Re: [PATCH] Make inter-release --version output more useful.

[Ralf Wildenhues]

* Jim Meyering wrote on Sat, Oct 27, 2007 at 10:34:22PM CEST:
> Ralf Wildenhues <address@hidden> wrote:
> > * Jim Meyering wrote on Sat, Oct 27, 2007 at 07:38:23PM CEST:
> >> +ifeq (0,$(MAKELEVEL))
> >> +  _is-dist-target = $(filter dist% alpha beta major,$(MAKECMDGOALS))
> >> +  ifneq (,$(_is-dist-target))
> >> +    _curr-ver := $(shell build-aux/git-version-gen .version)
> >> +    ifneq ($(_curr-ver),$(VERSION))
> >> +      $(info INFO: rerunning autoconf for new version string: 
> >> $(_curr-ver))
> >> +      dummy := $(shell rm -rf autom4te.cache; $(AUTOCONF))

> > Does that ensure that the just-built autoconf is run on the tree?
> 
> No.  It's using the usual definition:
> 
> AUTOCONF = ${SHELL} /mirror/d/autoconf/build-aux/missing --run autoconf

Hmm.

> > If yes, then aclocal and automake should be run, too.  They should
> > be the last released versions.
> 
> The only reason to invoke $(ACLOCAL) $(ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS) here is if
> some important piece has just been added or modified in configure.ac
> or m4/m4.m4, yet the user has not run any other make command.

Well, it's recorded in aclocal.m4 which autoconf version was used when
generating aclocal.m4 (remember aclocal and automake may call autom4te
behind the scenes).  So it would be nice to have the version string
match there, too, to avoid needless warnings.

Maybe we should override in Autoconf the rules to regenerate aclocal.m4,
configure, and Makefile.in, so they prepend $(top_builddir)/tests to
PATH, so the right rebuilding is done.  FWIW, the Automake package does
something similar.

Sorry for not helping out with patches ATM, currently low on time.

Cheers,
Ralf