Re: multiple AM_INIT_AUTOMAKEs cause problems

[Stepan Kasal]

Hello,

On Thu, Jun 30, 2005 at 12:32:50PM -0400, Christopher Sean Morrison wrote:
> That's unfortunate but good to know that it doesn't output both or a 
> means to dynamically select it after running automake.

As usual, if you need that functionality, code it.  It's free software, you
are free to enhance it.  I don't think it's easy, though.

> That being the 
> case, I'm wondering if there is something that I can do at autogen.sh 
> time instead (which runs either autoreconf if it can or all the steps 
> individually if autoreconf fails).

An elegant explanation why using autoreconf instead of a bootstrap script
is a bad idea.

> I of course could automatically edit the configure.ac 

Or you can use a version.m4 file, which does
        m4_define([foo_version], [1.2.3])
and then you can use foo_version in the AC_INIT call and also in a condition
which drives the [no-dependencies] option:
> >AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(m4_bmatch(foo_version, [[a-z]$], [[no-dependencies]]))

> depending on the existence of CVS directories

Are you sure you want to depend on this?
If you generate a tarball for other people, they needn't run automake
again, just ./configure && make

So it seems that you'd alwayd work in a CVS checkout, either to build the
program (if you are developping), or to build a tarball (for non-developpers).

I think it would be better to decide according to the shape of version
number.  The tarballs you pass to non-developpers should have a unique
version number.  And if you are working inbetween these, you can add a
letter to the end of the version number.

> Alternatively, I should be able to run automake again after autoreconf 
> completes and directly pass the no-dependencies option, perhaps 
> requiring a run of config.status --recheck too?

All this should be handled automatically, if you use current Automake.
If you touch configure.ac (or version.m4) and then run "make dist",
you should see that Automake will refresh the Makefile.in files.
And, of course, then "config.status --recheck" is run to regenerate
the Makefiles.  When all is refreshed, make dist continues and builds
the tarball.

HTH,
        Stepan Kasal