Re: Infinite recursion with `check_SCRIPTS = check'

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello Benoit,

* Benoit SIGOURE wrote on Sat, Oct 20, 2007 at 01:58:23PM CEST:
> Hello list,
> Due to a sudden lack of imagination, I wrote a testsuite named `check' and 
> used it as a `check_SCRIPTS' which led to an infinite recursion of make 
> (because the .PHONY check depends on check-am which does a `$(MAKE) 
> $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) $(check_SCRIPTS)' so the make has no chance of catching the 
> dependency cycle).
>
> Maybe automake should warn (or bail out) in such a case.  I can write a 
> patch for that, if you think that could be something relevant.

Well, the user should be able to override the `check' target if he so
wants.  If it's possible to reliably warn without giving false failures
without a lot of work, then it would help.  But often such checks turn
out to be rather expensive in both developer time and automake run time.

> Maybe something along these lines would be better:
> diff --git a/automake.in b/automake.in
> index 3c47cc1..263674c 100755
> --- a/automake.in
> +++ b/automake.in
> @@ -6826,8 +6826,10 @@ sub am_primary_prefixes ($$@)
>  # Handle `where_HOW' variable magic.  Does all lookups, generates
>  # install code, and possibly generates code to define the primary
> -# variable.  The first argument is the name of the .am file to munge,
> -# the second argument is the primary variable (e.g. HEADERS), and all
> +# variable.  The first argument can be one of: '-noextra', '-candist',
> +# or '-defaultdist'.  FIXME: Document these options.
> +# The following argument is the name of the .am file to munge,
> +# the following argument is the primary variable (e.g. HEADERS), and all
>  # subsequent arguments are possible installation locations.

Sorry, but I don't understand at all what you're trying to say here.

> If I have some time next week, I'll try to port the parallel testsuite 
> thing that Akim wrote

That would be great!

Cheers,
Ralf