Re: automake strips GNU make "else/endif" conditionals

[Tom Tromey]

>>>>> "Peter" == Peter J Farley <address@hidden> writes:

Peter> Does automake disallow using GNU make conditionals in rules?

Not really, but they aren't supported either.  Sometimes they "work"
if you indent them.  Try adding a leading space.

My thinking has been that one of automake's primary goals is to
generate portable Makefiles.  So supporting a nonportable feature
isn't very important.

That's been the overriding factor since supporting it is, I think, not
actually very easy.  For one thing, automake splits macro assignments
and targets into two different sections of Makefile.in.  So we would
have to change how Makefile.in is generated for this to work reliably.

Of course, like everything, this is open to debate.  Perhaps it is
worthwhile to expend the effort to make this work.  I still don't
think it is that important, though, so at least right now I don't plan
to spend time on it.

Tom