Re: extending automake

[Bob Rossi]

On Thu, May 01, 2008 at 03:48:25PM -0400, Bob Rossi wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 03:21:18PM +0200, Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
> > * Bob Rossi wrote on Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 02:59:11PM CEST:
> > > You busy or thing the idea is no good?
> > 
> > Busy.  If you want to help, there are still unaddressed questions from 
> > <http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.sysutils.automake.general/8916/focus=8924>
> > 
> > (even if the above notation is not adopted, its semantics are still
> > close to what automake should be able to provide; so you could try
> > and report whether those semantics fit your particular problem
> > instance).
> 
> Hi Ralf,
> 
> MULTITARGETS = elc-stamp
> elc_stamp_TARGETS = $(ELCFILES)
> elc_stamp_SOURCES = $(ELFILES)
> elc_stamp_COMMAND = \
> for f in : $(elc_stamp_SOURCES); do \
>   test "$$f" != : || continue; \
>   touch "$${f}c"; \
> done
> 
> Something like this is exactly what would help me. For instance, I'm
> thinking I could do,
> 
>   MULTITARGETS = gen-foo
>   gen_foo_TARGETS = $(srcdir)/foo.xml $(abs_top_srcdir)/gen.py
>   gen_foo_SOURCES = foo.h foo.c
>   gen_foo_COMMAND = python $(abs_top_srcdir)/gen.py $(srcdir)/foo.xml
> 
> is that correct? Also, how would I tell automake that this should be
> done at BUILT_SOURCES time?
> 
> This would also work for flex/bison in the case that Mike Mueller asked
> about.

Another example I just ran across on the mingw.org site,
   windres -o resfile.o resfile.rc
   gcc -o hello hello.o resfile.o -mwindows
Often people want to put resources into there program. They would
greatly benefit from this feature, considering they could teach automake
how to run these commands.

Have you had any time to think about this?

Thanks,
Bob Rossi