Subject: Re: bug#11401: automake-1.12 (incorrectly?) complains about missing AM_PROG_AR

From: Stefano Lattarini <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 11 May 2012 13:37:55 +0200

On 05/04/2012 09:19 PM, Mike Frysinger wrote:
> On Friday 04 May 2012 03:20:10 Peter Rosin wrote:
>> On 2012-05-04 07:25, Mike Frysinger wrote:
>>>
>>> $ cat configure.ac
>>> AC_PREREQ([2.63])
>>> AC_INIT([foo], [0])
>>> AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([1.11 -Wall foreign])
>>> AC_PROG_CC
>>> LT_INIT
>>> AC_OUTPUT(Makefile)
>>>
>>> $ cat Makefile.am
>>> lib_LTLIBRARIES = libfoo.la
>>> libfoo_la_SOURCES = foo.c
>>>
>>> with automake-1.11.5, everything works great, but with automake 1.12:
>>>
>>> $ autoreconf -f -i
>>>> ...
>>> ltlibrary.am: warning: 'libfoo.la': linking libtool libraries using a non-POSIX
>>> ltlibrary.am: archiver requires 'AM_PROG_AR' in 'configure.ac'
>>> Makefile.am:1:   while processing Libtool library 'libfoo.la'
>>>
>>> what gives ?
>>
>> If you don't want *all* warnings, don't ask for *all* warnings :-)
> 
> not my code base ;)
> 
>> It's in NEWS, from 1.12:
>>
>>   - The warnings in the category 'extra-portability' are now enabled by
>>     '-Wall'.  In previous versions, one has to use '-Wextra-portability'
>>     to enable them.
> 
> ok, so the fact that it's warning via -Wall is new to 1.12, but the underlying 
> issue (warning at all) is not
>
Exactly.

>> which should be read in light of this from 1.11.2:
>>
>>   - New macro AM_PROG_AR that looks for an archiver and wraps it in the new
>>     'ar-lib' auxiliary script if the selected archiver is Microsoft lib.
>>     This new macro is required for LIBRARIES and LTLIBRARIES when automake
>>     is run with -Wextra-portability and -Werror.
> 
> imo, projects utilizing libtool shouldn't need to know this at all.  the whole 
> point is to hide these esoteric details behind a layer and focus on the bits 
> that projects actually care about -- what sources to put into libraries, 
> etc...  so is the answer to update libtool to call AM_PROG_AR when it's 
> available ?
>
It seems there might be consensus on this idea:

  <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/automake/2012-05/msg00012.html>

If it will turn out that is actually the case, I will close this bug report
(the discussion will likely continue on the bug-libtool list).  For now, let's
wait and see how things evolve.

Regards,
   Stefano