Re: Texinfo file generation

[Stepan Kasal]

Hello,

On Fri, Dec 30, 2005 at 04:57:42PM -0500, Bob Rossi wrote:
>   automake (GNU automake) 1.9.6
>[...] which I think is the latest version.
yes, it is.

>   $(srcdir)/cgdb.info: cgdb.texinfo $(srcdir)/version.texi $(cgdb_TEXINFOS)
>   cgdb.dvi: cgdb.texinfo $(srcdir)/version.texi $(cgdb_TEXINFOS)
>   cgdb.pdf: cgdb.texinfo $(srcdir)/version.texi $(cgdb_TEXINFOS)
>   cgdb.html: cgdb.texinfo $(srcdir)/version.texi $(cgdb_TEXINFOS)
>   $(srcdir)/version.texi: @MAINTAINER_MODE_TRUE@ $(srcdir)/stamp-vti

> [...] to build the info file into the source tree, [...]
> Why would I want some of my documentation to go into different places?

The file cgdb.info is distributed (ie. added to the distribution tarball),
for the benefit of people which don't have Texinfo installed.

> Also, I'm kind of assuming that some people have read-only source trees.
> This would most likely break the build on there system.

The source tree contains an *.info file, which is up-to-date, so there
is no need to rebuild.

> I'd prefer to have all the documentation get built into the build tree.
> Does anyone know how to accomplish this with the newer automake?

add this to Makefile.am:
DISTCLEANFILES = cgdb.info

> Why was the policy changed?

Actually, the policy wasn't changed, it was only an implementation issue
in Automake. The function handle_texinfo_helper in /usr/bin/automake
contains a long discussion of this, but it might be hard to understand
it.
But *.info files were always distributed.

> or why should I prefer the way it works now?

Because of users which do not have Texinfo installed and want to use
(or install manually) the precompiled *.info files.  But such users are
rare nowadays, so just use the DISTCLEANFILES trick described above.

Have a nice day,
        Stepan Kasal