Re: Source files in different directory? Now: linker input file unused because linking not done

[Ralf Wildenhues]

* Paul Elliott wrote on Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 08:34:11AM CEST:
> On Saturday, June 25, 2011 03:47:56 PM you wrote:
> > > I need to keep my source files (i.e. .c and .h ) in a different directory
> > > tree
> > > from the one that contains the autotools control files and the build
> > > directory.
> > > 
> > > That is, when building X.o or X.lo I need to tell it to always find the
> > > source
> > > file as
> > > ../other/src/X.c not ./X.c. I do not control the contents of the
> > > ../other/src/
> > > directory
> > > so I can not create any Autotools control files there or any object files
> > > there.
> > > To me, that directory is read only.
> > > 
> > > Is there a way to do this conveniently in automake? An implicit rule
> > > perhaps?
> > > 
> > you may try:
> > 
> > DIR = $(top_srcdir)/../other/src
> > 
> > to refer to that directory.

Who wrote this?  It is not good advice.

> I have moved all my .c and .h source to a defferent directory from the one 
> wherein I am building. I now get a lot of error messages of the form:
> "linker input file unused because linking not done"
> What am I doing wrong? Do I need some kind of flag to tell gcc where to look?
> Thank You.

Do not do it like that.

> I now have the source and the include files in a different read only
> directroy: 
> I am building a library:
> 
> 
> --------from my Makefile.am-------------
> > astrosrc = $(astrodienst)/src
> > lib_LTLIBRARIES = libswe.la
> > 
> > 
> > libswe_la_SOURCES = \
> > 
> >         $(astrosrc)/swecl.c    \
> >         $(astrosrc)/swedate.c    \

That's more complicated that you need to do.  Please remove the astrosrc
definition and all instances of $(astrosrc)/ from your Makefile.am,
rerun autotools.  Then, please create a fresh directory, enter it, and
run configure from there:

mkdir build
cd build
../configure -C

This will cause all objects, libraries and binaries to appear in the
so-called 'build tree', below the directory you just named 'build'.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Ralf