Re: Patch: RFA: new option

[Alexandre Duret-Lutz]

On Wed, Aug 06, 2003 at 03:36:00PM -0600, Tom Tromey wrote:
> What does the 1.8 timeline look like?

First we need Autoconf 2.58 to be released and I have no idea when
this will happen.

Autoconf aside, I wouldn't expect anything before the end of September
(hum... could be nice to release 1.8 on 1.7's anniversary.)

Here are the few things I'd like to workout before 1.8 (it's an update
of the list from
http://mail.gnu.org/archive/html/automake-patches/2003-06/msg00068.html)
I'm presently working on the first item.


* Rewrite the rule handling code OO-ly.  (But don't try to delay
  output for now.)  Should remove the remaining Nestable uses.

* Texinfo rules nightmare
  - Distributed *.info files should be kept in $(srcdir).  This used
    to be the case in 1.6.x and prior.  The change in 1.7 broke VPATH
    builds with *BSD makes.  Using $(srcdir) is also required by
    GNU Coding Standards.
  - Non-distributed *.info files should be built in `.' (as happens in
    1.7.x).  It's important.  Some projects, like Texinfo, already
    rely on this.
  - => we need a way to distinguish distributed *.info from
    non-distributed *.info.  Perhaps we could build a map of cleaned
    files.  (If the user is cleaning foo.info, then foo.info* are not
    distributed...)

* Update Automake to exit(63) on version mismatch.

* Update missing to handle $?==63 for autoconf/autoheader/automake.

* Use a configure test to set $(mkinstalldirs) to `mkdir -p'
  if supported.  Cc: Bruno before installing.

* Manual (wait for 1.7.x to fade out before changing these things)
  - Move to doc/
  - Add FDL
  - s/configure.in/configure.ac/g, it's time now.

* Suggest running libtoolize/autoreconf when config/ltmain.sh is missing.

* Discuss the autoheader/stamp-h1/autoreconf issue with Akim.

* Verbosity of fastdep compile rule?

* Check weird AC_CONFIG_FILES calls such as
  AC_CONFIG_FILES(Makefile:a:b:Makefile.in)

* Eric Siegerman <address@hidden> suggested using ::-rules
  for rebuild rules.  ::-rules are not POSIX but appear to be
  fairly well supported.  Add a spy in the test suite to be sure.
  We can't use them in Automake right now because Automake doesn't
  grok them (need to overhaul the rule handing code before
  changing this -- this will wait).

* Rename configure.in to configure.ac.

* Sync install-sh with mkinstalldirs.  There are things in
  mkinstalldirs (like the protection for directories starting
  with `-', that install-sh does not have.)

* Use Automake::Wrap to format diagnostics.

* `mkinstalldirs' could be replaced by `install-sh -d'?

* Add help2man man pages?

* Automake should not override COPYING (even with -a -f).
  Maybe it should not

* Clean EXTRA_PROGRAMS, EXTRA_LIBRARIES, and EXTRA_LTLIBRARIES.

* Investigate AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR support.