Substituting during maintainer package builds

[Paul D. Smith]

In GNU make, since it runs on many different platforms, I have lots of
specialized makefiles, config.h variants, and README files, etc.

One thing that I always found annoying was having to go through all
those files and update the version stamp, etc. whenever I wanted to do a
release.

So, I hacked up a "maintainer makefile" and some gross autoconf 2.13
code to allow me to generate these files at package construction time.
For example, consider README.  I want to substitute the version of the
package into the README file when I build from CVS, so what I want is:

  In CVS:       README.in, using @VERSION@
  Maintainer:   Builds a package, which constructs README from README.in
                while substituting @VERSION@
  User:         Makefile has no rules for creating README, and README is
                the only thing in the package, not README.in.

I have a number of files like this.

I was hoping newer versions of autoconf would make this simpler for me,
but I don't see it.  In fact, I'm having a harder time with the newer
versions of autoconf.  For example, the autoconf scripts are constantly
pissed at me because I don't have a README file when I invoke them to
create my configure file; they don't seem to understand that while I
don't have one _yet_ I _will_ have one by the time my package is
created.


Do the autoconf gurus have any comments or suggestions as to how this
kind of operation could be accomplished with the least amount of
hackage?  Did I miss some gem in the manual that would solve my
problems?

Thanks!

-- 
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 Paul D. Smith <address@hidden>          Find some GNU make tips at:
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 "Please remain calm...I may be mad, but I am a professional." --Mad Scientist