* NEWS: Summarize recent changes.

[automake.git] / NEWS

Bug fixed in 1.8.2a:

* Long standing bugs:

  - Quote filenames in installation rules, in case $DESTDIR, $prefix,
    or any of the other *dir variable contain a space.

    Please note that Automake does not and cannot support spaces in
    filenames that are involved during the build.  This change affects
    only installation paths, so that `make install' does not bomb out
    in packages configured with
      ./configure --prefix '/c/Program Files'

  - Fix the depfils output so it works with GNU sed (<4.1) even when
    POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.

* New sections in manual:

  - Third-Party Makefiles: how to interface third party Makefiles.
  - Upgrading: upgrading packages to newer Automake versions.
\f
Bug fixed in 1.8.2:

* A (well known) portability bug slipped in the changes made to
  install-sh in Automake 1.8.1.  The broken install-sh would refuse to
  install anything on Tru64.

* Fix install rules for conditionally built python files.  (This never
  really worked.)
\f
Bug fixed in 1.8.1:

* Bugs introduced by 1.8:

  - Fix Config.pm import error with old Perl versions (at least
    5.005_03).  One symptom is that aclocal could not find its macro
    directory.

  - Automake 1.8 used `mkdir -m 0755 -p --' to ensure that directories
    created by `make install' are always world readable, even if the
    installer happens to have an overly restrictive umask (e.g. 077).
    This was a mistake and has been reverted.  There are at least two
    reasons why we must not use `-m 0755':
      - it causes special bits like SGID to be ignored,
      - it may be too restrictive (some setups expect 775 directories).

  - Fix aclocal to honor definitions located in files which have been
    m4_included manually.  aclocal 1.8 had been updated to check
    m4_included files for new requirements, but forgot that these
    m4_included files can also provide new definitions.

    Note that if you have such a setup, we recommend you get rid of
    it.  In the past, there was a reason to m4_include files manually:
    aclocal used to duplicate entire M4 files into aclocal.m4, even
    files that were distributed.  Some packages were therefore
    m4_including the distributed file directly, and playing some
    tricks to ensure aclocal would not copy that file to aclocal.m4,
    in order to limit the amount of duplication.  Since aclocal 1.8.x
    will precisely output m4_includes for local M4 files, we recommend
    that you clean up your setup, removing all manual m4_includes and
    letting aclocal output them.

  - Output detailed menus in the Info version if the Automake manual,
    so that Emacs can locate the indexes.

  - configure.ac and configure were listed twice in DIST_COMMON (an
    internal variable where Automake lists configury files to
    distribute).  This was harmless, but unaesthetic.

  - Use `chmod a-w' instead of `chmod -w' as the latter honors umask.
    This was an issue only in the Automake package itself, not in
    its output.

  - Automake assumed that all AC_CONFIG_LINKS arguments had the form
    DEST:SRC.  This was wrong, as some packages do
    AC_CONFIG_LINKS($computedlinks).  This version no longer abort in
    that situation.

  - Contrary to mkinstalldirs, $(mkdir_p) was expecting exactly one
    argument.  This caused two kinds of failures:
      - Rules installing data in a conditionally defined directory
        failed when that directory was undefined.  In this case no
        argument was supplied.
      - `make installdirs' failed, because several directories were
        passed to $(mkdir_p).  This was an issue only on platform
        were $(mkdir_p) is implemented with `install-sh -d'.
    $(mkdir_p) as been changed to accept 0 or more arguments, as
    mkinstalldirs did.

* Long-standing bugs:

  - Fix an unexpected diagnostic occurring when users attempt
    to override some internal variables that Automake appends to.

  - aclocal now scans configure.ac for macro definitions (PR/319).

  - Fix a portability issue with OSF1/Tru64 Make.  If a directory
    distributes files which are outside itself (this usually occurs
    when using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR([../dir]) to use auxiliary files
    from a parent package), then `make distcheck' fails due to an
    optimization performed by OSF1/Tru64 Make in its VPATH handling.
    (tests/subpkg2.test failure)

  - Fix another portability issue with Sun and OSF1/Tru64 Make.
    In a VPATH-build configuration, `make install' would install
    nobase_ files to wrong locations.

  - Fix a Perl `uninitialized value' diagnostic occurring when
    automake complains that a Texinfo file does not have a
    @setfilename statement.

  - Erase config.status.lineno during `make distclean'.  This file
    can be created by config.status.  Automake already knew about
    configure.lineno, but forgot config.status.lineno.

  - Distribute all files, even those which are built and installed
    conditionally.  This change affects files listed in conditionally
    defined *_HEADERS and *_PYTHON variable (unless they are nodist_*)
    as well as those listed in conditionally defined dist_*_DATA,
    dist_*_JAVA, dist_*_LISP, and dist_*_SCRIPTS variables.

  - Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to avoid \? in sed regular expressions; it
    doesn't conform to POSIX.

  - Normalize help strings for configure variables and options added
    by Automake macros.

* Anticipation:

  - Check for python2.4 in AM_PATH_PYTHON.

* Spurious failures in test suite:

  - tests/libtool5.test, tests/ltcond.test, tests/ltcond2.test,
    tests/ltconv.test: fix failures with CVS Libtool.
  - tests/aclocal6.test: fix failure if autom4te.cache is disabled.
  - tests/txinfo24.test, tests/txinfo25.test, tests/txinfo28.test:
    fix failures with old Texinfo versions.
\f
New in 1.8:

* Meta-News

  - The NEWS file is more verbose.

* Requirements

  - Autoconf 2.58 or greater is required.

* New features

  - Default source file names in the absence of a _SOURCES declaration
    are made by removing any target extension before appending `.c', so
    to make the libtool module `foo.la' from `foo.c', you only need to
    do this:

        lib_LTLIBRARIES = foo.la
        foo_la_LDFLAGS  = -module

    For backward compatibility, foo_la.c will be used instead of
    foo.c if this file exists or is the explicit target of a rule.
    However -Wobsolete will warn about this deprecated naming.

  - AR's `cru' flags are now set in a global ARFLAGS variable instead
    of being hard-coded in each $(AR) invocation, so they can be
    substituted from configure.ac.  This has been requested by people
    dealing with non-POSIX ar implementations.

  - New warning option: -Woverride.  This will warn about any user
    target or variable definitions which override Automake
    definitions.

  - Texinfo rules back up and restore info files when makeinfo fails.

  - Texinfo rules now support the `html' target.
    Running this requires Texinfo 4.0 or greater.

    `html' is a new recursive target, so if your package mixes
    hand-crafted `Makefile.in's with Automake-generated
    `Makefile.in's, you should adjust the former to support (or
    ignore) this target so that `make html' recurses successfully.  If
    you had a custom `html' rule in your `Makefile.am', it's better to
    rename it as `html-local', otherwise your rule will override
    Automake's new rule (you can check that by running `automake
    -Woverride') and that will stop the recursion to subdirectories.

    Last but not least, this `html' rule is declared PHONY, even when
    overridden.  Fortunately, it appears that few packages use a
    non-PHONY `html' rule.

  - Any file which is m4_included from configure.ac will appear as a
    configure and Makefile.in dependency, and will be automatically
    distributed.

  - The rules for rebuilding Makefiles and Makefile.ins will now
    rebuild all Makefiles and all Makefile.ins at once when one of
    configure's dependencies has changed.  This is considerably faster
    than previous implementations, where config.status and automake
    were run separately in each directory (this still happens when you
    change a Makefile.am locally, without touching configure.ac or
    friends).  Doing this also solves a longstanding issue: these
    rebuild rules failed to work when adding new directories to the
    tree, forcing you to run automake manually.

  - For similar reasons, the rules to rebuild configure,
    config.status, and aclocal.m4 are now defined in all directories.
    Note that if you were using the CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES and
    CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES (formerly undocumented) variables, you
    should better define them in all directories.  This is easily done
    using an AC_SUBST (make sure you prefix these dependencies with
    $(top_srcdir) since this variable will appear at different
    levels of the build tree).

  - aclocal will now use `m4_include' instead of copying local m4
    files into aclocal.m4.  (Local m4 files are those you ship with
    your project, other files will be copied as usual.)

    Because m4_included files are automatically distributed, it means
    for most projects there is no point in EXTRA_DISTing the list of
    m4 files which are used.  (You can probably get rid of
    m4/Makefile.am if you had one.)

  - aclocal will avoid touching aclocal.m4 when possible, so that
    Autom4te's cache isn't needlessly invalidated.  This behavior can
    be switched off with the new `--force' option.

  - aclocal now uses Autoconf's --trace to detect macros which are
    actually used and will no longer include unused macros simply
    because they where mentioned.  This was often the case for macros
    called conditionally.

  - New options no-dist and no-dist-gzip.

  - compile, depcomp, elisp-comp, install-sh, mdate-sh, mkinstalldirs,
    py-compile, and ylwrap, now all understand --version and --help.

  - Automake will now recognize AC_CONFIG_LINKS so far as removing created
    links as part of the distclean target and including source files in
    distributions.

  - AM_PATH_PYTHON now supports ACTION-IF-FOUND and ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND
    argument.  The latter can be used to override the default behavior
    (which is to abort).

  - Automake will exit with $? = 63 on version mismatch.  (So does
    Autoconf 2.58)  missing knows this, and in this case it will
    emulate the tools as if they were absent.  Because older versions
    of Automake and Autoconf did not use this exit code, this change
    will only be useful in projects generated with future versions of
    these tools.

  - When using AC_CONFIG_FILES with multiple input files, Automake
    generates the first ".in" input file for which a ".am" exists.
    (Former versions would try to use only the first input file.)

  - lisp_DATA is now allowed.  If you are using the empty ELCFILES
    idiom to disable byte-compilation of lisp_LISP files, it is
    recommended that you switch to using lisp_DATA.  Note that
    this is not strictly equivalent: lisp_DATA will install elisp
    files even if emacs is not installed, while *_LISP do not
    install anything unless emacs is found.

  - Makefiles will prefer `mkdir -p' over mkinstalldirs if it is
    available.  This selection is achieved through the Makefile
    variable $(mkdir_p) that is set by AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE to either
    `mkdir -m 0755 -p --', `$(mkinstalldirs) -m 0755', or
    `$(install_sh) -m 0755 -d'.

* Obsolete features

  - Because `mkdir -p' is available on most platforms, and we can use
    `install-sh -d' when it is not, the use of the mkinstalldirs
    script is being phased out.  `automake --add-missing' no longer
    installs it, and if you remove mkinstalldirs from your package,
    automake will define $(mkinstalldirs) as an alias for $(mkdir_p).

    Gettext 0.12.1 still requires mkinstalldirs.  Fortunately
    gettextize and autopoint will install it when needed.  Automake
    will continue to define the $(mkinstalldirs) and to distribute
    mkinstalldirs when this script is in the source tree.

  - AM_PROG_CC_STDC is now empty.  The content of this macro was
    merged in AC_PROG_CC.  If your code uses $am_cv_prog_cc_stdc, you
    should adjust it to use $ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc instead.  (This
    renaming should be safe, even if you have to support several,
    versions of Automake, because AC_PROG_CC defines this variable
    since Autoconf 2.54.)

  - Some users where using the undocumented ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES
    variable to override the aclocal.m4 dependencies computed
    (inaccurately) by older versions of Automake.  Because Automake
    now tracks configure's m4 dependencies accurately (see m4_include
    above), the use of ACLOCAL_M4_SOURCES should be considered
    obsolete and will be flagged as such when running `automake
    -Wobsolete'.

* Bug fixes

  - Defining programs conditionally using Automake conditionals no
    longer leads to a combinatorial explosion.  The following
    construct used to be troublesome when used with dozens of
    conditions.

      bin_PROGRAMS = a
      if COND1
        bin_PROGRAMS += a1
      endif
      if COND2
        bin_PROGRAMS += a2
      endif
      if COND3
        bin_PROGRAMS += a3
      endif
      ...

    Likewise for _SOURCES, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables.

  - Due to implementation constraints, previous versions of Automake
    proscribed multiple conditional definitions of some variables
    like bin_PROGRAMS:

      if COND1
        bin_PROGRAMS = a1
      endif
      if COND2
        bin_PROGRAMS = a2
      endif

    All _PROGRAMS, _LDADD, and _LIBADD variables were affected.
    This restriction has been lifted, and these variables now
    support multiple conditional definitions as do other variables.

  - Cleanup the definitions of $(distdir) and $(top_distdir).
    $(top_distdir) now points to the root of the distribution
    directory created during `make dist', as it did in Automake 1.4,
    not to the root of the build tree as it did in intervening
    versions.  Furthermore these two variables are now only defined in
    the top level Makefile, and passed to sub-directories when running
    `make dist'.

  - The --no-force option now correctly checks the Makefile.in's
    dependencies before deciding not to update it.

  - Do not assume that make files are called Makefile in cleaning rules.

  - Update .info files in the source tree, not in the build tree.  This
    is what the GNU Coding Standard recommend.  Only Automake 1.7.x
    used to update these files in the build tree (previous versions did
    it in the source tree too), and it caused several problems, varying
    from mere annoyance to portability issues.

  - COPYING, COPYING.LIB, and COPYING.LESSER are no longer overwritten
    when --add-missing and --force-missing are used.  For backward
    compatibility --add-missing will continue to install COPYING (in
    `gnu' strictness) when none of these three files exist, but this
    use is deprecated: you should better choose a license yourself and
    install it once for all in your source tree (and in your code
    management system).

  - Fix ylwrap so that it does not overwrite header files that haven't
    changed, as the inline rule already does.

  - User-defined rules override automake-defined rules for the same
    targets, even when rules do not have commands.  This is not new
    (and was documented), however some of the automake-generated
    rules have escaped this principle in former Automake versions.
    Rules for the following targets are affected by this fix:

       clean, clean-am, dist-all, distclean, distclean-am, dvi, dvi-am,
       info, info-am, install-data-am, install-exec-am, install-info,
       install-info-am, install-man, installcheck-am, maintainer-clean,
       maintainer-clean-am, mostlyclean, mostlyclean-am, pdf, pdf-am,
       ps, ps-am, uninstall-am, uninstall-info, uninstall-man

    Practically it means that an attempt to supplement the dependencies
    of some target, as in

       clean: my-clean-rule

    will now *silently override* the automake definition of the
    rule for this target.  Running `automake -Woverride' will diagnose
    all such overriding definitions.

    It should be noted that almost all these targets support a *-local
    variant that is meant to supplement the automake-defined rule
    (See node `Extending' in the manual).  The above rule should
    be rewritten as

      clean-local: my-clean-rule

    These *-local targets have been documented since at least
    Automake 1.2, so you should not fear the change if you have
    to support multiple automake versions.

* Miscellaneous

  - The Automake manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.

  - Targets dist-gzip, dist-bzip2, dist-tarZ, dist-zip are always defined.

  - core dumps are no longer removed by the cleaning rules.  There are
    at least three reasons for this:
      1. These files should not be created by any build step,
         so their removal do not fit any of the cleaning rules.
         Actually, they may be precious to the developer.
      2. If such file is created during a build, then it's clearly a
         bug Automake should not hide.  Not removing the file will
         cause `make distcheck' to complain about its presence.
      3. Operating systems have different naming conventions for
         core dump files.  A core file on one system might be a
         completely legitimate data file on another system.

  - RUNTESTFLAGS, CTAGSFLAGS, ETAGSFLAGS, JAVACFLAGS are no longer
    defined by Automake.  This means that any definition in the
    environment will be used, unless overridden in the Makefile.am or
    on the command line.  The old behavior, where these variables were
    defined empty in each Makefile, can be obtained by AC_SUBSTing or
    AC_ARG_VARing each variable from configure.ac.

  - CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES and CONFIG_STATUS_DEPENDENCIES are now
    documented.  (The is not a new feature, these variables have
    been there since at least Automake 1.4.)
\f
Bugs fixed in 1.7.9:
* Fix install-strip to work with nobase_ binaries.
* Fix renaming of #line directives in ylwrap.
* Rebuild with Autoconf 2.59.  (1.7.8 was not installable with pdksh.)
\f
Bugs fixed in 1.7.8:
* Remove spurious blank lines in cleaning rules introduced in 1.7.7.
* Fix detection of Debian's install-info, broken since version 1.5.
  (Debian bug #213524).
* Honor -module if it appears in AM_LDFLAGS (i.e., relax name checking)
  This was only done for libfoo_LDFLAGS and LDFLAGS in previous versions.
\f
Bugs fixed in 1.7.7:
* The implementation of automake's --no-force option is unreliable,
  so this option is ignored in this version.  A real fix will appear in
  Automake 1.8.  (Debian Bug #206299)
* AM_PATH_PYTHON: really check the whole list of interpreters if no
  argument is given.  (PR/399)
* Do not warn about leading `_' in variable names, even with -Wportability.
* Support user redefinitions of TEXINFO_TEX.
* depcomp: support AIX Compiler version 6.
* Fix missing rebuilds during `make dist' with BSD make.
  (Could produce tarballs containing out-of-date files.)
* Resurrect multilib support.
* Noteworthy manual updates:
  - Extending aclocal: how to write m4 macros that won't trigger warnings
    with Automake 1.8.
  - A Shared Library: Rewrite and split into subsections.
\f
Bugs fixed in 1.7.6:
* Fix depcomp's icc mode for ICC 7.1.
* Diagnose calls to AC_CONFIG_FILES and friends with not enough arguments.
* Fix maintainer-clean's removal of autom4te.cache in VPATH builds.
* Fix AM_PATH_LISPDIR to work with POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
* Fix the location reported in some diagnostics related to AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
* Remove Latin-1 characters from elisp-comp.
* Update the manual's @dircategory to match the Free Software Directory.
\f
Bugs fixed in 1.7.5:
* Update install-sh's license to remove an advertising clause.
  (Debian bug #191717)
* Fix a bug introduced in 1.7.4, related to BUILT_SOURCE handling,
  that caused invalid Makefile.ins to be generated.
* Make sure AM_MAKE_INCLUDE doesn't fail when a `doit' file exists.
* New FAQ entry: renamed objects.
\f
Bugs fixed in 1.7.4:
* Tweak the TAGS rule to support Exuberant Ctags (in addition to
  the Emacs implementation)
* Fix output of aclocal.m4 dependencies in subdirectories.
* Use `mv -f' instead of `mv' in fastdep rules.
* Upgrade mdate-sh to work on OS/2.
* Don't byte-compile elisp files when ELCFILES is set empty.
  (this documented feature was broken by 1.7.3)
* Diagnose trailing backslashes on last line of Makefile.am.
* Diagnose whitespace following trailing backslashes.
* Multiple tests are now correctly supported in DEJATOOL. (PR/388)
* Fix rebuilt rules for AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.bot])
  Makefiles. (PR/389)
* `make install' will build `BUILT_SOURCES' first.
* Minor documentation fixes.
\f
Bugs fixed in 1.7.3:
* Fix stamp files numbering (when using multiple AC_CONFIG_HEADERS).
* Query distutils for `pythondir' and `pythonexecdir', instead of
  using an hardcoded path.  This should allow builds on 64-bit
  distributions that usually use lib64/ instead of lib/.
* AM_PATH_PYTHON will also search for python2.3.
* elisp files are now built all at once instead of one by one. Besides
  incurring a speed-up, this is required to support interdependent elisp files.
* Support for DJGPP:
  - `make distcheck' will now work in `_inst/' and `_build' instead
    of `=inst/' and `=build/'
  - use `_dirstamp' when the file-system doesn't support `.dirstamp'
  - install/uninstall `*.i[0-9][0-9]'-style info files
  - more changes that affect only the Automake package (not its output)
* Fix some incompatibilities with upcoming perl-5.10.
* Properly quote AC_PACKAGE_TARNAME and AC_PACKAGE_VERSION when defining
  PACKAGE and VERSION.
* depcomp fixes:
  - dashmstdout and dashXmstdout modes: don't use `-o /dev/null', this
    is troublesome with gcc and Solaris compilers. (PR/385)
  - makedepend mode: work with Libtool. (PR/385 too)
  - support for ICC.
* better support for unusual gettext setups, such as multiple po/ directories
  (PR/381):
  - Flag missing po/ and intl/ directories as warnings, not errors.
  - Disable these warnings if po/ does not exist.
* Noteworthy manual updates:
  - New FAQ chapter.
  - Document how AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR interacts with missing files.
    (Debian Bug #39542)
  - Document `AM_YFLAGS = -d'.  (PR/382)
\f
Bugs fixed in 1.7.2:
* Fix installation and uninstallation of Info files built in subdirectories.
* Do not run `./configure --with-included-gettext' during `make distcheck'
  if AM_GNU_GETTEXT([external]) is used.
* Correctly uninstall renamed man pages.
* Do not strip escaped newline in variables defined in one condition
  and augmented in another condition.
* Fix ansi2knr rules for LIBOBJS sources.
* Clean all known Texinfo index files, not only those which appear to
  be used, because we cannot know wich indexes are used in included files.
  (PR/375, Debian Bug #168671)
* Honor only the first @setfilename seen in a Texinfo file.
* Treat "required file X not found" diagnostics as errors (exit status 1).
* Don't complain that a required file is not found when it is a Makefile
  target. (PR/357)
* Don't use single suffix inference rules when building `.info'-less
  Info files, for the sake of Solaris make.
* The `check' target now depends on `$(BUILT_SOURCES)'. (PR/359)
* Recognize multiple inference rules such as `.a.b .c.d:'. (PR/371)
* Warn about multiple inference rules when -Wportability is used. (PR/372)
* Fix building of deansified files from subdirectories. (PR/370)
* Add missing `fi' in the .c->.obj rules.
* Improve install-sh to work even when names contain spaces or certain
  (but not all) shell metachars.
* Fix the following spurious failures in the test suite:
  depcomp2.test, gnits2.test, gnits3.test, python3.test, texinfo13.test
* Noteworthy manual updates:
  - Augment the section about BUILT_SOURCES.
  - Mention that AM_PROG_CC_STDC is a relic that is better avoided today.
\f
Bugs fixed in 1.7.1:
* Honor `ansi2knr' for files built in subdirectories, or using per-targets
  flags.
* Aclocal should now recognize macro names containing parentheses, e.g.
  AC_DEFUN([AC_LANG_PREPROC(Fortran 90)], [...]).
* Erase *.sum and *.log files created by DejaGnu, during `make distclean'.
  (Debian Bug#153697)
* Install Python files even if they were built.  (PR/369)
* Have stamp-vti dependent upon configure instead of configure.ac, as the
  version might not be defined in the latter. (PR/358)
* Reorder arguments passed to a couple of commands, so things works
  when POSIXLY_CORRECT=1.
* Fix a regex that can cause Perl to segfault on large input.
  (Debian Bug#162583)
* Fix distribution of packages that have some sources defined conditionally,
  as in the `Conditional compilation using Automake conditionals' example
  of the manual.
* Fix spurious test suite failures on IRIX.
* Don't report a required variable as undefined if it has been
  defined conditionally for the "right" conditions.
* Fix cleaning of the /tmp subdirectory used by `make distcheck', in case
  `make distcheck' fails.
* Fix distribution of included Makefile fragment, so we don't create
  spurious directories in the distribution. (PR/366)
* Don't complain that a target lacks `.$(EXEEXT)' when it has it.
\f
New in 1.7:
* Autoconf 2.54 is required.
* `aclocal' and `automake' will no longer warn about obsolete
  configure macros.  This is done by `autoconf -Wobsolete'.
* AM_CONFIG_HEADER, AM_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS and
  AM_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ_NEEDS_SYS_IOCTL are obsolete (although still
  supported).  You should use AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_SYS_POSIX_TERMIOS,
  and AC_HEADER_TIOCGWINSZ instead.  `autoupdate' can upgrade
  `configure.ac' for you.
* Support for per-program and per-library `_CPPFLAGS'.
* New `ctags' target (builds CTAGS files).
* Support for -Wmumble and -Wno-mumble, where mumble is a warning category
  (see `automake --help' or the manual for a list of them).
* Honor the WARNINGS environment variable.
* Omit the call to depcomp when using gcc3: call the compiler directly.
* A new option, std-options, tests that programs support --help and --version
  when `make installcheck' is run.  This is enabled by --gnits.
* Texinfo rules now support the `ps' and `pdf' targets.
* Info files are now created in the build directory, not the source directory.
* info_TEXINFOS supports files in subdirectories (this requires Texinfo 4.1
  or greater).
* `make distcheck' will enforce DESTDIR support by attempting
  a DESTDIR install.
* `+=' can be used in conditionals, even if the augmented variable
  was defined for another condition.
* Makefile fragments (inserted with `include') are always distributed.
* Use Autoconf's --trace interface to inspect configure.ac and get
  a more accurate view of it.
* Add support for extending aclocal's default macro search path
  using a `dirlist' file within the aclocal directory.
* automake --output-dir is deprecated.
* The part of the distcheck target that checks whether uninstall actually
  removes all installed files has been moved in a separate target,
  distuninstallcheck, so it can be overridden easily.
* Many bug fixes.
\f
New in 1.6.3:
* Support for AM_INIT_GETTEXT([external])
* Bug fixes, including:
  - Fix Automake's own `make install' so it works even if `ln' doesn't.
  - nobase_ programs and scripts honor --program-transform correctly.
  - Erase configure.lineno during `make distclean'.
  - Erase YACC and LEX outputs during `make maintainer-clean'.
\f
New in 1.6.2:
* Many bug fixes, including:
  - Requiring the current version works.
  - Fix "$@" portability issues (for Zsh).
  - Fix output of dummy dependency files in presence of post-processed
    Makefile.in's.
  - Don't compute dependencies in background to avoid races with libtool.
  - Fix handling of _OBJECTS variables for targets sharing source variables.
  - Check dependency mode for Java when AM_PROG_GCJ is used.
\f
New in 1.6.1:
* automake --output-dir is deprecated
* Many bug fixes, including:
  - Don't choke on AM_LDFLAGS definitions.
  - Clean libtool objects from subdirectories.
  - Allow configure variables with reserved suffix and unknown prefix
    (e.g. AC_SUBST(mumble_LDFLAGS) when 'mumble' is not a target).
  - Fix the definition of AUTOMAKE and ACLOCAL in configure.
\f
New in 1.6:
* Autoconf 2.52 is required.
* automake no longer run libtoolize.
  This is the job of autoreconf (from GNU Autoconf).
* `dist' generates all the archive flavors, as did `dist-all'.
* `dist-gzip' generates the Gzip tar file only.
* Combining Automake Makefile conditionals no longer lead to a combinatorial
  explosion.  Makefile.in's keep a reasonable size.
* AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_STRTOD, AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, AM_PTRDIFF_T
  are no longer shipped, since Autoconf 2.52 provides them (both as AM_
  and AC_).
* `#line' of Lex and Yacc files are properly set.
* EXTRA_DIST can contain generated directories.
* Support for dot-less extensions in suffix rules.
* The part of the distcheck target that checks whether distclean actually
  cleans all built files has been moved in a separate target, distcleancheck,
  so it can be overridden easily.
* `make distcheck' will pass additional options defined in
  $(DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS) to configure.
* Fixed CDPATH portability problems, in particular for MacOS X.
* Fixed handling of nobase_ targets.
* Fixed support of implicit rules leading to .lo objects.
* Fixed late inclusion of --add-missing files (e.g. depcomp) in DIST_COMMON
* Added uninstall-hook target
* `AC_INIT AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(tarname,version)' is an obsolete construct.
  You can now use `AC_INIT(pkgname,version) AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE' instead.
  (Note that "pkgname" is not "tarname", see the manual for details.)
  It is also possible to pass a list of global Automake options as
  first argument to this new form of AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE.
* Compiler-based assembler is now called `CCAS'; people expected `AS'
  to be a real assembler.
* AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE will set STRIP itself when it needs it.  Adding
  AC_CHECK_TOOL([STRIP], [strip]) manually is no longer required.
* aclocal and automake are also installed with the version number
  appended, and some of the install directory names have changed.
  This lets you have multiple versions installed simultaneously.
* Support for parsers and lexers in subdirectories.
\f
New in 1.5:
* Support for `configure.ac'.
* Support for `else COND', `endif COND' and negated conditions `!COND'.
* `make dist-all' is much faster.
* Allows '@' AC_SUBSTs in macro names.
* Faster AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE (requires update of `missing' script)
* User-side dependency tracking.  Developers no longer need GNU make
* Python support
* Uses DIST_SUBDIRS in some situations when SUBDIRS is conditional
* Most files are correctly handled if they appear in subdirs
  For instance, a _DATA file can appear in a subdir
* GNU tar is no longer required for `make dist'
* Added support for `dist_' and `nodist_' prefixes
* Added support for `nobase_' prefix
* Compiled Java support
* Support for per-executable and per-library compilation flags
* Many bug fixes
\f
New in 1.4:
* Added support for the Fortran 77 programming language.
* Re-indexed the Automake Texinfo manual.
* Added `AM_FOOFLAGS' variable for each compiler invocation;
  e.g. AM_CFLAGS can be used in Makefile.am to set C compiler flags
* Support for latest autoconf, including support for objext
* Can now put `.' in SUBDIRS to control build order
* `include' command and `+=' support for macro assignment
* Dependency tracking no long susceptible to deleted header file problem
* Maintainer mode now a conditional.  @MAINT@ is now an anachronism.
* Bug fixes
\f
New in 1.3:
* Bug fixes
* Better Cygwin32 support
* Support for suffix rules with _SOURCES variables
* New options `readme-alpha' and `check-news'; Gnits mode sets these
* @LEXLIB@ no longer required when lex source seen
  Lex support in `missing', and new lex macro.  Update your missing script.
* Built-in support for assembly
* aclocal gives error if `AM_' macro not found
* Passed YFLAGS, not YACCFLAGS, to yacc
* AM_PROG_CC_STDC does not have to come before AC_PROG_CPP
* Dependencies computed as a side effect of compilation
* Preliminary support for Java
* DESTDIR support at "make install" time
* Improved ansi2knr support; you must use the latest ansi2knr.c (included)
\f
New in 1.2:
* Bug fixes
* Better DejaGnu support
* Added no-installinfo option
* Added Emacs Lisp support
* Added --no-force option
* Included `aclocal' program
* Automake will now generate rules to regenerate aclocal.m4, if appropriate
* Now uses `AM_' macro names everywhere
* ansi2knr option can have directory prefix (eg `../lib/ansi2knr')
  ansi2knr now works correctly on K&R sources
* Better C++, yacc, lex support
* Will compute _DEPENDENCIES variables automatically if not supplied
* Will interpolate $(...) and ${...} when examining contents of a variable
* .deps files now in build directory, not source directory; dependency
  handling generally rewritten
* DATA, MANS and BUILT_SOURCES no longer included in distribution
* can now put config.h into a subdir
* Added dist-all target
* Support for install-info program (see texinfo 3.9)
* Support for "yacc -d"
* configure substitutions are automatically discovered and included
  in generated Makefile.in
* Special --cygnus mode
* OMIT_DEPENDENCIES can now hold list of dependencies to be omitted
  when making distribution.  Some dependencies are auto-ignored.
* Changed how libraries are specified in _LIBRARIES variable
* Full libtool support, from Gord Matzigkeit
* No longer have to explicitly touch stamp-h when using AC_CONFIG_HEADER;
  AM_CONFIG_HEADER handles it automatically
* Texinfo output files no longer need .info extension
* Added `missing' support
* Cygwin32 support
* Conditionals in Makefile.am, from Ian Taylor
\f
New in 1.0:
* Bug fixes
* distcheck target runs install and installcheck targets
* Added preliminary support for DejaGnu.
\f
New in 0.33:
* More bug fixes
* More checking
* More libtool fixes from Gord Matzigkeit; libtool support is still
  preliminary however
* Added support for jm_MAINTAINER_MODE
* dist-zip support
* New "distcheck" target
\f
New in 0.32:
* Many bug fixes
* mkinstalldirs and mdate-sh now appear in directory specified by
  AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR.
* Removed DIST_SUBDIRS, DIST_OTHER
* AC_ARG_PROGRAM only required when an actual program exists
* dist-hook target now run before distribution packaged up; idea from
  Dieter Baron.  Other hooks exist, too.
* Preliminary (unfinished) support for libtool
* Added short option names.
* Better "dist" support when gluing together multiple packages
\f
New in 0.31:
* Bug fixes
* Documentation updates (many from François Pinard)
* strictness `normal' now renamed to `foreign'
* Renamed --install-missing to --add-missing
* Now handles AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR
* Now handles TESTS macro
* DIST_OTHER renamed to EXTRA_DIST
* DIST_SUBDIRS is deprecated
* @ALLOCA@ and @LIBOBJS@ now work in _LDADD variables
* Better error messages in many cases
* Program names are canonicalized
* Added "check" prefix; from Gord Matzigkeit
\f
New in 0.30:
* Bug fixes
* configure.in scanner knows about AC_PATH_XTRA, AC_OUTPUT ":" syntax
* Beginnings of a test suite
* Automatically adds -I options for $(srcdir), ".", and path to config.h
* Doesn't print anything when running
* Beginnings of MAINT_CHARSET support
* Can specify version in AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS
* Most errors recognizable by Emacs' M-x next-error
* Added --verbose option
* All "primary" variables now obsolete; use EXTRA_PRIMARY to supply
  configure-generated names
* Required macros now distributed in aclocal.m4
* New documentation
* --strictness=gnu is default
\f
New in 0.29:
* Many bug fixes
* More sophisticated configure.in scanning; now understands ALLOCA and
  LIBOBJS directly, handles AC_CONFIG_HEADER more precisely, etc.
* TEXINFOS and MANS now obsolete; use info_TEXINFOS and man_MANS instead.
* CONFIG_HEADER variable now obsolete
* Can handle multiple Texinfo sources
* Allow hierarchies deeper than 2.  From Gord Matzigkeit.
* HEADERS variable no longer needed; now can put .h files directly into
  foo_SOURCES variable.
* Automake automatically rebuilds files listed in AC_OUTPUT.  The
  corresponding ".in" files are included in the distribution.
\f
New in 0.28:
* Added --gnu and --gnits options
* More standards checking
* Bug fixes
* Cleaned up 'dist' targets
* Added AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS variable and several options
* Now scans configure.in to get some information (preliminary)
\f
New in 0.27:
* Works with Perl 4 again
\f
New in 0.26:
* Added --install-missing option.
* Pretty-prints generated macros and rules
* Comments in Makefile.am are placed more intelligently in Makefile.in
* Generates .PHONY target
* Rule or macro in Makefile.am now overrides contents of Automake file
* Substantial cleanups from François Pinard
\f
New in 0.25:
* Bug fixes.
* Works with Perl 4 again.
\f
New in 0.24:
* New uniform naming scheme.
* --strictness option
* Works with Perl 5
* '.c' files corresponding to '.y' or '.l' files are automatically
  distributed.
* Many bug fixes and cleanups
\f
New in 0.23:
* Allow objects to be conditionally included in libraries via lib_LIBADD.
\f
New in 0.22:
* Bug fixes in 'clean' code.
* Now generates 'installdirs' target.
* man page installation reworked.
* 'make dist' no longer re-creates all Makefile.in's.
\f
New in 0.21:
* Reimplemented in Perl
* Added --amdir option (for debugging)
* Texinfo support cleaned up.
* Automatic de-ANSI-fication cleaned up.
* Cleaned up 'clean' targets.
\f
New in 0.20:
* Automatic dependency tracking
* More documentation
* New variables DATA and PACKAGEDATA
* SCRIPTS installed using $(INSTALL_SCRIPT)
* No longer uses double-colon rules
* Bug fixes
* Changes in advance of internationalization

-----

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