Re: AC_CANONICAL_* and automake variables

[Nick Bowler]

On 2012-07-25 15:50 -0400, NightStrike wrote:
> http://www.gnu.org/savannah-checkouts/gnu/automake/manual/html_node/Optional.html
> 
> This link says that the canonical macros will make
> build/host/target_triplet make variables available.  What's the
> difference between using for instance $target and $target_triplet?
> Will they always be the same?

They are defined as

  target_triplet = @target@
  host_triplet = @host@
  build_triplet = @build@

etc., by Automake, and have been defined that way since 1996.  Given the
history, I doubt they will be changed at this point.  They are
apparently related to dejagnu support.  All the others:

 target/host/build
 target_alias/host_alias/build_alias
 target_os/host_os/build_os
 target_vendor/host_vendor/build_vendor

are provided directly by autoconf calling AC_SUBST.

> Why does automake create redundant variables?

Looks like hysterical raisins to me.

Cheers,
-- 
Nick Bowler, Elliptic Technologies (http://www.elliptictech.com/)