Subject: bug#7403: Unused variable `$source' in the depcomp script?

From: Ralf Wildenhues <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2010 13:29:10 +0100

* Stefano Lattarini wrote on Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 01:03:04AM CET:
>  $ grep '\<source\>' lib/depcomp 
>    source      Source file read by `PROGRAMS ARGS'.
>  if test -z "$depmode" || test -z "$source" || test -z "$object"; then
>    echo "depcomp: Variables source, object and depmode must be set" 1>&2
>      # the object too, otherwise makedepend will parse it as a source file.
> 
> Does this mean that the `$source' variable is really not required
> by depcomp, or am I missing something?

It seems that $source is indeed not required.

I'd still be wary of removing it: users might have modified depcomp
scripts which use the variable.  Yes, I consider that public API,
documented in 'depcomp --help', and with example usage in the manual.

In a sort of transposed way, there are packages using depcomp (plus some
custom macros) which do not use Automake; we should not break them
either.

Thanks,
Ralf