Re: configure: error: cannot find macro directory `m4'

[Jeff Sheinberg]

Ralf Wildenhues writes:
 > * Jeff Sheinberg wrote on Tue, Sep 14, 2004 at 01:15:48AM CEST:

 > > Yes, your explanation is correct.  I added "EXTRA_DIST = m4", and
 > > it now works like a charm.
 > 
 > Hmm.  Do you need these m4 files?  If they are necessary only for
 > /using/ your installed package (as opposed to building it), then putting
 > them in dist_aclocal_DATA should be sufficient, no EXTRA_DIST mention
 > needed.
 >
 > Obviously you don't need them for building your package (any more),
 > right?  No need to ship them then, unless you want to allow other users
 > to be able to use older Automake versions with your package.

The original problem was that the dist-tarball failed ./configure
because automake was not including the m4 directory in the
dist-tarball.

Here are the relevant lines that triggered the problem,

    configure.ac: AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4])

    Makefile.am: ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4

and here is how I solved the problem, thanks to your suggestion,

    Makefile.am: EXTRA_DIST += m4

Isn't the function of EXTRA_DIST to force files to be included in
the dist-tarball that otherwise would not have been included?

Since this seems to be an automake issue, please let's take this
thread off the autoconf list.

Thanks,
-- 
Jeff Sheinberg