Re: texinfo version required by automake 1.9?

[Ralf Corsepius]

On Sun, 2004-08-01 at 22:21, Alexandre Duret-Lutz wrote:
> >>> "Ralf" == Ralf Corsepius <address@hidden> writes:
> 
> [...]
> 
>  Ralf> Why doesn't automake check for the minimum required version, rsp. a
>  Ralf> functional texinfo implementation? IMO, it should.
> 
> The current version requirements I'm aware of are as follows.
>  
>   * The `html' rule (output since Automake 1.8) requires Texinfo 4.0 
>   or higher.
>   
>   * Support for .info files in sub-directories (since Automake
>   1.7) requires Texinfo 4.1 or higher.
> 
>   * Additional requirements can come from the .texi contents.
>   For instance the @copying directive appeared in Texinfo 4.2, etc.
> 
> Except these cases, I believe older versions should work fine.
> 
> The `html' rule is not part of the normal build process; it is
> only run by users who want html documentation.

In our source-tree, we build html documents from texi source:

info_INFOS = XXXX.texi
pkgdata_DATA = XXXX.html

>   So we shouldn't
> require a minimum version for everybody.
I don't know. AFAIS, the .texi.html and .texi.pdf rules generated by
automake-1.9 seem to require at least texinfo 4.5.

They definitely do not work with RH-7.3 (texinfo-4.1). They also seem to
trip bugs in the tetex/pdflatex shipped with RH-7.3.

ATM, I think they don't work at all, except if using very recent texinfo
(>= 4.5 ?) and tetex versions (>=2.0.2).

> The .texi->.info rule are only run by the maintainer of the
> package since we distribute the .info files, so here again
> requiring a version would not be welcome.
As you might recall, we generate *info's from *texi's on-the-fly, inside
of builddir. 

Contrary to what you say,
*  the necessary magic to generate infos inside of builddir is still in
place in automake and also basically works (I.e. some details don't
work).
* using generated *.texi's with automake doesn't work at all.

Ralf