aclocal does not support --include

[Stepan Kasal]

Hello,

[cc to bug-automake, as we are touching a bug in aclocal]

On Mon, Oct 02, 2006 at 11:39:45AM +0200, Guillaume Rousse wrote:
> Stepan Kasal wrote:
> > The -I option of autoconf is where the _included_ files are searched
> > for.  For example, if your configure.ac contained
> >     m4_include([foobar.m4])
> > then the -I options specify where foobar.m4 might be found.
> > (Though adding  m4_include([ocaml.m4])  to the top of your
> > configure.ac might be a usable workaround for your problem, I do
> > not think it is ``the right way.'')
> Actually, it doesn't work, as it confuses aclocal:
> address@hidden camlimages]$ autoreconf -v -I ../autoconf/
> autoreconf-2.5x: Entering directory `.'
> autoreconf-2.5x: configure.ac: not using Gettext
> autoreconf-2.5x: running: aclocal
> configure.ac:7: file `ocaml.m4' does not exist

oops, you are right, the above hack does not work.

Because aclocal does not support the -I --include option of autom4te
(and autoconf, autoupdate, autoheader, etc.), this option effectively
cannot be used with any configure.ac file which uses aclocal.
And likewise with -B --prepend-include.

The natural solution would be to add the options to aclocal, but
there is a name collission: aclocal has another functionality under
the option name `-I'.

Would it be possible to propagate the remaining three autom4te
options: --include, -B, and --prepend-include to the aclocal cmd
line?

Or should we make all these options obsolete, remove them from
autoreconf option list, and support only `aclocal -I', because this
is the only one of the options which is massively used in practice?

Have a nice day,
        Stepan Kasal