Re: cvs doc/texinfo and version.texi

[Stepan Kasal]

Hello,

On Tue, Nov 26, 2002 at 05:01:51PM -0500, Karl Berry wrote:
[speaking about the latest cvs version of texinfo:]
>     I think the rule for the "texinfo" info file (in doc/Makefile.am)
>     should have a dependency on version.texi.
> 
> Thanks much, I made that change.
> 
> (I'm kind of surprised that automake didn't insert the dependencies
> automatically.  It did for texinfo.dvi and texinfo.pdf.  Oh well.)

I also wondered why is the dependency missing.  I tried to dive into
automake templates, without any significant success.
But since no automake expert has answered this(*), I'll post my humble
discoveries:

automake thinks that the *.info file might be distributed, in case the
build platform doesn't have texinfo installed.
(Well, the package we are speaking about _is_ texinfo, but automake
doesn't notice this.)

*.dvi and *.pdf don't depend on version.texi and thus on the stamp-vti.

It seems as if these two files could not be distributed, while the
main .info file would be distributed.  In that case, a distributed file
would depend on a non-distributed one, which is not possible.

Well.  I don't understand fully what I've just written, sorry.
If anyone can follow and explain it, I'd be grateful.

Footnote: (*) Oh, now I see why no automake expert has explained this:
this mail was sent only to bug-texinfo, not bug-gnu-utils.
I hope you won't mind that I've cc'd it to bug-gnu-utils, even though
I'm afraid the aswer will say "not a bug".

Thanks,
        Stepan Kasal