Re: Dynamic AC_OUPUT

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hi Gary,

* Gary Kramlich wrote on Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 01:58:02PM CEST:
> Ralf Wildenhues wrote:
>> * Gary Kramlich wrote on Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 03:08:38AM CEST:
>>   
>>> This python script also determines what directories should have
>>> makefiles created and so on.  I've gotten far enough to trick configure
>>> into outputting all of the make files.  (This is done by appending the
>>> directories to ac_config_files before AC_OUTPUT).
>>
>> Bad.  ac_config_files is not defined in the Autoconf manual.  Please use
>> AC_CONFIG_FILES([file ...]).
>>   
> I know it's bad which is why I said I'm tricking configure :).   
> Unfortunately it's the only way I could find that works, since  
> AC_CONFIG_FILES and AC_OUTPUT will not expand a variable.

>>> I was working on this in an already configured tree, and thought I had
>>> it with the ac_config_files hack.  However, turns out automake when
>>> being run from my autogen doesn't like this.  I realize it's just
>>> reading in the contents of AC_OUTPUT, and tried to work around this by
>>> specifying the directories to the initial call of automake.  However, it
>>> drops out every time refusing to create depmod.
>>
>> FYI, automake heavily uses something called "autoconf traces" which is
>> pretty much asking m4 "show me the args whenever the macros
>> AC_CONFIG_FILES, AC_INIT, ... are called".
>>   
> Okay... And that's revelvent how?  Also that should have been depcomp  
> before, not sure what I was thinking when it typed it.

Traces don't know what to do with shell variables.

You can get depcomp installed with
  automake --add-missing

If that wasn't your problem, then please post the error or warning you
see, along with the problem that produces it.

>  As you can see it's already becoming quite a pain to find a given config 
> file, which is why I'm trying to automate it.

I recommend automating the production of an input file to autoconf.

> What I'm trying to solve is the problem of adding another plugin to this  
> package and forgetting to drop it in configure.ac as well as the issues  
> of these seemingly never ending list.  What I'm trying to accomplish is  
> to move all the info about each plugin into a plugin.cfg xml file so  
> that I can easily handle everything from build dependencies, to  
> autogenerated documentation and so.  Being able to determine at  
> autogen/configure time what directories need to be output would go a  
> long end to save quite a few headaches.

Put this in configure.ac:
  m4_include([output_list.m4])

Put something like this before autoreconf into your bootstrap or
autogen.sh script:

  for file in $list_of_config_files; do
     echo "AC_CONFIG_FILES([$file])"
  done  > output_list.m4

automake will add output_list.m4 to the list of configure dependencies,
i.e., if you update it, autoconf will be rerun automatically.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Ralf