Hello Bruno, and thanks for bringing this up. On Saturday 02 April 2011, Bruno Haible wrote: > [CCing the automake list] > > Ralf Wildenhues wrote in > <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gnulib/2011-04/msg00025.html>: > > > It's that it's unreliable. The autotools > > > don't cope automatically with .m4 files that have been renamed, > > > > That is simply not true with Automake 1.11 any more. > > > > > m4 macros that have been renamed, > > > > Can you show an example for this? > > > > > conditional use of AC_CONFIG_LINKS when the condition has changed, > > > > I agree that this is currently a problem. However, removing all links > > manually is a very cheap operation, also, because re-instating them by > > 'make' later usually won't cause a rebuild flood as the time stamps of > > the linked-to file count, which are still old. IOW, this is easily > > worked around. > > > > > source .h files that have been renamed or removed, > > > > I would like to see evidence for this as well. > > > > > and so on. Such situations are quite rare when someone works in an > > > isolated > > > project, but become not so rare when people use gnulib. > > > > Please, we should strive to get such issues working when possible. > > OK, let me get more constructive. For which of the following do you have > test cases in the Automake test suite already, that verify that after > "./configure" and "make" and some edits in the infrastructure, "make" > still works as well as "make -k distclean; ./configure; make" would > have worked: > > - A renamed m4 macro. > Before: m4/foo.m4 defines FOO1, configure.ac depends on m4/macros.m4 that > invokes FOO1. > After: m4/foo.m4 defines FOO2, configure.ac depends on m4/macros.m4 that > invokes FOO2. > > - A removed m4 file. > Before: m4/foo.m4 defines FOO, configure.ac depends on m4/macros.m4 that > invokes FOO. > After: m4/foo.m4 is gone, configure.ac depends on m4/macros.m4 that > does not invoke FOO any more. > > - A renamed m4 file. > Before: m4/foo1.m4 defines FOO, configure.ac depends on m4/macros.m4 that > invokes FOO. > After: m4/foo2.m4 defines FOO, configure.ac depends on m4/macros.m4 that > invokes FOO. > > - A renamed m4 macro in a renamed m4 file. > Before: m4/foo1.m4 defines FOO1, configure.ac depends on m4/macros.m4 that > invokes FOO1. > After: m4/foo2.m4 defines FOO2, configure.ac depends on m4/macros.m4 that > invokes FOO2. > > - An added AC_SUBST. > Before: configure.ac depends on m4/macros.m4 that AC_SUBSTs FOO. > lib/foo.h is generated through lib/Makefile, substituting FOO. > lib/foo.c includes foo.h and needs to be compiled for 'all'. > After: configure.ac depends on m4/macros.m4 that AC_SUBSTs FOO and BAR. > lib/foo.h is generated through lib/Makefile, substituting FOO and > BAR. > lib/foo.c includes foo.h and needs to be compiled for 'all'. > > - An added .h file. > Before: configure.ac depends on m4/macros.m4 that AC_SUBSTs STDIO_H to > empty. > lib/stdio.h is generated through lib/Makefile if STDIO_H is > non-empty. > lib/foo.c includes stdio.h and needs to be compiled for 'all'. > After: configure.ac depends on m4/macros.m4 that AC_SUBSTs STDIO_H to > stdio.h. > lib/stdio.h is generated through lib/Makefile if STDIO_H is > non-empty. > lib/foo.c includes stdio.h and needs to be compiled for 'all'. > Here you need to check that after "make", lib/stdio.h is present. > > - A removed .h file. > Before: configure.ac depends on m4/macros.m4 that AC_SUBSTs STDIO_H to > stdio.h. > lib/stdio.h is generated through lib/Makefile if STDIO_H is > non-empty. > lib/foo.c includes stdio.h and needs to be compiled for 'all'. > After: configure.ac depends on m4/macros.m4 that AC_SUBSTs STDIO_H to > empty. > lib/stdio.h is generated through lib/Makefile if STDIO_H is > non-empty. > lib/foo.c includes stdio.h and needs to be compiled for 'all'. > Here you need to check that after "make", lib/stdio.h is gone. > > For which of these do we still need to write test cases? > We have:
$ grep -l '\.m4' *.test | xargs grep -l '\$MAKE' | xargs grep -l 'sleep' acloca13.test acloca14.test aclocal6.test autohdr3.test flavor.test makej.test missing.test missing2.test pr8365-remake-timing.test remake10a.test remake10c.test remake4.test remake5.test remake8a.test remake8b.test remake9c.test remake9d.test subdir5.test subdir8.test version7.test and a rapid perusing of those files shows that no one of them tests any of the scenarios described by you. So we'll need new testcases for all those scenarios, I fear. Regards, Stefano
