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With some minor exceptions (for example _PROGRAMS
variables,
TESTS
, or XFAIL_TESTS
) being rewritten to append
‘$(EXEEXT)’), the contents of a Makefile.am is copied to
Makefile.in verbatim.
These copying semantics mean that many problems can be worked around
by simply adding some make
variables and rules to
Makefile.am. Automake will ignore these additions.
Since a Makefile.in is built from data gathered from three
different places (Makefile.am, configure.ac, and
automake
itself), it is possible to have conflicting
definitions of rules or variables. When building Makefile.in
the following priorities are respected by automake
to ensure
the user always has the last word:
AC_SUBST
ed from configure.ac, and
AC_SUBST
ed variables have priority over
automake
-defined variables.
automake
-defined rule for the same target.
These overriding semantics make it possible to fine tune some default settings of Automake, or replace some of its rules. Overriding Automake rules is often inadvisable, particularly in the topmost directory of a package with subdirectories. The -Woverride option (see Creating a Makefile.in) comes in handy to catch overridden definitions.
Note that Automake does not make any distinction between rules with
commands and rules that only specify dependencies. So it is not
possible to append new dependencies to an automake
-defined
target without redefining the entire rule.
However, various useful targets have a ‘-local’ version you can specify in your Makefile.am. Automake will supplement the standard target with these user-supplied targets.
The targets that support a local version are all
, info
,
dvi
, ps
, pdf
, html
, check
,
install-data
, install-dvi
, install-exec
,
install-html
, install-info
, install-pdf
,
install-ps
, uninstall
, installdirs
,
installcheck
and the various clean
targets
(mostlyclean
, clean
, distclean
, and
maintainer-clean
).
Note that there are no uninstall-exec-local
or
uninstall-data-local
targets; just use uninstall-local
.
It doesn’t make sense to uninstall just data or just executables.
For instance, here is one way to erase a subdirectory during ‘make clean’ (see What Gets Cleaned).
clean-local: -rm -rf testSubDir
You may be tempted to use install-data-local
to install a file
to some hard-coded location, but you should avoid this
(see Installing to Hard-Coded Locations).
With the -local
targets, there is no particular guarantee of
execution order; typically, they are run early, but with parallel
make, there is no way to be sure of that.
In contrast, some rules also have a way to run another rule, called a
hook; hooks are always executed after the main rule’s work is done.
The hook is named after the principal target, with ‘-hook’ appended.
The targets allowing hooks are install-data
,
install-exec
, uninstall
, dist
, and
distcheck
.
For instance, here is how to create a hard link to an installed program:
install-exec-hook: ln $(DESTDIR)$(bindir)/program$(EXEEXT) \ $(DESTDIR)$(bindir)/proglink$(EXEEXT)
Although cheaper and more portable than symbolic links, hard links
will not work everywhere (for instance, OS/2 does not have
ln
). Ideally you should fall back to ‘cp -p’ when
ln
does not work. An easy way, if symbolic links are
acceptable to you, is to add AC_PROG_LN_S
to
configure.ac (see Particular Program
Checks in The Autoconf Manual) and use ‘$(LN_S)’ in
Makefile.am.
For instance, here is how you could install a versioned copy of a program using ‘$(LN_S)’:
install-exec-hook: cd $(DESTDIR)$(bindir) && \ mv -f prog$(EXEEXT) prog-$(VERSION)$(EXEEXT) && \ $(LN_S) prog-$(VERSION)$(EXEEXT) prog$(EXEEXT)
Note that we rename the program so that a new version will erase the
symbolic link, not the real binary. Also we cd
into the
destination directory in order to create relative links.
When writing install-exec-hook
or install-data-hook
,
please bear in mind that the exec/data distinction is based on the
installation directory, not on the primary used (see The Two Parts of Install).
So a foo_SCRIPTS
will be installed by
install-data
, and a barexec_SCRIPTS
will be installed by
install-exec
. You should define your hooks consequently.
Next: Third-Party Makefiles, Up: When Automake Isn’t Enough [Contents][Index]