distcheck consistency regarding subdirs/subpackages

[Ralf Wildenhues]

distcheck-hook is acknowledged by automake (verified on CVS head)
only within the toplevel Makefile.am, even with AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS.
This can be regarded as feature or bug, but should IMHO be documented.

dist-hook however, is called in both regular subdirs as well as
AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS (which is OK IMHO, and documented; just noticing).

Furthermore, DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS is read in the toplevel
Makefile.am only (as opposed to in the Makefile.am residing in a
subpackage toplevel dir), but passed to the subpackage configure also.
This, IMHO could also be documented more clearly.

Below is a proposed documentation addition.
Regards,
Ralf


2004-01-19  Ralf Wildenhues  <address@hidden>  (tiny change)

        * doc/automake.texi: Document limitations of distcheck-hook 
        and DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS with regard to subdirs and
        subpackages.

Index: automake.texi
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/automake/automake/doc/automake.texi,v
retrieving revision 1.21
diff -u -r1.21 automake.texi
--- automake.texi       7 Jan 2004 19:30:45 -0000       1.21
+++ automake.texi       19 Jan 2004 09:51:39 -0000
@@ -5364,13 +5364,17 @@
 @file{Makefile.am}, or on the command line when invoking @code{make}.
 @vindex DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS
 
-If the @code{distcheck-hook} rule is defined in your
+If the @code{distcheck-hook} rule is defined in your top-level
 @file{Makefile.am}, then it will be invoked by @code{distcheck} after
 the new distribution has been unpacked, but before the unpacked copy
 is configured and built.  Your @code{distcheck-hook} can do almost
 anything, though as always caution is advised.  Generally this hook is
 used to check for potential distribution errors not caught by the
-standard mechanism.
+standard mechanism.  Note that @code{distcheck-hook} as well as
address@hidden are not honored in a subpackage
address@hidden, but the @code{DISTCHECK_CONFIGURE_FLAGS} are
+passed down to the @code{configure} script of the subpackage.
+
 
 Speaking about potential distribution errors, @code{distcheck} will also
 ensure that the @code{distclean} rule actually removes all built