Re: aclocal 1.8 produces useless aclocal.m4

[Alexandre Duret-Lutz]

>>> "Sam" == Sam Steingold <address@hidden> writes:

 Sam> I have been using
 Sam> aclocal -I src/m4 --output=src/autoconf/aclocal.m4
 Sam> to produce a stand-alone aclocal.m4 file (with all necessary m4 files
 Sam> concatenated).
 Sam> it works fine with 1.4

 Sam> aclocal 1.8 produces aclocal.m4 with many "m4_include" statements which
 Sam> defeat the purpose (for me).
 Sam> Is it possible to tell aclocal 1.8 to concatenate all the necessary m4
 Sam> files instead?

Yes. Use -I `pwd`/src/m4.

[Node: Invoking aclocal]

   When a file selected by `aclocal' is located in a subdirectory
specified as a relative search path with `aclocal''s `-I' argument,
`aclocal' assumes the file belongs to the package and uses `m4_include'
instead of copying it into `aclocal.m4'.  This makes the package
smaller, eases dependency tracking, and cause the file to be
distributed automatically.  (*note Local Macros:: for an example.)  Any
macro which is found in a system-wide directory, or via an absolute
search path will be copied.  So use `-I `pwd`/reldir' instead of `-I
reldir' whenever some relative directory need to be considered outside
the package.

[...]

 Sam> PS.  I also get these warnings with 1.8:

 Sam> aclocal -I src/m4 --output=src/autoconf/aclocal.m4
 Sam> /usr/bin/aclocal: line 246: ((: 57 2 <= 13 : syntax error in expression 
(error token is "2 <= 13 ")

I've never seen this and it's not clear to me what tool is speaking here.
This does not look like an aclocal message, not a Perl diagnostic.
The figures remind me of autoconf versions (2.13 vs 2.57), so this
might be a failing version check?  Could you produce a test case?

 Sam> /usr/share/aclocal/gsl.m4:5: warning: underquoted definition of 
AM_PATH_GSL
 Sam> run info '(automake)Extending aclocal'
 Sam> or see 
http://sources.redhat.com/automake/automake.html#Extending%20aclocal
 Sam> /usr/share/aclocal/freetype2.m4:7: warning: underquoted definition of 
AC_CHECK_FT2
 Sam> /usr/share/aclocal/check.m4:5: warning: underquoted definition of 
AM_PATH_CHECK

These warnings are self-documented, just follow the link.

 Sam> configure.ac:322: warning: AC_COMPILE_IFELSE was called before AC_AIX
 Sam> autoconf/specific.m4:427: AC_AIX is expanded from...
 Sam> configure.ac:322: the top level
 Sam> configure.ac:322: warning: AC_RUN_IFELSE was called before AC_AIX
 Sam> configure.ac:344: warning: AC_COMPILE_IFELSE was called before AC_AIX
 Sam> configure.ac:344: the top level
 Sam> configure.ac:344: warning: AC_RUN_IFELSE was called before AC_AIX
 Sam> ...

Look easy to fix in your configure.ac.
-- 
Alexandre Duret-Lutz