Re: explain that some things may be built in make dist/DIST_SUBDIRS

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello Patrice,

thanks for the report and patch.

* Patrice Dumas wrote on Sun, Feb 21, 2010 at 11:59:06AM CET:
> I was confused by the fact that things in DIST_SUBDIRS
> are not meant to be built nor installed, but that still
> some files are built, namely the files needing some 
> special tools to be built.

I'm confused by this description.  Care to explain in a bit
more detail (maybe with a small example) what you mean here?
I assume you mean that, when `make dist' recurses in these
directories, also all prerequisites of `distdir' in these
directories get updated?

Or do you see files below non-SUBDIRS subdirectories which
are updated at `make all' time?

> I made a patch for the 
> documentation. Maybe this should also be more explicit
> in the coding standards, such that this is done for 
> everything and not only automake generated rules and gettext
> files.

Maybe, can't judge until I understand the former.

Thanks,
Ralf

> If you really want a ChangeLog entry, (but you can omit
> it if you like), it could be along
> 
> State that in DIST_SUBDIRS (in make dist) files that need 
> special tools to be generated (info manual, yacc generated 
> files) will be built.

> --- a/doc/automake.texi
> +++ b/doc/automake.texi
> @@ -4182,7 +4182,12 @@ build.  Recall our example where we may not want to 
> build subdirectory
>  
>  Precisely, @code{DIST_SUBDIRS} is used by @samp{make
>  maintainer-clean}, @samp{make distclean} and @samp{make dist}.  All
> -other recursive rules use @code{SUBDIRS}.
> +other recursive rules use @code{SUBDIRS}. Files that may need some
> +special tools to be generated, for example info manuals @ref{Texinfo} 
> +or Yacc and Lex generated files @ref{Yacc and Lex} will also be built
> +as part of @samp{make dist}.  Therefore, putting these files in 
> address@hidden directories is not enough to prevent them 
> +from being built.
>  
>  If @code{SUBDIRS} is defined conditionally using Automake
>  conditionals, Automake will define @code{DIST_SUBDIRS} automatically