Re: [bug-gnulib] Incompatibility between current gnulib and gettext-0.14.6?

[Bruno Haible]

James Youngman wrote:
> I am using gettext version 0.14.6.   Its version of po/Makefile.in.in
> uses @MKINSTALLDIRS@, but the m4 files in current gnulib do not
> substitute that variable.  This means that the generated po/Makefile
> contains a naked @address@hidden
> 
> I think that's an incompatibility between current gnulib and
> gettext-0.14.6.

The analysis is correct. The MKINSTALLDIRS was removed from gettext's
*.m4 macros and from Makefile.in.in on the same day, 2006-04-17.

There is no long-term stable interface between *.m4 and Makefile.in.in.
This means, you need to take both from the same version. And gnulib here
counts as the newest released gettext version.

> Is that deliberate? 

It's known, and is to some extent unavoidable (because caring too much
about backward compatibility can kill progress).

=> To work with gnulib, you need the newest gettext release and apply
   gnulib-tool after autopoint (so that gnulib's changes override the
   macros from the gettext release).

Bruno