Re: Change to lib/Makefile.am

[Paul Hilfinger]

> I use the latest versions: Autoconf 2.57 and Automake 1.7.2.
>
> I don't know which Automake version is required.  As far as I know,
> Autoconf 2.54 and later should work, which is why bison/configure.ac
> says only "AC_PREREQ(2.54)".  

No.  2.57 (or at least something > 2.54) is required.

> If it works for you with Autoconf 2.57
> and doesn't work with Autoconf 2.54, we should update that AC_PREREQ
> line.

Well, perhaps, but may I make a small meta-rant here?  I am not an
autconf maintainer.  Personally, since autoconf and automake are just
tools that I use, and consider to sort of be part of the furniture, I
have really found it quite disruptive to have builds start failing
mysteriously due to the fact that other Bison maintainers are using
bleeding-edge versions of the auto* programs and using non-backwards-
compatible features of same.  For no other piece of GNU software do I
have this problem; I can use the shared autoconf installation and
other tools that are maintained by our computing staff.  But for the
sake of bison, I am forced to have my own personal installation of the
configuration support software.  It's like ... like ... like using
Windows.

Yes, one should migrate to newer versions of autoconf from time to
time, but for Bison's purposes (or for any purposes other than
maintaining autoconf itself), this really ought to happen rarely.  
[Rant ends.]

Paul Hilfinger