Remark: This may be unrelated. I don't know about overriding in Makefile.am, but overriding $(prefix) is important for supporting GNU Stow. To set up a package for Stow, you configure for one prefix and install under another (note that this isn't the same as using $(DESTDIR) - that dumps the whole directory tree under the target path).
Example: ./configure --prefix=$HOME make make prefix=$HOME/stow/foo-x.y.z cd $HOME/stow stow foo-x.y.z So whatever you do with the variable ordering, I hope it doesn't break overrides from the command line. -- Jack On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 4:34 AM, Stefano Lattarini <stefano.lattar...@gmail.com> wrote: > Severity: wishlist > > This issue was brought up by Ralf Wildenhues in a thread on automake-patches. > > Automake generally orders all of its variable settings before all of the user > ones (so the user ones are preferred). But when one overrides e.g. bindir in > a Makefile.am, that variable doesn't get reordered to the user part, because > it is actually automake-set before it is overridden. The issue is exposed in > the attached testcase. > > It's still not clear to me whether this is a bug or a feature, but I thought > that entering it into the Automake bug database would be a good idea anyway. > > Regards, > Stefano > > > > #! /bin/sh > > # Test that := definitions work as expected at make time, even when > # whey involve user-overridden automake-set variables. > # > # Currently, this test doesn't work, because automake generally orders > # all of its variable settings (e.g. bindir and the like) before all > # of the user ones. Even when bindir is overridden, it doesn't get > # reordered to the user part. Might this be considered an automake bug? > > required=GNUmake > . ./defs || Exit 1 > > set -e > > cat >> configure.in << 'END' > AC_OUTPUT > END > > cat > Makefile.am << 'END' > BAR := $(bindir) > BAZ = $(bindir) > bindir = foo > .PHONY: test > test: > test x'$(bindir)' = x'foo' > test x'$(BAZ)' = x'foo' > test x'$(BAR)' = x > END > > $ACLOCAL > $AUTOCONF > $AUTOMAKE -Wno-portability > > ./configure > $MAKE test > > : > >
