[FYI] {master} NEWS: start preparing for the 1.13 release

[Stefano Lattarini]

* NEWS: Here.  In particular, list (some of) the planned future
backward-incompatibilities that will take place in Automake 1.14.

Signed-off-by: Stefano Lattarini <address@hidden>
---
 NEWS | 135 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------------------------------------
 1 file changed, 55 insertions(+), 80 deletions(-)

diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 982233f..c61ec15 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,23 +1,61 @@
 New in 1.13:
 
+* WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
+
+  - Automake 1.14 will likely require Autoconf 2.70 or later (which is
+    still unreleased at the moment of writing, but is planned to be
+    released before Automake 1.14 is).
+
+  - Automake 1.14 will likely drop support for the long-deprecated
+    'configure.in' name for the Autoconf input file.  You are advised
+    to use the recommended name 'configure.ac' instead.
+
+  - The long-obsolete (since automake 1.10) AM_PROG_MKDIR m4 macro will
+    be removed in Automake 1.14.  The $(mkdir_p) make variable and the
+    @mkdir_p@ substitution will still remain available (as aliases of
+    $(MKDIR_P)) for the moment, for better backward compatibility; but
+    you are advised to stop using ASAP.
+
+  - The ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS special make variable will be fully deprecated
+    in Automake 1.14 (where it will raise warnings in the "obsolete"
+    category).  You are advised to start relying on the new Automake
+    support for AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS instead (which is introduced with
+    this release; see below for more information).
+
+  - Support for IRIX and the SGI C/C++ compilers will be removed in
+    Automake 1.14: they have seen their last release in 2006, and SGI
+    is expected to retire support from them in December 2013; see
+    <http://www.sgi.com/services/support/irix_mips_support.html> for
+    more information.
+
+  - Support for the long-deprecated INCLUDES variable will be removed
+    altogether in Automake 1.14.  The AM_CPPFLAGS variable should be
+    used instead.
+
+  - Automake-provided scripts and makefile recipes might (finally!)
+    start assuming a POSIX shell in Automake 1.14.
+
+  - Starting from Automake 1.14, third-party m4 files located in the
+    system-wide aclocal directory, as well as in any directory listed
+    in the ACLOCAL_PATH environment variable, will take precedence
+    over "built-in" Automake macros.  For example (assuming Automake
+    is installed in the /usr/local hierarchy), a definition of the
+    AM_PROG_VALAC macro found in '/usr/local/share/aclocal/my-vala.m4'
+    should take precedence over the same-named automake-provided macro
+    (defined in '/usr/local/share/aclocal-1.14/vala.m4').
+
 * Version requirements:
 
-  - Autoconf 2.65 or greater is required.
+  - Autoconf 2.65 or greater is now required.
 
   - The rules to build PDF and DVI output from Texinfo input now
-    requires Texinfo 4.9 or later.
+    require Texinfo 4.9 or later.
+
+* Obsolete features:
 
   - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (once enabled by the 'cygnus'
     option) has been removed.  See discussion about automake bug#11034
-    for more background.
-
-  - The automake-provided '@mkdir_p@' configure substitution and
-    AM_PROG_MKDIR m4 macro have been removed.  They had been obsolete
-    since automake 1.10, and actively deprecated since Automake 1.12.1.
-    However, to maintain a degree of backward-compatibility, the make
-    variable '$(mkdir_p)' is still defined (now simple as an alias to
-    '$(MKDIR_P)').  It will probably be removed in future major versions
-    of Automake (probably 1.14).
+    for more background: <debbugs.gnu.org/11034>.
 
   - The deprecated aclocal option '--acdir' has been removed.  You
     should use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir'
@@ -39,8 +77,6 @@ New in 1.13:
 
   - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' have been removed.
 
-* Obsolescent features:
-
   - Use of the long-deprecated two- and three-arguments invocation forms
     of the AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE is no longer documented.  It's still supported
     though (albeit with a warning in the 'obsolete' category), to cater
@@ -100,6 +136,9 @@ New in 1.13:
 
 * Texinfo Support:
 
+  - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now require
+    Texinfo 4.9 or later.
+
   - The rules to build PDF and DVI files from Texinfo input now use the
     '--build-dir' option, to keep the auxiliary files used by texi2dvi
     and texi2pdf around without cluttering the build directory, and to
@@ -139,10 +178,9 @@ New in 1.13:
 * Improvements to aclocal and related rebuilds rules:
 
   - Autoconf-provided macros AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR and AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS
-    (the latter of which will only be present since Autoconf 2.70) are
-    now traced by aclocal, and can be used to declare the local m4 include
-    directories.  Formerly, one had to specify it with an explicit '-I'
-    option to the 'aclocal' invocation.
+    are now traced by aclocal, and can be used to declare the local m4
+    include directories.  Formerly, one had to specify it with an explicit
+    '-I' option to the 'aclocal' invocation.
 
   - The special make variable ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS is deprecated; future
     Automake versions will warn about its use, and later version will
@@ -165,69 +203,6 @@ New in 1.13:
 
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-New in 1.12.6:
-
-* WARNING: Future backward-incompatibilities!
-
-  - Future versions of Automake will likely drop support for the
-    long-deprecated 'configure.in' name for the Autoconf input file.
-    You are advised to use the recommended name 'configure.ac' instead.
-
-  - Support for the "Cygnus-style" trees (as enabled by the 'cygnus'
-    option) will be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13).
-
-  - The long-obsolete (since automake 1.10) AM_PROG_MKDIR m4 macro will
-    be removed in Automake 1.14.  The $(mkdir_p) make variable and the
-    @mkdir_p@ substitution will still remain available (as aliases of
-    $(MKDIR_P)) for the moment, for better backward compatibility.
-
-  - Autoconf 2.65 or later will be required by the next major Automake
-    version (1.13).  Until now, Automake has required Autoconf version
-    2.62 or later.
-
-  - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the rules
-    to build pdf, ps and dvi output from Texinfo input will use the
-    '--build-dir' option by default.  Since such an option was only
-    introduced in Texinfo 4.9, this means that Makefiles generated by
-    future Automake versions will require at least that version of
-    Texinfo.
-
-  - Starting from the next major Automake version (1.13), the parallel
-    testsuite harness (previously only enabled by the 'parallel-tests'
-    option) will become the default one; the older serial testsuite
-    harness will still be available through the use of the 'serial-tests'
-    option.
-
-  - The following long-obsolete m4 macros will be removed in the
-    next major Automake version (1.13):
-
-      AM_PROG_CC_STDC:    superseded by AC_PROG_CC since October 2002
-      fp_PROG_CC_STDC:    broken alias for AM_PROG_CC_STDC
-      fp_WITH_DMALLOC:    old alias for AM_WITH_DMALLOC
-      AM_CONFIG_HEADER:   superseded by AC_CONFIG_HEADERS since July 2002
-      ud_PATH_LISPDIR:    old alias for AM_PATH_LISPDIR
-      jm_MAINTAINER_MODE: old alias for AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
-      ud_GNU_GETTEXT:     old alias for AM_GNU_GETTEXT
-      gm_PROG_LIBTOOL:    old alias for AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
-      fp_C_PROTOTYPES:    old alias for AM_C_PROTOTYPES (which was part
-                          of the now-removed automatic de-ANSI-fication
-                          support of Automake)
-
-  - All the "old alias" macros in 'm4/obsolete.m4' will be removed in
-    the next major Automake version (1.13).
-
-  - The '--acdir' option of aclocal is deprecated, and will probably
-    be removed in the next major Automake release (1.13).  You should
-    use the options '--automake-acdir' and '--system-acdir' instead
-    (which have been introduced in Automake 1.11.2).
-
-  - The 'missing' script will no longer try to update the timestamp
-    of out-of-date files that require a maintainer-specific tool to be
-    remade, in case the user lacks such a tool (or has a too-old version
-    of it).  In fact, starting from Automake 1.13, all it'll do will be
-    giving more useful warnings than a bare "command not found" from a
-    make recipe would.
-
 Bugs fixed in 1.12.6:
 
 * Python-related bugs:
-- 
1.8.0.1.347.gf94c325