Re: Makefile.static in EXTRA_DIST vanishes on make distcheck

[Stefano Lattarini]

On Thursday 10 November 2011, Holger Hans wrote:
> Hi,
>
Hello Holger.

> the project I am working on invokes another Makefile (to build a Linux kernel
> module), I have placed this Makefile in the EXTRA_DIST but somehow on make
> distcheck the Makefile.static is gone
>
No, it's not gone -- the problem is sightly sublter: "make distcheck"
performs a *VPATH build*, and in such a build the Makefile.static won't
be placed in the builddir (i.e., the current directory) as usual, but
rather in the srcdir.  But ...

> and the cleaning fails. I have created a
> minimal example and attached it to this email.
> 
> Makefile.am:
> EXTRA_DIST = Makefile.static
> 
> clean-local::
>       $(MAKE) -f Makefile.static clean
>
... this rule looks for Makefile.static in the current directory only.
And that's the problem.  You should use something like this instead:

  clean-local::
        (MAKE) -f $(srcdir)/Makefile.static clean

For more information on VPATH builds, see:
 <http://www.gnu.org/software/automake/manual/html_node/VPATH-Builds.html>

HTH,
  Stefano