Hello, John!
> is there a macro or option to automake to ommit the target
> for $(srcdir)/Makefile.in, such that it is not necessary to
> include Makefile.am and configure.in in a distribution?
It already becomes a FAQ. Why do you need this?
The last person who asked about this alleged that there will be problems
on systems lacking Automake, but couldn't give a real example.
> i tried including an empty target in Makefile.am. it looks
> as if it is created in the perl code and there dont appear
> to be any conditionals to avoid it.
Only the first statement is correct. Search for "This rule remakes the
Makefile.in" in automake - there is a clear indication that
AM_MAINTATINER_MODE can be used to suppress that rule.
However, I believe that you don't really want it.
Regards,
Pavel Roskin