Re: 'make dist' and m4 directory

[Jeffrey Sheinberg]

Ralf Corsepius writes:
 > On Thu, 2005-06-23 at 15:44 -0400, Jeffrey Sheinberg wrote:
 > > John Ling writes:
 > >  > Hi Ralf, yes that's exactly what I am trying to do.
 > >  > 
 > >  > Since I'm using automake 1.7.7 then this is why it isn't including the 
 > >  > m4 directory.
 > >  > 
 > >  > I'll just use EXTRA_DIST for now then until I upgrade to a more recent 
 > >  > Automake.
 > >  > 
 > > 
 > > Hi,
 > > 
 > > I needed to use use EXTRA_DIST in a similar situation with
 > > Automake version 1.9.3, in order for make distcheck to work.
 > >
 > > In my case, the m4 directory was empty, so as the following
 > > comments describe it, I consider this to be a bug in Automake.
 > 
 > I think you are missing something. automake-1.9.x will distribute all
 > the m4-files being used by a configure script, it will not distribute
 > "all files below m4/"
 > 
 > So, if you're not using the *.m4's inside of your m4/ directory,
 > automake will not distribute anything.

Since there are no *.m4 files in the m4/ directory, of course
automake cannot distribute them, but in order for make distclean
to work, the m4/ directory needs to be included in the dist
tarball.

As I pointed out, automake cetainly has enough information to
automatically include the m4/ directory in the dist tarball, but
it does not do this - the workaround being EXTRA_DIST.

$ grep m4  configure.ac Makefile.am
configure.ac:AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4])
Makefile.am:ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4
Makefile.am:# Workaround a bug in automake - inclusion of the "m4" directory 
should
Makefile.am:# be triggered by the presence of either, 
"AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR([m4])" in
Makefile.am:# "configure.ac", or "ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I m4" in "Makefile.am".
Makefile.am:EXTRA_DIST += m4

-- 
Jeffrey Sheinberg