Re: How to install only derived file, not its .in?

[Brad Larsen]

On Fri, 09 Nov 2007 11:50:56 -0500, Ralf Wildenhues  
<address@hidden> wrote:

Hi Ralf,

> Hello Brad,
>
> * Brad Larsen wrote on Fri, Nov 09, 2007 at 05:44:37PM CET:
> > In the distribution, I want to include only the .in files and not the
> > derived files.  When installing, I want to install only the derived  
> > files
> > and not the .in files.  So far my Makefile.am looks like this:
> >
> > [snip]
> > # runme doesn't get included in the distribution.
> > runtemplate_DATA = runme
> > DISTCLEANFILES = runme
>
> You don't need the DISTCLEANFILES line.
>
> > # all the .in files are included in the distribution.  But they are also
> > installed (because of _DATA, I presume).
> > dist_runtemplate_DATA = \
> >         [snip]
> >         runme.in \
>
> Just remove runme.in from this list.  It will be distributed because you
> said
>   AC_CONFIG_FILES([runme])
>
> in configure.ac.  The manual explains both the distribution and the
> cleaning aspect in this chapter:
> <http://sources.redhat.com/automake/automake.html#Requirements>
>
> Cheers,
> Ralf

I guess I wasn't clear enough.  In section 4.7.2 of the autoconf manual,  
it says:

--------------------
Most of these variables have values that rely on prefix or exec_prefix. It  
is deliberate that the directory output variables keep them unexpanded:  
typically address@hidden@' will be replaced by `${prefix}/share', not  
`/usr/local/share'.

This behavior is mandated by the GNU coding standards, so that when the  
user runs:

`make'
she can still specify a different prefix from the one specified to  
configure, in which case, if needed, the package shall hard code  
dependencies corresponding to the make-specified prefix.

`make install'
she can specify a different installation location, in which case the  
package must still depend on the location which was compiled in (i.e.,  
never recompile when `make install' is run). This is an extremely  
important feature, as many people may decide to install all the files of a  
package grouped together, and then install links from the final locations  
to there.

In order to support these features, it is essential that datadir remains  
being defined as `${prefix}/share' to depend upon the current value of  
prefix.

A corollary is that you should not use these variables except in Makefiles.
[snip]

Similarly you should not rely on AC_OUTPUT_FILES to replace datadir and  
friends in your shell scripts and other files, rather let make manage  
their replacement. For instance Autoconf ships templates of its shell  
scripts ending with `.in' [...]
--------------------

That's why I'm having the makefile (which autoconf generates) do the  
substitution rather than calling AC_OUTPUT_FILES([runme]) or  
AC_CONFIG_FILES([runme]).  (I tried the latter strategies without  
success---the substitutions would end up with '${prefix}' or  
'${exec_prefix}' in them, which would probably be undefined when runme is  
actually executed.  And since I am using a makefile to generate the  
derived script 'runme', 'make distclean' doesn't remove it unless I add it  
to DISTCLEANFILES---otherwise 'make distcheck' fails.


Cheers,
Brad Larsen