From: Stefano Lattarini Date: Wed, 15 Jun 2011 08:50:03 +0000 (+0200) Subject: docs: AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS is for corner cases X-Git-Tag: v1.11.1b~26^2~17^2 X-Git-Url: http://git.ipfire.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=474aad06941498f4c4363b6023eb2f0045b73397;p=thirdparty%2Fautomake.git docs: AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS is for corner cases * doc/automake.texi (Checking the Distribution): Explain that the developers should take care of making their code buildable without requiring any special configure options, so that in general AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS shouldn't be used. Give an example of where its use is legitimate. --- diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog index f18647ade..9fabd7d12 100644 --- a/ChangeLog +++ b/ChangeLog @@ -1,3 +1,13 @@ +2011-06-18 Stefano Lattarini + + docs: AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS is for corner cases + * doc/automake.texi (Checking the Distribution): Explain that the + developers should take care of making their code buildable without + requiring any special configure options, so that in general + AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS shouldn't be used. Give an example + of where its use is legitimate. + Suggestions from Ralf Wildenhues and Eric Blake. + 2011-06-13 Stefano Lattarini news: update w.r.t. introduction of AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS diff --git a/doc/automake.texi b/doc/automake.texi index b3aecfca0..14c286740 100644 --- a/doc/automake.texi +++ b/doc/automake.texi @@ -8426,6 +8426,21 @@ to supply additional flags to @command{configure}, define them in the provided there by defining the @code{DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS} variable, on the command line when invoking @command{make}. +Still, developers are encouraged to strive to make their code buildable +without requiring any special configure option; thus, in general, you +shouldn't define @code{AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS}. However, there +might be few scenarios in which the use of this variable is justified. +GNU @command{m4} offers an example. GNU @command{m4} configures by +default with its experimental and seldom used "changeword" feature +disabled; so in its case it is useful to have @command{make distcheck} +run configure with the @option{--with-changeword} option, to ensure that +the code for changeword support still compiles correctly. +GNU @command{m4} also employs the @code{AM_DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS} +variable to stress-test the use of @option{--program-prefix=g}, since at +one point the @command{m4} build system had a bug where @command{make +installcheck} was wrongly assuming it could blindly test "@command{m4}", +rather than the just-installed "@command{gm4}". + @trindex distcheck-hook If the @code{distcheck-hook} rule is defined in your top-level @file{Makefile.am}, then it will be invoked by @code{distcheck} after