Re: only set variables in some Makefile.in's

[Stepan Kasal]

Hello,

On Thu, Oct 20, 2005 at 09:03:19AM +0200, Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> How about allowing the user a little finer-grained choice of where
> Makefile variables are needed, as in:
...
> @item AM_SUBST_SET_IN(PATH..., VARIABLE, [VALUE])

I don't think it's worth it.
Actually, I'm afraid you broke rule #2:
  Don't ever optimize.

(Perhaps even AM_SUBST_NOMAKE was breaking that rule?)

If you wanted to optimize, you could put all variable assignments to one
big file, which would then get included by ll the Makefiles.

You just have to solve several minor problems:
1) if make doesn't support any form of `include', you have to AC_SUBST
the file with variables.
2) if a variable is redefined in any of the makefiles, it should be
removed from the common set.

Point 1) is trivial, point 2) requires some perl programming, I'm afraid.
And 2) would probably practically disable the
        automake subdir/Makefile
ie. you would have to call automake to rebuild all Makefile.in's.

I don't think it's worth it, but if you are willing to write a patch,
and if Alexandre won't reject it, why not?

Have a nice day,
        Stepan Kasal