Re: TODO

[Ralf Wildenhues]

* Ralf Wildenhues wrote on Wed, Nov 10, 2004 at 10:09:08AM CET:
> * Alexandre Duret-Lutz wrote on Wed, Nov 10, 2004 at 09:53:37AM CET:
>
[ library dependencies and `make install' ]
> > 
> > Not only that, but also supporting a arbitrary installation
> > order of libraries in multi-Makefile projects.
> 
> Just to throw in random ideas:
> Let libtool output Makefile snippets in .libs/Makefile.libdep at link
> time, providing dependency information based on what it knows then.
> `make' is the canonical program to deal with topological sorting.
> 
> Let make use these at install time, maybe through a generated script or
> some other mechanism (so that the Automake-generated Makefiles do not
> have to depend on .libs/Makefile.libdep to exist).

More specific:

Let config.status create Makefile snippets .deps/lib.Po (take another
name that does not conflict; I'm not sure about .deps or .libs yet)
per LTLIBRARY, just as it does for compile dependency generation.

Each `libtool --mode=link' fills in the dependencies as a side-effect,
just like depcomp does.  All paths in there are relative to
$top_builddir.  We could add an option `-MT .deps/lib.Po -MD -MP -MF'
to libtool for outputting this information. :-)

Now two (at least) options for Automake:
- Put all actual installation rules (one per LTLIBRARY, maybe this can be
improved) in $top_builddir/Makefile.in, include all snippets from there.
This unfortunately breaks executing `make install' in a subdir (because
the rules are only in the top_builddir (but `make install' from a subdir
was most likely broken in this package anyway because of the ltlibrary
dependencies).  For non-recursive Makefiles this is the right way.  I
think this can be made almost as fast as the current process (without
dependency information).
- Put each rule in its dir's Makefile.in, let libtool add rules like
    cd $builddir && $(MAKE) inst-ltlibLIBNAME
to the snippet in .deps.  This will be *slow*.

What's the expected number of libraries per package?
About programs:  You just install them all after installing all the
libraries.

Can we expect users of the Automake subpackage feature to separate their
library dependencies by hand?  As in:  subpkg1 needs to be installed
before subpkg2, both before main?  Seems reasonable to me.


I have more time next week, maybe I can put something together then.
Ralf