automake: compiling assembly files is *broken* in 1.5 (fwd)

[C. Scott Ananian]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 17:13:20 -0400
From: C. Scott Ananian <address@hidden>
To: address@hidden
Subject: automake: compiling assembly files is *broken* in 1.5

Package: automake
Version: 1.5-1
Severity: important

address@hidden:~$ automake --version
automake (GNU automake) 1.5
Written by Tom Tromey <address@hidden>.

The Makefile generated for a Makefile.am with assembly sources, for
example:
------
noinst_LTLIBRARIES = libheader.la
libheader_la_SOURCES = header.S
------
contains the following rules:
------
ASCOMPILE = $(AS) $(AM_ASFLAGS) $(ASFLAGS)
LTASCOMPILE = $(LIBTOOL) --mode=compile $(AS) $(AM_ASFLAGS) $(ASFLAGS)
[...]
.S.o:
        $(ASCOMPILE) -c `test -f $< || echo '$(srcdir)/'`$<

.S.obj:
        $(ASCOMPILE) -c `cygpath -w $<`

.S.lo:
        $(LTASCOMPILE) -c -o $@ `test -f $< || echo '$(srcdir)/'`$<
------

The '-c' flag in each of these three rules is incorrect, and causes
make to fail:
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/cananian/Harpoon/Runtime/arch/ix86'
/bin/sh ../../libtool --mode=compile as  -c -o header.lo `test -f header.S || 
echo './'`header.S
as  -c header.S -o header.o
as: unrecognized option `-c'
make[2]: *** [header.lo] Error 1

Downgrading to debian version 1.4-8 of automake (in the stable/ distribution)
fixes the problem; the generated Makefile now has the rules:
-----
.s.o:
        $(COMPILE) -c $<

.S.o:
        $(COMPILE) -c $<

.s.lo:
        $(LIBTOOL) --mode=compile $(COMPILE) -c $<

.S.lo:
        $(LIBTOOL) --mode=compile $(COMPILE) -c $<
------
which works (because gcc invokes as).
automake 1.5 seems to require that AS=gcc, which is obviously not right.

This is an important bug because *no software including assembly source* will
build using Makefiles generated by automake-1.5 until this is fixed.
  --scott

-- System Information
Debian Release: testing/unstable
Kernel Version: Linux sincerity-forever 2.4.9-686-smp #1 SMP Sun Aug 19 
11:17:05 EST 2001 i686 unknown

Versions of the packages automake depends on:
ii  autoconf       2.52-4         automatic configure script builder
ii  autotools-dev  20011005.1     Update infrastructure for config.{guess,sub}