Including foreign makefiles

[Adam C Powell IV]

Greetings,

(I can't get automake-request to work, sent it the same subscribe request I
used a year ago but it bounced...)

I'm linking with a package whose upstream uses a non-standard "configuration"
scheme involving including local makefiles.  So for example, I put in my
Makefile.am:

include $(PETSC_DIR)/bmake/$(PETSC_ARCH)/base
INCLUDES = ${PETSC_INCLUDE}
chts_LDADD     = ${PETSC_TS_LIB}

and PETSC_INCLUDE and PETSC_TS_LIB are defined in that base file (or in
something included by that base file).  Yes, I know this is not standard
GNU behavior, but upstream insists on it, and they're being very good about
freedom of their code and responsive to help/bug requests, good citizens
otherwise, etc.

Trouble is, automake throws an error because PETSC_TS_LIB is not defined.
Well, it generates the Makefile.in, and builds and runs just fine, but it
breaks make distcheck.  Funny thing is, it doesn't throw the error for
PETSC_INCLUDE...

So the question is, is there an automake-kosher way to include a foreign
makefile, or specify that certain variables will be somehow defined elsewhere,
not in Makefile.am or configure.in?

Thanks, (and please cc me on all replies)

-Adam P.

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