Hi. I've noticed that when trying to build gdb from git with --enable-maintainer-mode, I get this error:
make[2]: Entering directory `/home/naesten/hacking/archer/build/gdb' CONFIG_FILES="gnulib/Makefile" \ CONFIG_COMMANDS="depfiles" \ CONFIG_HEADERS= \ CONFIG_LINKS= \ /bin/sh config.status config.status: creating gnulib/Makefile config.status: executing depfiles commands make[3]: Entering directory `/home/naesten/hacking/archer/build/gdb' make[4]: Entering directory `/home/naesten/hacking/archer/build/gdb/gnulib' cd .. && make am--refresh make[5]: Entering directory `/home/naesten/hacking/archer/build/gdb' make[5]: *** No rule to make target `am--refresh'. Stop. make[5]: Leaving directory `/home/naesten/hacking/archer/build/gdb' make[4]: *** [../../../gdb/configure] Error 2 make[4]: Leaving directory `/home/naesten/hacking/archer/build/gdb/gnulib' make[3]: *** [subdir_do] Error 1 make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/naesten/hacking/archer/build/gdb' make[2]: *** [all-lib] Error 2 make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/naesten/hacking/archer/build/gdb' make[1]: *** [all-gdb] Error 2 make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/naesten/hacking/archer/build' make: *** [all] Error 2 make: Leaving directory `/home/naesten/hacking/archer/build' It seems that automake assumes that the top-level Makefile for a project (that is, the one that sits next to the configure script -- generated from gdb/Makefile.in in this case) will provide an "am--refresh" target, which no doubt it would if the top-level Makefile.in was generated by automake. However, I could find nothing in the automake documentation about either am--refresh or needing to have the top-level Makefile.in generated by automake, and Tom Tromey said he wasn't aware of any such requirement either. The Makefile.in in question was generated with automake 1.9.6, and regenerating it doesn't make any difference as long as I touch the Makefile.am afterwards to keep Makefile.in considered out-of-date. What exactly does automake expect from this am--refresh target, so I can write one to keep it happy without having to use automake to generate gdb/Makefile.in ? Also ... why doesn't the output of "automake --version" list the current automake maintainer, if Tom Tromey doesn't maintain it anymore?