Re: Switch to Automake?

[Mathieu Lirzin <mthl@gnu.org>]

Hi Xue,

Xue Fuqiao <xfq.free@gmail.com> writes:

> On Sun, Dec 13, 2015 at 9:40 PM, Mathieu Lirzin <mthl@gnu.org> wrote:
>
>> In order to improve the maintainability of Emacs and to enforce the
>> usage of conventions described by GNU Coding Standards, I think it would
>> be a good idea to use Automake in Emacs build system.
>
> Wikipedia says that Emacs uses Automake[1] ;-)
> Although IIUC only lib/ (which is imported from Gnulib) uses Automake.

Yes I should have mentioned that it was already used partially.  :)

> I think documenting the Emacs build system (i.e., how Emacs uses
> Autoconf, Make/Automake and Gnulib) is really helpful for developers who
> are not familiar with the GNU build system, like me.  I'm aware of
> `(info "(elisp) Building Emacs")', but it only explains the `temacs'
> executable file, the `loadup', `site-load', and `site-init' libraries,
> the doc strings in `etc/DOC', and some functions.  It doesn't mention
> how Emacs uses Autotools.

I agree that this would help.  Since Automake is well documented, It
would be possible to document the Emacs build system by linking to the
related parts in Automake manual for generic stuff, and describe more
precisely Emacs idiosyncrasies.

> Maybe Paul and Eli can comment on this suggestion.  I've added them to Cc.

Thanks,

--
Mathieu Lirzin