Hello Ralf.
Thank you for your constructive feedback on how to write more robust
configure.ac and Makefile.am files. I was aware of some of your suggestions
(i.e. the calling of both the AC_INIT and AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE macros) but
unfortunately had neglected to implement them in the particular files that I
quoted in my original e-mail. Whereas some of your other suggestions were new
to me and I will definately have to start incorporating them into my
configure.ac and Makefile.am files in the future.
To be honest, I also thought that there might have been a more elegant way in
which to implement the custom rule for invoking the Qt Meta Object Compiler
(moc) on the C++ source code files. That is, the rule which I have quoted below.
.hpp.cpp:
@echo ""
@echo "----------------------------------------"
@echo "moc is creating the file : [EMAIL PROTECTED]"
@echo "... in directory : [EMAIL PROTECTED]/"
@echo "... from input file : $< "
@echo "$<"
@echo ""
${QT_MOC} -o [EMAIL PROTECTED] $<
You couldn't recommend a more elegant way in which to accomplish this task
could you?
Thanks once again for all of your feedback - it is most appreciated.
Have a great day.
- Craig
Ralf Wildenhues <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hello Craig,
>
> a couple of comments to the configure.ac script and Makefile.am file you
> posted:
>
> * Craig Sanders wrote on Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 01:58:56AM CET:
>>
>> AC_INIT(
>> [simple_signal_emitter_autotools],
>> [0.0.1],
>> [EMAIL PROTECTED],
>> [simple_signal_emitter_autotools])
>>
>> # Inform aclocal and friends of where they can find additional
>> # local Autoconf macros.
>>
>> m4_include([./m4/bnv_have_qt.m4])
>
> While this line is completely OK as it is, I would prefer doing it
> differently:
>
> - Generally, do not use `./' prefixes to files unless there is a
> specific reason to do so. Why is that a good idea? By this
> inclusion, the file m4/bnv_have_qt.m4 becomes a prerequisite of
> the configure script, and automake will be smart enough to notice
> this dependency and add the file to the configure regeneration
> rule in Makefile.in. Now, however, most non-GNU make implementations
> do not identify `./FILE' with `FILE' in target or prerequisiste
> names. So, in the hypothetical case that, for example, you have
> a rule to generate `m4/bnv_have_qt.m4', then it would not be
> updated before configure were out of date. Omitting `./'
> would prevent this issue.
> Of course this is not likely to have an effect in this case,
> but it's a good rule to obey for portable makefiles.
>
> - For third-party m4 files that provide extra macros, a good convention
> to use is to let aclocal find them automatically, and maybe even
> install updated versions into your package automatically. The former
> can be achieved by
> -- adding `ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4' to the toplevel Makefile.am;
> autoreconf will then pick this up when running aclocal; if you
> invoke it manually, you should add these flags as first options.
>
> The latter can be achieved with additionally
> -- adding AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4]) to configure.ac,
> -- and then using `aclocal --install' (this requires Automake 1.10
> or newer)
>
> You can then just omit the m4_include line completely from
> configure.ac, and notice that aclocal will put such a line into
> aclocal.m4.
>
>> AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR(config)
>>
>> AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(
>> [simple_signal_emitter_autotools],
>> [0.1])
>
> This format is the old-style invocation of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.
> You don't need it: you are already using the new-style AC_INIT
> which provides package name and version number. Moreover, you
> are using inconsistent version numbers in both. Solution is
> to use plain `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE' without further arguments here.
> You can then decide to add Options in the first argument if you
> like.
>
>> AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR(
>> [./src/main.cpp])
>
> Again, I'd omit the `./'
>
>> AC_PROG_CC
>>
>> AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
>>
>> AC_PROG_CXX(
>> [${CXX}])
>
> Why this argument? Plain AC_PROG_CXX should be equivalent in semantics
> (a default list of compiler names is tried unless $CXX is set).
>
>> AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
>>
>> BNV_HAVE_QT()
>>
>> AC_OUTPUT([
>> Makefile
>> ])
>
>
> [ Makefile.am: ]
>
>> bin_PROGRAMS = main
>>
>> main_MOC_FILES = ./moc_MySignalEmitter.cpp
>
> Again, please omit leading `./'; several more instances.
>
>> main_SOURCES = ./src/main.cpp \
>> ./src/MySignalEmitter.cpp \
>> ${main_MOC_FILES}
>>
>> main_CXXFLAGS = ${QT_CXXFLAGS} -I${srcdir}/include
>>
>> main_LDFLAGS = ${QT_LIBS}
>>
>>
>> CLEANFILES = ${main_MOC_FILES}
>>
>> # Inform make of how to handle C++ Header files (.hpp) that need
>> # to be processed by the Qt Meta Object Compiler (moc).
>>
>> .hpp.cpp:
>> @echo ""
>> @echo "----------------------------------------"
>> @echo "moc is creating the file : [EMAIL PROTECTED]"
>> @echo "... in directory : [EMAIL PROTECTED]/"
>> @echo "... from input file : $< "
>> @echo "$<"
>> @echo ""
>> ${QT_MOC} -o [EMAIL PROTECTED] $<
