Re: lib/libgnu.a not generated

[Bruno Haible]

Hi,

> I attempted to import 'quotearg' module into an existing project tree by
> following the instructions on this section of the manual:
> 
> https://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib/manual/gnulib.html#Initial-import
> 
> changing the existing project files configure.ac and top Makefile.am
> accordingly. It seems that the 'lib' and 'm4' directories have been
> successfully created and the relevant files copied.
> 
> After that, I ran 'autoreconf' and attempted to build the project. The
> first thing I noticed is that the existing project explicitly defined
> _GNU_SOURCE in some source files. After importing the gnulib changes, this
> is now also defined in config.h too so the compiler complained about double
> references to the macro in the sources that explicitly defined it and also
> included config.h. I resolved that by removing the definition in the
> existing project tree source files and left the definition from config.h.
> 
> So far so good. Then I attempted to take advantage of the qutoeaf
> facilities provided by quotearg by including "#include "lib/quotearg.h"" in
> the source and adding the following definitions
> 
> /* Use these when there are spaces around the file name,
>    in the error message.  */
> #define quoteaf(arg) \
>   quotearg_style (shell_escape_always_quoting_style, arg)
> #define quoteaf_n(n, arg) \
>   quotearg_n_style (n, shell_escape_always_quoting_style, arg)
> 
> borrowed from coreutils/src/system.h just to test locally if it works.
> 
> I got this compile error:
> 
> undefined reference to `quotearg_style'
> 
> I added this to the top Makefile.am (among other things):
> 
> ...
> AM_CPPFLAGS = -I$(top_builddir)/lib -I$(top_srcdir)/lib
> ...
> LDADD = lib/libgnu.a
> ...
> 
> but it looks like no lib/libgnu.a file has been generated.
> 
> What I am missing as part of this procedure?

I don't know what is missing. But there are two things to check:

1) gnulib-tool emits a number of instructions, at the end of its invocation.
   Have you followed them all?

2) Have you read chapter 3 of the Gnulib documentation?
   
https://www.gnu.org/software/gnulib/manual/html_node/Invoking-gnulib_002dtool.html

Bruno