Re: Autoconf/Automake is not using version from AC_INIT

[Bob Friesenhahn]

On Wed, 13 Jan 2021, Peter Johansson wrote:
> > > I don't see any way without a specific file holding the timestamp on when 
> > > the version was last updated.
> >
> > This is very helpful advice (and adds to valuable advice offered in private 
> > emails by others).  I don't really like hidden files but I do have a 
> > version.h header file which could already be used for this purpose.  The 
> > version.h header file is currently produced from version.h.in using 
> > config.status and it gets copied to the source directory (if necessary) if 
> > the file has changed.
>
> I think that will have the unwanted effect that autoconf is triggered when 
> building from a tarball. Since version.h is not included in the tarball, it 
> will be built by the user and have a newer timestamp than configure, and 
> hence the rule is triggered. I think the advice one of the automake 
> maintainers (probably Ralf) gave many years ago is that files listed in 
> CONFIGURE_DEPENDENCIES should be distributed.

For this project, both version.h and version.h.in are already included 
in the tarball.  Hopefully this will be a benefit to this case.

I agree that consumers of tarballs should not see unexpected behavior 
and should be granted as much of the original developer's powers as 
possible.

Once again, thanks for the helpful advice.

Bob
--
Bob Friesenhahn
bfriesen@simple.dallas.tx.us, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer,    http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/
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