Re: info files deleted by "make"

[Alexandre Duret-Lutz]

>>> "Bruno" == Bruno Haible <address@hidden> writes:

[...]

 Bruno> The "makeinfo" maintainer, Karl Berry, said on 2002-05-02:

 Bruno> "I agree with you that it would be better to not remove
 Bruno> the output file.  ... I'll work on fixing this at some
 Bruno> point."

 Bruno> Now automake also has the same annoying behaviour. Example:

[...]

 Bruno> $ make
 Bruno> /bin/sh /tmp/missing --run makeinfo   -I . \
 Bruno> -o gperf.info `test -f 'gperf.texi' || echo './'`gperf.texi
 Bruno> gperf.texi:31: Unknown command `copright'.
 Bruno> gperf.texi:31: Misplaced {.
 Bruno> gperf.texi:31: Misplaced }.
 Bruno> makeinfo: Removing output file `gperf.info' due to errors; use --force 
to preserve.
 Bruno> make: *** [gperf.info] Error 1
 Bruno> $ ls -l *.info*
 Bruno> ls: *.info*: No such file or directory

 Bruno> gperf.info was removed by makeinfo - this will be fixed in makeinfo.
 Bruno> But gperf.info-1 and gperf.info-2 were removed by a hidden rule in the
 Bruno> Makefile.

BTW, Karl, any chance that when makeinfo succeeds it also
removes old *.info-* files that are no longer part of a manual
(e.g., after the manual has shrunk by a few files)?  This way we
could also remove these unsightly `rm -f' from Automake's rules
in the future.  I think this cleanup belongs to makeinfo rather
than to Automake.

[...]

 Bruno> 2003-02-22  Bruno Haible  <address@hidden>

 Bruno> * lib/am/texibuild.am: Don't remove the target info files. Instead,
 Bruno> backup and restore them if makeinfo fails.

I think the idea is fine, but this rule has changed in Automake 1.7.3 to
better support DJGPP, and it won't work to say `mv "$$file" "$$file"~'
there.  I'll try to backup these file in a subdirectory, unless you
can see something better to do.
-- 
Alexandre Duret-Lutz