Re: EXTRA_PROGRAMS not automatically cleaned

[Ralf Wildenhues]

Hi Reuben,

* Reuben Thomas wrote on Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 10:09:27PM CEST:
> I just noticed that programs listed in EXTRA_PROGRAMS in Makefile.am are 
> not automatically added to any clean target, so make distcheck fails. I 
> can of course add $(EXTRA_PROGRAMS) to CLEANFILES, but it seems odd as I 
> don't have to do that for other programs, e.g. bin_PROGRAMS or 
> check_PROGRAMS.

Hmm.  The rule is that those things get removed by 'make clean' that get
built by 'make all'.  EXTRA_PROGRAMS aren't built by default, whereas
bin_PROGRAMS are.  check_PROGRAMS are only built by 'make check', but
since that typically contains files that depend upon files created by
'all', I think it's reasonable to remove both upon 'clean'.

Hmm, I'm not sure but I can imagine a situation where the Makefile.am
author sometimes wants a program in EXTRA_PROGRAMS to be built and
removed upon 'all' and 'clean', and sometimes wants neither to happen;
e.g., because building the program is very expensive.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Ralf