[PPL-devel] Ocaml docs being built even though interface is not enabled

[Enea Zaffanella]

Michael Tautschnig wrote:
> Hi!
> 
>> Michael Tautschnig wrote:
>> [...]
>>> Sorry, there still is an issue here: make user-configured is indeed fine and
>>> that stuff is handled nicely in the Makefile, but running make install (in the
>>> top-level directory, actually) is troublesome. This causes builds of all the
>>> other documents as well, disregarding all the configure stuff. Could you fix
>>> that? It might be an option to make the install: target a no-op as well, just as
>>> all: is!?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Michael
>> I am not sure I am understanding the issue.
>> Does the problem shows up when you are acting as a "final user"
>> or as a "packager" of the PPL ?
>>
> Well, isn't the difference mostly in the prefix where things get installed?
> 
>> I am asking because yesterday I tried installing the PPL as a final  
>> user: I downloaded the latest snapshot, I configured it with all foreign  
>> language interfaces _disabled_ (and after having _uninstalled_ ocamldoc,  
>> just to be sure) and everything went fine. That is, the manuals that  
>> need to be installed by `make install' are already built and distributed  
>> in the PPL .tar.gz.
>>
>> Can you please provide us with the exact sequence of commands leading to  
>> the problem?
>>
> 
> Not exact, but sufficiently close I think:
> 
> make distclean
> ./configure
> make
> make -C doc user-configured
> make install
> 
> From what you're telling I believe the problem to be in the make distclean step.
> I guess it deletes any pre-built docs as well. Well, not a guess only, just
> confirmed in my build here.
> 
> So, what should we conclude with? There's two options here IMHO:
> 
> - Have make distclean not delete any pre-built documentation. Consequently, make
>   dist should then actually build the documents to ensure that make dist always
>   ends up with the same tar ball.
> - In our debian package, we could first move the pre-built docs to a safe
>   location, and put them in place after make distclean.
> 
> What would you consider the preferred way?
> 
> Best,
> Michael
> 

I was able to reproduce the problem
and today I will try to implement the solution.

Actually, we have two problems: one is the one you are mentioning, 
another one is basically related to what is said in Section 27.5 of the 
automake manual (Files left in build directory after distclean). We have 
a couple of these bad dependencies of a distributed built file from a 
non-distributed built file.

Thank you very much for the useful feedback,
Enea.