Re: [PATCH] Make inter-release --version output more useful.

[Jim Meyering]

Ralf Wildenhues <address@hidden> wrote:
> * Jim Meyering wrote on Sat, Oct 27, 2007 at 07:38:23PM CEST:
>> +ifeq (0,$(MAKELEVEL))
>> +  _is-dist-target = $(filter dist% alpha beta major,$(MAKECMDGOALS))
>> +  ifneq (,$(_is-dist-target))
>> +    _curr-ver := $(shell build-aux/git-version-gen .version)
>> +    ifneq ($(_curr-ver),$(VERSION))
>> +      $(info INFO: rerunning autoconf for new version string: $(_curr-ver))
>> +      dummy := $(shell rm -rf autom4te.cache; $(AUTOCONF))

Hi Ralf,

> Does that ensure that the just-built autoconf is run on the tree?

No.  It's using the usual definition:

AUTOCONF = ${SHELL} /mirror/d/autoconf/build-aux/missing --run autoconf

> If yes, then aclocal and automake should be run, too.  They should
> be the last released versions.

The only reason to invoke $(ACLOCAL) $(ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS) here is if
some important piece has just been added or modified in configure.ac
or m4/m4.m4, yet the user has not run any other make command.
The change would have to be significant enough that running autoconf
against a stale aclocal.m4 would fail.  Do you make significant
changes and then, first thing, run "make dist"?  I don't :-)

Ideally, I suppose we could simulate this rule in shell code

  $(ACLOCAL_M4):  $(am__aclocal_m4_deps)
          cd $(srcdir) && $(ACLOCAL) $(ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS)

but just about any other "make" command will automatically
run the required aclocal command, when needed, so perhaps
it's not worth the trouble to duplicate it here.

What do you think?

The above command need not run automake, because automake will
be run automatically, when needed, in the normal course of "make dist".