Doing something just a bit more complex than `make check'

[Roberto Bagnara]

Hi there,

I am using the `make check' facility offered by Automake.  However,
I need to realize something just a bit more complex than this.
What I need to have is a way to specify that the ordinary behavior
of `make check' should be repeated a number of times, each time
with a different choice of compilation flags.  To obtain this
effect, now I do something like

test1_flags1_SOURCES = test1.cc
test1_flags1_CXXFLAGS = $(FLAGS1)

test1_flags2_SOURCES = test1.cc
test1_flags2_CXXFLAGS = $(FLAGS2)
...
test2_flags_1_SOURCES = test2.cc
test2_flags1_CXXFLAGS = $(FLAGS2)
...

Since the number of tests can go up to a few hundreds and the
possible flags go up to a dozen, this is not going to work:
it is difficult to maintain and the generated Makefile is too heavy.

Instead, what I would like to have is to only say

test1_SOURCES = test1.cc
test2_SOURCES = test2.cc
...

and then achieve the effect of (sorry for the pseudo-code)

   for flags in $FLAGS_CHOICES
   do
      make check with CXXFLAGS="$flags"
      force recompilation at the next iteration (e.g., by erasing executables)
   done

How can I best obtain this effect without giving up (too many of)
the advantages offered by Automake?
Many thanks in advance,

   Roberto

P.S. Actually, it would be nice to also get rid of

       test1_SOURCES = test1.cc
       test2_SOURCES = test2.cc
       ...

     in favor of something more concise, but this is another story.

--
Prof. Roberto Bagnara
Computer Science Group
Department of Mathematics, University of Parma, Italy
http://www.cs.unipr.it/~bagnara/
mailto:address@hidden