Subject: bug#8289: distcheck and make dvi

From: Ralf Wildenhues <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2011 12:53:44 +0100

Hi Karl,

thanks for the bug report.

* Karl Berry wrote on Sat, Mar 19, 2011 at 12:33:14AM CET:
> http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.sysutils.automake.general/10304
> 
> I suggest that the workaround Ralf suggests there -- an empty make rule
> for dvi: -- be explicitly documented.  Another (often preferable) option
> is to create and distribute the .eps files, of course.

Agreed on all accounts.  However, there are cases where dvi output just
isn't feasible in practice.

Reuben Thomas has suggested more general latex support in bug 8099,
which also touches this area.

> Another possible change, in addition to messing with the documentation,
> would be to make the "dvi" a variable that such non-dvi-generating
> people can override with "pdf" if they wish.  Then they could get the
> benefit of the check in a clean way without forcing .eps.  Or maybe
> dvi: pdf
> would have the same effect?  I'm not sure.

Well, 'dvi: pdf' might help the distcheck to succeed, but generally, if
I run 'make dvi' then what I'd like is DVI not PDF output.  The latter
is not convertible into the former.  Enhancing distcheck to just not
bother checking dvi output and rather test PDF output seems like another
good alternative.

Thanks,
Ralf