Priorities for release:
!! documentation (eg new macros)
* `acinstall'
* echo in installs?
* `missing' program
Further:
- texinfo/info changes
- Per's suggestion
- man page fixes
- consider adding "echo"s to installs again.
users can use make SHELL='sh -x' to get the full dirt
Avoid loops when installing; instead unroll them in automake
allow `EXTRA_DIST = foo/bar'; too many requests to ignore
Franc,ois> * ansi2knr was uselessly compiled, and it might be an
Franc,ois> Automake problem:
MUST look @ Franc,ois' run-time-replacement code
From David A Swierczek: automake should notice (eg) AC_CHECK_PROG and
auto-generate Makefile substitution:
AC_CHECK_PROG(AR, ...)
=> AR = @AR@ in Makefile.in
Ditto AC_SUBST and other things that make sense. Furthermore, other
macros (eg AC_PROG_CC) should be handled via a similar mechanism; many
special cases could be eliminated.
consider putting all check-* targets onto @check?
To support --help/--version checking?
must move CONFIG_HEADER from tags.am... allow it to work in subdir.
take diff-n-query code from libit
must at least partially rewrite dist system (to handle distributing
info files, which is currently somewhat broken).
Per Bothner says:
Per> 1) Being able to build a set of non-source programs
Per> from source programs, without necessarily linking them together.
Per> I.e. one should be able to say something like:
Per> dummy_SOURCES=foo.c bar.c
Per> and automake should realize that it needs to build foo.o and bar.o.
Per> 2) Being intelligent about new kinds of suffixes.
Per> If it sees:
Per> SUFFIXES = .class .java
Per> and a suffix rule of the form:
Per> .java.class:
Per> then it should be able to realize it can build .class files from
Per> .java files, and thus be able to generate a list of
Per> .class files from a list of .java source files.
* actually use acinstall program
!! Must fix require_file stuff. It is really gross, and I don't
understand it any more.
* error messages should print ``[info blah blah]'' command when a
certain part of the standards apply. saw idea in message from
Craig Burley.
* patch from Joel Weber about fixing yacc; in particular generating .h file
!! should write autoconf-style doc entries for each m4 macro
Jim's idea: should look for @setfilename and warn if filenames too long
* guess split size
* allow ".info" to be missing
should put inverse of @MAINT@ before `.PHONY: configure'. This means
fixing configure target name (no $srcdir)
* must update GNU Hello
** many requests for a way to omit a file from the distribution.
Should be done like `!foo' or `~foo' in _SOURCES, etc.
Such files should be removed explicitly after the copy step!
Doing this requires rewriting macros before generating Makefile.in.
from joerg-martin schwarz:
-- If Makefile.am contains $(CC), $(COMPILE), $(YLWRAP), ....
in an explicitly written rule, you should emit the corresponding
Makefile variables automatically.
add support for Makefile.tmpl that is auto-included in every
Makefile.am. That makes it easier to do some non-std thing in every
subdirectory.
consider printing full file name of Makefile.am or configure.in when
giving error. This would help for very large trees with many
configure.in scripts
From the GNU Standards. These things could be checked, and probably
should be if --gnu.
* Make sure that the directory into which the distribution unpacks (as
well as any subdirectories) are all world-writable (octal mode 777).
* Make sure that no file name in the distribution is more than 14
characters long.
* Don't include any symbolic links in the distribution itself.
(ditto hard links)
* Make sure that all the files in the distribution are world-readable.
** also, check --help output and --version output. Idea from Fran