Re: gnulib-tool and --with-tests

[Bruno Haible]

Thien-Thi Nguyen wrote:
>    gnulib-tool: --create-[mega]testdir, --[mega]test implies --with-tests.
> 
> Apparently, ‘--with-tests’ is implied (somehow) by ‘--update’ as well

In --update mode, the settings come from the gnulib-cache.m4 file,
in your case it's here:
  http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/rcs.git/tree/m4/gnulib-cache.m4

> (but that is incompatible (why?) with ‘--conditional-dependencies’):

Yes, --with-tests and --conditional-dependencies are currently incompatible.
(because the logic is too complicated).

Your gnulib-cache.m4 lists both gl_TESTS_BASE and gl_CONDITIONAL_DEPENDENCIES;
this is where the conflict comes from. Remove one of them.

>  http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/rcs.git/tree/autogen.sh#n21

According to the 'gnulib-tool --help' message, you are not supposed to
use --conditional-dependencies with --update. The intended usage is that
you invoke
  gnulib-tool --conditional-dependencies --import
*once*, this will store the option in the gnulib-cache.m4 file. Then
further uses of
  gnulib-tool --update
will take the option from the gnulib-cache.m4 file.

Likewise for --without-tests. Pass it once, then it will be stored.

Bruno