Re: [PATCH] build: fix automake error due to missing ChangeLog

[Stefano Lattarini]

On 01/20/2012 06:14 PM, Eric Blake wrote:
> On 01/20/2012 10:05 AM, Stefano Lattarini wrote:
>> Apparently, Automake does not accept the '$(srcdir)/ChangeLog'
>> target in Makefile.am as a declaration that ChangeLog is
>> automatically generated (and thus does not need to exist at
>> automake time).  One has to use a *literal* 'ChangeLog' target.
>>
>> Problem introduced in commit v2.68-118-g6ed5195 of 2012-01-17,
>> "maint: generate ChangeLog from git log".
>>
>> * Makefile.ma ($(srcdir)/ChangeLog): Renamed ...
>> (ChangeLog): ... to this.
>> ---
>>
>> I will push this shortly if there is no objection (as I think that
>> having a suboptimal patch is better than having broken bootstrap
>> on master).
> 
> ACK, since it improves the build situation.  But what does this mean for
> VPATH development?
> 
Well, let's see:

  - In a git checkout, "make ChangeLog" creates a stub dummy ChangeLog
    anyway *even for in-tree builds*; it will do the same for VPATH
    builds.  This is not a problem anyway, since the real ChangeLog gets
    rebuilt unconditionally by a dist-hook when the distribution tarball
    is created.

  - In a distribution tarball, "make ChangeLog" should be a no-op, since
    a ChangeLog file already comes with the distribution.  However, with
    FreeBSD (but *not* NetBSD) make, due to a well-known bug, in a VPATH
    build "make ChangeLog" will uselessly rebuild the stub ChangeLog in
    the builddir (without overriding the one in the srcdir).  Which means
    that FreeBSD cannot bue used to make a new tarball from an extracted
    tarball using a VPATH setup -- hardly a significant loss IMO.

Anyway, patch pushed now.

Thanks,
  Stefano