retitle 10473 get directory holding automake-provided scripts and data files
severity 10473 wishlist
tags 10473 patch
thanks

[dropping autoconf@gnu.org]

On 01/10/2012 10:57 PM, Mike Frysinger wrote:
> On Tuesday 10 January 2012 16:10:29 Nick Bowler wrote:
>> On 2012-01-10 15:41 -0500, Mike Frysinger wrote:
>>> On Monday 09 January 2012 18:49:28 Eric Blake wrote:
>>>> On 01/09/2012 03:46 PM, Roger Pau Monné wrote:
>>>>> It creates the needed files, but exits with status 1. Is there anyway
>>>>> to generate config.sub without relying on Automake,
>>>>
>>>> Use 'cp'.  That's all the more automake was doing when it outputs lines
>>>> about installing helper files.
>>>
>>> i wish automake (and gettext) had modes where you could say "i just want
>>> you to install XXX helpers for me)".  copying things by hand is error
>>> prone due to changing install paths across versions and distros.
>>>
>>> automake --foreign -c -f --tools="config.sub config.guess"
>>
>> CCing bug-automake.  This feature would be generally useful: another
>> example for automake-using packages is that at "foreign" strictness the
>> INSTALL file is not copied, but maintainers may still want to include it.
>>
>> Perhaps a simpler and more flexible option is to add an option to
>> automake which prints out the location where it finds these files,
>> similar to aclocal --print-ac-dir.  Something like (for example)
>>
>>  % automake --print-snippet-dir
>>  /usr/share/automake-1.11
> 
> i'd be OK with that too if the assumption is that all relevant files people 
> want to manually copy would be in there (INSTALL, config.sub, etc...).
> 
Here is a patch adding a new "--print-libdir" option (naming selected for
consistency with the "--libdir=DIR" option).  I will push it by tomorrow if
there is no objection.

Regards,
  Stefano