Subject: bug#66679: automake: error: undefined condition 'TRUE' for 'info_TEXINFOS'

From: Eric Gallager <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2023 08:54:05 -0400

In my attached `Makefile.am`, I have been trying to modify it so that
it only rebuilds the documentation when explicitly asked to.
Otherwise, the distributed copy should just get used instead. However,
my modifications have led to the following error:
doc/Makefile.am:23: warning: user target 'gaa.dvi' defined here ...
/opt/local/share/automake-1.16/am/texibuild.am: ... overrides Automake
target 'gaa.dvi' defined here
automake: error: undefined condition 'TRUE' for 'info_TEXINFOS'
automake: info_TEXINFOS:
automake:   {
automake:     BUILD_DOCS => {
automake:       type: =
automake:       where: doc/Makefile.am:75:
automake:       comment:
automake:       value: gaa.texi
automake:       owner: Makefile
automake:     }
automake:   }
automake:
automake: Please contact <[email-masked]>.
 at /opt/local/share/automake-1.16/Automake/Channels.pm line 655.
    Automake::Channels::msg("automake", "", "undefined condition
'TRUE' for 'info_TEXINFOS'\x{a}info_TEXINFOS:"...) called at
/opt/local/share/automake-1.16/Automake/ChannelDefs.pm line 226
    Automake::ChannelDefs::prog_error("undefined condition 'TRUE' for
'info_TEXINFOS'\x{a}info_TEXINFOS:"...) called at
/opt/local/share/automake-1.16/Automake/Item.pm line 98
    Automake::Item::rdef(Automake::Variable=HASH(0x7fbdb2139bc0),
Automake::Condition=HASH(0x7fbdb3a9a0a0)) called at
/opt/local/bin/automake line 7851
    Automake::require_conf_file_with_macro(Automake::Condition=HASH(0x7fbdb3a9a0a0),
"info_TEXINFOS", 0, "mdate-sh") called at /opt/local/bin/automake line
3432
    Automake::handle_texinfo_helper(Automake::Variable=HASH(0x7fbdb2139bc0))
called at /opt/local/bin/automake line 3540
    Automake::handle_texinfo() called at /opt/local/bin/automake line 8023
    Automake::generate_makefile("doc/Makefile.am", "doc/Makefile.in")
called at /opt/local/bin/automake line 8321
    Automake::handle_makefile("doc/Makefile.in") called at
/opt/local/bin/automake line 8333
    Automake::handle_makefiles_serial() called at
/opt/local/bin/automake line 8465
autoreconf: error: /opt/local/bin/automake failed with exit status: 255

The error message said to report it, so that's what I'm doing. Plus
that whole backtrace doesn't exactly look like your normal automake
error. Anyways, here's my version info:

$ automake --version
automake (GNU automake) 1.16.5
Copyright (C) 2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv2+: GNU GPL version 2 or later
<https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Tom Tromey <[email-masked]>
       and Alexandre Duret-Lutz <[email-masked]>.