Re: FYI: 50-gary-work-around-cvs-autoreconf-aclocal-m4t-bug.patch

[Gary V. Vaughan]

Salut Akim!

Akim Demaille wrote:
>  > Index: ChangeLog
>  > from  Gary V. Vaughan  <address@hidden>
>
>  >   * bootstrap: CVS autoreconf leaves file droppings.  Remove
>  >   aclocal.m4t incase autoreconf doesn't.
>
>  > Index: bootstrap
>  > ===================================================================
>  > RCS file: /cvsroot/m4/m4/bootstrap,v
>  > retrieving revision 1.17
>  > diff -u -p -u -r1.17 bootstrap
>  > --- bootstrap 4 Nov 2002 16:31:04 -0000 1.17
>  > +++ bootstrap 4 Sep 2003 11:34:12 -0000
>  > @@ -10,4 +10,6 @@ autoreconf -fvi
>  >    ${AWK-awk} -f ./generate.awk ../doc/m4.texinfo > generated.at
>  >  )
>  
>  > +rm -f ./aclocal.m4t
>  > +
>  >  exit 0
>
> Err, this would be an actual problem elsewhere.  Could you trace the
> origin of this file?

Indeed.  I hoped the ChangeLog would be enough to alert you.

I see this when I bootstrap and aclocal.m4 doesn't change:

  ] ./bootstrap
  + autoreconf -fvi
  autoreconf: Entering directory `.'
  autoreconf: running: autopoint --force
  Copying file config/mkinstalldirs
  autoreconf: running: aclocal -I config -I gnulib/m4 --output=aclocal.m4t
  autoreconf: `aclocal.m4' is unchanged
  autoreconf: configure.ac: tracing
  autoreconf: running: libtoolize --copy --force
  You should update your `aclocal.m4' by running aclocal.
  Putting files in AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR, `config'.
  autoreconf: running: /usr/local/bin/autoconf --force
  autoreconf: running: /usr/local/bin/autoheader --force
  autoreconf: running: automake --add-missing --copy --force-missing
  autoreconf: Leaving directory `.'
  + cd tests
  + awk -f ./generate.awk ../doc/m4.texinfo
  + rm -f ./aclocal.m4t
  + exit 0

As best as I can tell, autoreconf calls aclocal to generate aclocal.m4t, and 
then at line 252 calls update_file, which in turn doesn't delete aclocal.m4t 
if it decides the update is not needed.  I can't find the definition of 
update_file to check (I didn't look very hard) why that happens...

HTH,
        Gary.
--
  ())_.  Gary V. Vaughan    gary@(oranda.demon.co.uk|gnu.org)
  ( '/   Research Scientist http://www.oranda.demon.co.uk       ,_())____
  / )=   GNU Hacker         http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool  \'      `&
`(_~)_   Tech' Author       http://sources.redhat.com/autobook   =`---d__/