Re: AC_SUBST and unnecessarily large make files

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello,

* Mr E_T wrote on Thu, Jun 22, 2006 at 05:32:07AM CEST:
> I have noticed that when creating a project with large numbers of Makefiles 
> that
> there are a large number of unnecessary variables.

Yes.

> Would it not be better to create a list of required variables and then a list 
> of 
> optional variables - scan the Makefile.am for $(variable) ( not @variable@ ) 
> and
> then insert only the required ones ?

I think Automake-1.10 will have a method to have substituted variables
that do not end up in Makefile.in's.  (It's already in CVS, but AFAICS
it's unpublished at the moment.  Not sure if that is going to change.)

> While this may not be a problem with small projects - the overall effect for 
> a 
> large project is to slow the Makefile creation process.

There is also a plan medium-term to make use of Make include statements
eventually to factor out all the common assignments.  This will
definitely take a while though.  (And to use a faster substitution
method...)

Cheers,
Ralf