Re: ifdef not allowed

[Ralf Corsepius]

Am Die, 2001-11-06 um 20.53 schrieb Karl Eichwalder:
> Hello,
> 
> I'm wondering why automake doesn't allow conditionals like:
> 
> f=$(shell test -e /etc/passwd && echo /etc/passwd)
> hello:
>       echo hello
> ifdef f
>       echo $(f)
> endif
> 
> Reading the automake manual on Conditionals I have got the impression,
> only 'if' is allowed. Why not passing through 'ifdef' structures? 
Probably, simply syntactical ambiguity between make-conditionals and
automake-conditionals, i.e. badly chosen grammar and nobody wanting to
care. 

But remember, automake's objective is portable Makefiles, while you seem
to be trying to use proprietary and non-portable gmake-style
conditionals.

> At
> least, please improve the error message:
> 
>     Makefile.am:24: endif without if
> 
> It took me quite some time to understand what automake wants me to do ;)
> 
> [Yes, I know, it's easily possible to solve the job mentioned above
> going other ways.]

One way to work around this issue is to put something like this into
configure.acs:
ENDIF=endif
AC_SUBST(ENDIF)

and to apply this in Makefile.ams:
ifdef f
        ..
@ENDIF@

Ralf