Re: [Fwd: autoreconf and aclocal options (-I, --ac-dir)]

[Chris Pickett]

Stepan Kasal wrote:
> Hello,
>
> On Fri, Mar 31, 2006 at 11:25:27PM -0500, Chris Pickett wrote:
>
> > I'm resending this to autoconf-patches for consideration in the alpha 
> > release.  Please CC me, I am not subscribed.
>
>
> I committed your patch, changing the last sentence to:
>
> If you want @command{autoreconf} to pass flags that are not listed here
> to @command{aclocal}, set @code{ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS} in your Makefile.am.
>
> IOW, I removed the preposition ``on'' there.  (I'm not a native speaker;
> I hope this wasn't a mistake.)

The ``on'' implies that autoreconf is merely echoing the flags to its 
subcommands, whereas without the ``on'' there isn't such a strong 
implication.  However, it's pretty obvious from the context what is 
happening, so your change is fine.  Note that I used ``on to'' in two 
other places.

> Thank you for your contribution, and thanks for taking care to re-post it.

Well thanks for applying it.

> > I should also add that I have to run autoreconf twice if ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS 
> > is used to specify the location of the macro dir, but I didn't try with 
> > the CVS autoconf.
>
>
> I don't understand why this was necessary.

I think it's to do with generation of aclocal.m4.  It isn't there the 
first time, and autoconf dies when it can't find AM_PATH_CHECK(), a 
macro needed to use a locally-installed package.

$ ls
configure.ac  Makefile.am  README  src  tests

$ cat Makefile.am
## Process this file with automake to produce Makefile.in

SUBDIRS = src . tests

ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I /home/chris/temp/share/aclocal/

$ autoreconf --install
Putting files in AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR, `build-aux'.
configure.ac:28: error: possibly undefined macro: AM_PATH_CHECK
      If this token and others are legitimate, please use m4_pattern_allow.
      See the Autoconf documentation.
autoreconf2.50: /usr/bin/autoconf failed with exit status: 1

$ ls
aclocal.m4      build-aux  configure.ac  README  tests
autom4te.cache  configure  Makefile.am   src

$ autoreconf --install
Putting files in AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR, `build-aux'.
libtoolize: `config.guess' exists: use `--force' to overwrite
libtoolize: `config.sub' exists: use `--force' to overwrite
libtoolize: `ltmain.sh' exists: use `--force' to overwrite
configure.ac: installing `build-aux/install-sh'
configure.ac: installing `build-aux/missing'
src/Makefile.am: installing `build-aux/depcomp'
tests/Makefile.am: installing `build-aux/compile'

$ ls
aclocal.m4      build-aux    configure     Makefile.am  README  tests
autom4te.cache  config.h.in  configure.ac  Makefile.in  src

But, like I said, this is 2.59, maybe it changed.  The placement of the 
AM_PATH_CHECK() call with respect to AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE doesn't make a 
difference (I thought it might).

Cheers,
Chris