In non-flat packages, the top level `Makefile.am' must tell
Automake which subdirectories are to be built. This is done via the
SUBDIRS variable.
The SUBDIRS macro holds a list of subdirectories in which
building of various sorts can occur. Many targets (eg all) in
the generated `Makefile' will run both locally and in all specified
subdirectories. Note that the directories listed in SUBDIRS are
not required to contain `Makefile.am's; only `Makefile's
(after configuration). This allows inclusion of libraries from packages
which do not use Automake (such as gettext). The directories
mentioned in SUBDIRS must be direct children of the current
directory. For instance, you cannot put `src/subdir' into
SUBDIRS.
In a deep package, the top-level `Makefile.am' is often very short. For instance, here is the `Makefile.am' from the Hello distribution:
EXTRA_DIST = BUGS ChangeLog.O README-alpha SUBDIRS = doc intl po src tests
It is possible to override the SUBDIRS variable if, like in the
case of GNU Inetutils, you want to only build a subset of the
entire package. In your `Makefile.am' include:
SUBDIRS = @SUBDIRS@
Then in your `configure.in' you can specify:
SUBDIRS = "src doc lib po" AC_SUBST(SUBDIRS)
The upshot of this is that automake is tricked into building the package
to take the subdirs, but doesn't actually bind that list until
configure is run.
SUBDIRS can contain configure substitutions (eg `@DIRS@');
Automake itself does not actually examine the contents of this variable.
If SUBDIRS is defined, then your `configure.in' must include
AC_PROG_MAKE_SET.
The use of SUBDIRS is not restricted to just the top-level
`Makefile.am'. Automake can be used to construct packages of
arbitrary depth.
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