Re: Automake violations of the gnu coding conventions

[K. Richard Pixley]

Let me be very clear.  The change I'm proposing is as follows.  Instead 
of the current form of generated Makefile.in's, I'm proposing that the 
default generated Makefile.in's include a section like this:

Makefile: Makefile.in
   configure etc.

.PHONY:
am_regen:
   (cd $(srcdir) && automake)

# note the conspicuous absence of a "Makefile.in: Makefile.am" rule.

I'm also happy to add a new interpretation of the AM_MAINTAINER_MODE, 
let's call it AM_REGEN which, when set, also includes the "Makefile.in: 
Makefile.am" rule.  Then "make distcheck" would complain loudly about 
any remaining instance of this rule prior to distribution.

The automake development process would then be:

* place AM_REGEN in your Makefile.am.
* screw around with automake for a while.
* start to build a distribution... run "make distcheck", notice that the 
rule was still in.
* remove AM_REGEN from your Makefile.am
* release code

Note that you can force a regeneration of Makefile.in at any time 
explicitly by running "make am_regen".

AM_MAINTAINER_MODE would then become a deprecated macro.

I'm also volunteering to make the changes, invent the test cases, and 
provide copyright assignments from my current employer.

Would this be acceptable?

--rich