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GNU Automake 1.19.92 alpha released as pre-release for Automake 1.20

Brief written by the FOSSWire AI editor from Planet GNU How we write

1 min read

Key Takeaway

This alpha release introduces jobserver support, error-handling improvements, and security hardening for source directory paths.

Summary

The GNU Project has announced the release of automake-1.19.92, an alpha version serving as the primary pre-release for the upcoming Automake 1.20. This version includes 80 commits from three contributors over the last 49 days, focusing on resolving long-standing limitations and fixing various bugs.

Users and developers are encouraged to test this release across different platforms to prepare for the stable 1.20 transition. The update introduces several new configuration options and targets designed to improve build reliability and integration with GNU make and modern compression tools.

Technical improvements in Automake 1.19.92

  • Build Parallelization: A new --enable-jobserver option allows compilers and linkers to inherit the GNU make pipe jobserver, enabling better resource management for tools like GCC's -flto=jobserver.
  • Error Handling: The delete-on-error option implements the .DELETE_ON_ERROR special target in generated Makefiles, preventing truncated files from being treated as up-to-date if a build recipe fails.
  • Security Hardening: The configure script now rejects source directory paths containing shell-sensitive characters such as <, >, (, ), ;, or | to prevent potential file overwrites or command injection during the build process.
  • Dependency and Build Logic: Fixes include improved tracking of object dependencies in LIBADD and LDADD regardless of processing order, and ensuring lex and yacc rules create necessary output directories for out-of-tree builds.
  • Distribution Updates: The dist-zstd feature now correctly handles numeric ZSTD_CLEVEL values, and distcheck has been updated to no longer require TeX by default for checking Texinfo manuals.

Why it matters

As a fundamental tool in the GNU build system, these updates improve the robustness of software compilation and distribution for developers. The security hardening of source paths and improved jobserver integration provide more reliable and secure build environments for Linux distributions and large-scale software projects.

Original reference: savannah.gnu.org →