On Tuesday 20 September 2011, Paolo Bonzini wrote: > On 09/20/2011 12:51 PM, Stefano Lattarini wrote: > > > Yes (and that's on purpose: ACLOCAL_PATH is typically used by a user > > > which has newer versions of libraries installed, so they need their > > > directories to override everything). > > > > Yes, this might be desirable. But then, for consistency sake, shouldn't > > we allow the .m4 files in the default system acdir and in the directories > > added through a `dirlist' file to override the automake macros as well? > > Yeah, I think the problem is that in the normal search path (from > `aclocal -I /foo -I /bar'): > > 1. `/foo' > > 2. `/bar' > > 3. ACDIR-APIVERSION > > 4. ACDIR > > The directories from dirlist and ACLOCAL_PATH should go after (3), > rather than after (4). > But this is what they currently do (see test `aclocal-path-precedence.test').
> Perhaps even after (2). > My opinion is that in this case the precedence resulting from this setup: $ echo /lst > ACDIR/dirlist $ ACLOCAL_PATH=/pth aclocal -I /inc should become like this: 1. /inc (-I) 2. /pth ($ACLOCAL_PATH) 3. /lst (dirlist) 4. ACDIR 5. ACDIR-APIVERSION > > I'm not sure about this, it has its pros and cons... Anyway, if we decide > > to go down this road, we should wait for 1.12, as the introduction of such > > a backward-incompatibility, albeit limited, is inappropriate for a minor > > release such as 1.11.2. > > You could certainly push your patch now and modify the behavior of both > dirlist and ACLOCAL_PATH in 1.12. > I agree. > I doubt there are many dirlist users anyway, > Not sure about this... > so the probability of regressions should be quite low. > But I'm pretty sure about this OTOH, since to experience a regresssion the users should have redefined some automake macros in the .m4 files in ACDIR (or in a dirlist-derived directory), *without expecting these redefinitions to take precedence* over the ones in ACDIR-APIVERSION -- and this is very very unlikely IMHO. So I'll push the patch soonish (this evening or tomorrow); the backward incompatible change in the order of the search path can be then implemented in master later. Regards, Stefano
