3 * WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
5 - Automake 1.14 will require Autoconf 2.70 or later (which is still
6 unreleased at the moment of writing, but is planned to be released
7 before Automake 1.14 is).
9 - Automake 1.14 will drop support for the long-deprecated 'configure.in'
10 name for the Autoconf input file. You are advised to start using the
11 recommended name 'configure.ac' instead, ASAP.
13 - The ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS special make variable will be fully deprecated
14 in Automake 1.14 (where it will raise warnings in the "obsolete"
15 category). You are advised to start relying on the new Automake
16 support for AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS instead (which was introduced in
19 - Automake 1.14 will remove support for automatic dependency tracking
20 with the SGI C/C++ compilers on IRIX. The SGI depmode has been
21 reported broken "in the wild" already, and we don't think investing
22 time in debugging and fixing is worthwhile, especially considering
23 that SGI has last updated those compilers in 2006, and is expected
24 to retire support for them in December 2013:
25 <http://www.sgi.com/services/support/irix_mips_support.html>
27 - Future versions of Automake might remove support for MS-DOS and
28 Windows 95/98/ME (support for them was offered by relying on the
29 DJGPP project). Note however that both Cygwin and MSYS/MinGW on
30 modern Windows versions will continue to be fully supported.
32 - Support for the long-deprecated INCLUDES variable will be removed
33 altogether in Automake 1.14. The AM_CPPFLAGS variable should be
36 - Automake-provided scripts and makefile recipes might (finally!)
37 start assuming a POSIX shell in Automake 1.14.
39 - Starting from Automake 1.14, third-party m4 files located in the
40 system-wide aclocal directory, as well as in any directory listed
41 in the ACLOCAL_PATH environment variable, will take precedence
42 over "built-in" Automake macros. For example (assuming Automake
43 is installed in the /usr/local hierarchy), a definition of the
44 AM_PROG_VALAC macro found in '/usr/local/share/aclocal/my-vala.m4'
45 should take precedence over the same-named automake-provided macro
46 (defined in '/usr/local/share/aclocal-1.14/vala.m4').
48 * C compilation, and the AC_PROG_CC and AM_PROG_CC_C_O macros:
50 - The 'compile' script is now unconditionally required for all
51 packages that perform C compilation (note that if you are using
52 the '--add-missing' option, automake will fetch that script for
53 you, so you shouldn't need any explicit adjustment).
54 This new behaviour is needed to avoid obscure errors when the
55 'subdir-objects' option is used, and the compiler is an inferior
56 one that doesn't grasp the combined use of both the "-c -o"
57 options; see discussion about automake bug#13378 for more details:
58 <http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=13378#35>
59 <http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=13378#44>
61 - Automake will automatically enhance the AC_PROG_CC autoconf macro
62 to make it check, at configure time, that the C compiler supports
63 the combined use of both the "-c -o" options. This "rewrite" of
64 AC_PROG_CC is only meant to be temporary, since future Autoconf
65 versions should provide all the features Automake needs.
67 - The AM_PROG_CC_C_O is no longer useful, and its use is a no-op
68 now. Future Automake versions might start warning that this
69 macro is obsolete. For better backward-compatibility, this macro
70 still sets a proper 'ac_cv_prog_cc_*_c_o' cache variable, and
71 define the 'NO_MINUS_C_MINUS_O' C preprocessor symbol, but you
72 should really stop relying on that.
76 - Automake can now be instructed to place '.info' files generated from
77 Texinfo input in the builddir rather than in the srcdir; this is done
78 specifying the new automake option 'info-in-builddir'. This feature
79 was requested by the developers of GCC, GDB, GNU binutils and the GNU
80 bfd library. See the extensive discussion about automake bug#11034
83 - For quite a long time, Automake has been implementing an undocumented
84 hack which ensured that '.info' files which appeared to be cleaned
85 (by e.g. being listed in the CLEANFILES or DISTCLEANFILES variables)
86 were built in the builddir rather than in the srcdir; this hack was
87 introduced to ensure better backward-compatibility with packages such
88 as Texinfo, which did things like:
90 info_TEXINFOS = texinfo.txi info-stnd.texi info.texi
91 DISTCLEANFILES = texinfo texinfo-* info*.info*
92 # Do not create info files for distribution.
96 in order not to distribute generated '.info' files.
98 Now that we have the 'info-in-builddir' option that explicitly causes
99 generated '.info' files to be placed in the builddir, this hack should
100 be longer necessary, so we deprecate it with runtime warnings. It will
101 likely be removed altogether in Automake 1.14.
103 * Relative directory in Makefile fragments:
105 - The special Automake-time substitutions '%reldir%' and '%canon_reldir%'
106 (and their short versions, '%D%' and '%C%' respectively) can now be used
107 in an included Makefile fragment. The former is substituted with the
108 relative directory of the included fragment (compared to the top level
109 including Makefile), and the latter with the canonicalized version of
110 the same relative directory:
112 bin_PROGRAMS += %reldir%/foo
113 %canon_reldir%_foo_SOURCES = %reldir%/bar.c
115 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
119 * Documentation fixes:
121 - The long-deprecated but still supported two-arguments invocation form
122 of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is documented once again. This seems the sanest
123 thing to do, given that support for such an usage might need to remain
124 in place for a unspecified amount of time in order to cater for people
125 who want to define the version number for their package dynamically at
126 configure runtime (unfortunately, Autoconf does not yet support this
127 scenario, so we cannot delegate the work to it).
129 - The serial testsuite harness is no longer reported as "deprecated",
130 but as "discouraged". We have no plan to remove it, not to make its
131 use cause runtime warnings.
133 - The parallel testsuite is no longer reported as "experimental"; it
134 is well tested, and should be stable now.
136 - The 'shar' and 'tarZ' distribution formats and the 'dist-shar' and
137 'dist-tarZ' options are obsolescent, and their use is deprecated
138 in the documentation.
140 - Other minor miscellaneous fixes and improvements; in particular,
141 some improvements in cross-references.
143 * Obsolescent features:
145 - Use of suffix-less info files (that can be specified through the
146 '@setfilename' macro in Texinfo input files) is discouraged, and
147 its use will raise warnings in the 'obsolete' category. Simply
148 use the '.info' extension for all your info files, transforming
151 @setfilename myprogram
155 @setfilename myprogram.info
157 - Use of Texinfo input files with '.txi' or '.texinfo' extensions
158 is discouraged, and its use will raise warnings in the 'obsolete'
159 category. You are advised to simply use the '.texi' extension
164 - The obsolete macros AM_CONFIG_HEADER or AM_PROG_CC_STDC work once
165 again, as they did in Automake 1.12.x (albeit printing runtime
166 warnings in the 'obsolete' category). Removing them has turned
167 out to be a very bad idea, because it complicated distro packing
168 enormously. Making them issue fatal warnings, as we did in
169 Automake 1.13, has turned out to be a similarly very bad idea,
170 for exactly the same reason.
172 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
178 - Use of the obsolete macros AM_CONFIG_HEADER or AM_PROG_CC_STDC now
179 causes a clear and helpful error message, instead of obscure ones
180 (issue introduced in Automake 1.13).
182 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
188 - ylwrap renames properly header guards in generated header files
189 (*.h), instead of leaving Y_TAB_H.
191 - ylwrap now also converts header guards in implementation files
192 (*.c). Because ylwrap failed to rename properly #include in the
193 implementation files, current versions of Bison (e.g., 2.7)
194 duplicate the generated header file in the implementation file.
195 The header guard then protects the implementation file from
196 duplicate definitions from the header file.
198 * Version requirements:
200 - Autoconf 2.65 or greater is now required.
202 - The rules to build PDF and DVI output from Texinfo input now
203 require Texinfo 4.9 or later.
207 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (once enabled by the 'cygnus'
208 option) has been removed. See discussion about automake bug#11034
209 for more background: <http://debbugs.gnu.org/11034>.
211 - The deprecated aclocal option '--acdir' has been removed. You
212 should use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir'
213 instead (which have been introduced in Automake 1.11.2).
215 - The following long-obsolete m4 macros have been removed:
217 AM_PROG_CC_STDC: superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002
218 fp_PROG_CC_STDC: broken alias for AM_PROG_CC_STDC
219 fp_WITH_DMALLOC: old alias for AM_WITH_DMALLOC
220 AM_CONFIG_HEADER: superseded by AC_CONFIG_HEADERS since July 2002
221 ud_PATH_LISPDIR: old alias for AM_PATH_LISPDIR
222 jm_MAINTAINER_MODE: old alias for AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
223 ud_GNU_GETTEXT: old alias for AM_GNU_GETTEXT
224 gm_PROG_LIBTOOL: old alias for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
225 fp_C_PROTOTYPES: old alias for AM_C_PROTOTYPES (which was part
226 of the now-removed automatic de-ANSI-fication
229 - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' have been removed.
231 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
232 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is no longer documented. It's still supported
233 though (albeit with a warning in the 'obsolete' category), to cater
234 for people who want to define the version number for their package
235 dynamically (e.g., from the current VCS revision). We'll have to
236 continue this support until Autoconf itself is fixed to allow better
237 support for such dynamic version numbers.
239 * Elisp byte-compilation:
241 - The byte compilation of '.el' files into '.elc' files is now done
242 with a suffix rule. This has simplified the compilation process, and
243 more importantly made it less brittle. The downside is that emacs is
244 now invoked once for each '.el' files, which cause some noticeable
245 slowdowns. These should however be mitigated on multicore machines
246 (which are becoming the norm today) if concurrent make ("make -j")
249 - Elisp files placed in a subdirectory are now byte-compiled to '.elc'
250 files in the same subdirectory; for example, byte-compiling of file
251 'sub/foo.el' file will result in 'sub/foo.elc' rather than in
252 'foo.elc'. This behaviour is backward-incompatible with older
253 Automake versions, but it is more natural and more sane. See also
256 - The Emacs invocation performing byte-compilation of '.el' files honors
257 the $(AM_ELCFLAGS) and $(ELCFLAGS) variables; as typical, the former
258 one is developer-reserved and the latter one user-reserved.
260 - The 'elisp-comp' script, once provided by Automake, has been rendered
261 obsoleted by the just-described changes, and thus removed.
263 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
265 - The parallel testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the
266 'parallel-tests' option) is the default one; the older serial
267 testsuite harness will still be available through the use of the
268 'serial-tests' option (introduced in Automake 1.12).
270 - The 'color-tests' option is now unconditionally activated by default.
271 In particular, this means that testsuite output is now colorized by
272 default if the attached terminal seems to support ANSI escapes, and
273 that the user can force output colorization by setting the variable
274 AM_COLOR_TESTS to "always". The 'color-tests' is still recognized
275 for backward-compatibility, although it's a handled as a no-op now.
277 * Silent rules support:
279 - Support for silent rules is now always active in Automake-generated
280 Makefiles. So, although the verbose output is still the default,
281 the user can now always use "./configure --enable-silent-rules" or
282 "make V=0" to enable quieter output in the package he's building.
284 - The 'silent-rules' option has now become a no-op, preserved for
285 backward-compatibility only. In particular, its use no longer
286 disables the warnings in the 'portability-recursive' category.
290 - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now require
291 Texinfo 4.9 or later.
293 - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now use the
294 '--build-dir' option, to keep the auxiliary files used by texi2dvi
295 and texi2pdf around without cluttering the build directory, and to
296 make it possible to run the "dvi" and "pdf" recipes in parallel.
298 * Automatic remake rules and 'missing' script:
300 - The 'missing' script no longer tries to update the timestamp of
301 out-of-date files that require a maintainer-specific tool to be
302 remade, in case the user lacks such a tool (or has a too-old version
303 of it). It just gives a useful warning, and in some cases also a
304 tip about how to obtain such a tool.
306 - The missing script has thus become useless as a (poor) way to work
307 around the sketched-timestamps issues that can happen for projects
308 that keep generated files committed in their VCS repository. Such
309 projects are now encouraged to write a custom "fix-timestamps.sh"
310 script to avoid such issues; a simple example is provided in the
311 "CVS and generated files" chapter of the automake manual.
315 - The user can now define his own recursive targets that recurse
316 in the directories specified in $(SUBDIRS). This can be done by
317 specifying the name of such targets in invocations of the new
318 'AM_EXTRA_RECURSIVE_TARGETS' m4 macro.
322 - Any failure in the recipe of the "tags", "ctags", "cscope" or
323 "cscopelist" targets in a subdirectory is now propagated to the
324 top-level make invocation.
326 - Tags are correctly computed also for files in _SOURCES variables that
327 only list files with non-standard suffixes (see automake bug#12372).
329 * Improvements to aclocal and related rebuilds rules:
331 - Autoconf-provided macros AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR and AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS
332 are now traced by aclocal, and can be used to declare the local m4
333 include directories. Formerly, one had to specify it with an explicit
334 '-I' option to the 'aclocal' invocation.
336 - The special make variable ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS is deprecated; future
337 Automake versions will warn about its use, and later version will
338 remove support for it altogether.
340 * The depcomp script:
342 - Dropped support for libtool 1.4.
344 - Various internal refactorings. They should cause no visible change,
345 but the chance for regression is there anyway, so please report any
346 unexpected or suspicious behaviour.
348 - Support for pre-8.0 versions of the Intel C Compiler has been dropped.
349 This should cause no problem, since icc 8.0 has been released in
350 December 2003 -- almost nine years ago.
352 - Support for tcc (the Tiny C Compiler) has been improved, and is now
353 handled through a dedicated 'tcc' mode.
357 - ylwrap generates header guards with a single '_' for series of non
358 alphabetic characters, instead of several. This is what Bison >=
361 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
363 Bugs fixed in 1.12.6:
365 * Python-related bugs:
367 - The default installation location for python modules has been improved
368 for Python 3 on Debian and Ubuntu systems, changing from:
370 ${prefix}/lib/python3/dist-packages
374 ${prefix}/lib/python3.x/site-packages
376 This change should ensure modules installed using the default ${prefix}
377 "/usr/local" are found by default by system python 3.x installations.
378 See automake bug#10227.
380 - Python byte-compilation supports the new layout mandated by PEP-3147,
381 with its __pycache__ directory (automake bug#8847).
383 * Build system issues:
385 - The maintainer rebuild rules for Makefiles and aclocal.m4 in
386 Automake's own build system works correctly again (bug introduced
391 - The Vala-related tests has been changed to adjust to the removal of
392 the 'posix' profile in the valac compiler. See automake bug#12934
395 - Some spurious testsuite failures related to older tools and systems
398 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
404 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro has been enhanced to takes two further
405 optional arguments; it's signature now being
407 AM_PROG_VALAC([MINIMUM-VERSION], [ACTION-IF-FOUND],
408 [ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND])
410 - By default, AM_PROG_VALAC no longer aborts the configure invocation
411 if the Vala compiler found is too old, but simply prints a warning
412 messages (as it did when the Vala compiler was not found). This
413 should avoid unnecessary difficulties for end users that just want
414 to compile the unmodified, distributed Vala-generated C sources,
415 but happens to have an old Vala compiler in their PATH. This fixes
418 - If no proper Vala compiler is found at configure runtime, AM_PROG_VALAC
419 will set the AC_SUBST'd variable 'VALAC' to 'valac' rather than to ':'.
420 This is a better default, because with it a triggered makefile rule
421 invoking a Vala compilation will clearly fail with an informative error
422 message like "valac: command not found", rather than silently, with
423 the error possibly going unnoticed or triggering harder-to-diagnose
424 fallout failures in later steps.
426 * Miscellaneous changes:
428 - automake and aclocal no longer honours the 'perllibdir' environment
429 variable. That had always been intended only as an hack required in
430 the testsuite, not meant for any use beyond that.
432 Bugs fixed in 1.12.5:
434 * Long-standing bugs:
436 - Automake no longer generates spurious remake rules invoking autoheader
437 to regenerate the template corresponding to header files specified after
438 the first one in AC_CONFIG_HEADERS (automake bug#12495).
440 - When wrapping Microsoft tools, the 'compile' script falls back to
441 finding classic 'libname.a' style libraries when 'name.lib' and
442 'name.dll.lib' aren't available.
444 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
448 * Warnings and deprecations:
450 - Warnings in the 'obsolete' category are enabled by default both in
451 automake and aclocal.
453 * Miscellaneous changes:
455 - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
457 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
461 * Miscellaneous changes:
463 - The '.m4' files provided by Automake no longer define serial numbers.
464 This should cause no difference in the behaviour of aclocal though.
466 - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
468 - There is initial support for automatic dependency tracking with the
469 Portland Group C/C++ compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'pgcc'.
471 Bugs fixed in 1.12.3:
473 * Long-standing bugs:
475 - Instead of renaming only self-references of files (typically for
476 #lines), ylwrap now also renames references to the other generated
477 files. This fixes support for GLR and C++ parsers from Bison (PR
478 automake/491 and automake bug#7648): 'parser.c' now properly
479 #includes 'parser.h' instead of 'y.tab.h'.
481 - Generated files unknown to ylwrap are now preserved. This fixes
482 C++ support for Bison (automake bug#7648): location.hh and the
483 like are no longer discarded.
485 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
489 * Warnings and deprecations:
491 - Automake now issues a warning (in the 'portability' category) if
492 'configure.in' is used instead of 'configure.ac' as the Autoconf
493 input file. Such a warning will also be present in the next
494 Autoconf version (2.70).
498 - Recursive cleaning rules descends into the $(SUBDIRS) in the natural
499 order (as done by the other recursive rules), rather than in the
500 inverse order. They used to do that in order to work a round a
501 limitation in an older implementation of the automatic dependency
502 tracking support, but that limitation had been lifted years ago
503 already, when the automatic dependency tracking based on side-effects
504 of compilation had been introduced.
506 - Cleaning rules for compiled objects (both "plain" and libtool) work
507 better when subdir objects are involved, not triggering a distinct
508 'rm' invocation for each such object. They do so by removing *any*
509 compiled object file that is in the same directory of a subdir
510 object. See automake bug#10697.
512 * Silent rules support:
514 - A new predefined $(AM_V_P) make variable is provided; it expands
515 to a shell conditional that can be used in recipes to know whether
516 make is being run in silent or verbose mode.
518 Bugs fixed in 1.12.2:
520 * SECURITY VULNERABILITIES!
522 - The 'distcheck' recipe no longer grants temporary world-write
523 permissions on the extracted distdir. Even if such rights were
524 only granted for a vanishingly small time window, the implied
525 race condition proved to be enough to allow a local attacker
526 to run arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running
527 "make distcheck". This is CVE-2012-3386.
529 * Long-standing bugs:
531 - The "recheck" targets behaves better in the face of build failures
532 related to previously failed tests. For example, if a test is a
533 compiled program that must be rerun by "make recheck", and its
534 compilation fails, it will still be rerun by further "make recheck"
535 invocations. See automake bug#11791.
537 * Bugs introduced by 1.12.1:
539 - Automake provides once again the '$(mkdir_p)' make variable and the
540 '@mkdir_p@' substitution (both as simple aliases for '$(MKDIR_P)'),
541 for better backward-compatibility.
543 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
547 * New supported languages:
549 - Support for Objective C++ has been added; it should work similarly to
550 the support for Objective C.
552 * Deprecated obsolescent features:
554 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
555 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro now elicits a warning in the 'obsolete'
556 category. Starting from some future major Automake release (likely
557 post-1.13), such usages will no longer be allowed.
559 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (enabled by the 'cygnus' option) is
560 now deprecated (its use triggers a warning in the 'obsolete' category).
561 It will be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13).
563 - The long-obsolete (since 1.10) automake-provided $(mkdir_p) make
564 variable, @mkdir_p@ configure-time substitution and AM_PROG_MKDIR
565 m4 macro are deprecated, eliciting a warning in the 'obsolete'
568 * Miscellaneous changes:
570 - The Automake test cases now require a proper POSIX-conforming shell.
571 Older non-POSIX Bourne shells (like Solaris 10 /bin/sh) will no longer
572 be accepted. In most cases, the user shouldn't have to specify such
573 POSIX shell explicitly, since it will be looked up at configure time.
574 Still, when this lookup fails, or when the user wants to override its
575 conclusion, the variable 'AM_TEST_RUNNER_SHELL' can be used (pointing
576 to the shell that will be used to run the Automake test cases).
578 Bugs fixed in 1.12.1:
580 * Bugs introduced by 1.12:
582 - Several weaknesses in Automake's own build system and test suite
585 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
587 - When given non-option arguments, aclocal rejects them, instead of
588 silently ignoring them.
590 * Long-standing bugs:
592 - When the 'color-tests' option is in use, forcing of colored testsuite
593 output through "AM_COLOR_TESTS=always" works even if the terminal is
594 a non-ANSI one, i.e., if the TERM environment variable has a value of
597 - Several inefficiencies and poor performances in the implementation
598 of the parallel-tests 'check' and 'recheck' targets have been fixed.
600 - The post-processing of output "#line" directives done the ylwrap
601 script is more faithful w.r.t. files in a subdirectory; for example,
602 if the processed file is "src/grammar.y", ylwrap will correctly
603 produce directives like:
604 #line 7 "src/grammar.y"
609 * Bugs with new Perl versions:
611 - Aclocal works correctly with perl 5.16.0 (automake bug#11543).
613 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
617 * Obsolete features removed:
619 - The never documented nor truly used script 'acinstall' has been
622 - Support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been removed.
624 - The support for the "obscure" multilib feature has been removed
625 from Automake core (but remains available in the 'contrib/'
626 directory of the Automake distribution).
628 - Support for ".log -> .html" conversion and the check-html and
629 recheck-html targets has been removed from Automake core (but
630 remains available in the 'contrib/' directory of the Automake
633 - The deprecated 'lzma' compression format for distribution archives
634 has been removed, in favor of 'xz' and 'lzip'.
636 - The obsolete AM_WITH_REGEX macro has been removed.
638 - The long-deprecated options '--output-dir', '--Werror' and
639 '--Wno-error' have been removed.
641 - The chapter on the history of Automake has been moved out of the
642 reference manual, into a new dedicated Texinfo file.
646 - New 'cscope' target to build a cscope database for the source tree.
648 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
650 - The new automake option 'serial-tests' has been introduced. It can
651 be used to explicitly instruct automake to use the older serial
652 testsuite harness. This is still the default at the moment, but it
653 might change in future versions.
655 - The 'recheck' target (provided by the parallel testsuite harness) now
656 depends on the 'all' target. This allows for a better user-experience
657 in test-driven development. See automake bug#11252.
659 - Test scripts that exit with status 99 to signal an "hard error" (e.g.,
660 and unexpected or internal error, or a failure to set up the test case
661 scenario) have their outcome reported as an 'ERROR' now. Previous
662 versions of automake reported such an outcome as a 'FAIL' (the only
663 difference with normal failures being that hard errors were counted
664 as failures even when the test originating them was listed in
667 - The testsuite summary displayed by the parallel-test harness has a
668 completely new format, that always list the numbers of passed, failed,
669 xfailed, xpassed, skipped and errored tests, even when these numbers
670 are zero (but using smart coloring when the color-tests option is in
673 - The default testsuite driver offered by the 'parallel-tests' option is
674 now implemented (partly at least) with the help of automake-provided
675 auxiliary scripts (e.g., 'test-driver'), instead of relying entirely
676 on code in the generated Makefile.in.
677 This has two noteworthy implications. The first one is that projects
678 using the 'parallel-tests' option should now either run automake with
679 the '--add-missing' option, or manually copy the 'test-driver' script
680 into their tree. The second, and more important, implication is that
681 now, when the 'parallel-tests' option is in use, TESTS_ENVIRONMENT can
682 no longer be used to define a test runner, and the command specified
683 in LOG_COMPILER (and <ext>_LOG_COMPILER) must be a *real* executable
684 program or script. For example, this is still a valid usage (albeit
687 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
688 if test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS)'; then \
689 maybe_errexit='-e'; \
693 LOG_COMPILER = $(SHELL) $$maybe_errexit
695 OTOH, this is no longer a valid usage:
697 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
698 $(SHELL) `test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS_CHECKING)' && echo ' -e'`
702 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
703 run_with_perl_or_shell () \
705 if grep -q '^#!.*perl' $$1; then
711 LOG_COMPILER = run_with_perl_or_shell
713 - The package authors can now use customary testsuite drivers within
714 the framework provided by the 'parallel-tests' testsuite harness.
715 Consistently with the existing syntax, this can be done by defining
716 special makefile variables 'LOG_DRIVER' and '<ext>_LOG_DRIVER'.
718 - A new developer-reserved variable 'AM_TESTS_FD_REDIRECT' can be used
719 to redirect/define file descriptors used by the test scripts.
721 - The parallel-tests harness generates now, in addition the '.log' files
722 holding the output produced by the test scripts, a new set of '.trs'
723 files, holding "metadata" derived by the execution of the test scripts;
724 among such metadata are the outcomes of the test cases run by a script.
726 - Initial and still experimental support for the TAP test protocol is
729 * Changes to Yacc and Lex support:
731 - C source and header files derived from non-distributed Yacc and/or
732 Lex sources are now removed by a simple "make clean" (while they were
733 previously removed only by "make maintainer-clean").
735 - Slightly backward-incompatible change, relevant only for use of Yacc
736 with C++: the extensions of the header files produced by the Yacc
737 rules are now modelled after the extension of the corresponding
738 sources. For example, yacc files named "foo.y++" and "bar.yy" will
739 produce header files named "foo.h++" and "bar.hh" respectively, where
740 they would have previously produced header files named simply "foo.h"
741 and "bar.h". This change offers better compatibility with 'bison -o'.
743 * Miscellaneous changes:
745 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro now causes configure to exit with status 77,
746 rather than 1, if the vala compiler found is too old.
748 - The build system of Automake itself now avoids the use of make
749 recursion as much as possible.
751 - Automake now prefers to quote 'like this' or "like this", rather
752 than `like this', in diagnostic message and generated Makefiles,
753 to accommodate the new GNU Coding Standards recommendations.
755 - Automake has a new option '--print-libdir' that prints the path of the
756 directory containing the Automake-provided scripts and data files.
758 - The 'dist' and 'dist-all' targets now can run compressors in parallel.
760 - The rules to create pdf, dvi and ps output from Texinfo files now
761 works better with modern 'texi2dvi' script, by explicitly passing
762 it the '--clean' option to ensure stray auxiliary files are not
763 left to clutter the build directory.
765 - Automake can now generate silenced rules for texinfo outputs.
767 - Some auxiliary files that are automatically distributed by Automake
768 (e.g., 'install-sh', or the 'depcomp' script for packages compiling
769 C sources) might now be listed in the DIST_COMMON variable in many
770 Makefile.in files, rather than in the top-level one.
772 - Messages of types warning or error from 'automake' and 'aclocal'
773 are now prefixed with the respective type, and presence of -Werror
776 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now tries to avoid
777 sleeping for a second, which slowed down cached configure runs
778 noticeably. In that case, it will check back at the end of the
779 configure script to ensure that at least one second has passed, to
780 avoid time stamp issues with makefile rules rerunning autotools
783 - The warnings in the category 'extra-portability' are now enabled by
784 '-Wall'. In previous versions, one has to use '-Wextra-portability'
789 - Various minor bugfixes for recent or long-standing bugs.
791 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
793 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
794 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
796 - The automake-provided parallel testsuite harness no longer fails
797 with BSD make used in parallel mode when there are test scripts in
798 a subdirectory, like in:
800 TESTS = sub/foo.test sub/bar.test
802 * Long-standing bugs:
804 - Automake's own build system finally have a real "installcheck" target.
806 - Vala-related cleanup rules are now more complete, and work better in
809 - Files listed with the AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE macro in configure.ac are
810 now automatically distributed also if the directory of the auxiliary
811 files coincides with the top-level directory.
813 - Automake now detects the presence of the '-d' flag in the various
814 '*YFLAGS' variables even when their definitions involve indirections
815 through other variables, such as in:
817 AM_YFLAGS = $(foo_opts)
819 - Automake now complains if a '*YFLAGS' variable has any conditional
820 content, not only a conditional definition.
822 - Explicit enabling and/or disabling of Automake warning categories
823 through the '-W...' options now always takes precedence over the
824 implicit warning level implied by Automake strictness (foreign, gnu
825 or gnits), regardless of the order in which such strictness and
826 warning flags appear. For example, a setting like:
827 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = -Wall --foreign
828 will cause the warnings in category 'portability' to be enabled, even
829 if those warnings are by default disabled in 'foreign' strictness.
831 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
833 Bugs fixed in 1.11.5:
835 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
837 - Vala files with '.vapi' extension are now recognized and handled
838 correctly again. See automake bug#11222.
840 - Vala support work again for projects that contain some program
841 built from '.vala' (and possibly '.c') sources and some other
842 program built from '.c' sources *only*. See automake bug#11229.
844 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
848 * Miscellaneous changes:
850 - The 'ar-lib' script now ignores the "s" (symbol index) and "S" (no
851 symbol index) modifiers as well as the "s" action, as the symbol index
852 is created unconditionally by Microsoft lib. Also, the "q" (quick)
853 action is now a synonym for "r" (replace). Also, the script has been
854 ignoring the "v" (verbose) modifier already since Automake 1.11.3.
856 - When the 'compile' script is used to wrap MSVC, it now accepts an
857 optional space between the -I, -L and -l options and their respective
858 arguments, for better POSIX compliance.
860 - There is an initial, experimental support for automatic dependency
861 tracking with tcc (the Tiny C Compiler). Its associated depmode is
862 currently recognized as "icc" (but this and other details are likely
863 to change in future versions).
865 - Automatic dependency tracking now works also with the IBM XL C/C++
866 compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'xlc'.
868 Bugs fixed in 1.11.4:
870 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
872 - A definition of 'noinst_PYTHON' before 'python_PYTHON' (or similar)
873 no longer cause spurious failures upon "make install".
875 - The user can now instruct the 'uninstall-info' rule not to update
876 the '${infodir}/dir' file by exporting the environment variable
877 'AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no". This is done for consistency
878 with how the 'install-info' rule operates since automake 1.11.2.
880 * Long-standing bugs:
882 - It is now possible for a foo_SOURCES variable to hold Vala sources
883 together with C header files, as well as with sources and headers for
884 other supported languages (e.g., C++). Previously, only mixing C and
885 Vala sources was supported.
887 - If "aclocal --install" is used, and the first directory specified with
888 '-I' is non-existent, aclocal will now create it before trying to copy
891 - An empty declaration of a "foo_PRIMARY" no longer cause the generated
892 install rules to create an empty $(foodir) directory; for example, if
893 Makefile.am contains something like:
897 pkglibexec_SCRIPTS += bar.sh
900 the $(pkglibexec) directory will not be created upon "make install".
902 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
906 * Miscellaneous changes:
908 - Automake's own build system is more silent by default, making use of
909 the 'silent-rules' option.
911 - The master copy of the 'gnupload' script is now maintained in gnulib,
914 - The 'missing' script no longer tries to wrap calls to 'tar'.
916 - "make dist" no longer wraps 'tar' invocations with the 'missing'
917 script. Similarly, the obsolescent variable '$(AMTAR)' (which you
918 shouldn't be using BTW ;-) no longer invokes the 'missing' script
919 to wrap tar, but simply invokes the 'tar' program itself.
921 - "make dist" can now create lzip-compressed tarballs.
923 - In the Automake info documentation, the Top node and the nodes about
924 the invocation of the automake and aclocal programs have been renamed;
925 now, calling "info automake" will open the Top node, while calling
926 "info automake-invocation" and "info aclocal-invocation" will access
927 the nodes about the invocation of respectively automake and aclocal.
929 - Automake is now distributed as a gzip-compressed and an xz-compressed
930 tarball. Previously, bzip2 was used instead of xz.
932 - The last relics of Python 1.5 support have been removed from the
933 AM_PATH_PYTHON macro.
935 - For programs and libraries, automake now detects EXTRA_foo_DEPENDENCIES
936 and adds them to the normal list of dependencies, but without
937 overwriting the foo_DEPENDENCIES variable, which is normally computed
940 Bugs fixed in 1.11.3:
942 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
944 - Automake now correctly recognizes the prefix/primary combination
945 'pkglibexec_SCRIPTS' as valid.
947 - The parallel-tests harness no longer trips on sed implementations
948 with stricter limits on the length of input lines (problem seen at
951 * Long-standing bugs:
953 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.am files is avoided by stub
954 rules. This allows 'make' to trigger a rerun of 'automake' also if
955 some previously needed '.am' file has been removed.
957 - The 'silent-rules' option now generates working makefiles even
958 for the uncommon 'make' implementations that do not support the
959 nested-variables extension to POSIX 2008. For such 'make'
960 implementations, whether a build is silent is determined at
961 configure time, and cannot be overridden at make time with
962 "make V=0" or "make V=1".
964 - Vala support now works better in VPATH setups.
966 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
970 * Changes to aclocal:
972 - The `--acdir' option is deprecated. Now you should use the new options
973 `--automake-acdir' and `--system-acdir' instead.
975 - The `ACLOCAL_PATH' environment variable is now interpreted as a
976 colon-separated list of additional directories to search after the
977 automake internal acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal-APIVERSION)
978 and before the system acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal).
980 * Miscellaneous changes:
982 - The Automake support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been
983 deprecated. It will probably be removed in the next major Automake
986 - The `lzma' compression scheme and associated automake option `dist-lzma'
987 is obsoleted by `xz' and `dist-xz' due to upstream changes.
989 - You may adjust the compression options used in dist-xz and dist-bzip2.
990 The default is now merely -e for xz, but still -9 for bzip; you may
991 specify a different level via the XZ_OPT and BZIP2 envvars respectively.
992 E.g., "make dist-xz XZ_OPT=-7" or "make dist-bzip2 BZIP2=-5"
994 - The `compile' script now converts some options for MSVC for a better
995 user experience. Similarly, the new `ar-lib' script wraps Microsoft lib.
997 - The py-compile script now accepts empty arguments passed to the options
998 `--destdir' and `--basedir', and complains about unrecognized options.
999 Moreover, a non-option argument or a special `--' argument terminates
1000 the list of options.
1002 - A developer that needs to pass specific flags to configure at "make
1003 distcheck" time can now, and indeed is advised to, do so by defining
1004 the developer-reserved makefile variable AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS,
1005 instead of the old DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS.
1006 The DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS variable should now be reserved for the
1007 user; still, the old Makefile.am files that used to define it will
1008 still continue to work as before.
1010 - New macro AM_PROG_AR that looks for an archiver and wraps it in the new
1011 'ar-lib' auxiliary script if the selected archiver is Microsoft lib.
1012 This new macro is required for LIBRARIES and LTLIBRARIES when automake
1013 is run with -Wextra-portability and -Werror.
1015 - When using DejaGnu-based testsuites, the user can extend the `site.exp'
1016 file generated by automake-provided rules by defining the special make
1017 variable `$(EXTRA_DEJAGNU_SITE_CONFIG)'.
1019 - The `install-info' rule can now be instructed not to create/update
1020 the `${infodir}/dir' file, by exporting the new environment variable
1021 `AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no".
1023 Bugs fixed in 1.11.2:
1025 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
1027 - The parallel-tests driver no longer produces erroneous results with
1028 Tru64/OSF 5.1 sh upon unreadable log files.
1030 - The `parallel-tests' test driver does not report spurious successes
1031 when used with concurrent FreeBSD make (e.g., "make check -j3").
1033 - When the parallel-tests driver is in use, automake now explicitly
1034 rejects invalid entries and conditional contents in TEST_EXTENSIONS,
1035 instead of issuing confusing and apparently unrelated error messages
1036 (e.g., "non-POSIX variable name", "bad characters in variable name",
1037 or "redefinition of TEST_EXTENSIONS), or even, in some situations,
1038 silently producing broken `Makefile.in' files.
1040 - The `silent-rules' option now truly silences all compile rules, even
1041 when dependency tracking is disabled. Also, when `silent-rules' is
1042 not used, `make' output no longer contains spurious backslash-only
1043 lines, thus once again matching what Automake did before 1.11.
1045 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
1046 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
1048 * Long-standing bugs:
1050 - The order of Yacc and Lex flags is fixed to be consistent with other
1051 languages: $(AM_YFLAGS) comes before $(YFLAGS), and $(AM_LFLAGS) before
1052 $(LFLAGS), so that the user variables override the developer variables.
1054 - "make distcheck" now correctly complains also when "make uninstall"
1055 leaves one and only one file installed in $(prefix).
1057 - A "make uninstall" issued before a "make install", or after a mere
1058 "make install-data" or a mere "make install-exec" does not spuriously
1061 - Automake now warns about more primary/directory invalid combinations,
1062 such as "doc_LIBRARIES" or "pkglib_PROGRAMS".
1064 - Rules generated by Automake now try harder to not change any files when
1065 `make -n' is invoked. Fixes include compilation of Emacs Lisp, Vala, or
1066 Yacc source files and the rule to update config.h.
1068 - Several scripts and the parallel-tests testsuite driver now exit with
1069 the right exit status upon receiving a signal.
1071 - A per-Makefile.am setting of -Werror does not erroneously carry over
1072 to the handling of other Makefile.am files.
1074 - The code for automatic dependency tracking works around a Solaris
1075 make bug triggered by sources containing repeated slashes when the
1076 `subdir-objects' option was used.
1078 - The makedepend and hp depmodes now work better with VPATH builds.
1080 - Java sources specified with check_JAVA are no longer compiled for
1081 "make all", but only for "make check".
1083 - An usage like "java_JAVA = foo.java" will now cause Automake to warn
1084 and error out if `javadir' is undefined, instead of silently producing
1085 a broken Makefile.in.
1087 - aclocal and automake now honour the configure-time definitions of
1088 AUTOCONF and AUTOM4TE when they spawn autoconf or autom4te processes.
1090 - The `install-info' recipe no longer tries to guess whether the
1091 `install-info' program is from Debian or from GNU, and adaptively
1092 change its behaviour; this has proven to be frail and easy to
1095 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1097 Bugs fixed in 1.11.1:
1099 - Lots of minor bugfixes.
1101 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
1103 - The `parallel-tests' test driver works around a GNU make 3.80 bug with
1104 trailing white space in the test list (`TESTS = foo $(EMPTY)').
1106 * Long standing bugs:
1108 - On Darwin 9, `pythondir' and `pyexecdir' pointed below `/Library/Python'
1109 even if the `--prefix' argument pointed outside of a system directory.
1110 AM_PATH_PYTHON has been fixed to ignore the value returned from python's
1111 `get_python_lib' function if it points outside the configured prefix,
1112 unless the `--prefix' argument was either `/usr' or below `/System'.
1114 - The testsuite does not try to change the mode of `ltmain.sh' files from
1115 a Libtool installation (symlinked to test directories) any more.
1117 - AM_PROG_GCJ uses AC_CHECK_TOOLS to look for `gcj' now, so that prefixed
1118 tools are preferred in a cross-compile setup.
1120 - The distribution is tarred up with mode 755 now by the `dist*' targets.
1121 This fixes a race condition where untrusted users could modify files
1122 in the $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION) distdir before packing if the toplevel
1123 build directory was world-searchable. This is CVE-2009-4029.
1125 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1129 * Version requirements:
1131 - Autoconf 2.62 or greater is required.
1133 * Changes to aclocal:
1135 - The autoconf version check implemented by aclocal in aclocal.m4
1136 (and new in Automake 1.10) is degraded to a warning. This helps
1137 in the common case where the Autoconf versions used are compatible.
1139 * Changes to automake:
1141 - The automake program can run multiple threads for creating most
1142 Makefile.in files concurrently, if at least Perl 5.7.2 is available
1143 with interpreter-based threads enabled. Set the environment variable
1144 AUTOMAKE_JOBS to the maximum number of threads to use, in order to
1145 enable this experimental feature.
1147 * Changes to Libtool support:
1149 - Libtool generic flags are now passed to the install and uninstall
1152 - distcheck works with Libtool 2.x even when LT_OUTPUT is used, as
1153 config.lt is removed correctly now.
1155 * Languages changes:
1157 - subdir-object mode works now with Fortran (F77, FC, preprocessed
1158 Fortran, and Ratfor).
1160 - For files with extension .f90, .f95, .f03, or .f08, the flag
1161 $(FCFLAGS_f[09]x) computed by AC_FC_SRCEXT is now used in compile rules.
1163 - Files with extension .sx are also treated as preprocessed assembler.
1165 - The default source file extension (.c) can be overridden with
1166 AM_DEFAULT_SOURCE_EXT now.
1168 - Python 3.0 is supported now, Python releases prior to 2.0 are no
1171 - AM_PATH_PYTHON honors python's idea about the site directory.
1173 - There is initial support for the Vala programming language, when using
1174 Vala 0.7.0 or later.
1176 * Miscellaneous changes:
1178 - Automake development is done in a git repository on Savannah now, see
1180 http://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=automake.git
1182 A read-only CVS mirror is provided at
1184 cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@pserver.git.sv.gnu.org:/automake.git \
1185 checkout -d automake HEAD
1187 - "make dist" can now create xz-compressed tarballs,
1188 as well as (deprecated?) lzma-compressed tarballs.
1190 - `automake --add-missing' will by default install the GPLv3 file as
1191 COPYING if it is missing. It will also warn that the license file
1192 should be added to source control. Note that Automake will never
1193 overwrite an existing COPYING file, even when the `--force-missing'
1196 - The manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL 1.3.
1198 - Automake ships and installs man pages for automake and aclocal now.
1200 - New shorthand `$(pkglibexecdir)' for `$(libexecdir)/@PACKAGE@'.
1202 - install-sh supports -C, which does not update the installed file
1203 (and its time stamps) if the contents did not change.
1205 - The `gnupload' script has been revamped.
1207 - The `depcomp' and `compile' scripts now work with MSVC under MSYS.
1209 - The targets `install' and `uninstall' are more efficient now, in that
1210 for example multiple files from one Automake variable such as
1211 `bin_SCRIPTS' are copied in one `install' (or `libtool --mode=install')
1212 invocation if they do not have to be renamed.
1214 Both install and uninstall may sometimes enter (`cd' into) the target
1215 installation directory now, when no build-local scripts are used.
1217 Both install and uninstall do not fail anymore but do nothing if an
1218 installation directory variable like `bindir' is set to the empty string.
1220 For built-in rules, `make install' now fails reliably if installation
1221 of a file failed. Conversely, `make uninstall' even succeeds when
1222 issued multiple times.
1224 These changes may need some adjustments from users: For example,
1225 some `install' programs refuse to install multiple copies of the
1226 same file in one invocation, so you may need to remove duplicate
1227 entries from file lists.
1229 Also, within one set of files, say, nobase_data_DATA, the order of
1230 installation may be changed, or even unstable among different hosts,
1231 due to the use of associative arrays in awk. The increased use of
1232 awk matches a similar move in Autoconf to provide for better scaling.
1234 Further, most undocumented per-rule install command variables such as
1235 binSCRIPT_INSTALL have been removed because they are not needed any
1236 more. Packages which use them should be using the appropriate one of
1237 INSTALL_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT} or their install_sh_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT}
1238 counterpart, depending on the type of files and the need for automatic
1239 target directory creation.
1241 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.m4 files is avoided by
1242 stub rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `aclocal'
1243 also if some previously needed macro file has been removed.
1245 - Rebuild rules now also work for a removed `subdir/Makefile.in' in
1246 an otherwise up to date tree.
1248 - The `color-tests' option causes colored test result output on terminals.
1250 - The `parallel-tests' option enables a new test driver that allows for
1251 parallel test execution, inter-test dependencies, lazy test execution
1252 for unit-testing, re-testing only failed tests, and formatted result output
1253 as RST (reStructuredText) and HTML. Enabling this option may require some
1254 changes to your test suite setup; see the manual for details.
1256 - The `silent-rules' option enables Linux kernel-style silent build output.
1257 This option requires the widely supported but non-POSIX `make' feature
1258 of recursive variable expansion, so do not use it if your package needs
1259 to build with `make' implementations that do not support it.
1261 To enable less verbose build output, the developer has to use the Automake
1262 option `silent-rules' in `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE', or call the `AM_SILENT_RULES'
1263 macro. The user may then set the default verbosity by passing the
1264 `--enable-silent-rules' option to `configure'. At `make' run time, this
1265 default may be overridden using `make V=0' for less verbose, and `make V=1'
1266 for backward-compatible verbose output.
1268 - New prefix `notrans_' for manpages which should not be transformed
1269 by --program-transform.
1271 - New macro AM_COND_IF for conditional evaluation and conditional
1274 - For AC_CONFIG_LINKS, if source and destination are equal, do not
1275 remove the file in a non-VPATH build. Such setups work with Autoconf
1278 - AM_MAINTAINER_MODE now allows for an optional argument specifying
1279 the default setting.
1281 - AM_SUBST_NOTMAKE may prevent substitution of AC_SUBSTed variables,
1282 useful especially for multi-line values.
1284 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now diagnoses an
1285 unsafe absolute source directory name and makes configure fail.
1287 - The Automake macros and rules cope better with whitespace in the
1288 current directory name, as long as the relative path to `configure'
1289 does not contain whitespace. To this end, the values of `$(MISSING)'
1290 and `$(install_sh)' may contain suitable quoting, and their expansion
1291 might need `eval'uation if used outside of a makefile. These
1292 undocumented variables may be used in several documented macros such
1293 as $(AUTOCONF) or $(MAKEINFO).
1297 * Long-standing bugs:
1299 - Fix aix dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1301 - Work around AIX sh quoting issue in AC_PROG_CC_C_O, leading to
1302 unnecessary use of the `compile' script.
1304 - For nobase_*_LTLIBRARIES with nonempty directory components, the
1305 correct `-rpath' argument is used now.
1307 - `config.status --file=Makefile depfiles' now also works with the
1308 extra quoting used internally by Autoconf 2.62 and newer
1309 (it used to work only without the `--file=' bit).
1311 - The `missing' script works better with versioned tool names.
1313 - Semantics for `missing help2man' have been revamped:
1315 Previously, if `help2man' was not present, `missing help2man' would have
1316 the following semantics: if some man page was out of date but present, then
1317 a warning would be printed, but the exit status was 0. If the man page was
1318 not present at all, then `missing' would create a replacement man page
1319 containing an error message, and exit with a status of 2. This does not play
1320 well with `make': the next run will see this particular man page as being up
1321 to date, and will only error out on the next generated man page, if any;
1322 repeat until all pages are done. This was not desirable.
1324 These are the new semantics: if some man page is not present, and help2man
1325 is not either, then `missing' will warn and generate the replacement page
1326 containing the error message, but exit successfully. However, `make dist'
1327 will ensure that no such bogus man pages are packaged into a tarball.
1329 - Targets provided by automake behave better with `make -n', in that they
1330 take care not to create files.
1332 - `config.status Makefile... depfiles' works fine again in the presence of
1333 disabled dependency tracking.
1335 - The default no-op recursive rules for these targets also work with BSD make
1336 now: html, install-html, install-dvi, install-pdf, install-pdf, install-info.
1338 - `make distcheck' works also when both a directory and some file below it
1339 have been added to a distribution variable, such as EXTRA_DIST or *_SOURCES.
1341 - Texinfo dvi, ps, pdf, and html output files are not removed upon
1342 `make mostlyclean' any more; only the LaTeX by-products are.
1344 - Renamed objects also work with the `subdir-objects' option and
1345 source file languages which Automake does not know itself.
1347 - `automake' now correctly complains about variable assignments which are
1348 preceded by a comment, extend over multiple lines with backslash-escaped
1349 newlines, and end in a comment sign. Previous versions would silently
1350 and wrongly ignore such assignments completely.
1352 * Bugs introduced by 1.10:
1354 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
1355 Makefile.in's again, but also cope with long lines.
1357 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of XFAIL_TESTS
1358 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1359 This is for consistency with the analogous change to TESTS in 1.10.
1361 - Fix order of standard includes to again be `-I. -I$(srcdir)',
1362 followed by directories containing config headers.
1364 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1368 * Version requirements:
1370 - Autoconf 2.60 or greater is required.
1372 - Perl 5.6 or greater is required.
1374 * Changes to aclocal:
1376 - aclocal now also supports -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble options.
1378 - `dirlist' entries (for the aclocal search path) may use shell
1379 wildcards such as `*', `?', or `[...]'.
1381 - aclocal supports an --install option that will cause system-wide
1382 third-party macros to be installed in the local directory
1383 specified with the first -I flag. This option also uses #serial
1384 lines in M4 files to upgrade local macros.
1386 The new aclocal options --dry-run and --diff help to review changes
1387 before they are installed.
1389 - aclocal now outputs an autoconf version check in aclocal.m4 in
1390 projects using automake.
1392 For a few years, automake and aclocal have been calling autoconf
1393 (or its underlying engine autom4te) to accurately retrieve the
1394 data they need from configure.ac and its siblings. Doing so can
1395 only work if all autotools use the same version of autoconf. For
1396 instance a Makefile.in generated by automake for one version of
1397 autoconf may stop working if configure is regenerated with another
1398 version of autoconf, and vice versa.
1400 This new version check ensures that the whole build system has
1401 been generated using the same autoconf version.
1403 * Support for new Autoconf macros:
1405 - The new AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE Autoconf macro is supported.
1407 - If `subdir-objects' is set, and AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR is specified,
1408 $(LIBOBJS), $(LTLIBOBJS), $(ALLOCA), and $(LTALLOCA) can be used
1409 in different directories. However, only one instance of such a
1410 library objects directory is supported.
1412 * Change to Libtool support:
1414 - Libtool generic flags (those that go before the --mode=MODE option)
1415 can be specified using AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS and target_LIBTOOLFLAGS.
1417 * Yacc and Lex changes:
1419 - The rebuild rules for distributed Yacc and Lex output will avoid
1420 overwriting existing files if AM_MAINTAINER_MODE and maintainer-mode
1423 - ylwrap is now always used for lex and yacc source files,
1424 regardless of whether there is more than one source per directory.
1426 * Languages changes:
1428 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now honors CPPFLAGS,
1429 AM_CPPFLAGS and per-target _CPPFLAGS, and supports dependency
1430 tracking, unlike non-preprocessed assembler (*.s).
1432 - subdir-object mode works now with Assembler. Automake assumes
1433 that the compiler understands `-c -o'.
1435 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now also honors
1436 $(DEFS) $(DEFAULT_INCLUDES) $(INCLUDES).
1438 - Improved support for Objective C:
1439 - Autoconf's new AC_PROG_OBJC will enable automatic dependency tracking.
1440 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1442 - New support for Unified Parallel C:
1443 - AM_PROG_UPC looks for a UPC compiler.
1444 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
1446 - Per-target flags are now correctly handled in link rules.
1448 For instance maude_CFLAGS correctly overrides AM_CFLAGS; likewise
1449 for maude_LDFLAGS and AM_LDFLAGS. Previous versions bogusly
1450 preferred AM_CFLAGS over maude_CFLAGS while linking, and they
1451 used both AM_LDFLAGS and maude_LDFLAGS on the same link command.
1453 The fix for compiler flags (i.e., using maude_CFLAGS instead of
1454 AM_CFLAGS) should not hurt any package since that is how _CFLAGS
1455 is expected to work (and actually works during compilation).
1457 However using maude_LDFLAGS "instead of" AM_LDFLAGS rather than
1458 "in addition to" breaks backward compatibility with older versions.
1459 If your package used both variables, as in
1461 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1462 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1463 a_LDFLAGS = more flags
1466 and assumed *_LDFLAGS would sum up, you should rewrite it as
1468 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
1469 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
1470 a_LDFLAGS = $(AM_LDFLAGS) more flags
1473 This new behavior of *_LDFLAGS is more coherent with other
1474 per-target variables, and the way *_LDFLAGS variables were
1475 considered internally.
1477 * New installation targets:
1479 - New targets mandated by GNU Coding Standards:
1484 By default they will only install Texinfo manuals.
1485 You can customize them with *-local variants:
1491 - The undocumented recursive target `uninstall-info' no longer exists.
1492 (`uninstall' is in charge of removing all possible documentation
1493 flavors, including optional formats such as dvi, ps, or info even
1494 when `no-installinfo' is used.)
1496 * Miscellaneous changes:
1498 - Automake no longer complains if input files for AC_CONFIG_FILES
1499 are specified using shell variables.
1501 - clean, distribution, or rebuild rules are normally disabled for
1502 inputs and outputs of AC_CONFIG_FILES, AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, and
1503 AC_CONFIG_LINK specified using shell variables. However, if these
1504 variables are used as ${VAR}, and AC_SUBSTed, then Automake will
1505 be able to output rules anyway.
1506 (See the Automake documentation for AC_CONFIG_FILES.)
1508 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of TESTS
1509 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
1510 This is mostly useful when some check_PROGRAMS are listed in TESTS.
1512 - `-Wportability' has finally been turned on by default for `gnu' and
1513 `gnits' strictness. This means, automake will complain about %-rules
1514 or $(GNU Make functions) unless you switch to `foreign' strictness or
1515 use `-Wno-portability'.
1517 - Automake now uses AC_PROG_MKDIR_P (new in Autoconf 2.60), and uses
1518 $(MKDIR_P) instead of $(mkdir_p) to create directories. The
1519 $(mkdir_p) variable is still defined (to the same value as
1520 $(MKDIR_P)) but should be considered obsolete. If you are using
1521 $(mkdir_p) in some of your rules, please plan to update them to
1522 $(MKDIR_P) at some point.
1524 - AM_C_PROTOTYPES and ansi2knr are now documented as being obsolete.
1525 They still work in this release, but may be withdrawn in a future one.
1527 - Inline compilation rules for gcc3-style dependency tracking are
1530 - Automake installs a "Hello World!" example package in $(docdir).
1531 This example is used throughout the new "Autotools Introduction"
1532 chapter of the manual.
1534 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1538 * Makefile.in bloat reduction:
1540 - Inference rules are used to compile sources in subdirectories when
1541 the `subdir-objects' option is used and no per-target flags are
1542 used. This should reduce the size of some projects a lot, because
1543 Automake used to output an explicit rule for each such object in
1546 - Automake no longer outputs three rules (.o, .obj, .lo) for each
1547 object that must be built with explicit rules. It just outputs
1548 the rules required to build the kind of object considered: either
1549 the two .o and .obj rules for usual objects, or the .lo rule for
1552 * Change to Libtool support:
1554 - Libtool tags are used with libtool versions that support them.
1555 (I.e., with Libtool 1.5 or greater.)
1557 - Automake is now able to handle setups where a libtool library is
1558 conditionally installed in different directories, as in
1561 lib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1563 pkglib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
1565 liba_la_SOURCES = ...
1567 * Changes to aclocal:
1569 - aclocal now ensures that AC_DEFUNs and AU_DEFUNs it discovers are
1570 really evaluated, before it decides to include them in aclocal.m4.
1571 This solves nasty problems with conditional redefinitions of
1572 Autoconf macros in /usr/share/aclocal/*.m4 files causing extraneous
1573 *.m4 files to be included in any project using these macros.
1574 (Calls to AC_PROG_EGREP causing libtool.m4 to be included is the
1575 most famous instance of this bug.)
1577 - Do not complain about missing conditionally AC_REQUIREd macros
1578 that are not actually used. In 1.8.x aclocal would correctly
1579 determine which of these macros were really needed (and include
1580 only these in the package); unfortunately it would also require
1581 all of them to be present in order to run. This created
1582 situations were aclocal would not work on a tarball distributing
1583 all the macros it uses. For instance running aclocal on a project
1584 containing only the subset of the Gettext macros in use by the
1585 project did not work, because gettext conditionally requires other
1588 * Portability improvements:
1590 - Tar format can be chosen with the new options tar-v7, tar-ustar, and
1591 tar-pax. The new option filename-length-max=99 helps diagnosing
1592 filenames that are too long for tar-v7. (PR/414)
1594 - Variables aumented with `+=' are now automatically flattened (i.e.,
1595 trailing backslashes removed) and then wrapped around 80 colummns
1596 (adding trailing backslashes). In previous versions, a long series
1602 would result in a single-line definition of VAR that could possibly
1603 exceed the maximum line length of some make implementations.
1605 Non-augmented variables are still output as they are defined in
1610 - Support Fortran 90/95 with the new "fc" and "ppfc" languages.
1611 Works the same as the old Fortran 77 implementation; just replace
1612 F77 with FC everywhere (exception: FFLAGS becomes FCFLAGS).
1613 Requires a version of autoconf which provides AC_PROG_FC (>=2.59).
1615 - Support for conditional _LISP.
1617 - Support for conditional -hook and -local rules (PR/428).
1619 - Diagnose AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR calls following AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. (PR/49)
1621 - Automake will not write any Makefile.ins after the first error it
1622 encounters. The previous Makefile.ins (if any) will be left in
1623 place. (Warnings will not prevent output, but remember they can
1624 be turned into errors with -Werror.)
1626 - The restriction that SUBDIRS must contain direct children is gone.
1629 - The manual tells more about SUBDIRS vs. DIST_SUBDIRS.
1630 It also gives an example of nested packages using AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS.
1632 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1634 Bugs fixed in 1.8.5:
1636 * Long-standing bugs:
1638 - Define DIST_SUBDIRS even when the `no-dist' or `cygnus' options are used
1639 so that `make distclean' and `make maintainer-clean' can work.
1641 - Define AR and ARFLAGS even when only EXTRA_LIBRARIES are defined.
1643 - Fix many rules to please FreeBSD make, which runs commands with `sh -e'.
1645 - Polish diagnostic when no input file is found.
1647 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1649 Bugs fixed in 1.8.4:
1651 * Long-standing bugs:
1653 - Fix AM_PATH_PYTHON to correctly display $PYTHON when it has been
1654 overridden by the user.
1656 - Honor PATH_SEPARATOR in various places of the Automake package, for
1659 - Adjust dependency tracking mode detection to ICC 8.0's new output.
1662 - Fix install-sh so it can install the `mv' binary... using `mv'.
1664 - Fix tru64 dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1666 - Work around Exuberant Ctags when creating a TAGS files in a directory
1667 without files to scan but with subdirectories to include.
1669 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1671 - Fix an "internal error" when @LIBOBJS@ is used in a variable that is
1672 not defined in the same conditions as the _LDADD that uses it.
1674 - Do not warn when JAVAROOT is overridden, this is legitimate.
1676 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1678 Bugs fixed in 1.8.3:
1680 * Long-standing bugs:
1682 - Quote filenames in installation rules, in case $DESTDIR, $prefix,
1683 or any of the other *dir variables contain a space.
1685 Please note that Automake does not and cannot support spaces in
1686 filenames that are involved during the build. This change affects
1687 only installation paths, so that `make install' does not bomb out
1688 in packages configured with
1689 ./configure --prefix '/c/Program Files'
1691 - Fix the depfiles output so it works with GNU sed (<4.1) even when
1692 POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.
1694 - Do not AC_SUBST(LIBOBJS) in AM_WITH_REGEX. This macro was unusable
1695 since Autoconf 2.54, which defines LIBOBJS itself.
1697 - Fix a potential (but unlikely) race condition in parallel elisp
1698 builds. (Introduced in 1.7.3.)
1700 - Do not assume that users override _DEPENDENCIES in all conditions
1701 where Automake will try to define them.
1703 - Do not use `mkdir -p' in mkinstalldirs, unless this is GNU mkdir.
1704 Solaris 8's `mkdir -p' is not thread-safe and can break parallel
1707 This fix also affects the $(mkdir_p) variable defined since
1708 Automake 1.8. It will be set to `mkdir -p' only if mkdir is GNU
1709 mkdir, and to `mkinstalldirs' or `install-sh -d' otherwise.
1711 - Secure temporary directory creation in `make distcheck'. (PR/413)
1713 - Do not generate two build rules for `parser.h' when the
1714 parser appears in two different conditionals.
1716 - Work around a Solaris 8 /bin/sh bug in the test for dependency
1717 checking. Usually ./configure will not pick this shell; so this
1718 fix only helps cases where the shell is forced to /bin/sh.
1720 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1722 - In some situations (hand-written `m4_include's), aclocal would
1723 call the `File::Spec->rel2abs' method, which was only introduced
1724 in Perl 5.6. This new version reestablish support Perl 5.005.
1726 It is likely that the next major Automake releases will require at
1727 least Perl 5.6. Consider upgrading your development environment
1728 if you are still using the five-year-old Perl 5.005.
1730 - Automake would sometimes fail to define rules for targets listed
1731 in variables defined in multiple conditions. For instance on
1737 it would define only the `a.$(OBJEXT): a.c' rule and omit the
1738 `b.$(OBJEXT): b.c' rule.
1740 * New sections in manual:
1742 - Third-Party Makefiles: how to interface third party Makefiles.
1743 - Upgrading: upgrading packages to newer Automake versions.
1744 - Multiple Outputs: handling tools that produce many outputs.
1746 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1750 * A (well known) portability bug slipped in the changes made to
1751 install-sh in Automake 1.8.1. The broken install-sh would refuse to
1752 install anything on Tru64.
1754 * Fix install rules for conditionally built python files. (This never
1757 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1761 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
1763 - Fix Config.pm import error with old Perl versions (at least
1764 5.005_03). One symptom is that aclocal could not find its macro
1767 - Automake 1.8 used `mkdir -m 0755 -p --' to ensure that directories
1768 created by `make install' are always world readable, even if the
1769 installer happens to have an overly restrictive umask (e.g. 077).
1770 This was a mistake and has been reverted. There are at least two
1771 reasons why we must not use `-m 0755':
1772 - it causes special bits like SGID to be ignored,
1773 - it may be too restrictive (some setups expect 775 directories).
1775 - Fix aclocal to honor definitions located in files which have been
1776 m4_included manually. aclocal 1.8 had been updated to check
1777 m4_included files for new requirements, but forgot that these
1778 m4_included files can also provide new definitions.
1780 Note that if you have such a setup, we recommend you get rid of
1781 it. In the past, there was a reason to m4_include files manually:
1782 aclocal used to duplicate entire M4 files into aclocal.m4, even
1783 files that were distributed. Some packages were therefore
1784 m4_including the distributed file directly, and playing some
1785 tricks to ensure aclocal would not copy that file to aclocal.m4,
1786 in order to limit the amount of duplication. Since aclocal 1.8.x
1787 will precisely output m4_includes for local M4 files, we recommend
1788 that you clean up your setup, removing all manual m4_includes and
1789 letting aclocal output them.
1791 - Output detailed menus in the Info version if the Automake manual,
1792 so that Emacs can locate the indexes.
1794 - configure.ac and configure were listed twice in DIST_COMMON (an
1795 internal variable where Automake lists configury files to
1796 distribute). This was harmless, but unaesthetic.
1798 - Use `chmod a-w' instead of `chmod -w' as the latter honors umask.
1799 This was an issue only in the Automake package itself, not in
1802 - Automake assumed that all AC_CONFIG_LINKS arguments had the form
1803 DEST:SRC. This was wrong, as some packages do
1804 AC_CONFIG_LINKS($computedlinks). This version no longer abort in
1807 - Contrary to mkinstalldirs, $(mkdir_p) was expecting exactly one
1808 argument. This caused two kinds of failures:
1809 - Rules installing data in a conditionally defined directory
1810 failed when that directory was undefined. In this case no
1811 argument was supplied.
1812 - `make installdirs' failed, because several directories were
1813 passed to $(mkdir_p). This was an issue only on platform
1814 were $(mkdir_p) is implemented with `install-sh -d'.
1815 $(mkdir_p) as been changed to accept 0 or more arguments, as
1818 * Long-standing bugs:
1820 - Fix an unexpected diagnostic occurring when users attempt
1821 to override some internal variables that Automake appends to.
1823 - aclocal now scans configure.ac for macro definitions (PR/319).
1825 - Fix a portability issue with OSF1/Tru64 Make. If a directory
1826 distributes files which are outside itself (this usually occurs
1827 when using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([../dir]) to use auxiliary files
1828 from a parent package), then `make distcheck' fails due to an
1829 optimization performed by OSF1/Tru64 Make in its VPATH handling.
1830 (tests/subpkg2.test failure)
1832 - Fix another portability issue with Sun and OSF1/Tru64 Make.
1833 In a VPATH-build configuration, `make install' would install
1834 nobase_ files to wrong locations.
1836 - Fix a Perl `uninitialized value' diagnostic occurring when
1837 automake complains that a Texinfo file does not have a
1838 @setfilename statement.
1840 - Erase config.status.lineno during `make distclean'. This file
1841 can be created by config.status. Automake already knew about
1842 configure.lineno, but forgot config.status.lineno.
1844 - Distribute all files, even those which are built and installed
1845 conditionally. This change affects files listed in conditionally
1846 defined *_HEADERS and *_PYTHON variable (unless they are nodist_*)
1847 as well as those listed in conditionally defined dist_*_DATA,
1848 dist_*_JAVA, dist_*_LISP, and dist_*_SCRIPTS variables.
1850 - Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to avoid \? in sed regular expressions; it
1851 doesn't conform to POSIX.
1853 - Normalize help strings for configure variables and options added
1858 - Check for python2.4 in AM_PATH_PYTHON.
1860 * Spurious failures in test suite:
1862 - tests/libtool5.test, tests/ltcond.test, tests/ltcond2.test,
1863 tests/ltconv.test: fix failures with CVS Libtool.
1864 - tests/aclocal6.test: fix failure if autom4te.cache is disabled.
1865 - tests/txinfo24.test, tests/txinfo25.test, tests/txinfo28.test:
1866 fix failures with old Texinfo versions.
1868 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1874 - The NEWS file is more verbose.
1878 - Autoconf 2.58 or greater is required.
1882 - Default source file names in the absence of a _SOURCES declaration
1883 are made by removing any target extension before appending `.c', so
1884 to make the libtool module `foo.la' from `foo.c', you only need to
1887 lib_LTLIBRARIES = foo.la
1888 foo_la_LDFLAGS = -module
1890 For backward compatibility, foo_la.c will be used instead of
1891 foo.c if this file exists or is the explicit target of a rule.
1892 However -Wobsolete will warn about this deprecated naming.
1894 - AR's `cru' flags are now set in a global ARFLAGS variable instead
1895 of being hard-coded in each $(AR) invocation, so they can be
1896 substituted from configure.ac. This has been requested by people
1897 dealing with non-POSIX ar implementations.
1899 - New warning option: -Woverride. This will warn about any user
1900 target or variable definitions which override Automake
1903 - Texinfo rules back up and restore info files when makeinfo fails.
1905 - Texinfo rules now support the `html' target.
1906 Running this requires Texinfo 4.0 or greater.
1908 `html' is a new recursive target, so if your package mixes
1909 hand-crafted `Makefile.in's with Automake-generated
1910 `Makefile.in's, you should adjust the former to support (or
1911 ignore) this target so that `make html' recurses successfully. If
1912 you had a custom `html' rule in your `Makefile.am', it's better to
1913 rename it as `html-local', otherwise your rule will override
1914 Automake's new rule (you can check that by running `automake
1915 -Woverride') and that will stop the recursion to subdirectories.
1917 Last but not least, this `html' rule is declared PHONY, even when
1918 overridden. Fortunately, it appears that few packages use a
1919 non-PHONY `html' rule.
1921 - Any file which is m4_included from configure.ac will appear as a
1922 configure and Makefile.in dependency, and will be automatically
1925 - The rules for rebuilding Makefiles and Makefile.ins will now
1926 rebuild all Makefiles and all Makefile.ins at once when one of
1927 configure's dependencies has changed. This is considerably faster
1928 than previous implementations, where config.status and automake
1929 were run separately in each directory (this still happens when you
1930 change a Makefile.am locally, without touching configure.ac or
1931 friends). Doing this also solves a longstanding issue: these
1932 rebuild rules failed to work when adding new directories to the
1933 tree, forcing you to run automake manually.
1935 - For similar reasons, the rules to rebuild configure,
1936 config.status, and aclocal.m4 are now defined in all directories.
1937 Note that if you were using the CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES and
1938 CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES (formerly undocumented) variables, you
1939 should better define them in all directories. This is easily done
1940 using an AC_SUBST (make sure you prefix these dependencies with
1941 $(top_srcdir) since this variable will appear at different
1942 levels of the build tree).
1944 - aclocal will now use `m4_include' instead of copying local m4
1945 files into aclocal.m4. (Local m4 files are those you ship with
1946 your project, other files will be copied as usual.)
1948 Because m4_included files are automatically distributed, it means
1949 for most projects there is no point in EXTRA_DISTing the list of
1950 m4 files which are used. (You can probably get rid of
1951 m4/Makefile.am if you had one.)
1953 - aclocal will avoid touching aclocal.m4 when possible, so that
1954 Autom4te's cache isn't needlessly invalidated. This behavior can
1955 be switched off with the new `--force' option.
1957 - aclocal now uses Autoconf's --trace to detect macros which are
1958 actually used and will no longer include unused macros simply
1959 because they where mentioned. This was often the case for macros
1960 called conditionally.
1962 - New options no-dist and no-dist-gzip.
1964 - compile, depcomp, elisp-comp, install-sh, mdate-sh, mkinstalldirs,
1965 py-compile, and ylwrap, now all understand --version and --help.
1967 - Automake will now recognize AC_CONFIG_LINKS so far as removing created
1968 links as part of the distclean target and including source files in
1971 - AM_PATH_PYTHON now supports ACTION-IF-FOUND and ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND
1972 argument. The latter can be used to override the default behavior
1973 (which is to abort).
1975 - Automake will exit with $? = 63 on version mismatch. (So does
1976 Autoconf 2.58) missing knows this, and in this case it will
1977 emulate the tools as if they were absent. Because older versions
1978 of Automake and Autoconf did not use this exit code, this change
1979 will only be useful in projects generated with future versions of
1982 - When using AC_CONFIG_FILES with multiple input files, Automake
1983 generates the first ".in" input file for which a ".am" exists.
1984 (Former versions would try to use only the first input file.)
1986 - lisp_DATA is now allowed. If you are using the empty ELCFILES
1987 idiom to disable byte-compilation of lisp_LISP files, it is
1988 recommended that you switch to using lisp_DATA. Note that
1989 this is not strictly equivalent: lisp_DATA will install elisp
1990 files even if emacs is not installed, while *_LISP do not
1991 install anything unless emacs is found.
1993 - Makefiles will prefer `mkdir -p' over mkinstalldirs if it is
1994 available. This selection is achieved through the Makefile
1995 variable $(mkdir_p) that is set by AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE to either
1996 `mkdir -m 0755 -p --', `$(mkinstalldirs) -m 0755', or
1997 `$(install_sh) -m 0755 -d'.
2001 - Because `mkdir -p' is available on most platforms, and we can use
2002 `install-sh -d' when it is not, the use of the mkinstalldirs
2003 script is being phased out. `automake --add-missing' no longer
2004 installs it, and if you remove mkinstalldirs from your package,
2005 automake will define $(mkinstalldirs) as an alias for $(mkdir_p).
2007 Gettext 0.12.1 still requires mkinstalldirs. Fortunately
2008 gettextize and autopoint will install it when needed. Automake
2009 will continue to define the $(mkinstalldirs) and to distribute
2010 mkinstalldirs when this script is in the source tree.
2012 - AM_PROG_CC_STDC is now empty. The content of this macro was
2013 merged in AC_PROG_CC. If your code uses $am_cv_prog_cc_stdc, you
2014 should adjust it to use $ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc instead. (This
2015 renaming should be safe, even if you have to support several,
2016 versions of Automake, because AC_PROG_CC defines this variable
2017 since Autoconf 2.54.)
2019 - Some users where using the undocumented ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES
2020 variable to override the aclocal.m4 dependencies computed
2021 (inaccurately) by older versions of Automake. Because Automake
2022 now tracks configure's m4 dependencies accurately (see m4_include
2023 above), the use of ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES should be considered
2024 obsolete and will be flagged as such when running `automake
2029 - Defining programs conditionally using Automake conditionals no
2030 longer leads to a combinatorial explosion. The following
2031 construct used to be troublesome when used with dozens of
2046 Likewise for _SOURCES, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables.
2048 - Due to implementation constraints, previous versions of Automake
2049 proscribed multiple conditional definitions of some variables
2059 All _PROGRAMS, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables were affected.
2060 This restriction has been lifted, and these variables now
2061 support multiple conditional definitions as do other variables.
2063 - Cleanup the definitions of $(distdir) and $(top_distdir).
2064 $(top_distdir) now points to the root of the distribution
2065 directory created during `make dist', as it did in Automake 1.4,
2066 not to the root of the build tree as it did in intervening
2067 versions. Furthermore these two variables are now only defined in
2068 the top level Makefile, and passed to sub-directories when running
2071 - The --no-force option now correctly checks the Makefile.in's
2072 dependencies before deciding not to update it.
2074 - Do not assume that make files are called Makefile in cleaning rules.
2076 - Update .info files in the source tree, not in the build tree. This
2077 is what the GNU Coding Standard recommend. Only Automake 1.7.x
2078 used to update these files in the build tree (previous versions did
2079 it in the source tree too), and it caused several problems, varying
2080 from mere annoyance to portability issues.
2082 - COPYING, COPYING.LIB, and COPYING.LESSER are no longer overwritten
2083 when --add-missing and --force-missing are used. For backward
2084 compatibility --add-missing will continue to install COPYING (in
2085 `gnu' strictness) when none of these three files exist, but this
2086 use is deprecated: you should better choose a license yourself and
2087 install it once for all in your source tree (and in your code
2090 - Fix ylwrap so that it does not overwrite header files that haven't
2091 changed, as the inline rule already does.
2093 - User-defined rules override automake-defined rules for the same
2094 targets, even when rules do not have commands. This is not new
2095 (and was documented), however some of the automake-generated
2096 rules have escaped this principle in former Automake versions.
2097 Rules for the following targets are affected by this fix:
2099 clean, clean-am, dist-all, distclean, distclean-am, dvi, dvi-am,
2100 info, info-am, install-data-am, install-exec-am, install-info,
2101 install-info-am, install-man, installcheck-am, maintainer-clean,
2102 maintainer-clean-am, mostlyclean, mostlyclean-am, pdf, pdf-am,
2103 ps, ps-am, uninstall-am, uninstall-info, uninstall-man
2105 Practically it means that an attempt to supplement the dependencies
2106 of some target, as in
2108 clean: my-clean-rule
2110 will now *silently override* the automake definition of the
2111 rule for this target. Running `automake -Woverride' will diagnose
2112 all such overriding definitions.
2114 It should be noted that almost all of these targets support a *-local
2115 variant that is meant to supplement the automake-defined rule
2116 (See node `Extending' in the manual). The above rule should
2119 clean-local: my-clean-rule
2121 These *-local targets have been documented since at least
2122 Automake 1.2, so you should not fear the change if you have
2123 to support multiple automake versions.
2127 - The Automake manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
2129 - Targets dist-gzip, dist-bzip2, dist-tarZ, dist-zip are always defined.
2131 - core dumps are no longer removed by the cleaning rules. There are
2132 at least three reasons for this:
2133 1. These files should not be created by any build step,
2134 so their removal do not fit any of the cleaning rules.
2135 Actually, they may be precious to the developer.
2136 2. If such file is created during a build, then it's clearly a
2137 bug Automake should not hide. Not removing the file will
2138 cause `make distcheck' to complain about its presence.
2139 3. Operating systems have different naming conventions for
2140 core dump files. A core file on one system might be a
2141 completely legitimate data file on another system.
2143 - RUNTESTFLAGS, CTAGSFLAGS, ETAGSFLAGS, JAVACFLAGS are no longer
2144 defined by Automake. This means that any definition in the
2145 environment will be used, unless overridden in the Makefile.am or
2146 on the command line. The old behavior, where these variables were
2147 defined empty in each Makefile, can be obtained by AC_SUBSTing or
2148 AC_ARG_VARing each variable from configure.ac.
2150 - CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES and CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES are now
2151 documented. (The is not a new feature, these variables have
2152 been there since at least Automake 1.4.)
2154 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2156 Bugs fixed in 1.7.9:
2157 * Fix install-strip to work with nobase_ binaries.
2158 * Fix renaming of #line directives in ylwrap.
2159 * Rebuild with Autoconf 2.59. (1.7.8 was not installable with pdksh.)
2161 Bugs fixed in 1.7.8:
2162 * Remove spurious blank lines in cleaning rules introduced in 1.7.7.
2163 * Fix detection of Debian's install-info, broken since version 1.5.
2164 (Debian bug #213524).
2165 * Honor -module if it appears in AM_LDFLAGS (i.e., relax name checking)
2166 This was only done for libfoo_LDFLAGS and LDFLAGS in previous versions.
2168 Bugs fixed in 1.7.7:
2169 * The implementation of automake's --no-force option is unreliable,
2170 so this option is ignored in this version. A real fix will appear in
2171 Automake 1.8. (Debian Bug #206299)
2172 * AM_PATH_PYTHON: really check the whole list of interpreters if no
2173 argument is given. (PR/399)
2174 * Do not warn about leading `_' in variable names, even with -Wportability.
2175 * Support user redefinitions of TEXINFO_TEX.
2176 * depcomp: support AIX Compiler version 6.
2177 * Fix missing rebuilds during `make dist' with BSD make.
2178 (Could produce tarballs containing out-of-date files.)
2179 * Resurrect multilib support.
2180 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2181 - Extending aclocal: how to write m4 macros that won't trigger warnings
2183 - A Shared Library: Rewrite and split into subsections.
2185 Bugs fixed in 1.7.6:
2186 * Fix depcomp's icc mode for ICC 7.1.
2187 * Diagnose calls to AC_CONFIG_FILES and friends with not enough arguments.
2188 * Fix maintainer-clean's removal of autom4te.cache in VPATH builds.
2189 * Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to work with POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
2190 * Fix the location reported in some diagnostics related to AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
2191 * Remove Latin-1 characters from elisp-comp.
2192 * Update the manual's @dircategory to match the Free Software Directory.
2194 Bugs fixed in 1.7.5:
2195 * Update install-sh's license to remove an advertising clause.
2196 (Debian bug #191717)
2197 * Fix a bug introduced in 1.7.4, related to BUILT_SOURCE handling,
2198 that caused invalid Makefile.ins to be generated.
2199 * Make sure AM_MAKE_INCLUDE doesn't fail when a `doit' file exists.
2200 * New FAQ entry: renamed objects.
2202 Bugs fixed in 1.7.4:
2203 * Tweak the TAGS rule to support Exuberant Ctags (in addition to
2204 the Emacs implementation)
2205 * Fix output of aclocal.m4 dependencies in subdirectories.
2206 * Use `mv -f' instead of `mv' in fastdep rules.
2207 * Upgrade mdate-sh to work on OS/2.
2208 * Don't byte-compile elisp files when ELCFILES is set empty.
2209 (this documented feature was broken by 1.7.3)
2210 * Diagnose trailing backslashes on last line of Makefile.am.
2211 * Diagnose whitespace following trailing backslashes.
2212 * Multiple tests are now correctly supported in DEJATOOL. (PR/388)
2213 * Fix rebuilt rules for AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.bot])
2215 * `make install' will build `BUILT_SOURCES' first.
2216 * Minor documentation fixes.
2218 Bugs fixed in 1.7.3:
2219 * Fix stamp files numbering (when using multiple AC_CONFIG_HEADERS).
2220 * Query distutils for `pythondir' and `pythonexecdir', instead of
2221 using an hardcoded path. This should allow builds on 64-bit
2222 distributions that usually use lib64/ instead of lib/.
2223 * AM_PATH_PYTHON will also search for python2.3.
2224 * elisp files are now built all at once instead of one by one. Besides
2225 incurring a speed-up, this is required to support interdependent elisp files.
2226 * Support for DJGPP:
2227 - `make distcheck' will now work in `_inst/' and `_build' instead
2228 of `=inst/' and `=build/'
2229 - use `_dirstamp' when the file-system doesn't support `.dirstamp'
2230 - install/uninstall `*.i[0-9][0-9]'-style info files
2231 - more changes that affect only the Automake package (not its output)
2232 * Fix some incompatibilities with upcoming perl-5.10.
2233 * Properly quote AC_PACKAGE_TARNAME and AC_PACKAGE_VERSION when defining
2234 PACKAGE and VERSION.
2236 - dashmstdout and dashXmstdout modes: don't use `-o /dev/null', this
2237 is troublesome with gcc and Solaris compilers. (PR/385)
2238 - makedepend mode: work with Libtool. (PR/385 too)
2240 * better support for unusual gettext setups, such as multiple po/ directories
2242 - Flag missing po/ and intl/ directories as warnings, not errors.
2243 - Disable these warnings if po/ does not exist.
2244 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2246 - Document how AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR interacts with missing files.
2248 - Document `AM_YFLAGS = -d'. (PR/382)
2250 Bugs fixed in 1.7.2:
2251 * Fix installation and uninstallation of Info files built in subdirectories.
2252 * Do not run `./configure --with-included-gettext' during `make distcheck'
2253 if AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) is used.
2254 * Correctly uninstall renamed man pages.
2255 * Do not strip escaped newline in variables defined in one condition
2256 and augmented in another condition.
2257 * Fix ansi2knr rules for LIBOBJS sources.
2258 * Clean all known Texinfo index files, not only those which appear to
2259 be used, because we cannot know which indexes are used in included files.
2260 (PR/375, Debian Bug #168671)
2261 * Honor only the first @setfilename seen in a Texinfo file.
2262 * Treat "required file X not found" diagnostics as errors (exit status 1).
2263 * Don't complain that a required file is not found when it is a Makefile
2265 * Don't use single suffix inference rules when building `.info'-less
2266 Info files, for the sake of Solaris make.
2267 * The `check' target now depends on `$(BUILT_SOURCES)'. (PR/359)
2268 * Recognize multiple inference rules such as `.a.b .c.d:'. (PR/371)
2269 * Warn about multiple inference rules when -Wportability is used. (PR/372)
2270 * Fix building of deansified files from subdirectories. (PR/370)
2271 * Add missing `fi' in the .c->.obj rules.
2272 * Improve install-sh to work even when names contain spaces or certain
2273 (but not all) shell metachars.
2274 * Fix the following spurious failures in the test suite:
2275 depcomp2.test, gnits2.test, gnits3.test, python3.test, texinfo13.test
2276 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2277 - Augment the section about BUILT_SOURCES.
2278 - Mention that AM_PROG_CC_STDC is a relic that is better avoided today.
2280 Bugs fixed in 1.7.1:
2281 * Honor `ansi2knr' for files built in subdirectories, or using per-targets
2283 * Aclocal should now recognize macro names containing parentheses, e.g.
2284 AC_DEFUN([AC_LANG_PREPROC(Fortran 90)], [...]).
2285 * Erase *.sum and *.log files created by DejaGnu, during `make distclean'.
2287 * Install Python files even if they were built. (PR/369)
2288 * Have stamp-vti dependent upon configure instead of configure.ac, as the
2289 version might not be defined in the latter. (PR/358)
2290 * Reorder arguments passed to a couple of commands, so things works
2291 when POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
2292 * Fix a regex that can cause Perl to segfault on large input.
2294 * Fix distribution of packages that have some sources defined conditionally,
2295 as in the `Conditional compilation using Automake conditionals' example
2297 * Fix spurious test suite failures on IRIX.
2298 * Don't report a required variable as undefined if it has been
2299 defined conditionally for the "right" conditions.
2300 * Fix cleaning of the /tmp subdirectory used by `make distcheck', in case
2301 `make distcheck' fails.
2302 * Fix distribution of included Makefile fragment, so we don't create
2303 spurious directories in the distribution. (PR/366)
2304 * Don't complain that a target lacks `.$(EXEEXT)' when it has it.
2307 * Autoconf 2.54 is required.
2308 * `aclocal' and `automake' will no longer warn about obsolete
2309 configure macros. This is done by `autoconf -Wobsolete'.
2310 * AM_CONFIG_HEADER, AM_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS and
2311 AM_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ_NEEDS_SYS_IOCTL are obsolete (although still
2312 supported). You should use AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS,
2313 and AC_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ instead. `autoupdate' can upgrade
2314 `configure.ac' for you.
2315 * Support for per-program and per-library `_CPPFLAGS'.
2316 * New `ctags' target (builds CTAGS files).
2317 * Support for -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble, where mumble is a warning category
2318 (see `automake --help' or the manual for a list of them).
2319 * Honor the WARNINGS environment variable.
2320 * Omit the call to depcomp when using gcc3: call the compiler directly.
2321 * A new option, std-options, tests that programs support --help and --version
2322 when `make installcheck' is run. This is enabled by --gnits.
2323 * Texinfo rules now support the `ps' and `pdf' targets.
2324 * Info files are now created in the build directory, not the source directory.
2325 * info_TEXINFOS supports files in subdirectories (this requires Texinfo 4.1
2327 * `make distcheck' will enforce DESTDIR support by attempting
2329 * `+=' can be used in conditionals, even if the augmented variable
2330 was defined for another condition.
2331 * Makefile fragments (inserted with `include') are always distributed.
2332 * Use Autoconf's --trace interface to inspect configure.ac and get
2333 a more accurate view of it.
2334 * Add support for extending aclocal's default macro search path
2335 using a `dirlist' file within the aclocal directory.
2336 * automake --output-dir is deprecated.
2337 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether uninstall actually
2338 removes all installed files has been moved in a separate target,
2339 distuninstallcheck, so it can be overridden easily.
2343 * Support for AM_INIT_GETTEXT([external])
2344 * Bug fixes, including:
2345 - Fix Automake's own `make install' so it works even if `ln' doesn't.
2346 - nobase_ programs and scripts honor --program-transform correctly.
2347 - Erase configure.lineno during `make distclean'.
2348 - Erase YACC and LEX outputs during `make maintainer-clean'.
2351 * Many bug fixes, including:
2352 - Requiring the current version works.
2353 - Fix "$@" portability issues (for Zsh).
2354 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
2356 - Don't compute dependencies in background to avoid races with libtool.
2357 - Fix handling of _OBJECTS variables for targets sharing source variables.
2358 - Check dependency mode for Java when AM_PROG_GCJ is used.
2361 * automake --output-dir is deprecated
2362 * Many bug fixes, including:
2363 - Don't choke on AM_LDFLAGS definitions.
2364 - Clean libtool objects from subdirectories.
2365 - Allow configure variables with reserved suffix and unknown prefix
2366 (e.g. AC_SUBST(mumble_LDFLAGS) when 'mumble' is not a target).
2367 - Fix the definition of AUTOMAKE and ACLOCAL in configure.
2370 * Autoconf 2.52 is required.
2371 * automake no longer run libtoolize.
2372 This is the job of autoreconf (from GNU Autoconf).
2373 * `dist' generates all the archive flavors, as did `dist-all'.
2374 * `dist-gzip' generates the Gzip tar file only.
2375 * Combining Automake Makefile conditionals no longer lead to a combinatorial
2376 explosion. Makefile.in's keep a reasonable size.
2377 * AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_STRTOD, AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, AM_PTRDIFF_T
2378 are no longer shipped, since Autoconf 2.52 provides them (both as AM_
2380 * `#line' of Lex and Yacc files are properly set.
2381 * EXTRA_DIST can contain generated directories.
2382 * Support for dot-less extensions in suffix rules.
2383 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether distclean actually
2384 cleans all built files has been moved in a separate target, distcleancheck,
2385 so it can be overridden easily.
2386 * `make distcheck' will pass additional options defined in
2387 $(DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS) to configure.
2388 * Fixed CDPATH portability problems, in particular for MacOS X.
2389 * Fixed handling of nobase_ targets.
2390 * Fixed support of implicit rules leading to .lo objects.
2391 * Fixed late inclusion of --add-missing files (e.g. depcomp) in DIST_COMMON
2392 * Added uninstall-hook target
2393 * `AC_INIT AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(tarname,version)' is an obsolete construct.
2394 You can now use `AC_INIT(pkgname,version) AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE' instead.
2395 (Note that "pkgname" is not "tarname", see the manual for details.)
2396 It is also possible to pass a list of global Automake options as
2397 first argument to this new form of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.
2398 * Compiler-based assembler is now called `CCAS'; people expected `AS'
2399 to be a real assembler.
2400 * AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE will set STRIP itself when it needs it. Adding
2401 AC_CHECK_TOOL([STRIP], [strip]) manually is no longer required.
2402 * aclocal and automake are also installed with the version number
2403 appended, and some of the install directory names have changed.
2404 This lets you have multiple versions installed simultaneously.
2405 * Support for parsers and lexers in subdirectories.
2408 * Support for `configure.ac'.
2409 * Support for `else COND', `endif COND' and negated conditions `!COND'.
2410 * `make dist-all' is much faster.
2411 * Allows '@' AC_SUBSTs in macro names.
2412 * Faster AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE (requires update of `missing' script)
2413 * User-side dependency tracking. Developers no longer need GNU make
2415 * Uses DIST_SUBDIRS in some situations when SUBDIRS is conditional
2416 * Most files are correctly handled if they appear in subdirs
2417 For instance, a _DATA file can appear in a subdir
2418 * GNU tar is no longer required for `make dist'
2419 * Added support for `dist_' and `nodist_' prefixes
2420 * Added support for `nobase_' prefix
2421 * Compiled Java support
2422 * Support for per-executable and per-library compilation flags
2426 * Added support for the Fortran 77 programming language.
2427 * Re-indexed the Automake Texinfo manual.
2428 * Added `AM_FOOFLAGS' variable for each compiler invocation;
2429 e.g. AM_CFLAGS can be used in Makefile.am to set C compiler flags
2430 * Support for latest autoconf, including support for objext
2431 * Can now put `.' in SUBDIRS to control build order
2432 * `include' command and `+=' support for macro assignment
2433 * Dependency tracking no long susceptible to deleted header file problem
2434 * Maintainer mode now a conditional. @MAINT@ is now an anachronism.
2439 * Better Cygwin32 support
2440 * Support for suffix rules with _SOURCES variables
2441 * New options `readme-alpha' and `check-news'; Gnits mode sets these
2442 * @LEXLIB@ no longer required when lex source seen
2443 Lex support in `missing', and new lex macro. Update your missing script.
2444 * Built-in support for assembly
2445 * aclocal gives error if `AM_' macro not found
2446 * Passed YFLAGS, not YACCFLAGS, to yacc
2447 * AM_PROG_CC_STDC does not have to come before AC_PROG_CPP
2448 * Dependencies computed as a side effect of compilation
2449 * Preliminary support for Java
2450 * DESTDIR support at "make install" time
2451 * Improved ansi2knr support; you must use the latest ansi2knr.c (included)
2455 * Better DejaGnu support
2456 * Added no-installinfo option
2457 * Added Emacs Lisp support
2458 * Added --no-force option
2459 * Included `aclocal' program
2460 * Automake will now generate rules to regenerate aclocal.m4, if appropriate
2461 * Now uses `AM_' macro names everywhere
2462 * ansi2knr option can have directory prefix (eg `../lib/ansi2knr')
2463 ansi2knr now works correctly on K&R sources
2464 * Better C++, yacc, lex support
2465 * Will compute _DEPENDENCIES variables automatically if not supplied
2466 * Will interpolate $(...) and ${...} when examining contents of a variable
2467 * .deps files now in build directory, not source directory; dependency
2468 handling generally rewritten
2469 * DATA, MANS and BUILT_SOURCES no longer included in distribution
2470 * can now put config.h into a subdir
2471 * Added dist-all target
2472 * Support for install-info program (see texinfo 3.9)
2473 * Support for "yacc -d"
2474 * configure substitutions are automatically discovered and included
2475 in generated Makefile.in
2476 * Special --cygnus mode
2477 * OMIT_DEPENDENCIES can now hold list of dependencies to be omitted
2478 when making distribution. Some dependencies are auto-ignored.
2479 * Changed how libraries are specified in _LIBRARIES variable
2480 * Full libtool support, from Gord Matzigkeit
2481 * No longer have to explicitly touch stamp-h when using AC_CONFIG_HEADER;
2482 AM_CONFIG_HEADER handles it automatically
2483 * Texinfo output files no longer need .info extension
2484 * Added `missing' support
2486 * Conditionals in Makefile.am, from Ian Taylor
2490 * distcheck target runs install and installcheck targets
2491 * Added preliminary support for DejaGnu.
2496 * More libtool fixes from Gord Matzigkeit; libtool support is still
2498 * Added support for jm_MAINTAINER_MODE
2500 * New "distcheck" target
2504 * mkinstalldirs and mdate-sh now appear in directory specified by
2506 * Removed DIST_SUBDIRS, DIST_OTHER
2507 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM only required when an actual program exists
2508 * dist-hook target now run before distribution packaged up; idea from
2509 Dieter Baron. Other hooks exist, too.
2510 * Preliminary (unfinished) support for libtool
2511 * Added short option names.
2512 * Better "dist" support when gluing together multiple packages
2516 * Documentation updates (many from François Pinard)
2517 * strictness `normal' now renamed to `foreign'
2518 * Renamed --install-missing to --add-missing
2519 * Now handles AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
2520 * Now handles TESTS macro
2521 * DIST_OTHER renamed to EXTRA_DIST
2522 * DIST_SUBDIRS is deprecated
2523 * @ALLOCA@ and @LIBOBJS@ now work in _LDADD variables
2524 * Better error messages in many cases
2525 * Program names are canonicalized
2526 * Added "check" prefix; from Gord Matzigkeit
2530 * configure.in scanner knows about AC_PATH_XTRA, AC_OUTPUT ":" syntax
2531 * Beginnings of a test suite
2532 * Automatically adds -I options for $(srcdir), ".", and path to config.h
2533 * Doesn't print anything when running
2534 * Beginnings of MAINT_CHARSET support
2535 * Can specify version in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS
2536 * Most errors recognizable by Emacs' M-x next-error
2537 * Added --verbose option
2538 * All "primary" variables now obsolete; use EXTRA_PRIMARY to supply
2539 configure-generated names
2540 * Required macros now distributed in aclocal.m4
2542 * --strictness=gnu is default
2546 * More sophisticated configure.in scanning; now understands ALLOCA and
2547 LIBOBJS directly, handles AC_CONFIG_HEADER more precisely, etc.
2548 * TEXINFOS and MANS now obsolete; use info_TEXINFOS and man_MANS instead.
2549 * CONFIG_HEADER variable now obsolete
2550 * Can handle multiple Texinfo sources
2551 * Allow hierarchies deeper than 2. From Gord Matzigkeit.
2552 * HEADERS variable no longer needed; now can put .h files directly into
2553 foo_SOURCES variable.
2554 * Automake automatically rebuilds files listed in AC_OUTPUT. The
2555 corresponding ".in" files are included in the distribution.
2558 * Added --gnu and --gnits options
2559 * More standards checking
2561 * Cleaned up 'dist' targets
2562 * Added AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS variable and several options
2563 * Now scans configure.in to get some information (preliminary)
2566 * Works with Perl 4 again
2569 * Added --install-missing option.
2570 * Pretty-prints generated macros and rules
2571 * Comments in Makefile.am are placed more intelligently in Makefile.in
2572 * Generates .PHONY target
2573 * Rule or macro in Makefile.am now overrides contents of Automake file
2574 * Substantial cleanups from François Pinard
2578 * Works with Perl 4 again.
2581 * New uniform naming scheme.
2582 * --strictness option
2584 * '.c' files corresponding to '.y' or '.l' files are automatically
2586 * Many bug fixes and cleanups
2589 * Allow objects to be conditionally included in libraries via lib_LIBADD.
2592 * Bug fixes in 'clean' code.
2593 * Now generates 'installdirs' target.
2594 * man page installation reworked.
2595 * 'make dist' no longer re-creates all Makefile.in's.
2598 * Reimplemented in Perl
2599 * Added --amdir option (for debugging)
2600 * Texinfo support cleaned up.
2601 * Automatic de-ANSI-fication cleaned up.
2602 * Cleaned up 'clean' targets.
2605 * Automatic dependency tracking
2606 * More documentation
2607 * New variables DATA and PACKAGEDATA
2608 * SCRIPTS installed using $(INSTALL_SCRIPT)
2609 * No longer uses double-colon rules
2611 * Changes in advance of internationalization
2615 Copyright (C) 1995-2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2617 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
2618 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
2619 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
2622 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
2623 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
2624 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
2625 GNU General Public License for more details.
2627 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
2628 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.