Re: How to make autoreconf find local m4 macros?

[Stepan Kasal]

Hello,

On Mon, May 23, 2005 at 02:52:11PM +0200, Andreas Vinsander wrote:
> how to make autoreconf run aclocal -I <path_to_really_ugly_local_macros>,
...
> For those of us (not yet) using automake,

Autoconf contains a macro AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR which is meant for this.
Unfortunately, it doesn't work yet.

> I guess we still have to use a bootstrap script
> or are there some better way (except the obvious: switch to automake)?

Thus the obvious one is to write patch to aclocal.
aclocal.in is in the repository
:pserver:address@hidden:/cvs/automake
As this is part of the Automake project, submit your patch to list
bug-automake .

Please note that AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR cannot be traced, it has to be
grepped from the source.

> I guess we still have to use a bootstrap script [...]

And, BTW, don't be ashamed that you use the bootstrap script.
I think it's healthy to use it, as it is much more flexible.

If you tell the developpers to call autoreconf, you have no way to hook
into the bootstrap process.  If you have a bootstrap script, you can adapt
it as needed.  (Of course, if all comes well, you can just call autoreconf
from bootstrap.)

There are situation which prove that the ``close'' solution with
autoreconf is not the best option.  Not only the bug/missing-feature which
initiated this thread, but also the need to call gnulib-tool script in
some project.  There were suggestions to add the gnulib-tool to autoreconf
but that's just missing the point[1].  If a development environment has a
need to hook into or augment the standard process, there should be an
easy way.

[1] I don't say that gnulib-tool shouldn't be added to autoreconf.  If we
decide that it's not an add-on but a part of the standard autotools set,
then autoreconf should handle it.  But even then, we should be open to
future needs.

Have a nice day,
        Stepan