source: trunk/essentials/sys-devel/automake-1.9/NEWS@ 3253

Bugs fixed in 1.9.6:

* Longstanding bugs:

  - Correctly diagnose `#' comments following trailing backslash.

  - Preserve backslashes preceding `##' lines.

  - Preserve the order of items conditionally appended (+=) to variables.

  - Fix support of installation directory names with spaces on systems
    where mkinstalldirs cannot use `mkdir -p'.

  - Avoid infinite loop in mdate-sh when TIME_STYLE is set.

  - Do not output two definitions of SOURCES (an internal variable).
    One was not formatted and could exceed the maximum line length of
    some third-party tools (e.g., AIX 5.1 grep, breaking dependency
    tracking).

  - Do not empty info files when attempting to rebuild them without makeinfo.

  - Be smarter when a Makefile.am references files in both "./dir" and
    "dir": do not output two rules to create these directories.
    (PR/461)

  - Do not attempt to recover a missing *.elc file if it cannot be
    created because emacs does not exist.

  - Several aclocal fixes for issues occuring when configure.ac
    includes some other m4 files explicitely with m4_include or m4_sinclude.
    (PR/450)

  - depcomp's cpp mode now understands preprocessors that output either
    `#line 42 file' or `# 42 file'.  (Only the latter was supported.)

* Other miscellaneous changes:

  - Update the GPL, and the FSF postal address.

  - Anticipate for python2.5 in AM_PATH_PYTHON.

  - The manual should now compile without any warning from TeX.


Bugs fixed in 1.9.5:

* Longstanding bugs:

  - All m4 files have been relicensed under an all-permissive license.

    Previously they used a GPL license, and an all-permissive license
    was prepended when they were copied into aclocal.m4, leading to
    some confusion.

  - aclocal now recognizes AU_ALIAS.

  - Improve support for `make -k', it didn't work on cygwin.

  - Fix the definition of FCLINK for preprocessed Fortran.

  - Fixes for auxiliary scripts:

    - depcomp's tru64 mode did not work while compiling libtool libraries
      with static libraries disabled.

    - mdate-sh now copes with Darwin's non-standard ls output.

    - missing properly emulates makeinfo when neither -o nor
      @setfilename are used.

  - Don't output long variable definitions.  Automake normally tries
    to output variable definitions as they are input, bug very long
    lines in Makefile.in can break some sed and make implementations
    with a limited line length.  If a line in a variable definition is
    longer than 1000 characters, automake will wrap the definition
    around 80 columns.  Other definitions are still output untouched.

* Noteworthy manual updates:

  - Hard-Coded Install Paths: New FAQ entry.

  - How the Linker is Chosen: Rewritten.


Bugs fixed in 1.9.4:

* Longstanding bugs:

  - Portability nits in install-sh and mdata-sh.

  - Don't let `make install' fails if a _JAVA primary becomes empty
    because of conditionals.

  - Do not confuse CHANGELOG with ChangeLog on case-insensitive
    case-preserving file systems (likewise for all automatically
    distributed files).

  - Do not embed $DESTDIR in Python's byte-code files.

  - Work around programs that read stdin when checking for --version
    and --help options (when the `std-options' is used).

  - Fix AM_PATH_PYTHON to correctly define PYTHON as `:' when no minimum
    version was supplied and no interpreter is found.

* Noteworthy manual updates:

  - Conditional Subdirectories: more comments about non-distributed
    subdirectories.

  - Flag Variables Ordering: new FAQ entry.

  - Per-Object Flags: new FAQ entry.


Bugs fixed in 1.9.3:

* Bug introduced by 1.9:

  - Dependency tracking using mode "dashmstdout" or "dashXmstdout" did
    not work for libtool objects compiled with --tag (i.e., compiled
    with Libtool 1.5 or later).  The compilation would succeed, but
    `depcomp' would emit a warning and not output any dependency
    information.

* Longstanding bugs:

  - Ignore comments from augmented variables, so that
       FOO = foo # bar
       FOO += baz
    no longer results in `FOO = foo # bar baz'.

  - `install-sh -d a/b/' failed to create `a/b/' because of the trailing `/'.

  - _PROGRAMS now always create programs.  Before 1.9 it would
    mistakenly create a libtool library if the name of the program
    ended in `.la'.  Between 1.9 and 1.9.2 a program with such a name
    would fail to build because half the code was assuming a program
    was being built, while the other half was considering a library...

  - `compile' now handles `*.obj' objects.

  - `aclocal' recognizes AC_DEFUN_ONCE.

* Noteworthy manual updates:

  - LIBOBJS: more documentation and an example setup.
  - Libtool Convenience Libraries: show how to force the linker selection.
  - Extending: more comments about install-data-hook vs install-exec-hook.
  - Clean: document -local targets.


Bugs fixed in 1.9.2 (10th anniversary release):

* Sort rm commands output for mostlyclean-generic, clean-generic,
  distclean-generic and maintainer-clean-generic, so that the produced
  Makefile is not sensitive to the way Perl sorts its hashes.
* Support `+' in the name of directories given to `include'.
* Preserve spaces in the arguments of `compile'.
* `missing' will no longer try to emulate a tool that is run
  with `--version' or `--help' as argument.
* Noteworthy manual update:
  - There is a new chapter about the history of Automake.


Bugs fixed in 1.9.1:

This release fixes three longstanding bugs.

* Adjust #line directives in `parser.h' (when ylwrap is not used).
  (PR/432)

* Fix definition of YLWRAP when ylwrap is installed in a default
  aux directory found in a parent package.

* Properly recognize AC_CANONICAL_BUILD and AC_CANONICAL_TARGET.


New in 1.9:

* Makefile.in bloat reduction:

  - Inference rules are used to compile sources in subdirectories when
    the `subdir-objects' option is used and no per-target flags are
    used.  This should reduce the size of some projects a lot, because
    Automake used to output an explicit rule for each such object in
    the past.

  - Automake no longer outputs three rules (.o, .obj, .lo) for each
    object that must be built with explicit rules.  It just outputs
    the rules required to build the kind of object considered: either
    the two .o and .obj rules for usual objects, or the .lo rule for
    libtool objects.

* Change to Libtool support:

  - Libtool tags are used with libtool versions that support them.
    (I.e., with Libtool 1.5 or greater.)

  - Automake is now able to handle setups where a libtool library is
    conditionally installed in different directories, as in

      if COND
        lib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
      else
        pkglib_LTLIBRARIES = liba.la
      endif
      liba_la_SOURCES = ...

* Changes to aclocal:

  - aclocal now ensures that AC_DEFUNs and AU_DEFUNs it discovers are
    really evaluated, before it decides to include them in aclocal.m4.
    This solves nasty problems with conditional redefinitions of
    Autoconf macros in /usr/share/aclocal/*.m4 files causing extraneous
    *.m4 files to be included in any project using these macros.
    (Calls to AC_PROG_EGREP causing libtool.m4 to be included is the
    most famous instance of this bug.)

  - Do not complain about missing conditionally AC_REQUIREd macros
    that are not actually used.  In 1.8.x aclocal would correctly
    determine which of these macros were really needed (and include
    only these in the package); unfortunately it would also require
    all of them to be present in order to run.  This created
    situations were aclocal would not work on a tarball distributing
    all the macros it uses.  For instance running aclocal on a project
    containing only the subset of the Gettext macros in use by the
    project did not work, because gettext conditionally requires other
    macros.

* Portability improvements:

  - Tar format can be chosen with the new options tar-v7, tar-ustar, and
    tar-pax.  The new option filename-length-max=99 helps diagnosing
    filenames that are too long for tar-v7.  (PR/414)

  - Variables aumented with `+=' are now automatically flattened (i.e.,
    trailing backslashes removed) and then wrapped around 80 colummns
    (adding trailing backslashes).  In previous versions, a long series
    of
      VAR += value1
      VAR += value2
      VAR += value3
      ...
    would result in a single-line definition of VAR that could possibly
    exceed the maximum line length of some make implementations.

    Non-augmented variables are still output as they are defined in
    the Makefile.am.

* Miscellaneous:

  - Support Fortran 90/95 with the new "fc" and "ppfc" languages.
    Works the same as the old Fortran 77 implementation; just replace
    F77 with FC everywhere (exception: FFLAGS becomes FCFLAGS).
    Requires a version of autoconf which provides AC_PROG_FC (>=2.59).

  - Support for conditional _LISP.

  - Support for conditional -hook and -local rules (PR/428).

  - Diagnose AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR calls following AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE. (PR/49)

  - Automake will not write any Makefile.ins after the first error it
    encounters.  The previous Makefile.ins (if any) will be left in
    place.  (Warnings will not prevent output, but remember they can
    be turned into errors with -Werror.)

  - The restriction that SUBDIRS must contain direct children is gone.
    Do not abuse.

  - The manual tells more about SUBDIRS vs. DIST_SUBDIRS.
    It also gives an example of nested packages using AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS.


Bugs fixed in 1.8.5:

* Long standing bugs:

  - Define DIST_SUBDIRS even when the `no-dist' or `cygnus' options are used
    so that `make distclean' and `make maintainer-clean' can work.

  - Define AR and ARFLAGS even when only EXTRA_LIBRARIES are defined.

  - Fix many rules to please FreeBSD make, which runs commands with `sh -e'.

  - Polish diagnostic when no input file is found.


Bugs fixed in 1.8.4:

* Long standing bugs:

  - Fix AM_PATH_PYTHON to correctly display $PYTHON when it has been
    overridden by the user.

  - Honor PATH_SEPARATOR in various places of the Automake package, for
    the sake of OS/2.

  - Adjust dependency tracking mode detection to ICC 8.0's new output.
    (PR/416)

  - Fix install-sh so it can install the `mv' binary... using `mv'.

  - Fix tru64 dependency tracking for libtool objects.

  - Work around Exuberant Ctags when creating a TAGS files in a directory
    without files to scan but with subdirectories to include.

* Bugs introduced by 1.8:

  - Fix an "internal error" when @LIBOBJS@ is used in a variable that is
    not defined in the same conditions as the _LDADD that uses it.

  - Do not warn when JAVAROOT is overridden, this is legitimate.


Bugs fixed in 1.8.3:

* Long standing bugs:

  - Quote filenames in installation rules, in case $DESTDIR, $prefix,
    or any of the other *dir variables contain a space.

    Please note that Automake does not and cannot support spaces in
    filenames that are involved during the build.  This change affects
    only installation paths, so that `make install' does not bomb out
    in packages configured with
      ./configure --prefix '/c/Program Files'

  - Fix the depfiles output so it works with GNU sed (<4.1) even when
    POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.

  - Do not AC_SUBST(LIBOBJS) in AM_WITH_REGEX.  This macro was unusable
    since Autoconf 2.54, which defines LIBOBJS itself.

  - Fix a potential (but unlikely) race condition in parallel elisp
    builds.  (Introduced in 1.7.3.)

  - Do not assume that users override _DEPENDENCIES in all conditions
    where Automake will try to define them.

  - Do not use `mkdir -p' in mkinstalldirs, unless this is GNU mkdir.
    Solaris 8's `mkdir -p' is not thread-safe and can break parallel
    builds.

    This fix also affects the $(mkdir_p) variable defined since
    Automake 1.8.  It will be set to `mkdir -p' only if mkdir is GNU
    mkdir, and to `mkinstalldirs' or `install-sh -d' otherwise.

  - Secure temporary directory creation in `make distcheck'. (PR/413)

  - Do not generate two build rules for `parser.h' when the
    parser appears in two different conditionals.

  - Work around a Solaris 8 /bin/sh bug in the test for dependency
    checking.  Usually ./configure will not pick this shell; so this
    fix only helps cases where the shell is forced to /bin/sh.

* Bugs introduced by 1.8:

  - In some situations (hand-written `m4_include's), aclocal would
    call the `File::Spec->rel2abs' method, which was only introduced
    in Perl 5.6.  This new version reestablish support Perl 5.005.

    It is likely that the next major Automake releases will require at
    least Perl 5.6.  Consider upgrading your development environment
    if you are still using the five-year-old Perl 5.005.

  - Automake would sometimes fail to define rules for targets listed
    in variables defined in multiple conditions.  For instance on
      if C1
        bin_PROGRAMS = a
      else
        bin_PROGRAMS = b
      endif
    it would define only the `a.$(OBJEXT): a.c' rule and omit the
    `b.$(OBJEXT): b.c' rule.

* New sections in manual:

  - Third-Party Makefiles: how to interface third party Makefiles.
  - Upgrading: upgrading packages to newer Automake versions.
  - Multiple Outputs: handling tools that produce many outputs.


Bug fixed in 1.8.2:

* A (well known) portability bug slipped in the changes made to
  install-sh in Automake 1.8.1.  The broken install-sh would refuse to
  install anything on Tru64.

* Fix install rules for conditionally built python files.  (This never
  really worked.)


Bug fixed in 1.8.1:

* Bugs introduced by 1.8:

  - Fix Config.pm import error with old Perl versions (at least
    5.005_03).  One symptom is that aclocal could not find its macro
    directory.

  - Automake 1.8 used `mkdir -m 0755 -p --' to ensure that directories
    created by `make install' are always world readable, even if the
    installer happens to have an overly restrictive umask (e.g. 077).
    This was a mistake and has been reverted.  There are at least two
    reasons why we must not use `-m 0755':
      - it causes special bits like SGID to be ignored,
      - it may be too restrictive (some setups expect 775 directories).

  - Fix aclocal to honor definitions located in files which have been
    m4_included manually.  aclocal 1.8 had been updated to check
    m4_included files for new requirements, but forgot that these
    m4_included files can also provide new definitions.

    Note that if you have such a setup, we recommend you get rid of
    it.  In the past, there was a reason to m4_include files manually:
    aclocal used to duplicate entire M4 files into aclocal.m4, even
    files that were distributed.  Some packages were therefore
    m4_including the distributed file directly, and playing some
    tricks to ensure aclocal would not copy that file to aclocal.m4,
    in order to limit the amount of duplication.  Since aclocal 1.8.x
    will precisely output m4_includes for local M4 files, we recommend
    that you clean up your setup, removing all manual m4_includes and
    letting aclocal output them.

  - Output detailed menus in the Info version if the Automake manual,
    so that Emacs can locate the indexes.

  - configure.ac and configure were listed twice in DIST_COMMON (an
    internal variable where Automake lists configury files to
    distribute).  This was harmless, but unaesthetic.

  - Use `chmod a-w' instead of `chmod -w' as the latter honors umask.
    This was an issue only in the Automake package itself, not in
    its output.

  - Automake assumed that all AC_CONFIG_LINKS arguments had the form
    DEST:SRC.  This was wrong, as some packages do
    AC_CONFIG_LINKS($computedlinks).  This version no longer abort in
    that situation.

  - Contrary to mkinstalldirs, $(mkdir_p) was expecting exactly one
    argument.  This caused two kinds of failures:
      - Rules installing data in a conditionally defined directory
        failed when that directory was undefined.  In this case no
        argument was supplied.
      - `make installdirs' failed, because several directories were
        passed to $(mkdir_p).  This was an issue only on platform
        were $(mkdir_p) is implemented with `install-sh -d'.
    $(mkdir_p) as been changed to accept 0 or more arguments, as
    mkinstalldirs did.

* Long-standing bugs:

  - Fix an unexpected diagnostic occurring when users attempt
    to override some internal variables that Automake appends to.

  - aclocal now scans configure.ac for macro definitions (PR/319).

  - Fix a portability issue with OSF1/Tru64 Make.  If a directory
    distributes files which are outside itself (this usually occurs
    when using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([../dir]) to use auxiliary files
    from a parent package), then `make distcheck' fails due to an
    optimization performed by OSF1/Tru64 Make in its VPATH handling.
    (tests/subpkg2.test failure)

  - Fix another portability issue with Sun and OSF1/Tru64 Make.
    In a VPATH-build configuration, `make install' would install
    nobase_ files to wrong locations.

  - Fix a Perl `uninitialized value' diagnostic occurring when
    automake complains that a Texinfo file does not have a
    @setfilename statement.

  - Erase config.status.lineno during `make distclean'.  This file
    can be created by config.status.  Automake already knew about
    configure.lineno, but forgot config.status.lineno.

  - Distribute all files, even those which are built and installed
    conditionally.  This change affects files listed in conditionally
    defined *_HEADERS and *_PYTHON variable (unless they are nodist_*)
    as well as those listed in conditionally defined dist_*_DATA,
    dist_*_JAVA, dist_*_LISP, and dist_*_SCRIPTS variables.

  - Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to avoid \? in sed regular expressions; it
    doesn't conform to POSIX.

  - Normalize help strings for configure variables and options added
    by Automake macros.

* Anticipation:

  - Check for python2.4 in AM_PATH_PYTHON.

* Spurious failures in test suite:

  - tests/libtool5.test, tests/ltcond.test, tests/ltcond2.test,
    tests/ltconv.test: fix failures with CVS Libtool.
  - tests/aclocal6.test: fix failure if autom4te.cache is disabled.
  - tests/txinfo24.test, tests/txinfo25.test, tests/txinfo28.test:
    fix failures with old Texinfo versions.