Re: autoreconf gets autopoint order wrong?

[Paul Smith]

%% Soren A <address@hidden> writes:

  >> I'm using autoconf 2.54 / automake 1.7 / gettext 0.11.5.

  sa> I am not clear on what package you, Paul, are trying to build.

GNU make.  For the purposes of this subject it doesn't matter, though.

  sa> I have never heard of `autopoint' before and wonder if someone
  sa> could describe what it does, what is its role with the
  sa> Autotools. Or provide pointers to where I can educate myself, of
  sa> course.

It's included with gettext (0.11.4 and above IIRC).  It is used if you
don't want to check in all the i18n code into your CVS tree; similar to
the way the autoconf and automake tools will copy things like "missing"
etc. into your source, so autopoint copies important, but common, i18n
files into your source tree.  There they get included in any built
packages.

  >> ("make update" grabs public files from ftp.gnu.org, translation files,
  >> etc. using wget).

  sa> This is the main reason i am writing. I observed the need for this
  sa> recently and so did others (on another List). This "update" target
  sa> in a Makefile -- how does it work? Where can I see that? Is this
  sa> generated by an Automake run on input files ('Makefile.am's)? ???

It is not a part of any standard autotool package.  You have to write it
yourself.

You can see an implementation in GNU make (but it's in the
maintainer-only makefile, so you probably have to look at the CVS code
to read it.  I don't distribute the maintainer-only files with the final
distribution.)

The version in GNU make is an adaptation of the implementation I first
saw in, IIRC, fileutils.

-- 
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 Paul D. Smith <address@hidden> HASMAT--HA Software Mthds & Tools
 "Please remain calm...I may be mad, but I am a professional." --Mad Scientist
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