GNU bug report logs - #49317
dist: depends on $(BUILT_SOURCES), but has no reason to

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Allison Karlitskaya <allison.karlitskaya <at> redhat.com>
To: bug-automake <at> gnu.org
Subject: dist: depends on $(BUILT_SOURCES), but has no reason to
Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2021 13:52:44 +0200

BUILT_SOURCES solves a useful problem and we use it in our package for
a few things.  Its stated purpose (from the docs) is all about
compilation and dependency tracking.  It makes sense that
$(BUILT_SOURCES) should then be built as a prerequisite before any
targets that result in compilation: all, check, install-exec, ...

`make dist` doesn't compile the program, though: it distributes the
sources.  And usually generated files are not distributed.  If they
were to be disted, they could be listed explicitly for being disted
(for example in a _SOURCES variable or so).  We go out of the way to
put our compiled sources in nodist_ variables, and indeed, they're not
disted.

But because of the above dependency `make dist` still builds them (and
then ignores them).

Of course, there might be a edgecase where the disted tarball should
contain content that is output by a C program which needs to be
compiled and contains, itself, some generated sources.  Indeed, this
change was introduced in 2017, in this commit:

commit ac47c22e3c0c8b055cdd47ccd18621c56f807b37
Author:     Jim Meyering <meyering <at> fb.com>
AuthorDate: Thu Mar 20 12:31:32 2014 -0700
Commit:     Jim Meyering <meyering <at> fb.com>
CommitDate: Tue Nov 28 19:05:59 2017 -0800

    "make dist" did not depend on $(BUILT_SOURCES)

in response to this report:

    https://lists.gnu.org/r/bug-hello/2014-03/msg00016.html

GNU Hello builds its manpage (which it dists) by building and running
the binary and capturing its --help output.

A blanket depend on $(BUILT_SOURCES) for all automake-using projects
seems to be much too large of a hammer to solve that specific problem.

Thanks very much,

Allison Karlitskaya

Message #8 received at 49317 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Karl Berry <karl <at> freefriends.org>
To: allison.karlitskaya <at> redhat.com
Cc: 49317 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#49317: dist: depends on $(BUILT_SOURCES), but has no reason to
Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2021 16:15:16 -0600

    GNU Hello builds its manpage (which it dists) by building and running
    the binary and capturing its --help output.

This is quite common (among GNU packages anyway). So it is not
surprising Jim (hi Jim) committed a general solution.

    A blanket depend on $(BUILT_SOURCES) for all automake-using projects
    seems to be much too large of a hammer to solve that specific problem.

I tend to agree, but at this point I would not want to create an
incompatibility by undoing it. Instead, I guess a new option (for
AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS) would be needed. A patch would be welcome.

Jim, maybe you have other/more ideas ... --thanks, karl.

Message #11 received at 49317 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Allison Karlitskaya <allison.karlitskaya <at> redhat.com>
To: Karl Berry <karl <at> freefriends.org>
Cc: 49317 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#49317: dist: depends on $(BUILT_SOURCES), but has no reason to
Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2021 14:56:19 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

[PATCH] dist: add new "pure-dist" automake option

Since v1.15.1-204-gac47c22e3, "make dist" has been depending on
$(BUILT_SOURCES) to avoid problems when building some GNU packages which
need to compile themselves as part of building their tarballs (for
example, to generate manpage content from --help output).  This default
behaviour might be "too much" for other projects, though, so add a new
option "pure-dist" to disable it.

* NEWS:
* bin/automake.in:
* doc/automake.texi: Add a new option "pure-dist" to disable the
dependency of distdir: on $(BUILT_SOURCES).
* t/pure-dist.sh:
* t/impure-dist.sh: Add a pair of tests for a similar scenario with and
  without the option.

Fixes automake bug https://debbugs.gnu.org/49317
---
 NEWS                    |  3 ++
 bin/automake.in         |  3 +-
 doc/automake.texi       |  7 +++++
 lib/Automake/Options.pm |  1 +
 lib/am/distdir.am       |  5 ++++
 t/impure-dist.sh        |  1 +
 t/pure-dist.sh          | 66 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 7 files changed, 85 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 120000 t/impure-dist.sh
 create mode 100644 t/pure-dist.sh

[0001-dist-add-new-pure-dist-automake-option.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]

Message #14 received at 49317 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Karl Berry <karl <at> freefriends.org>
To: allison.karlitskaya <at> redhat.com
Cc: 49317 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#49317: dist: depends on $(BUILT_SOURCES), but has no reason to
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2021 19:37:25 -0600

Hi Allison - Jim finished pushing your patch a day or two
ago. Complications in testing. Thanks for the contribution! --karl

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