1 For planned incompatibilities in a possible future Automake 2.0 release,
2 please see NEWS-future and start following the advice there now.
4 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
7 * New supported languages
9 - Support for Algol 68 added, based on the GNU Algol 68 compiler.
11 * Miscellaneous changes
13 - Only require the presence of an ABOUT-NLS file at the 'gnits'
18 - Do not make Perl warnings fatal, per Perl's recommendation.
20 - Avoid Perl 5.41.8+ precedence warning for use of !!.
22 - The compile script is more robust to various Windows configurations.
24 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
30 - AM_PATH_PYTHON will, after checking "python", prefer any Python 3
31 version (latest versions checked first) over any Python 2
32 version. If a specific version of Python 2 is still needed, the
33 $PYTHON variable should be set beforehand.
35 - AM_PATH_PYTHON will also search for Python versions 3.20 through 3.10.
36 It previously searched for 3.9 through 3.0. (bug#53530)
38 - RANLIB may be overridden on a per-target basis.
40 - AM_TEXI2FLAGS may be defined to pass extra flags to TEXI2DVI & TEXI2PDF.
42 - New option "posix" to emit the special target .POSIX for make.
43 (bug#55025, bug#67891)
45 - Systems with non-POSIX "rm -f" behavior are now supported, and the
46 prior intent to drop support for them has been reversed.
47 The ACCEPT_INFERIOR_RM_PROGRAM setting no longer exists.
50 - Variables using escaped \# will trigger portability warnings, but be
51 retained when appended. GNU Make & BSD Makes are known to support it.
54 - GNU Make's default pattern rules are disabled, for speed and debugging.
55 (.SUFFIXES was already cleared.) (bug#64743)
57 - For Texinfo documents, if a .texi.in file exists, but no .texi, the
58 .texi.in will be read. Texinfo source files need not be present at
59 all, and if present, need not contain @setfilename. Then the file name
60 as given in the Makefile.am will be used. If @setfilename is present,
61 it should be the basename of the Texinfo file, extended with .info.
64 - aclocal has a new option --aclocal-path to override $ACLOCAL_PATH.
65 (https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake-patches/2022-01/msg00029.html)
67 - The missing script also supports autoreconf, autogen, and perl.
68 (https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake-patches/2015-08/msg00000.html)
70 - test-suite.log now contains basic system information, and the
71 console message about bug reporting on failure has a bit more detail.
72 (bug#68746, bug#71421)
74 - When using the (default) "parallel" test driver, you can now omit the
75 output of skipped tests from test-suite.log by defining the
76 variable IGNORE_SKIPPED_LOGS to a non-empty value. (bug#71422)
80 - Generated file timestamp checks handle filesystems with subsecond
81 timestamp granularity dynamically, greatly speeding up the sleep
82 done by AC_OUTPUT when generating config.status (all packages) and
83 Automake's make check.
85 However, this subsecond-mtime support requires an autom4te from
86 Autoconf 2.72 or later (or random test failures and other timing
87 problems may ensue), as well as a Perl, sleep program, make program,
88 and filesystem that all support subsecond resolution; otherwise, we
89 fall back to a two-second granularity, not even testing the (common)
90 1s case since that would induce a 2s delay for all configure scripts
91 in all packages on all systems that don't support subsecond mtimes.
93 When everything is supported, a line "Features: subsecond-mtime" is
94 now printed by automake --version and autom4te --version.
96 To override this check and delay, e.g. to use 1 second:
97 am_cv_filesystem_timestamp_resolution=1
98 export am_cv_filesystem_timestamp_resolution
101 https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake-commit/2022-02/msg00009.html
102 then bug#60808, bug#64756, bug#67670, bug#68808, bug#71652,
104 https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake/2024-06/msg00054.html
105 and more info in surrounding threads.)
107 - The default value of $ARFLAGS is now "cr" instead of "cru", to better
108 support deterministic builds. (bug#20082)
110 - Automake's make dist now uses -9 instead of --best with gzip,
111 because Alpine gzip does not support --best. Also, GZIP_ENV is used
112 only for compression, not decompression, because of the same system.
115 - Dependency files are now empty, instead of "# dummy", for speed.
116 (https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake/2022-05/msg00006.html)
118 - Compiling Python modules with Python 3.5+ uses multiple optimization
121 - If the Python installation "scheme" is set to posix_local (Debian),
122 it is reset to either deb_system (if the prefix = /usr), or
123 posix_prefix (otherwise). (bug#54412, bug#64837)
125 - As a result of the Python scheme change, the installation directory
126 for Python files again defaults to "site-packages" under the usual
127 installation prefix, even on systems (generally Debian-based) that
128 would normally use the "dist-packages" subdirectory under
131 - When compiling Emacs Lisp files, emacs is run with --no-site-file to
132 disable user config files that might hang or access the terminal;
133 and -Q is not used, since its support and behavior varies. (bug#58102)
135 - Emacs Lisp compilations respect silent make output.
137 - Automake no longer incorrectly warns that the POSIX make variables
138 $(*D) and the like are non-POSIX. Unfortunately, the make
139 implementations which do not correctly implement all the POSIX
140 variables are not detected, but this seems to have little impact
141 in practice. (bug#9587)
143 - Pass libtool tags OBJC and OBJCXX for the respective languages.
146 - distcleancheck ignores "silly rename" files (.nfs* .smb* .__afs*)
147 that can show up on network file systems.
148 (https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake/2022-09/msg00002.html)
150 - Pass any options given to AM_PROG_LEX on to AC_PROG_LEX.
151 (bug#65600, bug#65730)
153 - aclocal: recognize ; as path separator on OS/2 and Windows. (bug#71534)
155 - Hash iterations with external effects now consistently sort keys.
156 (bug#25629, bug#46744)
158 - tests: avoid some declaration conflicts for lex et al. on SunOS.
159 (bug#34151 and others)
161 - tests: declare yyparse before use and use (void) parameter lists
162 instead of (), to placate C23. (bug#71425)
164 - Typos in code and other doc fixes. (bug#68003, bug#68004, et al.)
168 - py-compile no longer supports Python 0.x or 1.x versions. Python 2.0,
169 released in 2000, is currently the minimum required version.
171 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
177 - PYTHON_PREFIX and PYTHON_EXEC_PREFIX are now set according to
178 Python's sys.* values only if the new configure option
179 --with-python-sys-prefix is specified. Otherwise, GNU default values
180 are used, as in the past. (The change in 1.16.3 was too incompatible.)
182 - consistently depend on install-libLTLIBRARIES.
186 - use const for yyerror declaration in bison/yacc tests.
188 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
194 - The PYTHON_PREFIX and PYTHON_EXEC_PREFIX variables are now set from
195 Python's sys.prefix and sys.exec_prefix; use the new configure options
196 --with-python_prefix and --with-python_exec_prefix to specify explicitly.
198 - Common top-level files can be provided as .md; the non-md version is
199 used if both are present:
200 AUTHORS ChangeLog INSTALL NEWS README README-alpha THANKS
202 - CTAGS, ETAGS, SCOPE variables can be set via configure.
204 - Silent make output for custom link commands.
206 - New option "no-dist-built-sources" skips generating $(BUILT_SOURCES)
207 before building the tarball as part of "make dist", that is,
208 omits the dependency of $(distdir): $(BUILT_SOURCES).
212 - automake output more reproducible.
214 - test-driver less likely to clash with tests writing to the same file.
216 - DejaGnu tests always use the directory name, testsuite/, for
217 compatibility with the newer dejagnu-1.6.3 and with prior versions.
221 - config.sub and config.guess updates include restoration of `...`
222 for maximum portability.
224 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
230 - In the testsuite summary, the "for $(PACKAGE_STRING)" suffix
231 can be overridden with the AM_TESTSUITE_SUMMARY_HEADER variable.
235 - Python version number 3.10 no longer considered to be 3.1.
237 - Broken links in manual fixed or removed, and new script
238 contrib/checklinkx (a small modification of W3C checklink) added,
239 with accompany target checklinkx to recheck urls.
241 - install-exec target depends on $(BUILT_SOURCES).
243 - valac argument matching more precise, to avoid garbage in DIST_COMMON.
245 - Support for Vala in VPATH builds fixed so that both freshly-generated and
246 distributed C files work, and operation is more reliable with or without
249 - Dejagnu doesn't break on directories containing spaces.
253 - new variable AM_DISTCHECK_DVI_TARGET, to allow overriding the
254 "make dvi" that is done as part of distcheck.
256 * Miscellaneous changes
259 . new option -p to preserve mtime, i.e., invoke cp -p.
260 . new option -S SUFFIX to attempt backup files using SUFFIX.
261 . no longer unconditionally uses -f when rm is overridden by RMPROG.
262 . does not chown existing directories.
264 - Removed function up_to_date_p in lib/Automake/FileUtils.pm.
265 We believe this function is completely unused.
267 - Support for in-tree Vala libraries improved.
269 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
275 - add zstd support and the automake option, dist-zstd.
277 - support for Python 3: py-compile now supports both Python 3
278 and Python 2; tests do not require .pyo files, and uninstall
279 deletes __pycache__ correctly (automake bug #32088).
281 * Miscellaneous changes
283 - automake no longer requires a @setfilename in each .texi file
287 - When cleaning the compiled python files, '\n' is not used anymore in the
288 substitution text of 'sed' transformations. This is done to preserve
289 compatibility with the 'sed' implementation provided by macOS which
290 considers '\n' as the 'n' character instead of a newline.
293 - For make tags, lisp_LISP is followed by the necessary space when
294 used with CONFIG_HEADERS.
297 - The automake test txinfo-vtexi4.sh no longer fails when localtime
298 and UTC cross a day boundary.
300 - Emacsen older than version 25, which require use of
301 byte-compile-dest-file, are supported again.
303 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
309 - 'install-sh' now ensures that nobody can cross privilege boundaries by
310 pre-creating symlink on the directory inside "/tmp".
312 - 'automake' does not depend on the 'none' subroutine of the List::Util
313 module anymore to support older Perl version. (automake bug#30631)
315 - A regression in AM_PYTHON_PATH causing the rejection of non literal
316 minimum version parameter hasn't been fixed. (automake bug#30616)
318 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
322 * Miscellaneous changes
324 - When subdir-objects is in effect, Automake will now construct
325 shorter object file names when no programs and libraries name
326 clashes are encountered. This should make the discouraged use of
327 'foo_SHORTNAME' unnecessary in many cases.
331 - Automatic dependency tracking has been fixed to work also when the
332 'subdir-object' option is used and some 'foo_SOURCES' definition
333 contains unexpanded references to make variables, as in, e.g.:
335 a_src = sources/libs/aaa
337 foo_SOURCES = $(a_src)/bar.c $(b_src)/baz.c
339 With such a setup, the created makefile fragment containing dependency
340 tracking information will be correctly placed under the directories
341 named 'sources/libs/aaa/.deps' and 'sources/bbb/.deps', rather than
342 mistakenly under directories named (literally!) '$(src_a)/.deps' and
343 '$(src_b)/.deps' (this was the first part of automake bug#13928).
345 Notice that in order to fix this bug we had to slightly change the
346 semantics of how config.status bootstraps the makefile fragments
347 required for the dependency tracking to work: rather than attempting
348 to parse the Makefiles via grep and sed trickeries only, we actually
349 invoke 'make' on a slightly preprocessed version of those Makefiles,
350 using a private target that is only meant to bootstrap the required
353 - The 'subdir-object' option no longer causes object files corresponding
354 to source files specified with an explicit '$(srcdir)' component to be
355 placed in the source tree rather than in the build tree.
357 For example, if Makefile.am contains:
359 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = subdir-objects
360 foo_SOURCES = $(srcdir)/foo.c $(srcdir)/s/bar.c $(top_srcdir)/baz.c
362 then "make all" will create 'foo.o' and 's/bar.o' in $(builddir) rather
363 than in $(srcdir), and will create 'baz.o' in $(top_builddir) rather
364 than in $(top_srcdir).
366 This was the second part of automake bug#13928.
368 - Installed 'aclocal' m4 macros can now accept installation directories
369 containing '@' characters (automake bug#20903)
371 - "./configure && make dist" no longer fails when a distributed file depends
372 on one from BUILT_SOURCES.
374 - When combining AC_LIBOBJ or AC_FUNC_ALLOCA with the
375 "--disable-dependency-tracking" configure option in an out of source
376 build, the build sub-directory defined by AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR is now
377 properly created. (automake bug#27781)
379 - The time printed by 'mdate-sh' is now using the UTC time zone to support
380 the reproducible build effort. (automake bug#20314)
382 - The elisp byte-compilation rule now uses byte-compile-dest-file-function,
383 rather than byte-compile-dest-file, which was obsoleted in 2009. We expect
384 that Emacs-26 will continue to support the old function, but will complain
385 loudly, and that Emacs-27 will remove support for it altogether.
389 - A custom testsuite driver for the Guile Scheme SRFI-64 API has been added
390 to the "contrib" section. This allows a more convenient way to test Guile
391 code without having to use low primitives such as exit status. See
392 SRFI-64 API specification for more details:
393 <https://srfi.schemers.org/srfi-64/srfi-64.html>
395 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
401 - The code has been adapted to remove a warning present since Perl
402 5.22 stating that "Unescaped left brace in regex is deprecated".
403 This warning has become an hard error in Perl 5.26 (bug#22372).
405 - The generated Makefiles do not rely on the obsolescent GZIP
406 environment variable which was used for passing arguments to
407 'gzip'. Compatibility with old versions has been
408 preserved. (bug#20132)
410 * Miscellaneous changes:
412 - Support the Windows version of the Intel C Compiler (icl) in the
413 'compile' script in the same way the (compatible) Microsoft C
414 Compiler is supported.
416 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
420 * Improvements and refactorings in the install-sh script:
422 - It has been modernized, and now makes the following assumptions
424 (1) a working 'dirname' program is available;
425 (2) the ${var:-value} shell parameters substitution works;
426 (3) the "set -f" and "set +f" shell commands work, and, respectively,
427 disable and enable shell globbing.
429 - The script implements stricter error checking, and now it complains
430 and bails out if any of the following expectations is not met:
431 (1) the options -d and -t are never used together;
432 (2) the argument passed to option -t is a directory;
433 (3) if there are two or more SOURCEFILE arguments, the
434 DESTINATION argument must be a directory.
436 * Automake-generated testsuites:
438 - The default test-driver used by the Automake-generated testsuites
439 now appends the result and exit status of each "plain" test to the
440 associated log file (automake bug#11814).
442 - The perl implementation of the TAP testsuite driver is no longer
443 installed in the Automake's scripts directory, and is instead just
444 distributed as a "contrib" addition. There should be no reason to
445 use this implementation anyway in real packages, since the awk+shell
446 implementation of the TAP driver (which is documented in the manual)
447 is more portable and has feature parity with the perl implementation.
449 - The rule generating 'test-suite.log' no longer risk incurring in an
450 extra useless "make all" recursive invocation in some corner cases
451 (automake bug#16302).
455 - Automake bug#18286: "make distcheck" could sometimes fail to detect
456 files missing from the distribution tarball, especially in those cases
457 where both the generated files and their dependencies are explicitly
458 in $(srcdir). An important example of this are *generated* makefile
459 fragments included at Automake time in Makefile.am; e.g.:
462 $(srcdir)/fragment.am: $(srcdir)/data.txt $(srcdir)/preproc.sh
463 cd $(srcdir) && $(SHELL) preproc.sh <data.txt >fragment.am
464 include $(srcdir)/fragment.am
467 If the user forgot to add data.txt and/or preproc.sh in the distribution
468 tarball, "make distcheck" would have erroneously succeeded! This issue
471 - As a consequence of the previous change, "make distcheck" will run
472 using '$(distdir)/_build/sub' as the build directory, rather than
473 simply '$(distdir)/_build' (as it was the case for Automake 1.14 and
474 earlier). Consequently, the './configure' and 'make' invocations
475 issued by the distcheck recipe now have $(srcdir) equal to '../..',
476 rather than to just '..'. Dependent and similar variables (e.g.,
477 '$(top_srcdir)') are also changed accordingly.
479 Thus, Makefiles that made assumptions about the exact values of the
480 build and source directories used by "make distcheck" will have to
481 be adjusted. Notice that making such assumptions was a bad and
482 unsupported practice anyway, since the exact locations of those
483 directories should be considered implementation details, and we
484 reserve the right to change them at any time.
486 * Miscellaneous bugs fixed:
488 - The expansion of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE ends once again with a trailing
489 newline (bug#16841). Regression introduced in Automake 1.14.
491 - We no longer risk to use '$ac_aux_dir' before it's defined (see
492 automake bug#15981). Bug introduced in Automake 1.14.
494 - The code used to detect whether the currently used make is GNU make
495 or not (relying on the private macro 'am__is_gnu_make') no longer
496 risks causing "Arg list too long" for projects using automatic
497 dependency tracking and having a ton of source files (bug#18744).
499 - Automake tries to offer a more deterministic output for generated
500 Makefiles, in the face of the newly-introduced randomization for
501 hash keys order in Perl 5.18.
503 - In older Automake versions, if a user defined one single Makefile
504 fragment (say 'foo.am') to be included via Automake includes in
505 his main Makefile.am, and defined a custom make rule to generate that
506 file from other data, Automake used to spuriously complain with some
507 message like "... overrides Automake target '$(srcdir)/foo.am".
508 This bug is now fixed.
510 - The user can now extend the special .PRECIOUS target, the same way
511 he could already do with the .MAKE .and .PHONY targets.
513 - Some confusing typos have been fixed in the manual and in few warning
514 messages (automake bug#16827 and bug#16997).
516 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
522 - The user is no longer allowed to override the --srcdir nor the --prefix
523 configure options used by "make distcheck" (bug#14991).
525 - Fixed a gross inefficiency in the recipes for installing byte-compiled
526 python files, that was causing an O(N^2) performance on the number N of
527 files, instead of the expected O(N) performance. Note that this bug
528 was only relevant when the number of python files was high (which is
529 unusual in practice).
531 - Automake try to offer a more deterministic output for warning messages,
532 in the face of the newly-introduced randomization for hash keys order
535 - The 'test-driver' script now actually error out with a clear error
536 message on the most common invalid usages.
538 - Several spurious failures/hangs in the testsuite (bugs #14706, #14707,
539 #14760, #14911, #15181, #15237).
541 * Documentation fixes:
543 - Fixed typos in the 'fix-timestamp.sh' example script that made it
546 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
550 * C compilation, and the AC_PROG_CC and AM_PROG_CC_C_O macros:
552 - The 'compile' script is now unconditionally required for all packages
553 that perform C compilation (if you are using the '--add-missing'
554 option, automake will fetch that script for you, so you shouldn't
555 need any explicit adjustment). This new behavior is needed to avoid
556 obscure errors when the 'subdir-objects' option is used, and the
557 compiler is an inferior one that doesn't grasp the combined use of
558 both the "-c -o" options; see discussion about automake bug#13378 for
560 <https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=13378#35>
561 <https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=13378#44>
563 - The next major Automake version (2.0) will unconditionally activate
564 the 'subdir-objects' option. In order to smooth out the transition,
565 we now give a warning (in the category 'unsupported') whenever a
566 source file is present in a subdirectory but the 'subdir-object' is
567 not enabled. For example, the following usage will trigger such a
570 bin_PROGRAMS = sub/foo
571 sub_foo_SOURCES = sub/main.c sub/bar.c
573 - Automake will automatically enhance the autoconf-provided macro
574 AC_PROG_CC to force it to check, at configure time, that the
575 C compiler supports the combined use of both the '-c' and '-o'
576 options. The result of this check is saved in the cache variable
577 'am_cv_prog_cc_c_o', and said result can be overridden by
578 pre-defining that variable.
580 - The AM_PROG_CC_C_O macro can still be called, albeit that should no
581 longer be necessary. This macro is now just a thin wrapper around the
582 Automake-enhanced AC_PROG_CC. This means, among the other things,
583 that its behavior is changed in three ways:
585 1. It no longer invokes the Autoconf-provided AC_PROG_CC_C_O
586 macro behind the scenes.
588 2. It caches the check result in the 'am_cv_prog_cc_c_o' variable,
589 and not in a 'ac_cv_prog_cc_*_c_o' variable whose exact name is
590 dynamically computed only at configure runtime (really!) from
591 the content of the '$CC' variable.
593 3. It no longer automatically AC_DEFINE the C preprocessor
594 symbol 'NO_MINUS_C_MINUS_O'.
598 - Automake can now be instructed to place '.info' files generated from
599 Texinfo input in the builddir rather than in the srcdir; this is done
600 specifying the new automake option 'info-in-builddir'. This feature
601 was requested by the developers of GCC, GDB, GNU binutils and the GNU
602 bfd library. See the extensive discussion about automake bug#11034
605 - For quite a long time, Automake has been implementing an undocumented
606 hack which ensured that '.info' files which appeared to be cleaned
607 (by being listed in the CLEANFILES or DISTCLEANFILES variables) were
608 built in the builddir rather than in the srcdir; this hack was
609 introduced to ensure better backward-compatibility with package
610 such as Texinfo, which do things like:
612 info_TEXINFOS = texinfo.txi info-stnd.texi info.texi
613 DISTCLEANFILES = texinfo texinfo-* info*.info*
614 # Do not create info files for distribution.
618 in order not to distribute generated '.info' files.
620 Now that we have the 'info-in-builddir' option that explicitly causes
621 generated '.info' files to be placed in the builddir, this hack should
622 be longer necessary, so we deprecate it with runtime warnings.
623 It will be removed altogether in Automake 2.0.
625 * Relative directory in Makefile fragments:
627 - The special Automake-time substitutions '%reldir%' and '%canon_reldir%'
628 (and their short versions, '%D%' and '%C%' respectively) can now be used
629 in an included Makefile fragment. The former is substituted with the
630 relative directory of the included fragment (compared to the top-level
631 including Makefile), and the latter with the canonicalized version of
632 the same relative directory.
635 bin_PROGRAMS = # will be updated by included Makefile fragments
636 include src/Makefile.inc
638 # in 'src/Makefile.inc':
639 bin_PROGRAMS += %reldir%/foo
640 %canon_reldir%_foo_SOURCES = %reldir%/bar.c
642 This should be especially useful for packages using a non-recursive
645 * Deprecated distribution formats:
647 - The 'shar' and 'compress' distribution formats are deprecated, and
648 scheduled for removal in Automake 2.0. Accordingly, the use of the
649 'dist-shar' and 'dist-tarZ' will cause warnings at automake runtime
650 (in the 'obsolete' category), and the recipes of the Automake-generated
651 targets 'dist-shar' and 'dist-tarZ' will unconditionally display
652 (non-fatal) warnings at make runtime.
654 * New configure runtime warnings about "rm -f" support:
656 - To simplify transition to Automake 2.0, the shell code expanded by
657 AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE now checks (at configure runtime) that the default
658 'rm' program in PATH doesn't complain when called without any
659 non-option argument if the '-f' option is given (so that commands like
660 "rm -f" and "rm -rf" act as a no-op, instead of raising usage errors).
661 If this is not the case, the configure script is aborted, to call the
662 attention of the user on the issue, and invite him to fix his PATH.
663 The checked 'rm' behavior is very widespread in the wild, and will be
664 required by future POSIX versions:
666 <http://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=542>
668 The user can still force the configure process to complete even in the
669 presence of a broken 'rm' by defining the ACCEPT_INFERIOR_RM_PROGRAM
670 environment variable to "yes". And the generated Makefiles should
671 still work correctly even when such broken 'rm' is used. But note
672 that this will no longer be the case with Automake 2.0 though, so, if
673 you encounter the warning, please report it to us ASAP (and try to fix
674 your environment as well).
676 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
682 - Fix a minor regression introduced in Automake 1.13.3: when two or more
683 user-defined suffix rules were present in a single Makefile.am,
684 automake would needlessly include definition of some make variables
685 related to C compilation in the generated Makefile.in (bug#14560).
687 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
691 * Documentation fixes:
693 - The documentation no longer mistakenly reports that the obsolete
694 'AM_MKDIR_PROG_P' macro and '$(mkdir_p)' make variable are going
695 to be removed in Automake 2.0.
699 - Byte-compilation of Emacs lisp files could fail spuriously on
700 Solaris, when /bin/ksh or /usr/xpg4/bin/sh were used as shell.
702 - If the same user-defined suffixes were transformed into different
703 Automake-known suffixes in different Makefile.am files in the same
704 project, automake could get confused and generate inconsistent
705 Makefiles (automake bug#14441).
706 For example, if 'Makefile.am' contained a ".ext.cc:" suffix rule,
707 and 'sub/Makefile.am' contained a ".ext.c:" suffix rule, automake
708 would have mistakenly placed into 'Makefile.in' rules to compile
709 "*.c" files into object files, and into 'sub/Makefile.in' rules to
710 compile "*.cc" files into object files --- rather than the other
711 way around. This is now fixed.
715 - The test cases no longer have the executable bit set. This should
716 make it clear that they are not meant to be run directly; as
717 explained in t/README, they can only be run through the custom
718 'runtest' script, or by a "make check" invocation.
720 - The testsuite has seen the introduction of a new helper function
721 'run_make', and several related changes. These serve a two-fold
724 1. Remove brittleness due to the use of "make -e" in test cases.
726 2. Seamlessly allow the use of parallel make ("make -j...") in the
727 test cases, even where redirection of make output is involved
728 (see automake bug#11413 for a description of the subtle issues
731 - Several spurious failures have been fixed (they hit especially
732 MinGW/MSYS builds). See automake bugs #14493, #14494, #14495,
733 #14498, #14499, #14500, #14501, #14517 and #14528.
735 - Some other minor miscellaneous changes and fixlets.
737 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
741 * Documentation fixes:
743 - The long-deprecated but still supported two-arguments invocation form
744 of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is documented once again. This seems the sanest
745 thing to do, given that support for such usage might need to remain
746 in place for an unspecified amount of time in order to cater to people
747 who want to define the version number for their package dynamically at
748 configure runtime (unfortunately, Autoconf does not yet support this
749 scenario, so we cannot delegate the work to it).
751 - The serial testsuite harness is no longer reported as "deprecated",
752 but as "discouraged". We have no plan to remove it, nor to make its
753 use cause runtime warnings.
755 - The parallel testsuite is no longer reported as "experimental"; it
756 is well tested, and should be stable now.
758 - The 'shar' and 'tarZ' distribution formats and the 'dist-shar' and
759 'dist-tarZ' options are obsolescent, and their use is deprecated
760 in the documentation.
762 - Other minor miscellaneous fixes and improvements; in particular,
763 some improvements in cross-references.
765 * Obsolescent features:
767 - Use of suffix-less info files (that can be specified through the
768 '@setfilename' macro in Texinfo input files) is discouraged, and
769 its use will raise warnings in the 'obsolete' category. Simply
770 use the '.info' extension for all your info files, transforming
773 @setfilename myprogram
777 @setfilename myprogram.info
779 - Use of Texinfo input files with '.txi' or '.texinfo' extensions
780 is discouraged, and its use will raise warnings in the 'obsolete'
781 category. You are advised to simply use the '.texi' extension
786 - When the 'ustar' option is used, the generated configure script no
787 longer risks hanging during the tests for the availability of the
788 'pax' utility, even if the user running configure has a UID or GID
789 that requires more than 21 bits to be represented.
790 See automake bug#8343 and bug#13588.
792 - The obsolete macros AM_CONFIG_HEADER or AM_PROG_CC_STDC work once
793 again, as they did in Automake 1.12.x (albeit printing runtime
794 warnings in the 'obsolete' category). Removing them has turned
795 out to be a very bad idea, because it complicated distro packing
796 enormously. Making them issue fatal warnings, as we did in
797 Automake 1.13, has turned out to be a similarly very bad idea,
798 for exactly the same reason.
800 - aclocal will no longer error out if the first local m4 directory
801 (as specified by the '-I' option or the 'AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS' or
802 'AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR' macros) doesn't exist; it will merely report
803 a warning in the 'unsupported' category. This is done to support
804 some pre-existing real-world usages. See automake bug#13514.
806 - aclocal will no longer consider directories for extra m4 files more
807 than once, even if they are specified multiple times. This ensures
808 packages that specify both
810 AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4]) in configure.ac
811 ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4 in Makefile.am
813 will work correctly, even when the 'm4' directory contains no
814 package-specific files, but is used only to install third-party
815 m4 files (as can happen with e.g., "libtoolize --install").
816 See automake bug#13514.
818 - Analysis of make flags in Automake-generated rules has been made more
819 robust, and more future-proof. For example, in presence of make that
820 (like '-I') take an argument, the characters in said argument will no
821 longer be spuriously considered as a set of additional make options.
822 In particular, automake-generated rules will no longer spuriously
823 believe to be running in dry mode ("make -n") if run with an invocation
824 like "make -I noob"; nor will they believe to be running in keep-going
825 mode ("make -k") if run with an invocation like "make -I kool"
826 (automake bug#12554).
828 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
834 - Use of the obsolete macros AM_CONFIG_HEADER or AM_PROG_CC_STDC now
835 causes a clear and helpful error message, instead of obscure ones
836 (issue introduced in Automake 1.13).
838 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
844 - ylwrap renames properly header guards in generated header files
845 (*.h), instead of leaving Y_TAB_H.
847 - ylwrap now also converts header guards in implementation files
848 (*.c). Because ylwrap failed to rename properly #include in the
849 implementation files, current versions of Bison (e.g., 2.7)
850 duplicate the generated header file in the implementation file.
851 The header guard then protects the implementation file from
852 duplicate definitions from the header file.
854 * Version requirements:
856 - Autoconf 2.65 or greater is now required.
858 - The rules to build PDF and DVI output from Texinfo input now
859 require Texinfo 4.9 or later.
863 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (once enabled by the 'cygnus'
864 option) has been removed. See discussion about automake bug#11034
865 for more background: <https://debbugs.gnu.org/11034>.
867 - The deprecated aclocal option '--acdir' has been removed. You
868 should use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir'
869 instead (which have been introduced in Automake 1.11.2).
871 - The following long-obsolete m4 macros have been removed:
873 AM_PROG_CC_STDC: superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002
874 fp_PROG_CC_STDC: broken alias for AM_PROG_CC_STDC
875 fp_WITH_DMALLOC: old alias for AM_WITH_DMALLOC
876 AM_CONFIG_HEADER: superseded by AC_CONFIG_HEADERS since July 2002
877 ud_PATH_LISPDIR: old alias for AM_PATH_LISPDIR
878 jm_MAINTAINER_MODE: old alias for AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
879 ud_GNU_GETTEXT: old alias for AM_GNU_GETTEXT
880 gm_PROG_LIBTOOL: old alias for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
881 fp_C_PROTOTYPES: old alias for AM_C_PROTOTYPES (which was part
882 of the now-removed automatic de-ANSI-fication
885 - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' have been removed.
887 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
888 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is no longer documented. It's still supported
889 though (albeit with a warning in the 'obsolete' category), to cater
890 for people who want to define the version number for their package
891 dynamically (e.g., from the current VCS revision). We'll have to
892 continue this support until Autoconf itself is fixed to allow better
893 support for such dynamic version numbers.
895 * Elisp byte-compilation:
897 - The byte compilation of '.el' files into '.elc' files is now done
898 with a suffix rule. This has simplified the compilation process, and
899 more importantly made it less brittle. The downside is that emacs is
900 now invoked once for each '.el' files, which cause some noticeable
901 slowdowns. These should however be mitigated on multicore machines
902 (which are becoming the norm today) if concurrent make ("make -j")
905 - Elisp files placed in a subdirectory are now byte-compiled to '.elc'
906 files in the same subdirectory; for example, byte-compiling of file
907 'sub/foo.el' file will result in 'sub/foo.elc' rather than in
908 'foo.elc'. This behavior is backward-incompatible with older
909 Automake versions, but it is more natural and more sane. See also
912 - The Emacs invocation performing byte-compilation of '.el' files honors
913 the $(AM_ELCFLAGS) and $(ELCFLAGS) variables; as typical, the former
914 one is developer-reserved and the latter one user-reserved.
916 - The 'elisp-comp' script, once provided by Automake, has been rendered
917 obsoleted by the just-described changes, and thus removed.
919 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
921 - The parallel testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the
922 'parallel-tests' option) is the default one; the older serial
923 testsuite harness will still be available through the use of the
924 'serial-tests' option (introduced in Automake 1.12).
926 - The 'color-tests' option is now unconditionally activated by default.
927 In particular, this means that testsuite output is now colorized by
928 default if the attached terminal seems to support ANSI escapes, and
929 that the user can force output colorization by setting the variable
930 AM_COLOR_TESTS to "always". The 'color-tests' is still recognized
931 for backward-compatibility, although it's a handled as a no-op now.
933 * Silent rules support:
935 - Support for silent rules is now always active in Automake-generated
936 Makefiles. So, although the verbose output is still the default,
937 the user can now always use "./configure --enable-silent-rules" or
938 "make V=0" to enable quieter output in the package he's building.
940 - The 'silent-rules' option has now become a no-op, preserved for
941 backward-compatibility only. In particular, its use no longer
942 disables the warnings in the 'portability-recursive' category.
946 - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now require
947 Texinfo 4.9 or later.
949 - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now use the
950 '--build-dir' option, to keep the auxiliary files used by texi2dvi
951 and texi2pdf around without cluttering the build directory, and to
952 make it possible to run the "dvi" and "pdf" recipes in parallel.
954 * Automatic remake rules and 'missing' script:
956 - The 'missing' script no longer tries to update the timestamp of
957 out-of-date files that require a maintainer-specific tool to be
958 remade, in case the user lacks such a tool (or has a too-old version
959 of it). It just gives a useful warning, and in some cases also a
960 tip about how to obtain such a tool.
962 - The missing script has thus become useless as a (poor) way to work
963 around the sketched-timestamps issues that can happen for projects
964 that keep generated files committed in their VCS repository. Such
965 projects are now encouraged to write a custom "fix-timestamp.sh"
966 script to avoid such issues; a simple example is provided in the
967 "CVS and generated files" chapter of the automake manual.
971 - The user can now define his own recursive targets that recurse
972 in the directories specified in $(SUBDIRS). This can be done by
973 specifying the name of such targets in invocations of the new
974 'AM_EXTRA_RECURSIVE_TARGETS' m4 macro.
978 - Any failure in the recipe of the "tags", "ctags", "cscope" or
979 "cscopelist" targets in a subdirectory is now propagated to the
980 top-level make invocation.
982 - Tags are correctly computed also for files in _SOURCES variables that
983 only list files with non-standard suffixes (see automake bug#12372).
985 * Improvements to aclocal and related rebuilds rules:
987 - Autoconf-provided macros AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR and AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS
988 are now traced by aclocal, and can be used to declare the local m4
989 include directories. Formerly, one had to specify it with an explicit
990 '-I' option to the 'aclocal' invocation.
992 - The special make variable ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS may be deprecated in
993 a future Automake major release.
995 * The depcomp script:
997 - Dropped support for libtool 1.4.
999 - Various internal refactorings. They should cause no visible change,
1000 but the chance for regression is there anyway, so please report any
1001 unexpected or suspicious behavior.
1003 - Support for pre-8.0 versions of the Intel C Compiler has been dropped.
1004 This should cause no problem, since icc 8.0 has been released in
1005 December 2003 -- almost nine years ago.
1007 - Support for tcc (the Tiny C Compiler) has been improved, and is now
1008 handled through a dedicated 'tcc' mode.
1010 * The ylwrap script:
1012 - ylwrap generates header guards with a single '_' for series of non
1013 alphabetic characters, instead of several. This is what Bison >=
1016 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1018 Bugs fixed in 1.12.6:
1020 * Python-related bugs:
1022 - The default installation location for python modules has been improved
1023 for Python 3 on Debian and Ubuntu systems, changing from:
1025 ${prefix}/lib/python3/dist-packages
1029 ${prefix}/lib/python3.x/site-packages
1031 This change should ensure modules installed using the default ${prefix}
1032 "/usr/local" are found by default by system python 3.x installations.
1033 See automake bug#10227.
1035 - Python byte-compilation supports the new layout mandated by PEP-3147,
1036 with its __pycache__ directory (automake bug#8847).
1038 * Build system issues:
1040 - The maintainer rebuild rules for Makefiles and aclocal.m4 in
1041 Automake's own build system works correctly again (bug introduced
1042 in Automake 1.12.5).
1046 - The Vala-related tests has been changed to adjust to the removal of
1047 the 'posix' profile in the valac compiler. See automake bug#12934
1050 - Some spurious testsuite failures related to older tools and systems
1053 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1059 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro has been enhanced to takes two further
1060 optional arguments; it's signature now being
1062 AM_PROG_VALAC([MINIMUM-VERSION], [ACTION-IF-FOUND],
1063 [ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND])
1065 - By default, AM_PROG_VALAC no longer aborts the configure invocation
1066 if the Vala compiler found is too old, but simply prints a warning
1067 messages (as it did when the Vala compiler was not found). This
1068 should avoid unnecessary difficulties for end users that just want
1069 to compile the unmodified, distributed Vala-generated C sources,
1070 but happens to have an old Vala compiler in their PATH. This fixes
1073 - If no proper Vala compiler is found at configure runtime, AM_PROG_VALAC
1074 will set the AC_SUBST'd variable 'VALAC' to 'valac' rather than to ':'.
1075 This is a better default, because with it a triggered makefile rule
1076 invoking a Vala compilation will clearly fail with an informative error
1077 message like "valac: command not found", rather than silently, with
1078 the error possibly going unnoticed or triggering harder-to-diagnose
1079 fallout failures in later steps.
1081 * Miscellaneous changes:
1083 - automake and aclocal no longer honors the 'perllibdir' environment
1084 variable. That had always been intended only as an hack required in
1085 the testsuite, not meant for any use beyond that.
1087 Bugs fixed in 1.12.5:
1089 * Long-standing bugs:
1091 - Automake no longer generates spurious remake rules invoking autoheader
1092 to regenerate the template corresponding to header files specified after
1093 the first one in AC_CONFIG_HEADERS (automake bug#12495).
1095 - When wrapping Microsoft tools, the 'compile' script falls back to
1096 finding classic 'libname.a' style libraries when 'name.lib' and
1097 'name.dll.lib' aren't available.
1099 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1103 * Warnings and deprecations:
1105 - Warnings in the 'obsolete' category are enabled by default both in
1106 automake and aclocal.
1108 * Miscellaneous changes:
1110 - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
1112 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1116 * Miscellaneous changes:
1118 - The '.m4' files provided by Automake no longer define serial numbers.
1119 This should cause no difference in the behavior of aclocal though.
1121 - Some testsuite weaknesses and spurious failures have been fixed.
1123 - There is initial support for automatic dependency tracking with the
1124 Portland Group C/C++ compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'pgcc'.
1126 Bugs fixed in 1.12.3:
1128 * Long-standing bugs:
1130 - Instead of renaming only self-references of files (typically for
1131 #lines), ylwrap now also renames references to the other generated
1132 files. This fixes support for GLR and C++ parsers from Bison (PR
1133 automake/491 and automake bug#7648): 'parser.c' now properly
1134 #includes 'parser.h' instead of 'y.tab.h'.
1136 - Generated files unknown to ylwrap are now preserved. This fixes
1137 C++ support for Bison (automake bug#7648): location.hh and the
1138 like are no longer discarded.
1140 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1144 * Warnings and deprecations:
1146 - Automake now issues a warning (in the 'portability' category) if
1147 'configure.in' is used instead of 'configure.ac' as the Autoconf
1148 input file. Such a warning will also be present in the next
1149 Autoconf version (2.70).
1153 - Recursive cleaning rules descends into the $(SUBDIRS) in the natural
1154 order (as done by the other recursive rules), rather than in the
1155 inverse order. They used to do that in order to work a round a
1156 limitation in an older implementation of the automatic dependency
1157 tracking support, but that limitation had been lifted years ago
1158 already, when the automatic dependency tracking based on side-effects
1159 of compilation had been introduced.
1161 - Cleaning rules for compiled objects (both "plain" and libtool) work
1162 better when subdir objects are involved, not triggering a distinct
1163 'rm' invocation for each such object. They do so by removing *any*
1164 compiled object file that is in the same directory of a subdir
1165 object. See automake bug#10697.
1167 * Silent rules support:
1169 - A new predefined $(AM_V_P) make variable is provided; it expands
1170 to a shell conditional that can be used in recipes to know whether
1171 make is being run in silent or verbose mode.
1173 Bugs fixed in 1.12.2:
1175 * SECURITY VULNERABILITIES!
1177 - The 'distcheck' recipe no longer grants temporary world-write
1178 permissions on the extracted distdir. Even if such rights were
1179 only granted for a vanishingly small time window, the implied
1180 race condition proved to be enough to allow a local attacker
1181 to run arbitrary code with the privileges of the user running
1182 "make distcheck". This is CVE-2012-3386.
1184 * Long-standing bugs:
1186 - The "recheck" targets behaves better in the face of build failures
1187 related to previously failed tests. For example, if a test is a
1188 compiled program that must be rerun by "make recheck", and its
1189 compilation fails, it will still be rerun by further "make recheck"
1190 invocations. See automake bug#11791.
1192 * Bugs introduced by 1.12.1:
1194 - Automake provides once again the '$(mkdir_p)' make variable and the
1195 '@mkdir_p@' substitution (both as simple aliases for '$(MKDIR_P)'),
1196 for better backward-compatibility.
1198 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1202 * New supported languages:
1204 - Support for Objective C++ has been added; it should work similarly to
1205 the support for Objective C.
1207 * Deprecated obsolescent features:
1209 - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
1210 of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macro now elicits a warning in the 'obsolete'
1211 category. Starting from some future major Automake release (likely
1212 post-1.13), such usages will no longer be allowed.
1214 - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (enabled by the 'cygnus' option) is
1215 now deprecated (its use triggers a warning in the 'obsolete' category).
1216 It will be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13).
1218 - The long-obsolete (since 1.10) automake-provided $(mkdir_p) make
1219 variable, @mkdir_p@ configure-time substitution and AM_PROG_MKDIR
1220 m4 macro are deprecated, eliciting a warning in the 'obsolete'
1223 * Miscellaneous changes:
1225 - The Automake test cases now require a proper POSIX-conforming shell.
1226 Older non-POSIX Bourne shells (like Solaris 10 /bin/sh) will no longer
1227 be accepted. In most cases, the user shouldn't have to specify such
1228 POSIX shell explicitly, since it will be looked up at configure time.
1229 Still, when this lookup fails, or when the user wants to override its
1230 conclusion, the variable 'AM_TEST_RUNNER_SHELL' can be used (pointing
1231 to the shell that will be used to run the Automake test cases).
1233 Bugs fixed in 1.12.1:
1235 * Bugs introduced by 1.12:
1237 - Several weaknesses in Automake's own build system and test suite
1240 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
1242 - When given non-option arguments, aclocal rejects them, instead of
1243 silently ignoring them.
1245 * Long-standing bugs:
1247 - When the 'color-tests' option is in use, forcing of colored testsuite
1248 output through "AM_COLOR_TESTS=always" works even if the terminal is
1249 a non-ANSI one, i.e., if the TERM environment variable has a value of
1252 - Several inefficiencies and poor performances in the implementation
1253 of the parallel-tests 'check' and 'recheck' targets have been fixed.
1255 - The post-processing of output "#line" directives done the ylwrap
1256 script is more faithful w.r.t. files in a subdirectory; for example,
1257 if the processed file is "src/grammar.y", ylwrap will correctly
1258 produce directives like:
1259 #line 7 "src/grammar.y"
1264 * Bugs with new Perl versions:
1266 - Aclocal works correctly with perl 5.16.0 (automake bug#11543).
1268 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1272 * Obsolete features removed:
1274 - The never documented nor truly used script 'acinstall' has been
1277 - Support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been removed.
1279 - The support for the "obscure" multilib feature has been removed
1280 from Automake core (but remains available in the 'contrib/'
1281 directory of the Automake distribution).
1283 - Support for ".log -> .html" conversion and the check-html and
1284 recheck-html targets has been removed from Automake core (but
1285 remains available in the 'contrib/' directory of the Automake
1288 - The deprecated 'lzma' compression format for distribution archives
1289 has been removed, in favor of 'xz' and 'lzip'.
1291 - The obsolete AM_WITH_REGEX macro has been removed.
1293 - The long-deprecated options '--output-dir', '--Werror' and
1294 '--Wno-error' have been removed.
1296 - The chapter on the history of Automake has been moved out of the
1297 reference manual, into a new dedicated Texinfo file.
1301 - New 'cscope' target to build a cscope database for the source tree.
1303 * Changes to Automake-generated testsuite harnesses:
1305 - The new automake option 'serial-tests' has been introduced. It can
1306 be used to explicitly instruct automake to use the older serial
1307 testsuite harness. This is still the default at the moment, but it
1308 might change in future versions.
1310 - The 'recheck' target (provided by the parallel testsuite harness) now
1311 depends on the 'all' target. This allows for a better user-experience
1312 in test-driven development. See automake bug#11252.
1314 - Test scripts that exit with status 99 to signal an "hard error" (e.g.,
1315 and unexpected or internal error, or a failure to set up the test case
1316 scenario) have their outcome reported as an 'ERROR' now. Previous
1317 versions of automake reported such an outcome as a 'FAIL' (the only
1318 difference with normal failures being that hard errors were counted
1319 as failures even when the test originating them was listed in
1322 - The testsuite summary displayed by the parallel-test harness has a
1323 completely new format, that always list the numbers of passed, failed,
1324 xfailed, xpassed, skipped and errored tests, even when these numbers
1325 are zero (but using smart coloring when the color-tests option is in
1328 - The default testsuite driver offered by the 'parallel-tests' option is
1329 now implemented (partly at least) with the help of automake-provided
1330 auxiliary scripts (e.g., 'test-driver'), instead of relying entirely
1331 on code in the generated Makefile.in.
1332 This has two noteworthy implications. The first one is that projects
1333 using the 'parallel-tests' option should now either run automake with
1334 the '--add-missing' option, or manually copy the 'test-driver' script
1335 into their tree. The second, and more important, implication is that
1336 now, when the 'parallel-tests' option is in use, TESTS_ENVIRONMENT can
1337 no longer be used to define a test runner, and the command specified
1338 in LOG_COMPILER (and <ext>_LOG_COMPILER) must be a *real* executable
1339 program or script. For example, this is still a valid usage (albeit
1340 a little contorted):
1342 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
1343 if test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS)'; then \
1344 maybe_errexit='-e'; \
1348 LOG_COMPILER = $(SHELL) $$maybe_errexit
1350 OTOH, this is no longer a valid usage:
1352 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
1353 $(SHELL) `test -n '$(STRICT_TESTS_CHECKING)' && echo ' -e'`
1357 TESTS_ENVIRONMENT = \
1358 run_with_perl_or_shell () \
1360 if grep -q '^#!.*perl' $$1; then
1366 LOG_COMPILER = run_with_perl_or_shell
1368 - The package authors can now use customary testsuite drivers within
1369 the framework provided by the 'parallel-tests' testsuite harness.
1370 Consistently with the existing syntax, this can be done by defining
1371 special makefile variables 'LOG_DRIVER' and '<ext>_LOG_DRIVER'.
1373 - A new developer-reserved variable 'AM_TESTS_FD_REDIRECT' can be used
1374 to redirect/define file descriptors used by the test scripts.
1376 - The parallel-tests harness generates now, in addition the '.log' files
1377 holding the output produced by the test scripts, a new set of '.trs'
1378 files, holding "metadata" derived by the execution of the test scripts;
1379 among such metadata are the outcomes of the test cases run by a script.
1381 - Initial and still experimental support for the TAP test protocol is
1384 * Changes to Yacc and Lex support:
1386 - C source and header files derived from non-distributed Yacc and/or
1387 Lex sources are now removed by a simple "make clean" (while they were
1388 previously removed only by "make maintainer-clean").
1390 - Slightly backward-incompatible change, relevant only for use of Yacc
1391 with C++: the extensions of the header files produced by the Yacc
1392 rules are now modeled after the extension of the corresponding
1393 sources. For example, yacc files named "foo.y++" and "bar.yy" will
1394 produce header files named "foo.h++" and "bar.hh" respectively, where
1395 they would have previously produced header files named simply "foo.h"
1396 and "bar.h". This change offers better compatibility with 'bison -o'.
1398 * Miscellaneous changes:
1400 - The AM_PROG_VALAC macro now causes configure to exit with status 77,
1401 rather than 1, if the vala compiler found is too old.
1403 - The build system of Automake itself now avoids the use of make
1404 recursion as much as possible.
1406 - Automake now prefers to quote 'like this' or "like this", rather
1407 than `like this', in diagnostic message and generated Makefiles,
1408 to accommodate the new GNU Coding Standards recommendations.
1410 - Automake has a new option '--print-libdir' that prints the path of the
1411 directory containing the Automake-provided scripts and data files.
1413 - The 'dist' and 'dist-all' targets now can run compressors in parallel.
1415 - The rules to create pdf, dvi and ps output from Texinfo files now
1416 works better with modern 'texi2dvi' script, by explicitly passing
1417 it the '--clean' option to ensure stray auxiliary files are not
1418 left to clutter the build directory.
1420 - Automake can now generate silenced rules for texinfo outputs.
1422 - Some auxiliary files that are automatically distributed by Automake
1423 (e.g., 'install-sh', or the 'depcomp' script for packages compiling
1424 C sources) might now be listed in the DIST_COMMON variable in many
1425 Makefile.in files, rather than in the top-level one.
1427 - Messages of types warning or error from 'automake' and 'aclocal'
1428 are now prefixed with the respective type, and presence of -Werror
1431 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now tries to avoid
1432 sleeping for a second, which slowed down cached configure runs
1433 noticeably. In that case, it will check back at the end of the
1434 configure script to ensure that at least one second has passed, to
1435 avoid time stamp issues with makefile rules rerunning autotools
1438 - The warnings in the category 'extra-portability' are now enabled by
1439 '-Wall'. In previous versions, one has to use '-Wextra-portability'
1444 - Various minor bugfixes for recent or long-standing bugs.
1446 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
1448 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
1449 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
1451 - The automake-provided parallel testsuite harness no longer fails
1452 with BSD make used in parallel mode when there are test scripts in
1453 a subdirectory, like in:
1455 TESTS = sub/foo.test sub/bar.test
1457 * Long-standing bugs:
1459 - Automake's own build system finally have a real "installcheck" target.
1461 - Vala-related cleanup rules are now more complete, and work better in
1464 - Files listed with the AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE macro in configure.ac are
1465 now automatically distributed also if the directory of the auxiliary
1466 files coincides with the top-level directory.
1468 - Automake now detects the presence of the '-d' flag in the various
1469 '*YFLAGS' variables even when their definitions involve indirections
1470 through other variables, such as in:
1472 AM_YFLAGS = $(foo_opts)
1474 - Automake now complains if a '*YFLAGS' variable has any conditional
1475 content, not only a conditional definition.
1477 - Explicit enabling and/or disabling of Automake warning categories
1478 through the '-W...' options now always takes precedence over the
1479 implicit warning level implied by Automake strictness (foreign, gnu
1480 or gnits), regardless of the order in which such strictness and
1481 warning flags appear. For example, a setting like:
1482 AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = -Wall --foreign
1483 will cause the warnings in category 'portability' to be enabled, even
1484 if those warnings are by default disabled in 'foreign' strictness.
1486 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1488 Bugs fixed in 1.11.5:
1490 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.3:
1492 - Vala files with '.vapi' extension are now recognized and handled
1493 correctly again. See automake bug#11222.
1495 - Vala support work again for projects that contain some program
1496 built from '.vala' (and possibly '.c') sources and some other
1497 program built from '.c' sources *only*. See automake bug#11229.
1499 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1503 * Miscellaneous changes:
1505 - The 'ar-lib' script now ignores the "s" (symbol index) and "S" (no
1506 symbol index) modifiers as well as the "s" action, as the symbol index
1507 is created unconditionally by Microsoft lib. Also, the "q" (quick)
1508 action is now a synonym for "r" (replace). Also, the script has been
1509 ignoring the "v" (verbose) modifier already since Automake 1.11.3.
1511 - When the 'compile' script is used to wrap MSVC, it now accepts an
1512 optional space between the -I, -L and -l options and their respective
1513 arguments, for better POSIX compliance.
1515 - There is an initial, experimental support for automatic dependency
1516 tracking with tcc (the Tiny C Compiler). Its associated depmode is
1517 currently recognized as "icc" (but this and other details are likely
1518 to change in future versions).
1520 - Automatic dependency tracking now works also with the IBM XL C/C++
1521 compilers, thanks to the new new depmode 'xlc'.
1523 Bugs fixed in 1.11.4:
1525 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
1527 - A definition of 'noinst_PYTHON' before 'python_PYTHON' (or similar)
1528 no longer cause spurious failures upon "make install".
1530 - The user can now instruct the 'uninstall-info' rule not to update
1531 the '${infodir}/dir' file by exporting the environment variable
1532 'AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no". This is done for consistency
1533 with how the 'install-info' rule operates since automake 1.11.2.
1535 * Long-standing bugs:
1537 - It is now possible for a foo_SOURCES variable to hold Vala sources
1538 together with C header files, as well as with sources and headers for
1539 other supported languages (e.g., C++). Previously, only mixing C and
1540 Vala sources was supported.
1542 - If "aclocal --install" is used, and the first directory specified with
1543 '-I' is non-existent, aclocal will now create it before trying to copy
1546 - An empty declaration of a "foo_PRIMARY" no longer cause the generated
1547 install rules to create an empty $(foodir) directory; for example, if
1548 Makefile.am contains something like:
1550 pkglibexec_SCRIPTS =
1552 pkglibexec_SCRIPTS += bar.sh
1555 the $(pkglibexec) directory will not be created upon "make install".
1557 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1561 * Miscellaneous changes:
1563 - Automake's own build system is more silent by default, making use of
1564 the 'silent-rules' option.
1566 - The master copy of the 'gnupload' script is now maintained in gnulib,
1569 - The 'missing' script no longer tries to wrap calls to 'tar'.
1571 - "make dist" no longer wraps 'tar' invocations with the 'missing'
1572 script. Similarly, the obsolescent variable '$(AMTAR)' (which you
1573 shouldn't be using BTW ;-) no longer invokes the 'missing' script
1574 to wrap tar, but simply invokes the 'tar' program itself.
1575 The TAR environment variable overrides.
1577 - "make dist" can now create lzip-compressed tarballs.
1579 - In the Automake info documentation, the Top node and the nodes about
1580 the invocation of the automake and aclocal programs have been renamed;
1581 now, calling "info automake" will open the Top node, while calling
1582 "info automake-invocation" and "info aclocal-invocation" will access
1583 the nodes about the invocation of respectively automake and aclocal.
1585 - Automake is now distributed as a gzip-compressed and an xz-compressed
1586 tarball. Previously, bzip2 was used instead of xz.
1588 - The last relics of Python 1.5 support have been removed from the
1589 AM_PATH_PYTHON macro.
1591 - For programs and libraries, automake now detects EXTRA_foo_DEPENDENCIES
1592 and adds them to the normal list of dependencies, but without
1593 overwriting the foo_DEPENDENCIES variable, which is normally computed
1596 Bugs fixed in 1.11.3:
1598 * Bugs introduced by 1.11.2:
1600 - Automake now correctly recognizes the prefix/primary combination
1601 'pkglibexec_SCRIPTS' as valid.
1603 - The parallel-tests harness no longer trips on sed implementations
1604 with stricter limits on the length of input lines (problem seen at
1605 least on Solaris 8).
1607 * Long-standing bugs:
1609 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.am files is avoided by stub
1610 rules. This allows 'make' to trigger a rerun of 'automake' also if
1611 some previously needed '.am' file has been removed.
1613 - The 'silent-rules' option now generates working makefiles even
1614 for the uncommon 'make' implementations that do not support the
1615 nested-variables extension to POSIX 2008. For such 'make'
1616 implementations, whether a build is silent is determined at
1617 configure time, and cannot be overridden at make time with
1618 "make V=0" or "make V=1".
1620 - Vala support now works better in VPATH setups.
1622 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1626 * Changes to aclocal:
1628 - The `--acdir' option is deprecated. Now you should use the new options
1629 `--automake-acdir' and `--system-acdir' instead.
1631 - The `ACLOCAL_PATH' environment variable is now interpreted as a
1632 colon-separated list of additional directories to search after the
1633 automake internal acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal-APIVERSION)
1634 and before the system acdir (by default ${prefix}/share/aclocal).
1636 * Miscellaneous changes:
1638 - The Automake support for automatic de-ANSI-fication has been
1639 deprecated. It will probably be removed in the next major Automake
1642 - The `lzma' compression scheme and associated automake option `dist-lzma'
1643 is obsoleted by `xz' and `dist-xz' due to upstream changes.
1645 - You may adjust the compression options used in dist-xz and dist-bzip2.
1646 The default is now merely -e for xz, but still -9 for bzip; you may
1647 specify a different level via the XZ_OPT and BZIP2 envvars respectively.
1648 E.g., "make dist-xz XZ_OPT=-7" or "make dist-bzip2 BZIP2=-5"
1650 - The `compile' script now converts some options for MSVC for a better
1651 user experience. Similarly, the new `ar-lib' script wraps Microsoft lib.
1653 - The py-compile script now accepts empty arguments passed to the options
1654 `--destdir' and `--basedir', and complains about unrecognized options.
1655 Moreover, a non-option argument or a special `--' argument terminates
1656 the list of options.
1658 - A developer that needs to pass specific flags to configure at "make
1659 distcheck" time can now, and indeed is advised to, do so by defining
1660 the developer-reserved makefile variable AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS,
1661 instead of the old DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS.
1662 The DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS variable should now be reserved for the
1663 user; still, the old Makefile.am files that used to define it will
1664 still continue to work as before.
1666 - New macro AM_PROG_AR that looks for an archiver and wraps it in the new
1667 'ar-lib' auxiliary script if the selected archiver is Microsoft lib.
1668 This new macro is required for LIBRARIES and LTLIBRARIES when automake
1669 is run with -Wextra-portability and -Werror.
1671 - When using DejaGnu-based testsuites, the user can extend the `site.exp'
1672 file generated by automake-provided rules by defining the special make
1673 variable `$(EXTRA_DEJAGNU_SITE_CONFIG)'.
1675 - The `install-info' rule can now be instructed not to create/update
1676 the `${infodir}/dir' file, by exporting the new environment variable
1677 `AM_UPDATE_INFO_DIR' to the value "no".
1679 Bugs fixed in 1.11.2:
1681 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
1683 - The parallel-tests driver no longer produces erroneous results with
1684 Tru64/OSF 5.1 sh upon unreadable log files.
1686 - The `parallel-tests' test driver does not report spurious successes
1687 when used with concurrent FreeBSD make (e.g., "make check -j3").
1689 - When the parallel-tests driver is in use, automake now explicitly
1690 rejects invalid entries and conditional contents in TEST_EXTENSIONS,
1691 instead of issuing confusing and apparently unrelated error messages
1692 (e.g., "non-POSIX variable name", "bad characters in variable name",
1693 or "redefinition of TEST_EXTENSIONS), or even, in some situations,
1694 silently producing broken `Makefile.in' files.
1696 - The `silent-rules' option now truly silences all compile rules, even
1697 when dependency tracking is disabled. Also, when `silent-rules' is
1698 not used, `make' output no longer contains spurious backslash-only
1699 lines, thus once again matching what Automake did before 1.11.
1701 - The AM_COND_IF macro also works if the shell expression for the
1702 conditional is no longer valid for the condition.
1704 * Long-standing bugs:
1706 - The order of Yacc and Lex flags is fixed to be consistent with other
1707 languages: $(AM_YFLAGS) comes before $(YFLAGS), and $(AM_LFLAGS) before
1708 $(LFLAGS), so that the user variables override the developer variables.
1710 - "make distcheck" now correctly complains also when "make uninstall"
1711 leaves one and only one file installed in $(prefix).
1713 - A "make uninstall" issued before a "make install", or after a mere
1714 "make install-data" or a mere "make install-exec" does not spuriously
1717 - Automake now warns about more primary/directory invalid combinations,
1718 such as "doc_LIBRARIES" or "pkglib_PROGRAMS".
1720 - Rules generated by Automake now try harder to not change any files when
1721 `make -n' is invoked. Fixes include compilation of Emacs Lisp, Vala, or
1722 Yacc source files and the rule to update config.h.
1724 - Several scripts and the parallel-tests testsuite driver now exit with
1725 the right exit status upon receiving a signal.
1727 - A per-Makefile.am setting of -Werror does not erroneously carry over
1728 to the handling of other Makefile.am files.
1730 - The code for automatic dependency tracking works around a Solaris
1731 make bug triggered by sources containing repeated slashes when the
1732 `subdir-objects' option was used.
1734 - The makedepend and hp depmodes now work better with VPATH builds.
1736 - Java sources specified with check_JAVA are no longer compiled for
1737 "make all", but only for "make check".
1739 - An usage like "java_JAVA = foo.java" will now cause Automake to warn
1740 and error out if `javadir' is undefined, instead of silently producing
1741 a broken Makefile.in.
1743 - aclocal and automake now honor the configure-time definitions of
1744 AUTOCONF and AUTOM4TE when they spawn autoconf or autom4te processes.
1746 - The `install-info' recipe no longer tries to guess whether the
1747 `install-info' program is from Debian or from GNU, and adaptively
1748 change its behavior; this has proven to be frail and easy to
1751 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1753 Bugs fixed in 1.11.1:
1755 - Lots of minor bugfixes.
1757 * Bugs introduced by 1.11:
1759 - The `parallel-tests' test driver works around a GNU make 3.80 bug with
1760 trailing white space in the test list (`TESTS = foo $(EMPTY)').
1762 * Long standing bugs:
1764 - On Darwin 9, `pythondir' and `pyexecdir' pointed below `/Library/Python'
1765 even if the `--prefix' argument pointed outside of a system directory.
1766 AM_PATH_PYTHON has been fixed to ignore the value returned from python's
1767 `get_python_lib' function if it points outside the configured prefix,
1768 unless the `--prefix' argument was either `/usr' or below `/System'.
1770 - The testsuite does not try to change the mode of `ltmain.sh' files from
1771 a Libtool installation (symlinked to test directories) any more.
1773 - AM_PROG_GCJ uses AC_CHECK_TOOLS to look for `gcj' now, so that prefixed
1774 tools are preferred in a cross-compile setup.
1776 - The distribution is tarred up with mode 755 now by the `dist*' targets.
1777 This fixes a race condition where untrusted users could modify files
1778 in the $(PACKAGE)-$(VERSION) distdir before packing if the toplevel
1779 build directory was world-searchable. This is CVE-2009-4029.
1781 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1785 * Version requirements:
1787 - Autoconf 2.62 or greater is required.
1789 * Changes to aclocal:
1791 - The autoconf version check implemented by aclocal in aclocal.m4
1792 (and new in Automake 1.10) is degraded to a warning. This helps
1793 in the common case where the Autoconf versions used are compatible.
1795 * Changes to automake:
1797 - The automake program can run multiple threads for creating most
1798 Makefile.in files concurrently, if at least Perl 5.7.2 is available
1799 with interpreter-based threads enabled. Set the environment variable
1800 AUTOMAKE_JOBS to the maximum number of threads to use, in order to
1801 enable this experimental feature.
1803 * Changes to Libtool support:
1805 - Libtool generic flags are now passed to the install and uninstall
1808 - distcheck works with Libtool 2.x even when LT_OUTPUT is used, as
1809 config.lt is removed correctly now.
1811 * Languages changes:
1813 - subdir-object mode works now with Fortran (F77, FC, preprocessed
1814 Fortran, and Ratfor).
1816 - For files with extension .f90, .f95, .f03, or .f08, the flag
1817 $(FCFLAGS_f[09]x) computed by AC_FC_SRCEXT is now used in compile rules.
1819 - Files with extension .sx are also treated as preprocessed assembler.
1821 - The default source file extension (.c) can be overridden with
1822 AM_DEFAULT_SOURCE_EXT now.
1824 - Python 3.0 is supported now, Python releases prior to 2.0 are no
1827 - AM_PATH_PYTHON honors python's idea about the site directory.
1829 - There is initial support for the Vala programming language, when using
1830 Vala 0.7.0 or later.
1832 * Miscellaneous changes:
1834 - Automake development is done in a git repository on Savannah now, see
1836 https://git.sv.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=automake.git
1838 A read-only CVS mirror is provided at
1840 cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@pserver.git.sv.gnu.org:/automake.git \
1841 checkout -d automake HEAD
1843 - "make dist" can now create xz-compressed tarballs,
1844 as well as (deprecated?) lzma-compressed tarballs.
1846 - `automake --add-missing' will by default install the GPLv3 file as
1847 COPYING if it is missing. It will also warn that the license file
1848 should be added to source control. Note that Automake will never
1849 overwrite an existing COPYING file, even when the `--force-missing'
1852 - The manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL 1.3.
1854 - Automake ships and installs man pages for automake and aclocal now.
1856 - New shorthand `$(pkglibexecdir)' for `$(libexecdir)/@PACKAGE@'.
1858 - install-sh supports -C, which does not update the installed file
1859 (and its time stamps) if the contents did not change.
1861 - The `gnupload' script has been revamped.
1863 - The `depcomp' and `compile' scripts now work with MSVC under MSYS.
1865 - The targets `install' and `uninstall' are more efficient now, in that
1866 for example multiple files from one Automake variable such as
1867 `bin_SCRIPTS' are copied in one `install' (or `libtool --mode=install')
1868 invocation if they do not have to be renamed.
1870 Both install and uninstall may sometimes enter (`cd' into) the target
1871 installation directory now, when no build-local scripts are used.
1873 Both install and uninstall do not fail anymore but do nothing if an
1874 installation directory variable like `bindir' is set to the empty string.
1876 For built-in rules, `make install' now fails reliably if installation
1877 of a file failed. Conversely, `make uninstall' even succeeds when
1878 issued multiple times.
1880 These changes may need some adjustments from users: For example,
1881 some `install' programs refuse to install multiple copies of the
1882 same file in one invocation, so you may need to remove duplicate
1883 entries from file lists.
1885 Also, within one set of files, say, nobase_data_DATA, the order of
1886 installation may be changed, or even unstable among different hosts,
1887 due to the use of associative arrays in awk. The increased use of
1888 awk matches a similar move in Autoconf to provide for better scaling.
1890 Further, most undocumented per-rule install command variables such as
1891 binSCRIPT_INSTALL have been removed because they are not needed any
1892 more. Packages which use them should be using the appropriate one of
1893 INSTALL_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT} or their install_sh_{DATA,PROGRAM,SCRIPT}
1894 counterpart, depending on the type of files and the need for automatic
1895 target directory creation.
1897 - The "deleted header file problem" for *.m4 files is avoided by
1898 stub rules. This allows `make' to trigger a rerun of `aclocal'
1899 also if some previously needed macro file has been removed.
1901 - Rebuild rules now also work for a removed `subdir/Makefile.in' in
1902 an otherwise up to date tree.
1904 - The `color-tests' option causes colored test result output on terminals.
1906 - The `parallel-tests' option enables a new test driver that allows for
1907 parallel test execution, inter-test dependencies, lazy test execution
1908 for unit-testing, re-testing only failed tests, and formatted result output
1909 as RST (reStructuredText) and HTML. Enabling this option may require some
1910 changes to your test suite setup; see the manual for details.
1912 - The `silent-rules' option enables Linux kernel-style silent build output.
1913 This option requires the widely supported but non-POSIX `make' feature
1914 of recursive variable expansion, so do not use it if your package needs
1915 to build with `make' implementations that do not support it.
1917 To enable less verbose build output, the developer has to use the Automake
1918 option `silent-rules' in `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE', or call the `AM_SILENT_RULES'
1919 macro. The user may then set the default verbosity by passing the
1920 `--enable-silent-rules' option to `configure'. At `make' run time, this
1921 default may be overridden using `make V=0' for less verbose, and `make V=1'
1922 for backward-compatible verbose output.
1924 - New prefix `notrans_' for manpages which should not be transformed
1925 by --program-transform.
1927 - New macro AM_COND_IF for conditional evaluation and conditional
1930 - For AC_CONFIG_LINKS, if source and destination are equal, do not
1931 remove the file in a non-VPATH build. Such setups work with Autoconf
1934 - AM_MAINTAINER_MODE now allows for an optional argument specifying
1935 the default setting.
1937 - AM_SUBST_NOTMAKE may prevent substitution of AC_SUBSTed variables,
1938 useful especially for multi-line values.
1940 - Automake's early configure-time sanity check now diagnoses an
1941 unsafe absolute source directory name and makes configure fail.
1943 - The Automake macros and rules cope better with whitespace in the
1944 current directory name, as long as the relative path to `configure'
1945 does not contain whitespace. To this end, the values of `$(MISSING)'
1946 and `$(install_sh)' may contain suitable quoting, and their expansion
1947 might need `eval'uation if used outside of a makefile. These
1948 undocumented variables may be used in several documented macros such
1949 as $(AUTOCONF) or $(MAKEINFO).
1953 * Long-standing bugs:
1955 - Fix aix dependency tracking for libtool objects.
1957 - Work around AIX sh quoting issue in AC_PROG_CC_C_O, leading to
1958 unnecessary use of the `compile' script.
1960 - For nobase_*_LTLIBRARIES with nonempty directory components, the
1961 correct `-rpath' argument is used now.
1963 - `config.status --file=Makefile depfiles' now also works with the
1964 extra quoting used internally by Autoconf 2.62 and newer
1965 (it used to work only without the `--file=' bit).
1967 - The `missing' script works better with versioned tool names.
1969 - Semantics for `missing help2man' have been revamped:
1971 Previously, if `help2man' was not present, `missing help2man' would have
1972 the following semantics: if some man page was out of date but present, then
1973 a warning would be printed, but the exit status was 0. If the man page was
1974 not present at all, then `missing' would create a replacement man page
1975 containing an error message, and exit with a status of 2. This does not play
1976 well with `make': the next run will see this particular man page as being up
1977 to date, and will only error out on the next generated man page, if any;
1978 repeat until all pages are done. This was not desirable.
1980 These are the new semantics: if some man page is not present, and help2man
1981 is not either, then `missing' will warn and generate the replacement page
1982 containing the error message, but exit successfully. However, `make dist'
1983 will ensure that no such bogus man pages are packaged into a tarball.
1985 - Targets provided by automake behave better with `make -n', in that they
1986 take care not to create files.
1988 - `config.status Makefile... depfiles' works fine again in the presence of
1989 disabled dependency tracking.
1991 - The default no-op recursive rules for these targets also work with BSD make
1992 now: html, install-html, install-dvi, install-pdf, install-pdf, install-info.
1994 - `make distcheck' works also when both a directory and some file below it
1995 have been added to a distribution variable, such as EXTRA_DIST or *_SOURCES.
1997 - Texinfo dvi, ps, pdf, and html output files are not removed upon
1998 `make mostlyclean' any more; only the LaTeX by-products are.
2000 - Renamed objects also work with the `subdir-objects' option and
2001 source file languages which Automake does not know itself.
2003 - `automake' now correctly complains about variable assignments which are
2004 preceded by a comment, extend over multiple lines with backslash-escaped
2005 newlines, and end in a comment sign. Previous versions would silently
2006 and wrongly ignore such assignments completely.
2008 * Bugs introduced by 1.10:
2010 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
2011 Makefile.in's again, but also cope with long lines.
2013 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of XFAIL_TESTS
2014 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
2015 This is for consistency with the analogous change to TESTS in 1.10.
2017 - Fix order of standard includes to again be `-I. -I$(srcdir)',
2018 followed by directories containing config headers.
2020 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2024 * Version requirements:
2026 - Autoconf 2.60 or greater is required.
2028 - Perl 5.6 or greater is required.
2030 * Changes to aclocal:
2032 - aclocal now also supports -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble options.
2034 - `dirlist' entries (for the aclocal search path) may use shell
2035 wildcards such as `*', `?', or `[...]'.
2037 - aclocal supports an --install option that will cause system-wide
2038 third-party macros to be installed in the local directory
2039 specified with the first -I flag. This option also uses #serial
2040 lines in M4 files to upgrade local macros.
2042 The new aclocal options --dry-run and --diff help to review changes
2043 before they are installed.
2045 - aclocal now outputs an autoconf version check in aclocal.m4 in
2046 projects using automake.
2048 For a few years, automake and aclocal have been calling autoconf
2049 (or its underlying engine autom4te) to accurately retrieve the
2050 data they need from configure.ac and its siblings. Doing so can
2051 only work if all autotools use the same version of autoconf. For
2052 instance a Makefile.in generated by automake for one version of
2053 autoconf may stop working if configure is regenerated with another
2054 version of autoconf, and vice versa.
2056 This new version check ensures that the whole build system has
2057 been generated using the same autoconf version.
2059 * Support for new Autoconf macros:
2061 - The new AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE Autoconf macro is supported.
2063 - If `subdir-objects' is set, and AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR is specified,
2064 $(LIBOBJS), $(LTLIBOBJS), $(ALLOCA), and $(LTALLOCA) can be used
2065 in different directories. However, only one instance of such a
2066 library objects directory is supported.
2068 * Change to Libtool support:
2070 - Libtool generic flags (those that go before the --mode=MODE option)
2071 can be specified using AM_LIBTOOLFLAGS and target_LIBTOOLFLAGS.
2073 * Yacc and Lex changes:
2075 - The rebuild rules for distributed Yacc and Lex output will avoid
2076 overwriting existing files if AM_MAINTAINER_MODE and maintainer-mode
2079 - ylwrap is now always used for lex and yacc source files,
2080 regardless of whether there is more than one source per directory.
2082 * Languages changes:
2084 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now honors CPPFLAGS,
2085 AM_CPPFLAGS and per-target _CPPFLAGS, and supports dependency
2086 tracking, unlike non-preprocessed assembler (*.s).
2088 - subdir-object mode works now with Assembler. Automake assumes
2089 that the compiler understands `-c -o'.
2091 - Preprocessed assembler (*.S) compilation now also honors
2092 $(DEFS) $(DEFAULT_INCLUDES) $(INCLUDES).
2094 - Improved support for Objective C:
2095 - Autoconf's new AC_PROG_OBJC will enable automatic dependency tracking.
2096 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
2098 - New support for Unified Parallel C:
2099 - AM_PROG_UPC looks for a UPC compiler.
2100 - A new section of the manual documents the support.
2102 - Per-target flags are now correctly handled in link rules.
2104 For instance maude_CFLAGS correctly overrides AM_CFLAGS; likewise
2105 for maude_LDFLAGS and AM_LDFLAGS. Previous versions bogusly
2106 preferred AM_CFLAGS over maude_CFLAGS while linking, and they
2107 used both AM_LDFLAGS and maude_LDFLAGS on the same link command.
2109 The fix for compiler flags (i.e., using maude_CFLAGS instead of
2110 AM_CFLAGS) should not hurt any package since that is how _CFLAGS
2111 is expected to work (and actually works during compilation).
2113 However using maude_LDFLAGS "instead of" AM_LDFLAGS rather than
2114 "in addition to" breaks backward compatibility with older versions.
2115 If your package used both variables, as in
2117 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
2118 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
2119 a_LDFLAGS = more flags
2122 and assumed *_LDFLAGS would sum up, you should rewrite it as
2124 AM_LDFLAGS = common flags
2125 bin_PROGRAMS = a b c
2126 a_LDFLAGS = $(AM_LDFLAGS) more flags
2129 This new behavior of *_LDFLAGS is more coherent with other
2130 per-target variables, and the way *_LDFLAGS variables were
2131 considered internally.
2133 * New installation targets:
2135 - New targets mandated by GNU Coding Standards:
2140 By default they will only install Texinfo manuals.
2141 You can customize them with *-local variants:
2147 - The undocumented recursive target `uninstall-info' no longer exists.
2148 (`uninstall' is in charge of removing all possible documentation
2149 flavors, including optional formats such as dvi, ps, or info even
2150 when `no-installinfo' is used.)
2152 * Miscellaneous changes:
2154 - Automake no longer complains if input files for AC_CONFIG_FILES
2155 are specified using shell variables.
2157 - clean, distribution, or rebuild rules are normally disabled for
2158 inputs and outputs of AC_CONFIG_FILES, AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, and
2159 AC_CONFIG_LINK specified using shell variables. However, if these
2160 variables are used as ${VAR}, and AC_SUBSTed, then Automake will
2161 be able to output rules anyway.
2162 (See the Automake documentation for AC_CONFIG_FILES.)
2164 - $(EXEEXT) is automatically appended to filenames of TESTS
2165 that have been declared as programs in the same Makefile.
2166 This is mostly useful when some check_PROGRAMS are listed in TESTS.
2168 - `-Wportability' has finally been turned on by default for `gnu' and
2169 `gnits' strictness. This means, automake will complain about %-rules
2170 or $(GNU Make functions) unless you switch to `foreign' strictness or
2171 use `-Wno-portability'.
2173 - Automake now uses AC_PROG_MKDIR_P (new in Autoconf 2.60), and uses
2174 $(MKDIR_P) instead of $(mkdir_p) to create directories. The
2175 $(mkdir_p) variable is still defined (to the same value as
2176 $(MKDIR_P)) but should be considered obsolete. If you are using
2177 $(mkdir_p) in some of your rules, please plan to update them to
2178 $(MKDIR_P) at some point.
2180 - AM_C_PROTOTYPES and ansi2knr are now documented as being obsolete.
2181 They still work in this release, but may be withdrawn in a future one.
2183 - Inline compilation rules for gcc3-style dependency tracking are
2186 - Automake installs a "Hello World!" example package in $(docdir).
2187 This example is used throughout the new "Autotools Introduction"
2188 chapter of the manual.
2190 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2194 * Makefile.in bloat reduction:
2196 - Inference rules are used to compile sources in subdirectories when
2197 the `subdir-objects' option is used and no per-target flags are
2198 used. This should reduce the size of some projects a lot, because
2199 Automake used to output an explicit rule for each such object in
2202 - Automake no longer outputs three rules (.o, .obj, .lo) for each
2203 object that must be built with explicit rules. It just outputs
2204 the rules required to build the kind of object considered: either
2205 the two .o and .obj rules for usual objects, or the .lo rule for
2208 * Change to Libtool support:
2210 - Libtool tags are used with libtool versions that support them.
2211 (I.e., with Libtool 1.5 or greater.)
2213 - Automake is now able to handle setups where a libtool library is
2214 conditionally installed in different directories, as in
2217 lib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
2219 pkglib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
2221 liba_la_SOURCES = ...
2223 * Changes to aclocal:
2225 - aclocal now ensures that AC_DEFUNs and AU_DEFUNs it discovers are
2226 really evaluated, before it decides to include them in aclocal.m4.
2227 This solves nasty problems with conditional redefinitions of
2228 Autoconf macros in /usr/share/aclocal/*.m4 files causing extraneous
2229 *.m4 files to be included in any project using these macros.
2230 (Calls to AC_PROG_EGREP causing libtool.m4 to be included is the
2231 most famous instance of this bug.)
2233 - Do not complain about missing conditionally AC_REQUIREd macros
2234 that are not actually used. In 1.8.x aclocal would correctly
2235 determine which of these macros were really needed (and include
2236 only these in the package); unfortunately it would also require
2237 all of them to be present in order to run. This created
2238 situations were aclocal would not work on a tarball distributing
2239 all the macros it uses. For instance running aclocal on a project
2240 containing only the subset of the Gettext macros in use by the
2241 project did not work, because gettext conditionally requires other
2244 * Portability improvements:
2246 - Tar format can be chosen with the new options tar-v7, tar-ustar, and
2247 tar-pax. The new option filename-length-max=99 helps diagnosing
2248 filenames that are too long for tar-v7. (PR/414)
2250 - Variables augmented with `+=' are now automatically flattened (i.e.,
2251 trailing backslashes removed) and then wrapped around 80 columns
2252 (adding trailing backslashes). In previous versions, a long series
2258 would result in a single-line definition of VAR that could possibly
2259 exceed the maximum line length of some make implementations.
2261 Non-augmented variables are still output as they are defined in
2266 - Support Fortran 90/95 with the new "fc" and "ppfc" languages.
2267 Works the same as the old Fortran 77 implementation; just replace
2268 F77 with FC everywhere (exception: FFLAGS becomes FCFLAGS).
2269 Requires a version of autoconf which provides AC_PROG_FC (>=2.59).
2271 - Support for conditional _LISP.
2273 - Support for conditional -hook and -local rules (PR/428).
2275 - Diagnose AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR calls following AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. (PR/49)
2277 - Automake will not write any Makefile.ins after the first error it
2278 encounters. The previous Makefile.ins (if any) will be left in
2279 place. (Warnings will not prevent output, but remember they can
2280 be turned into errors with -Werror.)
2282 - The restriction that SUBDIRS must contain direct children is gone.
2285 - The manual tells more about SUBDIRS vs. DIST_SUBDIRS.
2286 It also gives an example of nested packages using AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS.
2288 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2290 Bugs fixed in 1.8.5:
2292 * Long-standing bugs:
2294 - Define DIST_SUBDIRS even when the `no-dist' or `cygnus' options are used
2295 so that `make distclean' and `make maintainer-clean' can work.
2297 - Define AR and ARFLAGS even when only EXTRA_LIBRARIES are defined.
2299 - Fix many rules to please FreeBSD make, which runs commands with `sh -e'.
2301 - Polish diagnostic when no input file is found.
2303 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2305 Bugs fixed in 1.8.4:
2307 * Long-standing bugs:
2309 - Fix AM_PATH_PYTHON to correctly display $PYTHON when it has been
2310 overridden by the user.
2312 - Honor PATH_SEPARATOR in various places of the Automake package, for
2315 - Adjust dependency tracking mode detection to ICC 8.0's new output.
2318 - Fix install-sh so it can install the `mv' binary... using `mv'.
2320 - Fix tru64 dependency tracking for libtool objects.
2322 - Work around Exuberant Ctags when creating a TAGS files in a directory
2323 without files to scan but with subdirectories to include.
2325 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
2327 - Fix an "internal error" when @LIBOBJS@ is used in a variable that is
2328 not defined in the same conditions as the _LDADD that uses it.
2330 - Do not warn when JAVAROOT is overridden, this is legitimate.
2332 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2334 Bugs fixed in 1.8.3:
2336 * Long-standing bugs:
2338 - Quote filenames in installation rules, in case $DESTDIR, $prefix,
2339 or any of the other *dir variables contain a space.
2341 Please note that Automake does not and cannot support spaces in
2342 filenames that are involved during the build. This change affects
2343 only installation paths, so that `make install' does not bomb out
2344 in packages configured with
2345 ./configure --prefix '/c/Program Files'
2347 - Fix the depfiles output so it works with GNU sed (<4.1) even when
2348 POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.
2350 - Do not AC_SUBST(LIBOBJS) in AM_WITH_REGEX. This macro was unusable
2351 since Autoconf 2.54, which defines LIBOBJS itself.
2353 - Fix a potential (but unlikely) race condition in parallel elisp
2354 builds. (Introduced in 1.7.3.)
2356 - Do not assume that users override _DEPENDENCIES in all conditions
2357 where Automake will try to define them.
2359 - Do not use `mkdir -p' in mkinstalldirs, unless this is GNU mkdir.
2360 Solaris 8's `mkdir -p' is not thread-safe and can break parallel
2363 This fix also affects the $(mkdir_p) variable defined since
2364 Automake 1.8. It will be set to `mkdir -p' only if mkdir is GNU
2365 mkdir, and to `mkinstalldirs' or `install-sh -d' otherwise.
2367 - Secure temporary directory creation in `make distcheck'. (PR/413)
2369 - Do not generate two build rules for `parser.h' when the
2370 parser appears in two different conditionals.
2372 - Work around a Solaris 8 /bin/sh bug in the test for dependency
2373 checking. Usually ./configure will not pick this shell; so this
2374 fix only helps cases where the shell is forced to /bin/sh.
2376 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
2378 - In some situations (hand-written `m4_include's), aclocal would
2379 call the `File::Spec->rel2abs' method, which was only introduced
2380 in Perl 5.6. This new version reestablish support Perl 5.005.
2382 It is likely that the next major Automake releases will require at
2383 least Perl 5.6. Consider upgrading your development environment
2384 if you are still using the five-year-old Perl 5.005.
2386 - Automake would sometimes fail to define rules for targets listed
2387 in variables defined in multiple conditions. For instance on
2393 it would define only the `a.$(OBJEXT): a.c' rule and omit the
2394 `b.$(OBJEXT): b.c' rule.
2396 * New sections in manual:
2398 - Third-Party Makefiles: how to interface third party Makefiles.
2399 - Upgrading: upgrading packages to newer Automake versions.
2400 - Multiple Outputs: handling tools that produce many outputs.
2402 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2406 * A (well known) portability bug slipped in the changes made to
2407 install-sh in Automake 1.8.1. The broken install-sh would refuse to
2408 install anything on Tru64.
2410 * Fix install rules for conditionally built python files. (This never
2413 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2417 * Bugs introduced by 1.8:
2419 - Fix Config.pm import error with old Perl versions (at least
2420 5.005_03). One symptom is that aclocal could not find its macro
2423 - Automake 1.8 used `mkdir -m 0755 -p --' to ensure that directories
2424 created by `make install' are always world readable, even if the
2425 installer happens to have an overly restrictive umask (e.g. 077).
2426 This was a mistake and has been reverted. There are at least two
2427 reasons why we must not use `-m 0755':
2428 - it causes special bits like SGID to be ignored,
2429 - it may be too restrictive (some setups expect 775 directories).
2431 - Fix aclocal to honor definitions located in files which have been
2432 m4_included manually. aclocal 1.8 had been updated to check
2433 m4_included files for new requirements, but forgot that these
2434 m4_included files can also provide new definitions.
2436 Note that if you have such a setup, we recommend you get rid of
2437 it. In the past, there was a reason to m4_include files manually:
2438 aclocal used to duplicate entire M4 files into aclocal.m4, even
2439 files that were distributed. Some packages were therefore
2440 m4_including the distributed file directly, and playing some
2441 tricks to ensure aclocal would not copy that file to aclocal.m4,
2442 in order to limit the amount of duplication. Since aclocal 1.8.x
2443 will precisely output m4_includes for local M4 files, we recommend
2444 that you clean up your setup, removing all manual m4_includes and
2445 letting aclocal output them.
2447 - Output detailed menus in the Info version if the Automake manual,
2448 so that Emacs can locate the indexes.
2450 - configure.ac and configure were listed twice in DIST_COMMON (an
2451 internal variable where Automake lists configury files to
2452 distribute). This was harmless, but unaesthetic.
2454 - Use `chmod a-w' instead of `chmod -w' as the latter honors umask.
2455 This was an issue only in the Automake package itself, not in
2458 - Automake assumed that all AC_CONFIG_LINKS arguments had the form
2459 DEST:SRC. This was wrong, as some packages do
2460 AC_CONFIG_LINKS($computedlinks). This version no longer abort in
2463 - Contrary to mkinstalldirs, $(mkdir_p) was expecting exactly one
2464 argument. This caused two kinds of failures:
2465 - Rules installing data in a conditionally defined directory
2466 failed when that directory was undefined. In this case no
2467 argument was supplied.
2468 - `make installdirs' failed, because several directories were
2469 passed to $(mkdir_p). This was an issue only on platform
2470 were $(mkdir_p) is implemented with `install-sh -d'.
2471 $(mkdir_p) as been changed to accept 0 or more arguments, as
2474 * Long-standing bugs:
2476 - Fix an unexpected diagnostic occurring when users attempt
2477 to override some internal variables that Automake appends to.
2479 - aclocal now scans configure.ac for macro definitions (PR/319).
2481 - Fix a portability issue with OSF1/Tru64 Make. If a directory
2482 distributes files which are outside itself (this usually occurs
2483 when using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([../dir]) to use auxiliary files
2484 from a parent package), then `make distcheck' fails due to an
2485 optimization performed by OSF1/Tru64 Make in its VPATH handling.
2486 (tests/subpkg2.test failure)
2488 - Fix another portability issue with Sun and OSF1/Tru64 Make.
2489 In a VPATH-build configuration, `make install' would install
2490 nobase_ files to wrong locations.
2492 - Fix a Perl `uninitialized value' diagnostic occurring when
2493 automake complains that a Texinfo file does not have a
2494 @setfilename statement.
2496 - Erase config.status.lineno during `make distclean'. This file
2497 can be created by config.status. Automake already knew about
2498 configure.lineno, but forgot config.status.lineno.
2500 - Distribute all files, even those which are built and installed
2501 conditionally. This change affects files listed in conditionally
2502 defined *_HEADERS and *_PYTHON variable (unless they are nodist_*)
2503 as well as those listed in conditionally defined dist_*_DATA,
2504 dist_*_JAVA, dist_*_LISP, and dist_*_SCRIPTS variables.
2506 - Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to avoid \? in sed regular expressions; it
2507 doesn't conform to POSIX.
2509 - Normalize help strings for configure variables and options added
2514 - Check for python2.4 in AM_PATH_PYTHON.
2516 * Spurious failures in test suite:
2518 - tests/libtool5.test, tests/ltcond.test, tests/ltcond2.test,
2519 tests/ltconv.test: fix failures with CVS Libtool.
2520 - tests/aclocal6.test: fix failure if autom4te.cache is disabled.
2521 - tests/txinfo24.test, tests/txinfo25.test, tests/txinfo28.test:
2522 fix failures with old Texinfo versions.
2524 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2530 - The NEWS file is more verbose.
2534 - Autoconf 2.58 or greater is required.
2538 - Default source file names in the absence of a _SOURCES declaration
2539 are made by removing any target extension before appending `.c', so
2540 to make the libtool module `foo.la' from `foo.c', you only need to
2543 lib_LTLIBRARIES = foo.la
2544 foo_la_LDFLAGS = -module
2546 For backward compatibility, foo_la.c will be used instead of
2547 foo.c if this file exists or is the explicit target of a rule.
2548 However -Wobsolete will warn about this deprecated naming.
2550 - AR's `cru' flags are now set in a global ARFLAGS variable instead
2551 of being hard-coded in each $(AR) invocation, so they can be
2552 substituted from configure.ac. This has been requested by people
2553 dealing with non-POSIX ar implementations.
2555 - New warning option: -Woverride. This will warn about any user
2556 target or variable definitions which override Automake
2559 - Texinfo rules back up and restore info files when makeinfo fails.
2561 - Texinfo rules now support the `html' target.
2562 Running this requires Texinfo 4.0 or greater.
2564 `html' is a new recursive target, so if your package mixes
2565 hand-crafted `Makefile.in's with Automake-generated
2566 `Makefile.in's, you should adjust the former to support (or
2567 ignore) this target so that `make html' recurses successfully. If
2568 you had a custom `html' rule in your `Makefile.am', it's better to
2569 rename it as `html-local', otherwise your rule will override
2570 Automake's new rule (you can check that by running `automake
2571 -Woverride') and that will stop the recursion to subdirectories.
2573 Last but not least, this `html' rule is declared PHONY, even when
2574 overridden. Fortunately, it appears that few packages use a
2575 non-PHONY `html' rule.
2577 - Any file which is m4_included from configure.ac will appear as a
2578 configure and Makefile.in dependency, and will be automatically
2581 - The rules for rebuilding Makefiles and Makefile.ins will now
2582 rebuild all Makefiles and all Makefile.ins at once when one of
2583 configure's dependencies has changed. This is considerably faster
2584 than previous implementations, where config.status and automake
2585 were run separately in each directory (this still happens when you
2586 change a Makefile.am locally, without touching configure.ac or
2587 friends). Doing this also solves a longstanding issue: these
2588 rebuild rules failed to work when adding new directories to the
2589 tree, forcing you to run automake manually.
2591 - For similar reasons, the rules to rebuild configure,
2592 config.status, and aclocal.m4 are now defined in all directories.
2593 Note that if you were using the CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES and
2594 CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES (formerly undocumented) variables, you
2595 should better define them in all directories. This is easily done
2596 using an AC_SUBST (make sure you prefix these dependencies with
2597 $(top_srcdir) since this variable will appear at different
2598 levels of the build tree).
2600 - aclocal will now use `m4_include' instead of copying local m4
2601 files into aclocal.m4. (Local m4 files are those you ship with
2602 your project, other files will be copied as usual.)
2604 Because m4_included files are automatically distributed, it means
2605 for most projects there is no point in EXTRA_DISTing the list of
2606 m4 files which are used. (You can probably get rid of
2607 m4/Makefile.am if you had one.)
2609 - aclocal will avoid touching aclocal.m4 when possible, so that
2610 Autom4te's cache isn't needlessly invalidated. This behavior can
2611 be switched off with the new `--force' option.
2613 - aclocal now uses Autoconf's --trace to detect macros which are
2614 actually used and will no longer include unused macros simply
2615 because they where mentioned. This was often the case for macros
2616 called conditionally.
2618 - New options no-dist and no-dist-gzip.
2620 - compile, depcomp, elisp-comp, install-sh, mdate-sh, mkinstalldirs,
2621 py-compile, and ylwrap, now all understand --version and --help.
2623 - Automake will now recognize AC_CONFIG_LINKS so far as removing created
2624 links as part of the distclean target and including source files in
2627 - AM_PATH_PYTHON now supports ACTION-IF-FOUND and ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND
2628 argument. The latter can be used to override the default behavior
2629 (which is to abort).
2631 - Automake will exit with $? = 63 on version mismatch. (So does
2632 Autoconf 2.58) missing knows this, and in this case it will
2633 emulate the tools as if they were absent. Because older versions
2634 of Automake and Autoconf did not use this exit code, this change
2635 will only be useful in projects generated with future versions of
2638 - When using AC_CONFIG_FILES with multiple input files, Automake
2639 generates the first ".in" input file for which a ".am" exists.
2640 (Former versions would try to use only the first input file.)
2642 - lisp_DATA is now allowed. If you are using the empty ELCFILES
2643 idiom to disable byte-compilation of lisp_LISP files, it is
2644 recommended that you switch to using lisp_DATA. Note that
2645 this is not strictly equivalent: lisp_DATA will install elisp
2646 files even if emacs is not installed, while *_LISP do not
2647 install anything unless emacs is found.
2649 - Makefiles will prefer `mkdir -p' over mkinstalldirs if it is
2650 available. This selection is achieved through the Makefile
2651 variable $(mkdir_p) that is set by AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE to either
2652 `mkdir -m 0755 -p --', `$(mkinstalldirs) -m 0755', or
2653 `$(install_sh) -m 0755 -d'.
2657 - Because `mkdir -p' is available on most platforms, and we can use
2658 `install-sh -d' when it is not, the use of the mkinstalldirs
2659 script is being phased out. `automake --add-missing' no longer
2660 installs it, and if you remove mkinstalldirs from your package,
2661 automake will define $(mkinstalldirs) as an alias for $(mkdir_p).
2663 Gettext 0.12.1 still requires mkinstalldirs. Fortunately
2664 gettextize and autopoint will install it when needed. Automake
2665 will continue to define the $(mkinstalldirs) and to distribute
2666 mkinstalldirs when this script is in the source tree.
2668 - AM_PROG_CC_STDC is now empty. The content of this macro was
2669 merged in AC_PROG_CC. If your code uses $am_cv_prog_cc_stdc, you
2670 should adjust it to use $ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc instead. (This
2671 renaming should be safe, even if you have to support several,
2672 versions of Automake, because AC_PROG_CC defines this variable
2673 since Autoconf 2.54.)
2675 - Some users where using the undocumented ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES
2676 variable to override the aclocal.m4 dependencies computed
2677 (inaccurately) by older versions of Automake. Because Automake
2678 now tracks configure's m4 dependencies accurately (see m4_include
2679 above), the use of ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES should be considered
2680 obsolete and will be flagged as such when running `automake
2685 - Defining programs conditionally using Automake conditionals no
2686 longer leads to a combinatorial explosion. The following
2687 construct used to be troublesome when used with dozens of
2702 Likewise for _SOURCES, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables.
2704 - Due to implementation constraints, previous versions of Automake
2705 proscribed multiple conditional definitions of some variables
2715 All _PROGRAMS, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables were affected.
2716 This restriction has been lifted, and these variables now
2717 support multiple conditional definitions as do other variables.
2719 - Cleanup the definitions of $(distdir) and $(top_distdir).
2720 $(top_distdir) now points to the root of the distribution
2721 directory created during `make dist', as it did in Automake 1.4,
2722 not to the root of the build tree as it did in intervening
2723 versions. Furthermore these two variables are now only defined in
2724 the top level Makefile, and passed to sub-directories when running
2727 - The --no-force option now correctly checks the Makefile.in's
2728 dependencies before deciding not to update it.
2730 - Do not assume that make files are called Makefile in cleaning rules.
2732 - Update .info files in the source tree, not in the build tree. This
2733 is what the GNU Coding Standard recommend. Only Automake 1.7.x
2734 used to update these files in the build tree (previous versions did
2735 it in the source tree too), and it caused several problems, varying
2736 from mere annoyance to portability issues.
2738 - COPYING, COPYING.LIB, and COPYING.LESSER are no longer overwritten
2739 when --add-missing and --force-missing are used. For backward
2740 compatibility --add-missing will continue to install COPYING (in
2741 `gnu' strictness) when none of these three files exist, but this
2742 use is deprecated: you should better choose a license yourself and
2743 install it once for all in your source tree (and in your code
2746 - Fix ylwrap so that it does not overwrite header files that haven't
2747 changed, as the inline rule already does.
2749 - User-defined rules override automake-defined rules for the same
2750 targets, even when rules do not have commands. This is not new
2751 (and was documented), however some of the automake-generated
2752 rules have escaped this principle in former Automake versions.
2753 Rules for the following targets are affected by this fix:
2755 clean, clean-am, dist-all, distclean, distclean-am, dvi, dvi-am,
2756 info, info-am, install-data-am, install-exec-am, install-info,
2757 install-info-am, install-man, installcheck-am, maintainer-clean,
2758 maintainer-clean-am, mostlyclean, mostlyclean-am, pdf, pdf-am,
2759 ps, ps-am, uninstall-am, uninstall-info, uninstall-man
2761 Practically it means that an attempt to supplement the dependencies
2762 of some target, as in
2764 clean: my-clean-rule
2766 will now *silently override* the automake definition of the
2767 rule for this target. Running `automake -Woverride' will diagnose
2768 all such overriding definitions.
2770 It should be noted that almost all of these targets support a *-local
2771 variant that is meant to supplement the automake-defined rule
2772 (See node `Extending' in the manual). The above rule should
2775 clean-local: my-clean-rule
2777 These *-local targets have been documented since at least
2778 Automake 1.2, so you should not fear the change if you have
2779 to support multiple automake versions.
2783 - The Automake manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
2785 - Targets dist-gzip, dist-bzip2, dist-tarZ, dist-zip are always defined.
2787 - core dumps are no longer removed by the cleaning rules. There are
2788 at least three reasons for this:
2789 1. These files should not be created by any build step,
2790 so their removal do not fit any of the cleaning rules.
2791 Actually, they may be precious to the developer.
2792 2. If such file is created during a build, then it's clearly a
2793 bug Automake should not hide. Not removing the file will
2794 cause `make distcheck' to complain about its presence.
2795 3. Operating systems have different naming conventions for
2796 core dump files. A core file on one system might be a
2797 completely legitimate data file on another system.
2799 - RUNTESTFLAGS, CTAGSFLAGS, ETAGSFLAGS, JAVACFLAGS are no longer
2800 defined by Automake. This means that any definition in the
2801 environment will be used, unless overridden in the Makefile.am or
2802 on the command line. The old behavior, where these variables were
2803 defined empty in each Makefile, can be obtained by AC_SUBSTing or
2804 AC_ARG_VARing each variable from configure.ac.
2806 - CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES and CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES are now
2807 documented. (The is not a new feature, these variables have
2808 been there since at least Automake 1.4.)
2810 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2812 Bugs fixed in 1.7.9:
2813 * Fix install-strip to work with nobase_ binaries.
2814 * Fix renaming of #line directives in ylwrap.
2815 * Rebuild with Autoconf 2.59. (1.7.8 was not installable with pdksh.)
2817 Bugs fixed in 1.7.8:
2818 * Remove spurious blank lines in cleaning rules introduced in 1.7.7.
2819 * Fix detection of Debian's install-info, broken since version 1.5.
2820 (Debian bug #213524).
2821 * Honor -module if it appears in AM_LDFLAGS (i.e., relax name checking)
2822 This was only done for libfoo_LDFLAGS and LDFLAGS in previous versions.
2824 Bugs fixed in 1.7.7:
2825 * The implementation of automake's --no-force option is unreliable,
2826 so this option is ignored in this version. A real fix will appear in
2827 Automake 1.8. (Debian Bug #206299)
2828 * AM_PATH_PYTHON: really check the whole list of interpreters if no
2829 argument is given. (PR/399)
2830 * Do not warn about leading `_' in variable names, even with -Wportability.
2831 * Support user redefinitions of TEXINFO_TEX.
2832 * depcomp: support AIX Compiler version 6.
2833 * Fix missing rebuilds during `make dist' with BSD make.
2834 (Could produce tarballs containing out-of-date files.)
2835 * Resurrect multilib support.
2836 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2837 - Extending aclocal: how to write m4 macros that won't trigger warnings
2839 - A Shared Library: Rewrite and split into subsections.
2841 Bugs fixed in 1.7.6:
2842 * Fix depcomp's icc mode for ICC 7.1.
2843 * Diagnose calls to AC_CONFIG_FILES and friends with not enough arguments.
2844 * Fix maintainer-clean's removal of autom4te.cache in VPATH builds.
2845 * Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to work with POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
2846 * Fix the location reported in some diagnostics related to AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
2847 * Remove Latin-1 characters from elisp-comp.
2848 * Update the manual's @dircategory to match the Free Software Directory.
2850 Bugs fixed in 1.7.5:
2851 * Update install-sh's license to remove an advertising clause.
2852 (Debian bug #191717)
2853 * Fix a bug introduced in 1.7.4, related to BUILT_SOURCE handling,
2854 that caused invalid Makefile.ins to be generated.
2855 * Make sure AM_MAKE_INCLUDE doesn't fail when a `doit' file exists.
2856 * New FAQ entry: renamed objects.
2858 Bugs fixed in 1.7.4:
2859 * Tweak the TAGS rule to support Exuberant Ctags (in addition to
2860 the Emacs implementation)
2861 * Fix output of aclocal.m4 dependencies in subdirectories.
2862 * Use `mv -f' instead of `mv' in fastdep rules.
2863 * Upgrade mdate-sh to work on OS/2.
2864 * Don't byte-compile elisp files when ELCFILES is set empty.
2865 (this documented feature was broken by 1.7.3)
2866 * Diagnose trailing backslashes on last line of Makefile.am.
2867 * Diagnose whitespace following trailing backslashes.
2868 * Multiple tests are now correctly supported in DEJATOOL. (PR/388)
2869 * Fix rebuilt rules for AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.bot])
2871 * `make install' will build `BUILT_SOURCES' first.
2872 * Minor documentation fixes.
2874 Bugs fixed in 1.7.3:
2875 * Fix stamp files numbering (when using multiple AC_CONFIG_HEADERS).
2876 * Query distutils for `pythondir' and `pythonexecdir', instead of
2877 using an hardcoded path. This should allow builds on 64-bit
2878 distributions that usually use lib64/ instead of lib/.
2879 * AM_PATH_PYTHON will also search for python2.3.
2880 * elisp files are now built all at once instead of one by one. Besides
2881 incurring a speed-up, this is required to support interdependent elisp files.
2882 * Support for DJGPP:
2883 - `make distcheck' will now work in `_inst/' and `_build' instead
2884 of `=inst/' and `=build/'
2885 - use `_dirstamp' when the file-system doesn't support `.dirstamp'
2886 - install/uninstall `*.i[0-9][0-9]'-style info files
2887 - more changes that affect only the Automake package (not its output)
2888 * Fix some incompatibility with upcoming perl-5.10.
2889 * Properly quote AC_PACKAGE_TARNAME and AC_PACKAGE_VERSION when defining
2890 PACKAGE and VERSION.
2892 - dashmstdout and dashXmstdout modes: don't use `-o /dev/null', this
2893 is troublesome with gcc and Solaris compilers. (PR/385)
2894 - makedepend mode: work with Libtool. (PR/385 too)
2896 * better support for unusual gettext setups, such as multiple po/ directories
2898 - Flag missing po/ and intl/ directories as warnings, not errors.
2899 - Disable these warnings if po/ does not exist.
2900 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2902 - Document how AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR interacts with missing files.
2904 - Document `AM_YFLAGS = -d'. (PR/382)
2906 Bugs fixed in 1.7.2:
2907 * Fix installation and uninstallation of Info files built in subdirectories.
2908 * Do not run `./configure --with-included-gettext' during `make distcheck'
2909 if AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) is used.
2910 * Correctly uninstall renamed man pages.
2911 * Do not strip escaped newline in variables defined in one condition
2912 and augmented in another condition.
2913 * Fix ansi2knr rules for LIBOBJS sources.
2914 * Clean all known Texinfo index files, not only those which appear to
2915 be used, because we cannot know which indexes are used in included files.
2916 (PR/375, Debian Bug #168671)
2917 * Honor only the first @setfilename seen in a Texinfo file.
2918 * Treat "required file X not found" diagnostics as errors (exit status 1).
2919 * Don't complain that a required file is not found when it is a Makefile
2921 * Don't use single suffix inference rules when building `.info'-less
2922 Info files, for the sake of Solaris make.
2923 * The `check' target now depends on `$(BUILT_SOURCES)'. (PR/359)
2924 * Recognize multiple inference rules such as `.a.b .c.d:'. (PR/371)
2925 * Warn about multiple inference rules when -Wportability is used. (PR/372)
2926 * Fix building of deansified files from subdirectories. (PR/370)
2927 * Add missing `fi' in the .c->.obj rules.
2928 * Improve install-sh to work even when names contain spaces or certain
2929 (but not all) shell metachars.
2930 * Fix the following spurious failures in the test suite:
2931 depcomp2.test, gnits2.test, gnits3.test, python3.test, texinfo13.test
2932 * Noteworthy manual updates:
2933 - Augment the section about BUILT_SOURCES.
2934 - Mention that AM_PROG_CC_STDC is a relic that is better avoided today.
2936 Bugs fixed in 1.7.1:
2937 * Honor `ansi2knr' for files built in subdirectories, or using per-targets
2939 * Aclocal should now recognize macro names containing parentheses, e.g.
2940 AC_DEFUN([AC_LANG_PREPROC(Fortran 90)], [...]).
2941 * Erase *.sum and *.log files created by DejaGnu, during `make distclean'.
2943 * Install Python files even if they were built. (PR/369)
2944 * Have stamp-vti dependent upon configure instead of configure.ac, as the
2945 version might not be defined in the latter. (PR/358)
2946 * Reorder arguments passed to a couple of commands, so things works
2947 when POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
2948 * Fix a regex that can cause Perl to segfault on large input.
2950 * Fix distribution of packages that have some sources defined conditionally,
2951 as in the `Conditional compilation using Automake conditionals' example
2953 * Fix spurious test suite failures on IRIX.
2954 * Don't report a required variable as undefined if it has been
2955 defined conditionally for the "right" conditions.
2956 * Fix cleaning of the /tmp subdirectory used by `make distcheck', in case
2957 `make distcheck' fails.
2958 * Fix distribution of included Makefile fragment, so we don't create
2959 spurious directories in the distribution. (PR/366)
2960 * Don't complain that a target lacks `.$(EXEEXT)' when it has it.
2963 * Autoconf 2.54 is required.
2964 * `aclocal' and `automake' will no longer warn about obsolete
2965 configure macros. This is done by `autoconf -Wobsolete'.
2966 * AM_CONFIG_HEADER, AM_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS and
2967 AM_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ_NEEDS_SYS_IOCTL are obsolete (although still
2968 supported). You should use AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS,
2969 and AC_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ instead. `autoupdate' can upgrade
2970 `configure.ac' for you.
2971 * Support for per-program and per-library `_CPPFLAGS'.
2972 * New `ctags' target (builds CTAGS files).
2973 * Support for -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble, where mumble is a warning category
2974 (see `automake --help' or the manual for a list of them).
2975 * Honor the WARNINGS environment variable.
2976 * Omit the call to depcomp when using gcc3: call the compiler directly.
2977 * A new option, std-options, tests that programs support --help and --version
2978 when `make installcheck' is run. This is enabled by --gnits.
2979 * Texinfo rules now support the `ps' and `pdf' targets.
2980 * Info files are now created in the build directory, not the source directory.
2981 * info_TEXINFOS supports files in subdirectories (this requires Texinfo 4.1
2983 * `make distcheck' will enforce DESTDIR support by attempting
2985 * `+=' can be used in conditionals, even if the augmented variable
2986 was defined for another condition.
2987 * Makefile fragments (inserted with `include') are always distributed.
2988 * Use Autoconf's --trace interface to inspect configure.ac and get
2989 a more accurate view of it.
2990 * Add support for extending aclocal's default macro search path
2991 using a `dirlist' file within the aclocal directory.
2992 * automake --output-dir is deprecated.
2993 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether uninstall actually
2994 removes all installed files has been moved to a separate target,
2995 distuninstallcheck, so it can be overridden easily.
2999 * Support for AM_INIT_GETTEXT([external])
3000 * Bug fixes, including:
3001 - Fix Automake's own `make install' so it works even if `ln' doesn't.
3002 - nobase_ programs and scripts honor --program-transform correctly.
3003 - Erase configure.lineno during `make distclean'.
3004 - Erase YACC and LEX outputs during `make maintainer-clean'.
3007 * Many bug fixes, including:
3008 - Requiring the current version works.
3009 - Fix "$@" portability issues (for Zsh).
3010 - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
3012 - Don't compute dependencies in background to avoid races with libtool.
3013 - Fix handling of _OBJECTS variables for targets sharing source variables.
3014 - Check dependency mode for Java when AM_PROG_GCJ is used.
3017 * automake --output-dir is deprecated
3018 * Many bug fixes, including:
3019 - Don't choke on AM_LDFLAGS definitions.
3020 - Clean libtool objects from subdirectories.
3021 - Allow configure variables with reserved suffix and unknown prefix
3022 (e.g. AC_SUBST(mumble_LDFLAGS) when 'mumble' is not a target).
3023 - Fix the definition of AUTOMAKE and ACLOCAL in configure.
3026 * Autoconf 2.52 is required.
3027 * automake no longer run libtoolize.
3028 This is the job of autoreconf (from GNU Autoconf).
3029 * `dist' generates all the archive flavors, as did `dist-all'.
3030 * `dist-gzip' generates the Gzip tar file only.
3031 * Combining Automake Makefile conditionals no longer lead to a combinatorial
3032 explosion. Makefile.in's keep a reasonable size.
3033 * AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_STRTOD, AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, AM_PTRDIFF_T
3034 are no longer shipped, since Autoconf 2.52 provides them (both as AM_
3036 * `#line' of Lex and Yacc files are properly set.
3037 * EXTRA_DIST can contain generated directories.
3038 * Support for dot-less extensions in suffix rules.
3039 * The part of the distcheck target that checks whether distclean actually
3040 cleans all built files has been moved to a separate target, distcleancheck,
3041 so it can be overridden easily.
3042 * `make distcheck' will pass additional options defined in
3043 $(DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS) to configure.
3044 * Fixed CDPATH portability problems, in particular for MacOS X.
3045 * Fixed handling of nobase_ targets.
3046 * Fixed support of implicit rules leading to .lo objects.
3047 * Fixed late inclusion of --add-missing files (e.g. depcomp) in DIST_COMMON
3048 * Added uninstall-hook target
3049 * `AC_INIT AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(tarname,version)' is an obsolete construct.
3050 You can now use `AC_INIT(pkgname,version) AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE' instead.
3051 (Note that "pkgname" is not "tarname", see the manual for details.)
3052 It is also possible to pass a list of global Automake options as
3053 first argument to this new form of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.
3054 * Compiler-based assembler is now called `CCAS'; people expected `AS'
3055 to be a real assembler.
3056 * AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE will set STRIP itself when it needs it. Adding
3057 AC_CHECK_TOOL([STRIP], [strip]) manually is no longer required.
3058 * aclocal and automake are also installed with the version number
3059 appended, and some of the install directory names have changed.
3060 This lets you have multiple versions installed simultaneously.
3061 * Support for parsers and lexers in subdirectories.
3064 * Support for `configure.ac'.
3065 * Support for `else COND', `endif COND' and negated conditions `!COND'.
3066 * `make dist-all' is much faster.
3067 * Allows '@' AC_SUBSTs in macro names.
3068 * Faster AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE (requires update of `missing' script)
3069 * User-side dependency tracking. Developers no longer need GNU make
3071 * Uses DIST_SUBDIRS in some situations when SUBDIRS is conditional
3072 * Most files are correctly handled if they appear in subdirs
3073 For instance, a _DATA file can appear in a subdir
3074 * GNU tar is no longer required for `make dist'
3075 * Added support for `dist_' and `nodist_' prefixes
3076 * Added support for `nobase_' prefix
3077 * Compiled Java support
3078 * Support for per-executable and per-library compilation flags
3082 * Added support for the Fortran 77 programming language.
3083 * Re-indexed the Automake Texinfo manual.
3084 * Added `AM_FOOFLAGS' variable for each compiler invocation;
3085 e.g. AM_CFLAGS can be used in Makefile.am to set C compiler flags
3086 * Support for latest autoconf, including support for objext
3087 * Can now put `.' in SUBDIRS to control build order
3088 * `include' command and `+=' support for macro assignment
3089 * Dependency tracking no long susceptible to deleted header file problem
3090 * Maintainer mode now a conditional. @MAINT@ is now an anachronism.
3095 * Better Cygwin32 support
3096 * Support for suffix rules with _SOURCES variables
3097 * New options `readme-alpha' and `check-news'; Gnits mode sets these
3098 * @LEXLIB@ no longer required when lex source seen
3099 Lex support in `missing', and new lex macro. Update your missing script.
3100 * Built-in support for assembly
3101 * aclocal gives error if `AM_' macro not found
3102 * Passed YFLAGS, not YACCFLAGS, to yacc
3103 * AM_PROG_CC_STDC does not have to come before AC_PROG_CPP
3104 * Dependencies computed as a side effect of compilation
3105 * Preliminary support for Java
3106 * DESTDIR support at "make install" time
3107 * Improved ansi2knr support; you must use the latest ansi2knr.c (included)
3111 * Better DejaGnu support
3112 * Added no-installinfo option
3113 * Added Emacs Lisp support
3114 * Added --no-force option
3115 * Included `aclocal' program
3116 * Automake will now generate rules to regenerate aclocal.m4, if appropriate
3117 * Now uses `AM_' macro names everywhere
3118 * ansi2knr option can have directory prefix (eg `../lib/ansi2knr')
3119 ansi2knr now works correctly on K&R sources
3120 * Better C++, yacc, lex support
3121 * Will compute _DEPENDENCIES variables automatically if not supplied
3122 * Will interpolate $(...) and ${...} when examining contents of a variable
3123 * .deps files now in build directory, not source directory; dependency
3124 handling generally rewritten
3125 * DATA, MANS and BUILT_SOURCES no longer included in distribution
3126 * can now put config.h into a subdir
3127 * Added dist-all target
3128 * Support for install-info program (see texinfo 3.9)
3129 * Support for "yacc -d"
3130 * configure substitutions are automatically discovered and included
3131 in generated Makefile.in
3132 * Special --cygnus mode
3133 * OMIT_DEPENDENCIES can now hold list of dependencies to be omitted
3134 when making distribution. Some dependencies are auto-ignored.
3135 * Changed how libraries are specified in _LIBRARIES variable
3136 * Full libtool support, from Gord Matzigkeit
3137 * No longer have to explicitly touch stamp-h when using AC_CONFIG_HEADER;
3138 AM_CONFIG_HEADER handles it automatically
3139 * Texinfo output files no longer need .info extension
3140 * Added `missing' support
3142 * Conditionals in Makefile.am, from Ian Taylor
3146 * distcheck target runs install and installcheck targets
3147 * Added preliminary support for DejaGnu.
3152 * More libtool fixes from Gord Matzigkeit; libtool support is still
3154 * Added support for jm_MAINTAINER_MODE
3156 * New "distcheck" target
3160 * mkinstalldirs and mdate-sh now appear in directory specified by
3162 * Removed DIST_SUBDIRS, DIST_OTHER
3163 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM only required when an actual program exists
3164 * dist-hook target now run before distribution packaged up; idea from
3165 Dieter Baron. Other hooks exist, too.
3166 * Preliminary (unfinished) support for libtool
3167 * Added short option names.
3168 * Better "dist" support when gluing together multiple packages
3172 * Documentation updates (many from François Pinard)
3173 * strictness `normal' now renamed to `foreign'
3174 * Renamed --install-missing to --add-missing
3175 * Now handles AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
3176 * Now handles TESTS macro
3177 * DIST_OTHER renamed to EXTRA_DIST
3178 * DIST_SUBDIRS is deprecated
3179 * @ALLOCA@ and @LIBOBJS@ now work in _LDADD variables
3180 * Better error messages in many cases
3181 * Program names are canonicalized
3182 * Added "check" prefix; from Gord Matzigkeit
3186 * configure.in scanner knows about AC_PATH_XTRA, AC_OUTPUT ":" syntax
3187 * Beginnings of a test suite
3188 * Automatically adds -I options for $(srcdir), ".", and path to config.h
3189 * Doesn't print anything when running
3190 * Beginnings of MAINT_CHARSET support
3191 * Can specify version in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS
3192 * Most errors recognizable by Emacs' M-x next-error
3193 * Added --verbose option
3194 * All "primary" variables now obsolete; use EXTRA_PRIMARY to supply
3195 configure-generated names
3196 * Required macros now distributed in aclocal.m4
3198 * --strictness=gnu is default
3202 * More sophisticated configure.in scanning; now understands ALLOCA and
3203 LIBOBJS directly, handles AC_CONFIG_HEADER more precisely, etc.
3204 * TEXINFOS and MANS now obsolete; use info_TEXINFOS and man_MANS instead.
3205 * CONFIG_HEADER variable now obsolete
3206 * Can handle multiple Texinfo sources
3207 * Allow hierarchies deeper than 2. From Gord Matzigkeit.
3208 * HEADERS variable no longer needed; now can put .h files directly into
3209 foo_SOURCES variable.
3210 * Automake automatically rebuilds files listed in AC_OUTPUT. The
3211 corresponding ".in" files are included in the distribution.
3214 * Added --gnu and --gnits options
3215 * More standards checking
3217 * Cleaned up 'dist' targets
3218 * Added AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS variable and several options
3219 * Now scans configure.in to get some information (preliminary)
3222 * Works with Perl 4 again
3225 * Added --install-missing option.
3226 * Pretty-prints generated macros and rules
3227 * Comments in Makefile.am are placed more intelligently in Makefile.in
3228 * Generates .PHONY target
3229 * Rule or macro in Makefile.am now overrides contents of Automake file
3230 * Substantial cleanups from François Pinard
3234 * Works with Perl 4 again.
3237 * New uniform naming scheme.
3238 * --strictness option
3240 * '.c' files corresponding to '.y' or '.l' files are automatically
3242 * Many bug fixes and cleanups
3245 * Allow objects to be conditionally included in libraries via lib_LIBADD.
3248 * Bug fixes in 'clean' code.
3249 * Now generates 'installdirs' target.
3250 * man page installation reworked.
3251 * 'make dist' no longer re-creates all Makefile.in's.
3254 * Reimplemented in Perl
3255 * Added --amdir option (for debugging)
3256 * Texinfo support cleaned up.
3257 * Automatic de-ANSI-fication cleaned up.
3258 * Cleaned up 'clean' targets.
3261 * Automatic dependency tracking
3262 * More documentation
3263 * New variables DATA and PACKAGEDATA
3264 * SCRIPTS installed using $(INSTALL_SCRIPT)
3265 * No longer uses double-colon rules
3267 * Changes in advance of internationalization
3271 Copyright (C) 1995-2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3273 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
3274 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
3275 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
3278 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
3279 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
3280 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
3281 GNU General Public License for more details.
3283 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
3284 along with this program. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.