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Diffstat (limited to 'PLANS/obsolete-removed/am-prog-mkdir-p.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | PLANS/obsolete-removed/am-prog-mkdir-p.txt | 62 |
1 files changed, 62 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/PLANS/obsolete-removed/am-prog-mkdir-p.txt b/PLANS/obsolete-removed/am-prog-mkdir-p.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000..20d5cf52c --- /dev/null +++ b/PLANS/obsolete-removed/am-prog-mkdir-p.txt @@ -0,0 +1,62 @@ +The macro AM_PROG_MKDIR_P is no longer going to be removed from Automake. +Let's see a bit of history to understand why. + +I had already scheduled the removal of the long-deprecated AM_PROG_MKDR_P +macro (superseded by the Autoconf-provided one AC_PROG_MKDIR_P) for +Automake 1.13 -- see commit 'v1.12-20-g8a1c64f'. + +Alas, it turned out the latest Gettext version at the time (0.18.1.1) was +still using that macro: + + <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake/2012-09/msg00010.html> + +And since the maintenance of Gettext was stalled, I couldn't get a fix +committed and released in time for the appearance of Automake 1.13: + + <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gettext/2012-04/msg00018.html> + <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gettext/2012-06/msg00012.html> + <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-gettext/2012-10/msg00001.html> + +So, on strong advice by Jim Meyering, in commit 'v1.12.4-158-gdf23daf' +I re-introduced AM_PROG_MKDIR_P in Automake (thanks to Jim for having +convinced me to do so in time!) + +But then, Gettext (as said, the greatest "offender" in the use of +AM_PROG_MKDIR_P), in its latest release 0.18.2, finally removed all the +uses of that macro still present in its code base. Yay. So I thought +we could finally and quite safely remove AM_PROG_MKDIR_P in Automake 1.14; +and I proceeded to do so, see commit 'v1.13-30-gd01834b' and the merge +commit 'v1.13-5-gb373ad9'. Well, it turned out I was wrong, again, and +in a trickier and sublter way this time. Let's see the details. + +If a package's 'configure.ac' contains a call like: + + AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION([0.18]) + +then the 'autopoint' script will bring the data files from the Gettext +release *1.18* into the package's tree -- yes, even even if the developer +has installed *and is using* Gettext 1.18.2! Now, these data files +comprise m4 files (that will be seen by subsequent aclocal and autoconf +calls), and of course, the pre-0.18.2 version of some of these files +still contains occurrences of AM_PROG_MKDIR_P -- so Automake 1.13 errors +out, and we lose. That already happened in practice: + + <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-grep/2013-01/msg00003.html> + +Moreover, while I might see it as not unreasonable to ask a developer +using Automake 2.0 to also update Gettext to 1.18.2, that would not +be enough; in order for gettext to use the correct data files, that +developer would have to update his configure.ac to read: + + AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION([0.18.2]) + +thus requiring *all* of his co-developers to install Gettext 1.18.2, +even if they are still using, say, Automake 1.13 or 1.14. Bad. + +So I decided to re-instate this macro as a simple alias for AC_PROG_MKDIR_P +(plus a non-fatal runtime warning in the 'obsolete' category), and drop +any plan to remove it (see how much good those plans have done us so far). +See commit v1.13.1-109-g030ecb4. + +Similarly, the obsolete '@mkdir_p@' substitution and '$(mkdir_p)' make +variable are still supported, as simple aliases to '$(MKDIR_P)'. |