Re: [Q] Absent directories and automake

[zaufi]

On Saturday 03 January 2004 16:01, Alexandre Duret-Lutz wrote:
>  zaufi> Is there is any way to avoid this behaviour of automake?
>
> Try
>   SUBDIRS = ... $(TESTS_MAYBE) ...
>   DIST_SUBDIRS = $(SUBDIRS)
>
> And define TESTS_MAYBE conditionally with an AC_SUBST.
> Automake shouldn't be able to complain about directories it cannot
> know about.

actually problem not only in Makefile.am but in configure.ac file too...
I have a list of files which is absent in usual checkout... but automake try 
to find it and out an errors :(

if test "x$USE_MAINTAINER_MODE" = "xyes" -a -d tests; then
 AC_CONFIG_FILES([\
     tests/Makefile \
     tests/benchmarks/Makefile \
     tests/benchmarks/tcp_mp/Makefile \
     ...
 ])
fi

>  zaufi> Any objections why it can't be implemented
>  zaufi> (suppressed)??
>
> Automake wants you to distribute a self-contained package.  If a
s/wants/force/

> directory can be built under some configuration option, then
> that directory ought to be distributed.
In my case whole package self-reconfigured not to use absent tests/ and it 
still self-contained... my configuration script take care what it can build 
-- not automake! My configs know much more about my package than automake!

In any case it is always good to allow to _user_ to choose how he wants to 
distribute his package, bcouse _user_much_smarter_than_automake_!! :)

However automake may _warn_ user if smth wrong from its point of view and user 
may accept (and pay attention) or _ignore_ (and even suppress) its warnings. 
By default automake may issue an error but user should have ability to turn 
off such behaviour.

Automake is a helper tool  for programmers (not for stupid users)... why 
restrict smth here? -- it must help but not force! -- I see no reason to make 
M$ like software... :))