Re: Fwd: [Bug 347095] installing m4 macros that break random packages

[Bruce Korb]

Hi Eric,

Thank you.  automake list folks -- the main question is
"Why are .m4 files being installed and how can I prevent it?"
>> -------- Original Message --------
>> > Subject: [Bug 347095] sys-devel/autogen installs colliding \
>> >  m4 macros which break random packages
>> >
>> > Clear-Text: http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=347095
>> > Secure: https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=347095
> In this comment:
>> > http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=347095#c29

On 12/07/10 09:49, Eric Blake wrote:
> Which macro are you using?  Can you show the .m4 file that you are
> installing as part of your public interface to autogen that is depending
> on extensions.m4 under the hood?

The m4 cruft I am using for configuring autogen uses extensions.m4.
I do not deliberately install those macros.  In fact:

>> So, the questions:
>>
>> 1. Should these m4 files be installed?

I did not believe that autogen configury macros should be installed
in the first place.

> Probably not - since extensions.m4 is not providing a public m4 macro
> directly related to autogen, you are probably better off rewriting your
> public macro to work without having to rely on extensions.m4.

I do not really have public macros.  (Should I have?
To what end?  Mostly, any client project that builds using
autogen probably should not be.  They probably ought to
do the autogen-ing in a bootstrap phase.  But if not, then
just see if ``autogen --help'' works and they ought not
need an m4 macro for a test that simple.)

The public macro I _do_ intentionally install, I install to
/usr/share/autogen and is for the purpose of testing the
existence and version of libopts, and for allowing the
location to be specified with a configure program option.
It is "autoopts.m4" and Gentoo folks are not complaining of it.

>> 3. If not, where's the magic for suppressing the installation?
> 
> I'm not sure where the magic for installing it was located in the first
> place; can you track down why extensions.m4 was being installed?  (and
> that may be more of an automake question)

I spent some time looking at all my Makefile.am's and I am sure
I don't know where the magic is, either.  As far as I understand,
of these files:
> $ (cd ~/tmp/_I ; find * -type f|fgrep m4)
> usr/local/share/autogen/autoopts.m4
> usr/local/share/aclocal/extensions.m4
> usr/local/share/aclocal/ag_macros.m4
> usr/local/share/aclocal/liboptschk.m4
> usr/local/share/aclocal/autoopts.m4
> usr/local/share/aclocal/snprintfv.m4
> usr/local/share/aclocal/unlocked-io.m4
> usr/local/share/aclocal/libopts.m4

I only mean to install the very first file.  The rest are private
and publicly installed via implicit means that I do not understand.

Here are the macros I use that pull other stuff:

> AC_INIT([GNU AutoGen],[5.11.4pre6],address@hidden)
> AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR(agen5/autogen.c)
> AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR(config)
> AC_CANONICAL_TARGET
> AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([gnu check-news 1.5 dist-bzip2])
> AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS
> AC_LIBTOOL_WIN32_DLL    m4_define(AC_PROVIDE_AC_LIBTOOL_WIN32_DLL)
> AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
> AM_WITH_DMALLOC
> AM_PROG_CC_C_O
> AC_PROG_CC_STDC
> gl_FUNC_GLIBC_UNLOCKED_IO
> AC_EXEEXT
> AC_PROG_INSTALL
> AC_PROG_LIBTOOL
> AC_CHECK_PROG(TEXI2HTML, texi2html, texi2html, :)
> AC_C_CONST
> AC_C_INLINE
> AC_CHECK_LIB(dl, dlopen)
> AC_TYPE_MODE_T
> AC_TYPE_PID_T
> AC_TYPE_SIZE_T
> AC_TYPE_UID_T
> AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE
> AC_CHECK_TYPES([u_int, long long, uintmax_t, size_t, wchar_t])
> AC_CHECK_SIZEOF(char*, 4)
> AC_CHECK_SIZEOF(int,   4)
> AC_CHECK_SIZEOF(long,  4)
> AC_CHECK_SIZEOF(short, 2)
> AC_CHECK_FUNCS(strchr strlcpy snprintf dlopen)
> AC_SEARCH_LIBS(copysign, [m],
>                [AC_DEFINE(HAVE_COPYSIGN, 1,
>                           [Define to 1 if you have the `copysign' 
> function.])])
> AC_SEARCH_LIBS(copysignl, [m],
>                [AC_DEFINE(HAVE_COPYSIGNL, 1,
>                           [Define to 1 if you have the `copysignl' 
> function.])])
> AC_SEARCH_LIBS(modfl, [m],
>                [AC_DEFINE(HAVE_MODFL, 1,
>                           [Define to 1 if you have the `modfl' function.])])
> AM_CONDITIONAL([NEED_PATHFIND], [test X$ac_cv_func_pathfind = Xyes])

The interesting "pullers of other stuff" are likely "AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS"
and "gl_FUNC_GLIBC_UNLOCKED_IO".

Nowhere that I have found have I set any magic make macro with 'DATA'
in its name to any of the .m4 files.

So I do not know how they get installed.  I don't want 'em installed.