck' fails.
2392 * Fix distribution of included Makefile fragment, so we don't create
2393 spurious directories in the distribution. (PR/366)
2394 * Don't complain that a target lacks `.$(EXEEXT)' when it has it.
2397 * Autoconf 2.54 is required.
2398 * `aclocal' and `automake' will no longer warn about obsolete
2399 configure macros. This is done by `autoconf -Wobsolete'.
2400 * AM_CONFIG_HEADER, AM_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS and
2401 AM_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ_NEEDS_SYS_IOCTL are obsolete (although still
2402 supported). You should use AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS,
2403 and AC_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ instead. `autoupdate' can upgrade
2404 `configure.ac' for you.
2405 * Support for per-program and per-library `_CPPFLAGS'.
2406 * New `ctags' target (builds CTAGS files).
2407 * Support for -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble, where mumble is a warning category
2408 (see `automake --help' or the manual for a list of them).
2409 * Honor the WARNINGS environment variable.
2410 * Omit the call to depcomp when using gcc3: call the compiler directly.
2411 * A new option, std-options, tests that programs support --help and --version
2412 when `make installcheck' is run. This is enabled by --gnits.
2413 * Texinfo rules now support the `ps' and `pdf' targets.
2414 * Info files are now created in the build directory, not the source directory.
2415 * info_TEXINFOS supports files in subdirectories (this requires Texinfo 4.1
2417 * `make distcheck' will enforce DESTDIR support by attempting
2419 * `+=' can be used in conditionals, even if the augmented variable
2420 was defined for another condition.
2421 * Makefile fragments (inserted with `include') are always distributed.
2422 * Use Autoconf's --trace interface to inspect configure.ac and get
2423 a more accurate view of it.
2424 * Add support for extending aclocal's default macro search path
2425 using a `dirlist' file within the aclocal directory.
2426 * automake --output-dir is deprecated.
2427 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether uninstall actually
2428 removes all installed files has been moved in a separate target,
2429 distuninstallcheck, so it can be overridden easily.
2433 * Support for AM_INIT_GETTEXT([external])
2434 * Bug fixes, including:
2435 - Fix Automake's own `make install' so it works even if `ln' doesn't.
2436 - nobase_ programs and scripts honor --program-transform correctly.
2437 - Erase configure.lineno during `make distclean'.
2438 - Erase YACC and LEX outputs during `make maintainer-clean'.
2441 * Many bug fixes, including:
2442 - Requiring the current version works.
2443 - Fix "$@" portability issues (for Zsh).
2444 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
2446 - Don't compute dependencies in background to avoid races with libtool.
2447 - Fix handling of _OBJECTS variables for targets sharing source variables.
2448 - Check dependency mode for Java when AM_PROG_GCJ is used.
2451 * automake --output-dir is deprecated
2452 * Many bug fixes, including:
2453 - Don't choke on AM_LDFLAGS definitions.
2454 - Clean libtool objects from subdirectories.
2455 - Allow configure variables with reserved suffix and unknown prefix
2456 (e.g. AC_SUBST(mumble_LDFLAGS) when 'mumble' is not a target).
2457 - Fix the definition of AUTOMAKE and ACLOCAL in configure.
2460 * Autoconf 2.52 is required.
2461 * automake no longer run libtoolize.
2462 This is the job of autoreconf (from GNU Autoconf).
2463 * `dist' generates all the archive flavors, as did `dist-all'.
2464 * `dist-gzip' generates the Gzip tar file only.
2465 * Combining Automake Makefile conditionals no longer lead to a combinatorial
2466 explosion. Makefile.in's keep a reasonable size.
2467 * AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_STRTOD, AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, AM_PTRDIFF_T
2468 are no longer shipped, since Autoconf 2.52 provides them (both as AM_
2470 * `#line' of Lex and Yacc files are properly set.
2471 * EXTRA_DIST can contain generated directories.
2472 * Support for dot-less extensions in suffix rules.
2473 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether distclean actually
2474 cleans all built files has been moved in a separate target, distcleancheck,
2475 so it can be overridden easily.
2476 * `make distcheck' will pass additional options defined in
2477 $(DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS) to configure.
2478 * Fixed CDPATH portability problems, in particular for MacOS X.
2479 * Fixed handling of nobase_ targets.
2480 * Fixed support of implicit rules leading to .lo objects.
2481 * Fixed late inclusion of --add-missing files (e.g. depcomp) in DIST_COMMON
2482 * Added uninstall-hook target
2483 * `AC_INIT AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(tarname,version)' is an obsolete construct.
2484 You can now use `AC_INIT(pkgname,version) AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE' instead.
2485 (Note that "pkgname" is not "tarname", see the manual for details.)
2486 It is also possible to pass a list of global Automake options as
2487 first argument to this new form of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.
2488 * Compiler-based assembler is now called `CCAS'; people expected `AS'
2489 to be a real assembler.
2490 * AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE will set STRIP itself when it needs it. Adding
2491 AC_CHECK_TOOL([STRIP], [strip]) manually is no longer required.
2492 * aclocal and automake are also installed with the version number
2493 appended, and some of the install directory names have changed.
2494 This lets you have multiple versions installed simultaneously.
2495 * Support for parsers and lexers in subdirectories.
2498 * Support for `configure.ac'.
2499 * Support for `else COND', `endif COND' and negated conditions `!COND'.
2500 * `make dist-all' is much faster.
2501 * Allows '@' AC_SUBSTs in macro names.
2502 * Faster AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE (requires update of `missing' script)
2503 * User-side dependency tracking. Developers no longer need GNU make
2505 * Uses DIST_SUBDIRS in some situations when SUBDIRS is conditional
2506 * Most files are correctly handled if they appear in subdirs
2507 For instance, a _DATA file can appear in a subdir
2508 * GNU tar is no longer required for `make dist'
2509 * Added support for `dist_' and `nodist_' prefixes
2510 * Added support for `nobase_' prefix
2511 * Compiled Java support
2512 * Support for per-executable and per-library compilation flags
2516 * Added support for the Fortran 77 programming language.
2517 * Re-indexed the Automake Texinfo manual.
2518 * Added `AM_FOOFLAGS' variable for each compiler invocation;
2519 e.g. AM_CFLAGS can be used in Makefile.am to set C compiler flags
2520 * Support for latest autoconf, including support for objext
2521 * Can now put `.' in SUBDIRS to control build order
2522 * `include' command and `+=' support for macro assignment
2523 * Dependency tracking no long susceptible to deleted header file problem
2524 * Maintainer mode now a conditional. @MAINT@ is now an anachronism.
2529 * Better Cygwin32 support
2530 * Support for suffix rules with _SOURCES variables
2531 * New options `readme-alpha' and `check-news'; Gnits mode sets these
2532 * @LEXLIB@ no longer required when lex source seen
2533 Lex support in `missing', and new lex macro. Update your missing script.
2534 * Built-in support for assembly
2535 * aclocal gives error if `AM_' macro not found
2536 * Passed YFLAGS, not YACCFLAGS, to yacc
2537 * AM_PROG_CC_STDC does not have to come before AC_PROG_CPP
2538 * Dependencies computed as a side effect of compilation
2539 * Preliminary support for Java
2540 * DESTDIR support at "make install" time
2541 * Improved ansi2knr support; you must use the latest ansi2knr.c (included)
2545 * Better DejaGnu support
2546 * Added no-installinfo option
2547 * Added Emacs Lisp support
2548 * Added --no-force option
2549 * Included `aclocal' program
2550 * Automake will now generate rules to regenerate aclocal.m4, if appropriate
2551 * Now uses `AM_' macro names everywhere
2552 * ansi2knr option can have directory prefix (eg `../lib/ansi2knr')
2553 ansi2knr now works correctly on K&R sources
2554 * Better C++, yacc, lex support
2555 * Will compute _DEPENDENCIES variables automatically if not supplied
2556 * Will interpolate $(...) and ${...} when examining contents of a variable
2557 * .deps files now in build directory, not source directory; dependency
2558 handling generally rewritten
2559 * DATA, MANS and BUILT_SOURCES no longer included in distribution
2560 * can now put config.h into a subdir
2561 * Added dist-all target
2562 * Support for install-info program (see texinfo 3.9)
2563 * Support for "yacc -d"
2564 * configure substitutions are automatically discovered and included
2565 in generated Makefile.in
2566 * Special --cygnus mode
2567 * OMIT_DEPENDENCIES can now hold list of dependencies to be omitted
2568 when making distribution. Some dependencies are auto-ignored.
2569 * Changed how libraries are specified in _LIBRARIES variable
2570 * Full libtool support, from Gord Matzigkeit
2571 * No longer have to explicitly touch stamp-h when using AC_CONFIG_HEADER;
2572 AM_CONFIG_HEADER handles it automatically
2573 * Texinfo output files no longer need .info extension
2574 * Added `missing' support
2576 * Conditionals in Makefile.am, from Ian Taylor
2580 * distcheck target runs install and installcheck targets
2581 * Added preliminary support for DejaGnu.
2586 * More libtool fixes from Gord Matzigkeit; libtool support is still
2588 * Added support for jm_MAINTAINER_MODE
2590 * New "distcheck" target
2594 * mkinstalldirs and mdate-sh now appear in directory specified by
2596 * Removed DIST_SUBDIRS, DIST_OTHER
2597 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM only required when an actual program exists
2598 * dist-hook target now run before distribution packaged up; idea from
2599 Dieter Baron. Other hooks exist, too.
2600 * Preliminary (unfinished) support for libtool
2601 * Added short option names.
2602 * Better "dist" support when gluing together multiple packages
2606 * Documentation updates (many from François Pinard)
2607 * strictness `normal' now renamed to `foreign'
2608 * Renamed --install-missing to --add-missing
2609 * Now handles AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
2610 * Now handles TESTS macro
2611 * DIST_OTHER renamed to EXTRA_DIST
2612 * DIST_SUBDIRS is deprecated
2613 * @ALLOCA@ and @LIBOBJS@ now work in _LDADD variables
2614 * Better error messages in many cases
2615 * Program names are canonicalized
2616 * Added "check" prefix; from Gord Matzigkeit
2620 * configure.in scanner knows about AC_PATH_XTRA, AC_OUTPUT ":" syntax
2621 * Beginnings of a test suite
2622 * Automatically adds -I options for $(srcdir), ".", and path to config.h
2623 * Doesn't print anything when running
2624 * Beginnings of MAINT_CHARSET support
2625 * Can specify version in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS
2626 * Most errors recognizable by Emacs' M-x next-error
2627 * Added --verbose option
2628 * All "primary" variables now obsolete; use EXTRA_PRIMARY to supply
2629 configure-generated names
2630 * Required macros now distributed in aclocal.m4
2632 * --strictness=gnu is default
2636 * More sophisticated configure.in scanning; now understands ALLOCA and
2637 LIBOBJS directly, handles AC_CONFIG_HEADER more precisely, etc.
2638 * TEXINFOS and MANS now obsolete; use info_TEXINFOS and man_MANS instead.
2639 * CONFIG_HEADER variable now obsolete
2640 * Can handle multiple Texinfo sources
2641 * Allow hierarchies deeper than 2. From Gord Matzigkeit.
2642 * HEADERS variable no longer needed; now can put .h files directly into
2643 foo_SOURCES variable.
2644 * Automake automatically rebuilds files listed in AC_OUTPUT. The
2645 corresponding ".in" files are included in the distribution.
2648 * Added --gnu and --gnits options
2649 * More standards checking
2651 * Cleaned up 'dist' targets
2652 * Added AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS variable and several options
2653 * Now scans configure.in to get some information (preliminary)
2656 * Works with Perl 4 again
2659 * Added --install-missing option.
2660 * Pretty-prints generated macros and rules
2661 * Comments in Makefile.am are placed more intelligently in Makefile.in
2662 * Generates .PHONY target
2663 * Rule or macro in Makefile.am now overrides contents of Automake file
2664 * Substantial cleanups from François Pinard
2668 * Works with Perl 4 again.
2671 * New uniform naming scheme.
2672 * --strictness option
2674 * '.c' files corresponding to '.y' or '.l' files are automatically
2676 * Many bug fixes and cleanups
2679 * Allow objects to be conditionally included in libraries via lib_LIBADD.
2682 * Bug fixes in 'clean' code.
2683 * Now generates 'installdirs' target.
2684 * man page installation reworked.
2685 * 'make dist' no longer re-creates all Makefile.in's.
2688 * Reimplemented in Perl
2689 * Added --amdir option (for debugging)
2690 * Texinfo support cleaned up.
2691 * Automatic de-ANSI-fication cleaned up.
2692 * Cleaned up 'clean' targets.
2695 * Automatic dependency tracking
2696 * More documentation
2697 * New variables DATA and PACKAGEDATA
2698 * SCRIPTS installed using $(INSTALL_SCRIPT)
2699 * No longer uses double-colon rules
2701 * Changes in advance of internationalization
2705 Copyright (C) 1995-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2707 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
2708 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2709 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
2712 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2713 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2714 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2715 GNU General Public License for more details.
2717 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2718 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
projects / platform / upstream / automake.git / blob