Re: aclocal -I

[Bob Proulx]

Lars> It would be great if one could add -I options to aclocal by just placing
Lars> macros in configure.ac, like:
Lars> AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR(conf/m4macros)

I would like that too.

Tom> You can use ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS (bad name, I know) in Makefile.am.

Uh, like this?:

  ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS = -I config

I do see that in the genated Makefile{,in}.  That helps.

But then I am confused (easily in this case).  I thought that aclocal
should be run before running autoheader before running automake before
runing autoconf.

Paraphrasing the goat book's apendix diagrams with text I see the
following relationship.  Just the good parts.

  configure.in > (aclocal) > aclocal.m4
  configure.in, aclocal.m4 > (autoheader) > config.h.in
  configure.in, Makefile.am > (automake) > Makefile.in
  configure.in, aclocal.m4 > (autoconf) > configure
  Makefile.in, config.in > (configure) > Makefile

Therefore shouldn't I run the following sequence to bootstrap the
project from nothing?  This order comes from page 70 of the goat book
which I know describes an older version of the programs.

  aclocal -I config \
  && autoheader \
  && automake --add-missing --copy --include-deps \
  && autoconf

Which would mean that adding this ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS to Makefile.am is
too late to be used for the first running of aclocal.  But since I am
sure that things have changed due to progress, may I ask what is the
correct ordering to bootstrap a project from first sources and if
possible why so that I may understand?

And as long as we are on the subject of placing options into the
files, would the following be the proper way to move those options
into the Makefile.am?

  AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS = add-missing copy include-deps

Thanks
Bob