On September 21, [EMAIL PROTECTED] said:
> Thanks! If you have time and know about make, I would like to ask you
> to delve into the Makefile and try to understand _why_ the configure
> target is called. I think it should not be. (Refer to the log of this
> bug for a longer explanation.) I think it should not be difficult, and
> I will eventually do it myself if nobody help me before I have the time
> to sort it out (which should happen next week).
here's what i think is happening. Before it does anything, make
always checks to see that its makefiles themselves are up-to-date [0].
You have a rule in yer Makefile that sez that Makefile depends on
./Makefile.in and ./config.status.
in turn, ./config.status depends on ./configure, but make decides that
configure is out-of-date (because it ships with an earlier timestamp
than ./configure.in).
So, as part of the "updating makefiles" process, ./configure must be
rebuilt, which is what is requiring autoconf.
Confusing, but it's really all happening because of the special case
where make rebuilds its makefiles before doing anything else.
hth,
--dkg
[0] http://www.gnu.org/software/make/manual/html_chapter/make_3.html#SEC20
PS the -d flag for make helped me to figure out what was going on.
i've never used it before, and it generates a ton of spew, but it
really lets you see what's going on. The stuff that tipped me off
was right at the beginning:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailcrypt]$ make -d mailcrypt.elc
GNU Make 3.80
Copyright (C) 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Reading makefiles...
Reading makefile `Makefile'...
Updating makefiles....
Considering target file `Makefile'.
... (other output spew removed) ...
then it was off to read make documentation to figure out why it
would be updating the makefiles.
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