Re: [Automake-NG] [PATCH v2 2/2] dist: add back support for obsolete dist-* options

[Paolo Bonzini]

Il 22/08/2012 14:03, Stefano Lattarini ha scritto:
>> > I'm a bit confused as to where to draw the line between Automake and GNU
>> > make...
>> >
> It depends.  A rule of thumb is that, when Automake *must* process something
> at automake runtime (as is certainly the case with options!), and want to pass
> it in the generated Makefiles as well (for possible further processing there),
> it can as well "massage" it in a form that make its use in those Makefiles
> as simple and natural as possible.
> 
> For example, take a look at this fragment in '&generate_makefile' :
> 
>     # Must come after invocation of handle_programs, handle_libraries and
>     # handle_ltlibraries, so that %known_programs and %known_libraries are
>     # up-to-date.
>     define_variable 'am.all-progs',  INTERNAL, sort keys %known_programs;
>     define_variable 'am.all-libs',   INTERNAL, sort keys %known_libraries;
>     define_variable 'am.all-ltlibs', INTERNAL, sort keys %known_ltlibraries;
> 
> Those variables could as well be defined purely at make runtime, by
> peeking into $(.VARIABLES) and munging it properly.  But since we
> currently *need* '%known_programs' etc. at automake runtime anyway,
> we make life simpler and pass on that knowledge directly into the
> generated Makefiles.

True, but in the make dist case, automake has otherwise no business in
parsing the dist-format options.  All it has to do is to raise a
warning, it doesn't record them in a data structure that is specific to
dist formats.

Paolo