We had started to do so only when the obsolete AM_PROG_MKDIR_P variable was used, but that has recently turned out not to be not good enough, because Gettext 0.18.2 (the latest one at the moment of writing) is using the modern macro AC_PROG_MKDIR_P in its '*.m4' files, but at the same time is still using the obsolete make variable '$(mkdir_p)' in its Makefile fragments. This has been causing failures in real-world packages bootstrapped with latest Gettext (0.18.2) and with bleeding-edge automake.
See for example: <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-tar/2013-04/msg00009.html> And the worst things is that those failures have been basically silent and unnoticeable up until the final "make install" --- that is, after the affected package had been bootstrapped, configured and built. Yikes! This issue has been reported to the Gettext developers: <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gettext/2013-04/msg00044.html> But even if they will quickly fix it, Gettext 0.18.2 will remain affected. The fix we can implement in Automake is small and unobtrusive enough, definitely worth having in order to save the users and developers from having to deal with this hard-to-stop issue. * m4/init.m4 (AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE): AC_SUBST '@mkdir_p@' to '$(MKDIR_P)'. * t/am-prog-mkdir-p.sh: Enhance. Signed-off-by: Stefano Lattarini <stefano.lattar...@gmail.com> --- m4/init.m4 | 2 ++ t/am-prog-mkdir-p.sh | 20 ++++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 22 insertions(+) diff --git a/m4/init.m4 b/m4/init.m4 index f9b0965..9c7ab2f 100644 --- a/m4/init.m4 +++ b/m4/init.m4 @@ -22,6 +22,8 @@ # release and drop the old call support. AC_DEFUN([AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE], [AC_PREREQ([2.65])dnl +dnl Without this, packages using Gettext 0.18.2 might break horribly. +AC_SUBST([mkdir_p], ['$(MKDIR_P)'])dnl dnl Autoconf wants to disallow AM_ names. We explicitly allow dnl the ones we care about. m4_pattern_allow([^AM_[A-Z]+FLAGS$])dnl diff --git a/t/am-prog-mkdir-p.sh b/t/am-prog-mkdir-p.sh index ad5a810..b561bfe 100755 --- a/t/am-prog-mkdir-p.sh +++ b/t/am-prog-mkdir-p.sh @@ -67,4 +67,24 @@ $AUTOMAKE $MAKE check-local $MAKE distcheck +# Now try using AC_PROG_MKDIR_P, but keeping the occurrences of +# $(mkdir_p) and @mkdir_p@. This is to check against a regression +# that hit us with Gettext 0.18.2. +$MAKE maintainer-clean +rm -rf autom4te*.cache + +sed 's/AM_PROG_MKDIR/AC_PROG_MKDIR/' configure.ac > t +diff configure.ac t && fatal_ "failed to edit configure.ac" +mv -f t configure.ac + +$ACLOCAL 2>stderr \ + && $AUTOCONF -Wall -Werror 2>>stderr \ + && test ! -s stderr \ + || { cat stderr >&2; exit 1; } + +$AUTOMAKE +./configure +$MAKE check-local +$MAKE distcheck + : -- 1.8.3.rc0.19.g7e6a0cc
