Adding BUILT_SOURCES to a multi-directory, non-recursive project

[Duncan Gibson]

I was given help two weeks ago in the thread "Autoconfisticating a
multi-directory, non-recursive, GNU-make specific project"
(see http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake/2006-02/msg00036.html)

Three years ago on this list, I was helped with BUILT_SOURCES in the
thread "How to specify 2 stage build in Makefile.am"
(see http://sources.redhat.com/ml/automake/2002-10/msg00066.html)

Now I want to put them both together, but am having problems. I've
simplified my project down to a single source directory to show what
I want to do, and how far I have got. What I want to happen is:

    foo.fl is processed by 'fluid' to give foo.cxx and foo.h
    foo.cxx is then compiled and archived in libfoo.a
    foo_test.cxx is compiled and linked against libfoo.a


My configure.ac looks like:

    AC_PREREQ(2.59)
    AC_INIT([foo], [0.0.1], address@hidden)
    AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([1.9 foreign subdir-objects])
    AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR([src/foo_test.cxx])
    AC_CONFIG_HEADER([config.h])

    # Checks for programs.
    AC_PROG_CC
    AC_PROG_CXX
    AC_PROG_RANLIB

    # Checks for libraries.
    # Checks for header files.
    # Checks for typedefs, structures, and compiler characteristics.
    # Checks for library functions.

    AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile])
    AC_OUTPUT


My Makefile.am looks like:

    bin_PROGRAMS =
    check_PROGRAMS =
    lib_LIBRARIES =
    noinst_LIBRARIES =
    BUILT_SOURCES =

    # autotools object to --libs, FLTK_LIBRARIES & FLTK_LDFLAGS :-(
    # FLTK_CXXFLAGS = `fltk-config --cxxflags`
    # FLTK_LIBRARYS = `fltk-config --libs`
    # FLTK_LDSFLAGS = `fltk-config --ldstaticflags`

    FLTK_CXXFLAGS = -O2 -march=i686 -I/usr/X11R6/include
    FLTK_LIBRARYS = /usr/lib/libfltk.a
    FLTK_LDSFLAGS = -L/usr/X11R6/lib -s /usr/lib/libfltk.a -lm -lXext -lX11

    include src/Makefile.am


and my src/Makefile.am looks like:

    check_PROGRAMS += src/foo_test
    noinst_LIBRARIES += src/libfoo.a

    AM_CPPFLAGS = -I$(srcdir)/src $(FLTK_CXXFLAGS)

    .fl.h:
        fluid -c $<

    .fl.cxx:
        fluid -c $<

    BUILT_SOURCES += src/foo.h

    src_libfoo_a_SOURCES = src/foo.fl

    src_foo_test_LDADD = src/libfoo.a $(FLTK_LIBRARYS)
    src_foo_test_LDFLAGS = $(FLTK_LDSFLAGS)
    src_foo_test_SOURCES = src/foo_test.cxx


My problem is that if I create a separate build directory, and run
sh ../configure and make in there, the make fails with
    find g++: src/foo.cxx: No such file or directory

I've tried putting explicit dependencies instead of the suffix rules,
and all sorts of variations of src/foo.h, src/foo.cxx and src/foo.fl
in BUILT_SOURCES, src_libfoo_a_SOURCES and nodist_src_libfoo_a_SOURCES
but to no avail. I haven't found the magic combination yet.

If I run 'fluid -c foo.fl' manually in the src directory, then I can
run make successfully in the separate build directory, but that's not
really what I want. I assume that I have some mismatch between the
build directory and $(srcdir) but I can't see how to correct it.

Once I've solved this basic problem, I have another issue to address.
I need to be able to tweak foo.h once it has been created by fluid.
In a standard makefile I could use:

foo.h foo.cxx: foo.fl
    fluid -c foo.fl
    mv foo.h foo.h.tmp
    sed 's/old/new/' foo.h.tmp > foo.h

Can I still do that here? Should I even be using the .fl.cxx suffix
rules as I am doing at the moment, or should I be using SUFFIXES?

Cheers
Duncan