Re: documentation on using automake to produce documentation

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello Paul,

* Paul Elliott wrote on Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 02:25:13AM CEST:
> Is it documented any where how to do the comparatively simpler task of using 
> automake to produce and distribute documentation?
> 
> Just simple things like specifying simple rules to build. And how to specify 
> distribution directories for documentation.

I'm not quite sure where to start, your request is fairly vague.

Generally, a Makefile.am is also a Makefile.  Or, more precisely, most
of the stuff you write in Makefile.am gets copied verbatim into the
resulting Makefile.  So you can just write plain make rules for anything
not directly supported by Automake.  See 'info Automake Extending'.

In order to hook your rules to the standard targets, use *-local and
maybe *-hook targets.  So, to extend 'all', specify your own stuff as
prerequisite of all-local.  Similarly for 'dvi', 'pdf', 'html', 'ps'.
And of course 'clean' and 'distclean'.  To specify distribution
semantics, you can either use dist_ or nodist_ prefixes to existing
special variables, or use EXTRA_DIST for files or directories.
Installation semantics can be specified with noinst_ or with directory
prefix (foodir = ..., foo_DATA = ...), or hand-written
install-data-local rules.

If you have Texinfo documentation or man pages, see 'info Automake
Documentation'.

For LaTeX sources, there's currently a bug open on our debbugs where
Reuben is looking into better interfacing with latexmk and/or rubber.

Does this help?  If not, please be more specific.

Thanks,
Ralf