Automake: Remove configure script checks with make dist - automake

I'm wondering if there is a way to remove dependency checks from a configure script when make dist is run. The purpose is that the version of the package in the repository uses emacs to execute lisp files and generate .c files, whereas those generated source files are included in the tarball when make dist is run. Automake supports including built files in the output tarball simply by setting EXTRA_DIST in the Makefile. I would like to be able to check for emacs only when someone tries to compile from the repository, but not when someone compiles from the tarball.
More concretely, in configure.ac I have:
AM_PATH_LISPDIR
AS_IF([test "$EMACS" = no], [AC_MSG_ERROR([cannot find emacs])])
but I would like that check not to occur after make dist is run. Any way to do this? If not, how is this case normally handled?

The best method I've come up with is to check for the presence of the Bootstrap file. Bootstrap is removed from the tarball after make dist is run.
AC_CHECK_FILE([Bootstrap])
if test "$ac_cv_file_Bootstrap" == yes ; then
<check for emacs>
fi

I'd normally set a conditional if I find the tool in configure.ac:
AM_PATH_LISPDIR
AM_CONDITIONAL([HAVE_EMACS_IN_REPOSITORY], [test "x$EMACS" != xno -a -d ".git"])
AS_IF([test "$EMACS" = no -a -d ".git"], [AC_MSG_ERROR([cannot find emacs])])
Then in Makefile.am
if HAVE_EMACS_IN_REPOSITORY
Execute lisp files...
Generate .c files...
endif
Usually configure ends up in the same location as .git. If not, the path can be adjusted.

Related

cmake 'add_custom_command' to pre-process header files?

i'm working on a project requiring cmake. i'd like to add some custom rules to my makefile, but can't quite get my head around how to do it.
both c source files and header files are in the same directory. also in this same directory are a number of .def files, which are the sources for some of the header files #included in the source during compilation.
if i were to do this in a makefile, i'd use a simple rule like
.SUFFIXES: .def
.def.h:
$(PREPROC) $< > $#
how can i do this with cmake ??
i've tried various permutations of the following, both with and without cmake working directory specifications :
add_custom_command(
OUTPUT vvr_const.h
PRE_BUILD
COMMAND preproc vvr_const.def > vvr_const.h
DEPENDS vvr_const.def
)
add_custom_target(vvr_const.h DEPENDS vvr_const.def)
but the header file isn't generated by the time the c source file is compiled, so the compile fails. i've also tried a variation where i replace the last line above with
set_property(SOURCE main.c APPEND PROPERTY OBJECT_DEPENDS vvr_const.h)
in this case, the header file is correctly generated in advance, but make can't find it, and complains that there's no rule to make the target .h.
ideally this would be a general rule, like the make rule above, but i'm not opposed to making a separate rule for each of the .def files if that's what it takes.
cheers.
There are 2 problems with the add_custom_command approach you present:
You did not specify a working directory; by default the command is run in the build directory, not in the source directory.
You rely on shell functionality here (the redirect to a file). Even though this probably still works. You should go with an approach that does not rely on the shell.
To solve issues 1 and 2 I recommend creating a seperate cmake script file receiving the absolute paths to input and output files and using those in the custom command. This allows you to use execute_process to specify the file to write without relying on the platform.
preprocess_def.cmake
# preprocess def file
# parameters INPUT_FILE and OUTPUT_FILE denote the file to use as source
# and the file to write the results to respectively
# use preproc tool to get data to write to the output file
execute_process(COMMAND preproc "${INPUT_FILE}"
RESULT_VARIABLE _EXIT_CODE
OUTPUT_FILE "${OUTPUT_FILE}")
if (_EXIT_CODE)
message(FATAL_ERROR "An error occured when preprocessing the file ${INPUT_FILE}")
endif()
CMakeLists.txt
set(_INPUT_FILE "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/vvr_const.def")
set(_OUTPUT_FILE "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/vvr_const.h")
# not necessary to use build event here, if we mark the output file as generated
add_custom_command(OUTPUT "${_OUTPUT_FILE}"
COMMAND "${CMAKE_BUILD_TOOL}" -D "OUPUT_FILE=${_OUTPUT_FILE}" -D "INPUT_FILE=${_INPUT_FILE}" -P "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/preprocess_def.cmake"
DEPENDS "${_INPUT_FILE}")
add_executable(my_target vvr_const.h ...)
set_source_files_properties(vvr_const.h PROPERTIES GENERATED 1)
Documentation from cmake:
PRE_BUILD
On Visual Studio Generators, run before any other rules are executed within the target. On other generators, run just before PRE_LINK commands.
So possibly your command is just running too late.

automake - target folder in source blocks executing destination

I am trying to understand a makefile from a project I am working on. It's using automake/autotools and contains this simple rule:
DEPS_SRC = $(shell cd $(srcdir); find . -name '*.ez')
DEPS = $(basename $(DEPS_SRC))
all : $(DEPS)
$(DEPS) : % : %.ez
$(UNZIP) -o $<
Say the directory structure is:
my-app/deps/
build/
When executing make my-app in the build folder the rule will basically unpack *.ez files located in the my-app/deps/ folder into build/my-app/deps/ folder.
I don't know if that's enough information to solve the problem that I am going to explain as I don't know enough about automake/autotools. Please ask if any additional information is needed.
The problem is that I noticed that having the unpacked directory in the source folder prevents make from unpacking the archive in the target folder. For example, given the following structure in the source folder:
my-app/deps/archive1.ez
my-app/deps/archive2.ez
my-app/deps/archive2/
make will only unpack archive1.ez in the build folder:
build/my-app/deps/archive1/
I would like to know if this is a bug in my makefile or a feature of automake. If the later, is there any workaround or setting or variable available to disable it?
This is primarily a GNU make question, not particularly specific to the Autotools. However, since the target system's make is of GNU's flavor (else none of this works), we can assume that the Makefile generated by configure uses GNU make's VPATH feature as part of its support for out-of-source (a.k.a. VPATH) builds such as the one you are performing.
The value of the VPATH variable that configure will have inserted into the Makefile is used as a search path for prerequisites that are not found relative to the build directory. The key point, however, is that it is also used as a search path for rule targets. That makes a certain amount of sense, especially for targets that are prerequisites of other rules.
In your case, however, that leads directly to the behavior you describe:
the default target depends on ./my-app/deps/archive2
resolving that name against the build directory does not produce a valid file name
before attempting to build that target, make looks in the directories listed in the VPATH, which, in your example case, will contain .. or an equivalent
make finds .././my-app/deps/archive2 in this VPATH search, and therefore determines that the specified target already exists, and does not need to be built
Thus, the behavior you observe is normal for GNU make, supposing the Makefile is constructed by Autoconf from an Automake-generated template.
is there any workaround or setting or variable available to disable it?
Do you really need one? If the archive file has already been unpacked in the source tree, then you can expect make to find its contents, too, via the VPATH. At least if the Makefile is well-prepared overall for for out-of-source builds.
But if you want to be certain to get the archive files unpacked in the build directory then you can specify that explicitly. This ought to do it:
DEPS_SRC = $(shell cd $(srcdir); find . -name '*.ez')
DEPS = $(basename $(DEPS_SRC))
LOCAL_DEPS = $(addprefix $(abs_builddir)/,$(DEPS))
all : $(LOCAL_DEPS)
$(LOCAL_DEPS) : $(abs_builddir)/% : %.ez
$(UNZIP) -o $<
That prefixes the name of each dependency with the absolute path to the build directory, and updates the rule for unzipping the archives to accommodate it. Targets with absolute paths such as that cannot be located in the VPATH.

Using automake with files that may not be present in the source tree

I am transitioning to git-annex for storing data files in my git repo. With git-annex you can clone a repository and exclude the files in the annex until you specifically request them. So, Im trying to create a system in which users can build the src tree without the git-annexed data files being present during the make stage. Currently, we assume the files are present on the users filesystem, so the following snippet of the Makefile.am is sufficient:
foo_DATA=datafile1 datafile2 datafile3
EXTRA_DIST=$(foo_DATA)
However, when using the _DATA primary, an error is generated when the user attempts to make and any of the files in the list are not present. So my question is, is there a way to define the data files so that no error is generated when the data file is not present during make, but behaves exactly as the above code if the files are present during the make install step?
I have tried avoiding the _DATA primary altogether, doing something simple like the follow:
data_files=datafile1 datafile2 datafile3
install:
test -z $(foodir) || mkdir -p $(foodir)
install -c -m 644 $(data_files) $(foodir)
But that is rather hackey. Im hardcoding the "install" binary and the permission flags instead of getting them from the configure script. Ide rather just have automake not fail during the make step if the files were not present, but behave as expected in all other circumstances.
TLDR: Can I define a set of files using the _DATA primary that will not error out during make if the file is not present? But also installs exactly as the _DATA primary would if it were present?
Your current approach seems reasonable. I'd write it as an install-data-local hook, though:
data_files=datafile1 datafile2 datafile3
install-data-local:
test -z $(foodir) || $(MKDIR_P) $(foodir)
$(INSTALL_DATA) $(data_files) $(foodir)
MKDIR_P and INSTALL_DATA should be set up for you by automake.
If you'd rather not do this, the following may work in combination with your first Makefile.am snippet. I've not used git-annex before, so this may be wrong:
$(foo_DATA) :
if test ! -e $#; then git annex get $#; fi

(Auto)make dependency across multiple makefiles

I am wondering if this is possible at all. Here is the situation:
My project uses automake to build its targets. The top-directory contains the usual configure.ac and Makefile.am. Amongst others, the Makefile.am contains a SUBDIRS variable listing the subdirectories, important for my question is the doc and include directory. The include directory's makefile looks like:
nobase_include_HEADERS = <lot-of-headers>
so it basically installs the headers. The makefile in doc is supposed to generate html documentation out of those files:
doxygen-stamp: Doxyfile
$(DOXYGEN) $<
echo "timestamp for Doxyfile" > $#
all-local: doxygen-stamp
Everything works fine so far, but if I change any of the headers in include the documentation is still up-to-date - because I did not list them as dependencies. What I would like to have is to have a doxygen-stamp-target that is rebuilt once the headers change without again listing all headers as dependencies. Is that possible and if it is, how?
In this case, using a single Makefile would be hinted at — though you can split it up by using the automake include instruction (also see section 7.3 "An alternative approach to subdirectories" of the am manual). Therefore:
#can't use nobase_
include_HEADERS = include/foo.h include/bar.h
doc/doxygen-stamp: ${include_HEADERS}
I think if you make doxygen-stamp also depend on '$(top_srcdir)/include/*.h' (or .hpp or whatever) it will rebuild when doxygen-stamp is out of date relative to any .h file in the include directory.
doxygen-stamp: Doxyfile $(top_srcdir)/include/*.h

How do you run a command prior to including a component Makefile?

I am trying to create a subdirectory in my project (let's call it $PROJECT/child) that needs to pull in a Makefile (let's call it ../Makefile.inc) from its parent, $PROJECT/Makefile.inc. Later I want to copy $PROJECT/child somewhere else so it can run independently of $PROJECT.
There is a common Makefile that needs to be included in both projects and shipped when the subdirectory is copied, and I want it to be included in both cases. So I thought I would link it in during the child build, if it isn't found. (I don't want to just include ../Makefile.inc, because this will disappear when I copy the project, and I don't want the calling build system to be responsible for putting the Makefile.inc in place.)
With those constraints, here's a horrible hack that I've come up with to do this, within $PROJECT/child/Makefile:
HACK = $(shell test -f Makefile.inc || ln -f ../Makefile.inc .)
include $(HACK)Makefile.inc
Notice the extra special duct tape on that second command. I have to actually include $(HACK) even though it's going to end up empty, so that the $(shell ...) will be evaluated. ;-)
Is there a cleaner way to make this happen?
Give a rule to build Makefile.inc. (make will complain that Makefile.inc doesn't exist when it parses the include line, but it will go on parsing the main makefile, apply any rule to build included files, and go back and re-parse the main makefile with the included files.)
include Makefile.inc
Makefile.inc:
ln ../Makefile.inc $#

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