Edit
kc3-lang/automake/TODO
Tom Tromey
- TODO
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* Document why putting @FOO@ in _SOURCES doesn't work. Make it an error when the user tries to do this This must be done for 1.5 * serious bug. this doesn't work: .c.o: ; ... foo.o: sub/foo.c why did I think it did work? * Sometimes we can warn about a missing `compile' script twice. * A target named `INSTALL' will screw things up. It shouldn't. * Scan configure.in using the same trick that autoheader uses. This will be much more reliable. * Test subdir-objects option with yacc, lex, ansi2knr Our locking scheme won't prevent a parallel make from losing if there are two `bar.o' files and the timing is just right This only happens with parallel make and no-`-c -o' compiler, so it probably isn't very important `-c -o' when doing libtool try to find a losing compiler and see if it really works. (actually: hack config.cache and do it) * We're using `$<' in explicit rules when using per-exe flags per-exe flags don't work for CPPFLAGS/YFLAGS/LFLAGS. Fix. LIBOBJS shouldn't be used when there are per-exe flags (?) * Need a way to pass flags to makeinfo esp --no-split * test `make clean' with subdir-objects * Test nodist_SOURCES with lex, yacc, etc. * Support subdir-objects with fortran * Allow creation of Java .zip/.jar files in natural way If you are building a compiled Java library, then the .zip/.jar ought to be made automatically. * Run automake before libtool. It will report an error but still won't put the file into the disty. This is wrong. From Mark H Wilkinson <mhw@kremvax.demon.co.uk> * CFLAGS only defined if C source seen but really it should be a configure variable, shouldn't it? There are other examples of this * in gnu/gnits mode, give error if Makefile.am overrides a user variable like CFLAGS. * If we see `foo.o' in LIBOBJS, and we've seen AC_OBJEXT, then complain. * using "include" inside a conditional doesn't currently work properly. * examine possibility of using any character in a macro name and rewriting names automatically. this means we must rewrite all references as well. * AM_CONFIG_HEADER might generate the wrong stamp file names when given multiple headers. Write a test. * Currently don't correctly handle multiple inputs to a config header. * header stamp files still in wrong dirs. stamp-h.in must be in dir with h.in file stamp-h must be in dir with output file * foo=bar if cond foo += joe endif ... this ought to work. The fix is probably complicated * `distcheck' and `dist' should depend on `all' * Add code to generate foo-config script like gnome, gtk * `DEFS += foo' won't work. That's because DEFS is defined in header-vars.am, which is read after the user's Makefile.am. This will be a problem for any macro defined internally [ fixing this will probably fix the nasty `exeext redefines foo_PROGRAMS' hack that is in there right now ] In some cases this is unfixable. In these cases we should give an error. This can be done by keeping track of whether a macro was assigned with `=' or `+=', and having define_variable give an error if the variable exists and was defined with +=. * document user namespace for macro/target names adopt some conventions and use uniformly [ this is a good thing for the rewrite ] * make distcheck uses directories like `=build'. Some (very rare) POSIX systems don't support `=' in filenames. If this ever becomes a problem, fix it * distclean must remove config.status can't this cause problems for maintainer-clean? shouldn't maintainer-clean print the message before running any part of the make? (just to slow things down long enough for the user to stop it) (maybe doesn't matter since people who even know about maintainer-clean already have a clue) * There are probably more bugs in variable_conditions_sub along the lines of the one that caused cond4.test to fail. * give user more control over -I flags in particular document a way to override the defaults * reintroduce AM_FUNC_FNMATCH which sets LIBOBJS Then have automake know about fnmatch.h. [ probably should wait for autoconf to get right functionality ] * Add a conditional for dependency tracking (what to name it is the biggest problem here) (because we want it to flag dist/no-dist -- not just deps) [ this might not really be correctly doable. instead we need a compile-time conditional for this yuck ] * Allow per-object cflags: bin_PROGRAMS = foo foo_CFLAGS = -DFOO * per-object compiler flags do not apply to libobjs -> give error in this case * At the same time, allow sources in subdirs: foo_SOURCES = x/y.c This requires `mkdir x' at build time [ both of these require per-file rules, and not pattern rules ] [ use user-written suffix rules to generate the per-file rules in an automatic way -- this would be mucho cool ] * Allow for multiple translations of a texinfo file: LL_info_TEXINFOS = ... will put info files for language LL into $(infodir)/LL. * If you suppress an internal variable by specifying a variable in a Makefile.am, but the variable is conditional, then automake should generate the internal variable conditionally. You have to scan the map of all conditions and fill in the holes here * Every program foo has FOOFLAGS right now. It should also have AM_FOOFLAGS, which can be set in Makefile.am. DONE: but needs to be documented * Should be able to update files that would be installed with -a (--force?) * "make diff" capability look at gcc's Makefile.in to see what to do or look at maint program * Karl wants to be able to set LIBS and LDFLAGS at build time, like CFLAGS maybe we need something more general? * add $(srcdir)/ before some dependencies? * define LINK if a program is mentioned, even if no C sources appear * BUILT_SOURCES should not be distributed, even when they appear in another _SOURCES line. [? or maybe just leave this up to the to-be-defined generic distribution method ] must completely revisit the entire BUILT_SOURCES idea * in --cygnus, clean-info not generated at top level * what if an element of a scanned variable looks like $(FOO).$(BAR) ? or some other arbitrary thing? right now we try to cope, but not very well * if `interlock' exists, that should be an error (?) should also warn about using new ylwrap and not old one only do this when looking for ylwrap ** make sure every variable that is used is also defined * make sure `missing' defines are generated * if no AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE, then don't handle `missing' stuff. Yuck! * missing should handle install -d and rmdir -p (for uninstall) * a couple ways to be smarter: - notice when a .c file is a target somewhere, and auto-add it to BUILT_SOURCES - notice a target of the form `.x.y:' and assume it is a suffix rule * NORMAL_INSTALL / NORMAL_UNINSTALL -vs- recursive rules [ requires changes to the standard ] * cross-compilation support: programs built and used by the build process need to be built for CC_FOR_BUILD introduce a new variable for this * if foo.y is a source, foo.h isn't auto-distributed? * copyrights on m4 files, aclocal output * is there a way to add a directory and then have "make" do all the updating? think. * put standards.texi into distribution * should not put texiname_TEXINFOS into distribution should rename this macro anyway, to foo_texi_DEPENDENCIES * *all* installed scripts should support --version, --help For now I guess I'll just have automake give an error if it encounters non-C source in a libtool library specification. * must split $obj into two parts: one for libtool and one for deansification. Otherwise .S files will be deansified! * ansi2knr must currently appear in a directory that has some source * if program has the same name as a target, do something sensible: - if the target is internal, rename it - if the target is mandated (eg, "info"), tell the user consider auto-modifying the program name to work around this * should separate actual options from strictness levels strictness should only cover requirements You should be able to pick and choose options should clean up texinfos.am; one rule is repeated 3 times, but shouldn't be should always use perl -w rewrite in guile (RMS request) at the same time, consider adding a GUI could use the same parsing code for the GUI and the standalone version that means figuring out a better representation of internal state [ that's easy -- anything is better than what we have now ] having just one Makefile for a project would give a big speed increase for a project with many directories, eg glibc. ideally (?) you'd still be able to have a Makefile.am in each directory somehow; this might make editing conceptually easier. * finish up TAGS work * `acinstall' * put parser.h into distribution if "yacc -d" is used * only remove libtool at top level? * clean up source directory by moving stuff into subdirs * consider adding pkglibexecdir, maybe others? requests for pkg-dirs with version included Avoid loops when installing; instead unroll them in automake * for new autoconf: * completely handle multi-":" mode for AC_CONFIG_HEADER * Scan multiple input files when Makefile is generated? This would provide flexibility for large projects; subsumes the "Makefile.tmpl" idea [ can't do this. must explain why in manual. basically, solving all the problems is too hard like: how to remove redundancies between generated .in files instead should implement `include' directive for Makefile.am ] * for multi-":" mode and AC_OUTPUT, it might be good to pick the first input file that has a corresponding .am file. Some long-term projects: * if $(FOO) is used somewhere, ensure FOO is defined, either by user or by automake if possible [ include, += support ] * even better would be allowing targets in different included fragments to be merged. e.g., `install-local'. consider putting all check-* targets onto @check? To support --help/--version checking? take diff-n-query code from libit 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. !! 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. wouldn't it be really cool if compile-mode in Emacs understood this convention, and you could click on such text to go to the appropriate info page? [ I think you can ] Jim's idea: should look for @setfilename and warn if filenames too long * guess split size ** 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. Configuring in the large: * allow hierarchy of dirs to share one aclocal.m4 How? 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