invoking config.status

[Harlan Stenn]

Under 1.5, it would appear that:

 CONFIG_FILES=Makefile config.status

differs from:

 config.status Makefile

in 2 ways:

- "config.status Makefile" will look up the input templates and follow them,
  producing the Makefile as specified from AC_CONFIG_FILES(...) .

- "CONFIG_FILES=Makefile config.status" will produce Makefile using the
  implicit template Makefile:Makefile.in, and then run the default-1
  script (ie, "do the dependency thing").

There is a bug in automake in that it takes the input template, extracts the
Makefile.in from the list, and then outputs the (possibly incorrectly)
reassembled list in the configure.am rule.  It would be simpler and better
if automake remembered the input template and used that template list where
needed, instead of trying to reassemble the list from the parts.  I can
submit a patch, but I'm not sure if it's "too big" to accept without
paperwork and it's not clear if my manager and I can schedule time with the
Big Boss to get the assignment cleared any time soon.

As for the "run the dependency stuff" piece, is it a bug or a feature that
it's run in one case and not in the other?  I'm not sure if the behavior has
changed in 1.6.3 or not - I'll probably dig there this weekend.

H