* Braden McDaniel wrote on Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 08:45:56PM CEST: > Ralf Wildenhues wrote: >> * Braden McDaniel wrote on Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 08:48:45AM CEST: >>> ... which brings up a question I have: Why doesn't AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR >>> eliminate the need for setting ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS as such? >> >> Hmm. You typically have one AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR where for example >> 'aclocal --install' or 'libtoolize --install' will dump macro files. >> However, you can have several places in the tree where you need to >> pick up macro files from, with -I paths. > > Fair enough; but most don't have more than one such directory. As a > result, having to point the autotools at this directory in more than one > place feels redundant.
Yes, agreed. As does the fact that adding new Makefile.am files requires adding an AC_CONFIG_FILES stanza plus a SUBDIRS entry (which is what allows to mix automake-generated Makefile.in's with others; and creative subdirectory orderings). > Is there a reason not to give aclocal invocations a -I flag for the > AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR? ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS could complement this. Not sure. Since this typically is a one-time operation, and not a hassle that you have to take care of regularly, I'm rather cautious to add an automatism here, in case someone ends up having a good use case for AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR without ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS pointing there. Cheers, Ralf
