Re: Expand shell variable in AC_CONFIG_FILES

[Simon Richter]

Hi,

> I need to have automake (1.7.6) create a Makefile.in in a directory that
> changes often. Therefore I introduced an environment var WORDIR like so:
> CONFIG_FILES( [ path/${WORKDIR} ] ). Of course this fails as automake tries
> to create "path/${WORKDIR}/Makefile.in", not expanding the shell var (I
> call "WORKDIR=bla automake-1.7". configure DTRT).

Could you explain why the directory changes so often (i.e. what are you
trying to do?)? Having Makefiles' (or rather, any generated files from
AC_CONFIG_FILES) paths determined by a variable is not supported, since
automake needs to perform various checks and install files into the
source tree based on those files. The usual approach, if you have e.g.
multiple targets of which only one is built (depending on configure
invocation or test results) to have Makefiles built in all directories,
but let make only enter the ones with working setups (i.e. where all
necessary substitutions have taken place) during the build. The
rationale for this is that "make dist" still needs (partially) working
Makefiles in all directories to be able to create a binary distribution.

   Simon

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