Re: Where can I get 1.10a?

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hello Bernd,

* Bernd Jendrissek wrote on Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 03:59:43PM CET:
> I have been trying to update to more recent autotools, and being a
> traceability nazi, I want to rebuild from as far upstream as possible.
>  That means ignoring the distributed ./configure and Makefile.in and
> rebuilding them with currently installed autotools.

For Automake, that's not always possible without the bootstrap script.

> Here's my problem: Recent automake depends on automake-1.10a, but I
> can't find that release anywhere.

It's not a release.  The naming scheme is such that M.Nc and M.N.Kc
with M, N, K integers, and
  c empty                               are stable releases
  c an even character (b, d, f, ...)    are test releases
  c an odd character (a, c, e, ...)     represent VCS (git) versions

of Automake (K = 0 is conventionally omitted, leading to the first form
M.Nc).

> I thought I'd use 1.10b instead, but it too requires 1.10a, so no joy
> there.

Yep, at that time we required development Automake.

> Of course 1.10.N are "too old" according to Version.pm, and 1.11.N
> already require the mysterious 1.10a.

Yep.

> I realize there's the bootstrap script, and it actually lets me go
> much further back into the bootstrap chain, but for now I'm just
> looking for this 1.10a.  I can't find it either on ftp.gnu.org nor or
> alpha.gnu.org.  Unless I'm not looking hard enough!

I'm afraid you'll have to go with the bootstrap script in this case.
Please note that the Automake bootstrap script is little more than
- replace @foo@ in automake.in and aclocal.in,
- run in-tree aclocal, autoconf, and in-tree automake,
- clean up.

The reason we required 1.10a was IIRC to allow Automake to use the
then-new color-tests feature.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Ralf