Re: AM_DEFAULT_VERBOSITY

[Eric Blake]

On 01/07/2012 07:53 AM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> [Please CC me on the responses, as I'm not subscribed to the list.]

Using reply-all is list policy, anyways.

> 
> I'm not sure if this is the right place for discussing this issue.  If
> it isn't, please point me to a better one.
> 
> With latest versions of Autotools, compiling packages by default does
> not show the full compilation/link command lines, but only their short
> "summaries", like this:
> 
>        CC     serv.o
>        CC     udp-serv.o
>        CC     common.o
>        CC     p11common.o
>        CCLD   gnutls-serv

Yes, and this is a feature of automake (not autoconf).

> 
> This is fine when the build goes smoothly, as it avoids cluttering the
> terminal with lengthy commands.  However, when something does go
> wrong, it is important to see the full command that failed.
> 
> The essence of this mail is that when I bumped into such problems, I
> didn't find any obvious place which would explain how to accomplish
> that.

> 
> By digging into the produced Makefile's, I finally found that saying
> 
>   make AM_DEFAULT_VERBOSITY=1

Not quite - the preferred spelling is make V=1.  AM_DEFAULT_VERBOSITY is
an implementation detail.

> 
> would accomplish what I needed.  I can find this variable documented
> in the Automake manual.  However, building a package does not require
> Automake, and even if it is installed, it is not immediately obvious
> that this should be the place to look.  As you all well know, the
> implementation of the verbosity level is quite contrived and is not
> easy to understand even when you find it in the produced Makefile's.
> 
> I'm not quite sure what would be the best way of making this
> information more easily available.  Perhaps adding it to the standard
> INSTALL file, e.g. under "Troubleshooting", would be a first step.

It _already_ is in in the INSTALL file, but under the Optional Features
section.  And there, we mention the preferred spellings:

make V=1

or even better, make it default with

./configure --disable-silent-rules

It's also possible to set up a config.site that sets this preference by
default for all configure scripts.

-- 
Eric Blake   address@hidden    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

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