Re: Feature request: meta files & wildcards (once again)

[Bruce Korb]

Tom Tromey wrote:
> 
> >>>>> "Alex" == Alex Hornby <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> Alex> I suppose automake could be enhanced so that it automatically
> Alex> knew which files are BUILT_SOURCES by looking back through the
> Alex> suffix rules. Then the small overhead of listing them twice
> Alex> would be removed.
> 
> BUILT_SOURCES are built early, before anything else happens.  It isn't
> clear you always want this for sources that are built during the build
> process.  (I don't have an example though.)
> 
> I know I've thought of it before, though, since this is in TODO:
> 
> * notice when a .c file is a target somewhere, and auto-add it to
>     BUILT_SOURCES

If you do such a thing, please remember that there is at least one
person out there with a project that builds its own .c source, but
only after it is first built.  Consequently, it ships with derived
files and rules for re-deriving them.  Such an automated "feature"
would increase my automake difficulties from "a big pain" to "utterly
impossible to use".  Please don't do it.  Thanks.