Re: [PATCH 2/3] aclocal: remove @automake_includes

[Paolo Bonzini]

On 11/14/2010 05:46 PM, Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> Hi Paolo,
>
> * Paolo Bonzini wrote on Tue, Nov 09, 2010 at 08:14:39PM CET:
> > This patch simplifies the overly complicated rules for ACLOCAL_PATH
> > vs. @automake_includes and @system_includes, by stating that
> > ACLOCAL_PATH will override even @automake_includes.  The simplest
> > way to achieve this is to remove @automake_includes altogether.
>
> I've read the previous discussion about this now, but I'm still not sure
> I understand the rationale for this change.  Is it because you want to
> actually be able to override the $(datadir)/aclocal-$VERSION files with
> this variable?  If so, why?

I don't really need to override the files, it's just to simplify the 
semantics and make ACLOCAL_PATH between -I and the system variables.

> If the only reason is that --acdir doesn't accurately reflect what would
> happen after 'make install', maybe we can instead fix --acdir?

That's not a problem, during the testsuite it is safer to operate as if 
$(datadir)/aclocal is empty, and --acdir achieves that.  So I think 
--acdir is fine.

If you would prefer to fix --acdir, it would be in theory possible to 
make --acdir change @automake_includes and empty @system_includes instead.

However, before going on, I might be missing something.  Google code 
search shows a relatively large amount of strange uses of --acdir, even 
in projects using relatively recent Autoconf (like 1.9.x).  I'm not sure 
how they work; for example:

acdir = m4
@address@hidden: configure.in
@MAINT@ echo 'acfiles = \' > address@hidden
@MAINT@ find $(acdir) -type f -name '*.m4' -print               \
@MAINT@   | sed 's!^!$(top_srcdir)/!'                           \
@MAINT@   | tr '\012' ' '                                       \
@MAINT@   >> address@hidden
@MAINT@ echo >> address@hidden
@MAINT@ mv address@hidden $@

@address@hidden aclocal-files

@address@hidden Override default rule to use --acdir option
@address@hidden(srcdir)/aclocal.m4: configure.in $(acfiles)
@MAINT@ cd $(srcdir) && aclocal --acdir=$(acdir)

How can this work, wouldn't it miss all the internal Automake macros?

> I'm not sure if you stated whether the testsuite passes for you with
> this patch series.

Yes, it works.

Paolo