Re: AM_MAINTAINER_MODE

[Bob Proulx]

Ineiev wrote:
> Russ Allbery wrote:
> >Another place where the default behavior frequently breaks is if one is
> >applying a patch to both the generated file and the source file, usually
> >because one explicitly *doesn't* want to re-run Automake (often because
> >there's some incompatibility with the latest version) and one has
> >carefully determined the right change to make to the generated file and is
> >also patching the source for documentation purposes.  If patch happens to
> >patch the generated file before the source file, make then tries to re-run
> >Automake and everything explodes.
> 
> If one is so careful, why not care to patch the source file before
> the "generated" file?

Sometimes we are using tools that do the patching for us and we have
no control over the order.  (For example quilt.  Others.)

But another question to ask is if that is the case why not simply
touch all of the files to the same time after the patching and before
the make?  That also forces everything to appear up to date too and
doesn't need AM_MAINTAINER_MODE to be added.

Bob