automake-1.16: Upgrading
25 Upgrading a Package to a Newer Automake Version
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Automake maintains three kinds of files in a package.
• ‘aclocal.m4’
• ‘Makefile.in’s
• auxiliary tools like ‘install-sh’ or ‘py-compile’
‘aclocal.m4’ is generated by ‘aclocal’ and contains some
Automake-supplied M4 macros. Auxiliary tools are installed by ‘automake
--add-missing’ when needed. ‘Makefile.in’s are built from ‘Makefile.am’
by ‘automake’, and rely on the definitions of the M4 macros put in
‘aclocal.m4’ as well as the behavior of the auxiliary tools installed.
Because all of these files are closely related, it is important to
regenerate all of them when upgrading to a newer Automake release. The
usual way to do that is
aclocal # with any option needed (such as -I m4)
autoconf
automake --add-missing --force-missing
or more conveniently:
autoreconf -vfi
The use of ‘--force-missing’ ensures that auxiliary tools will be
overridden by new versions (⇒automake Invocation).
It is important to regenerate all of these files each time Automake
is upgraded, even between bug fix releases. For instance, it is not
unusual for a bug fix to involve changes to both the rules generated in
‘Makefile.in’ and the supporting M4 macros copied to ‘aclocal.m4’.
Presently ‘automake’ is able to diagnose situations where
‘aclocal.m4’ has been generated with another version of ‘aclocal’.
However it never checks whether auxiliary scripts are up-to-date. In
other words, ‘automake’ will tell you when ‘aclocal’ needs to be rerun,
but it will never diagnose a missing ‘--force-missing’.
Before upgrading to a new major release, it is a good idea to read
the file ‘NEWS’. This file lists all changes between releases: new
features, obsolete constructs, known incompatibilities, and workarounds.
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