bug#9512: TEXINFOS primary and nodist_ (was: Re: makeinfo in VPATH builds fails)

[Stefano Lattarini]

Submitter: Sebastian Freundt <address@hidden>

thanks

Reference:

<http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=9506>

On Thursday 15 September 2011, Sebastian Freundt wrote:

> Stefano Lattarini <address@hidden> writes:

>

> > The main point is that if you're distributing you `.info' files, you should

> > ensure that they are *not* rebuilt when building from a distribution tarball

> > (as that would wreak havoce with at least FreeBSD make). OTOH, if you *want*

> > them to be rebuilt, you should *not* distribute them, and *also* add them to

> > CLEANFILES; in this case automake will build them in the buiilddir (if it

> > doesn't, than that's a bug we should fix ASAP).

> >

> > I've marked this bug closed as "wontfix", but feel free to continue the

> > discussion here if you have further doubts to clarify or ideas to contribute.

>

>

> Hi Stefano,

>

> I've followed your suggestions, and prefixed the TEXINFOS with `nodist_'

> and added them to CLEANFILES, however the .info file is now neither built

> nor installed (even upon make install-info).

>

Hmpf, yes, this is another limitation/incompatibility of the TEXINFOS

primary; the only ways TEXINFOS can by used are:

# Will cause generation of foo.info, foo.pdf, etc.

info_TEXINFOS = foo.texi

# Will declare that these files ae required when building `foo.texi'

foo_TEXINFOS = bar.texi baz.texi

So, when automake sees nodist_TEXINFOS, it thinks that it just lists extra

`.texi' files required by `nodist.texi' ... And it doesn't even warn that

`nodist.texi' is not really used anywhere!

There is already a bug report about this situation:

<http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=7657>

but I had forgotten about it. Thanks for reminding me!

>

> In my case the .info files should be rebuilt and not distributed as they

> contain partially auto-generated content.

>

OK. Maybe you might use a dist-hook to remove the `.info' files not

intended for distribution from the distdir, just before the distribution

tarball is created. See:

<http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/manual/html_node/The-dist-Hook.html>

> Another bug report?

>

Good idea. I've already opened it (hopefully in your name, otherwise I'll

fix that later).

> Cheers

> Sebastian

>

Thanks,

Stefano