Subject: bug#79419: "automake --add-missing" should not install an obsolete texinfo.tex file

From: Vincent Lefevre <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2025 12:17:11 +0200

Hi,

I had reported the following bug in the Debian BTS, and this is still
an issue:

  https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=882844

In 2017, with GNU Automake 1.15.1: "automake --add-missing" installs
the texinfo.tex file it distributes, which is really obsolete:
2013-02-01.11 while the current version is 2017-08-23.19.

The texinfo.tex file was no longer obsolete with GNU Automake 1.16
in January 2019. But this issue, which has never been fixed, is now
visible again with GNU Automake 1.17:

In the MPFR working copy under Debian/unstable (trixie is probably
also affected):

qaa% rm doc/texinfo.tex
qaa% automake --add-missing
doc/Makefile.am:25: installing 'doc/texinfo.tex'
qaa% grep def.texinfoversion doc/texinfo.tex
\def\texinfoversion{2024-02-10.22}
qaa% grep def.texinfoversion /usr/share/texmf/tex/texinfo/texinfo.tex
\def\texinfoversion{2024-11-04.20}

(where /usr/share/texmf/tex/texinfo/texinfo.tex is the up-to-date
file provided by texinfo).

The issue is that "automake --add-missing" installs the texinfo.tex
file it distributes (which can be very old as seen in the 2017 case)
while there may be a newer Texinfo installed under the standard
texmf directory.

-- 
Vincent Lefèvre <[email-masked]> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <https://www.vinc17.net/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / Pascaline project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)