AM_DEFAULT_VERBOSITY

[Eli Zaretskii]

[Please CC me on the responses, as I'm not subscribed to the list.]

I'm not sure if this is the right place for discussing this issue.  If
it isn't, please point me to a better one.

With latest versions of Autotools, compiling packages by default does
not show the full compilation/link command lines, but only their short
"summaries", like this:

       CC     serv.o
       CC     udp-serv.o
       CC     common.o
       CC     p11common.o
       CCLD   gnutls-serv

This is fine when the build goes smoothly, as it avoids cluttering the
terminal with lengthy commands.  However, when something does go
wrong, it is important to see the full command that failed.

The essence of this mail is that when I bumped into such problems, I
didn't find any obvious place which would explain how to accomplish
that.

By digging into the produced Makefile's, I finally found that saying

  make AM_DEFAULT_VERBOSITY=1

would accomplish what I needed.  I can find this variable documented
in the Automake manual.  However, building a package does not require
Automake, and even if it is installed, it is not immediately obvious
that this should be the place to look.  As you all well know, the
implementation of the verbosity level is quite contrived and is not
easy to understand even when you find it in the produced Makefile's.

I'm not quite sure what would be the best way of making this
information more easily available.  Perhaps adding it to the standard
INSTALL file, e.g. under "Troubleshooting", would be a first step.

Thanks.