Re: [PATCH] {master} aclocal: deprecate ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS, trace AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR instead

[Stefano Lattarini]

On 07/04/2012 11:03 AM, Ralf Corsepius wrote:
> On 07/03/2012 10:54 PM, Stefano Lattarini wrote:
>> On 07/02/2012 02:57 PM, Stefano Lattarini wrote:
>>> On 07/02/2012 02:26 PM, Ralf Corsepius wrote:
>>>> ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS is able to take sequences of  "-I's".
>>>>
>>>> Will your AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR be able handle such cases?
>>>>
>>> No; and I think there is no compelling reason to support multiple local
>>> m4 macro dirs in a build system setup.
>
> Well, likely you don't have enough experience in using automake to have
> encountered such cases?
>
Not in the projects I regularly use as test cases, no.

> Classical use case is deep sourcetrees:
> 
> configure.ac
> macros/
> ...
> subdir/configure.ac
> subdir/macros
> subdir/macros/Makefile.am:
> ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I macros -I ../macros
> ...
>
Link to one or more actual projects doing this?  I want to use them in the
commit message of the next change.

>>>
>>> But I recognize I might be proven wrong, so here's a sketch of how I
>>> plan to proceed in this case.
>>>
>>> Once we start warning about ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS (in Automake 1.14), people
>>> that were using multiple '-I' option there will see that the new semantics
>>> don't support their setup anymore.  So they'll either adjust such setup,
>>> or, if that turns out to be impossible, will write to bug-automake to
>>> complain.  If their complain turns out to be legitimate, we will add a
>>> new autoconf macro 'AM_EXTRA_LOCAL_M4_DIRS' (say), that aclocal will
>>> trace and use to adjust its search path accordingly.
>>>
>> I've now pushed this patch.
>>
> Please revert this change.
>
No.  Have you read my plan above?  If the use case of multiple local m4 macro
dirs is actually legitimate and needed in the real world (as it seems to be
according to your report), what I'm going to do is to implement a new macro
AM_EXTRA_LOCAL_M4_DIRS.

Adding directories to the aclocal search path is something that should concern
aclocal, not automake, so ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS is an hack that we should get rid of.

> IMO, this is yet annother case of you rushing
> out short-sighted silly changes,
>
The other cases being?

> because you apparently lack sufficient user experience with the autotools
> to understand what you are doing.
>
> 
> Ralf
> 

Stefano