Re: avoiding target $(srcdir)/Makefile.in

[Pavel Roskin]

Hello, John!

> > The last person who asked about this alleged that there will be problems
> > on systems lacking Automake, but couldn't give a real example.

I meant, that person expected problems if Makefile.am are included.

> if these targets are in the Makefile.in, but i do not include
> aclocal.m4, Makefile.am, or configure.in in the distribution,
> then make fails.  for example:
> 
> roome [3414] ls
> CHANGES         README          cloginrc.sample config.status   mkinstalldirs
> Makefile        Todo            config.cache    configure       util
> Makefile.in     bin             config.log      install-sh
> roome [3415] make
> make: *** No rule to make target `Makefile.am', needed by `Makefile.in'.  
> Stop.

You should include Makefile.am. This is what "make dist" does. If you
don't use "make dist" to create the distribution you are going to have
problems. Unfortunately, the Automake documentation doesn't emphasize this
fact.

It is also recommended to run "make distcheck" to make sure that the
distribution is complete and functional.

Regards,
Pavel Roskin