Automake: adding local convenience behavior to "make check"

Question

With a standard project layout of

$(src_topdir)/include
$(src_topdir)/src
$(src_topdir)/tests

I would like to run all the tests in $(src_topdir)/tests when typing "make check" in $(src_topdir)/src in addition to running any configured tests in $(src_topdir)/src.

Automake provides an extension to add additional targets to the check Makefile target, by adding (in Makefile.am) the target local-check which I can define to

local-check:
        cd ../tests && $(MAKE) $(AM_MAKEFLAGS) check

And while this permits me to make check within the $(src_topdir)/src directory with satisfaction, unfortunately it breaks the call to make check from the $(src_topdir) directory. This is because calling from $(src_topdir) recursively enters both $(src_topdir)/src and $(src_topdir)/tests triggering the tests in $(src_topdir)/tests twice.

Is there a way in which I would be able to alter my Makefile.am in $(src_topdir)/src such that local make check calls trigger the desired additional testing while make check calls from the rest of the tooling are unaffected?

Tom Tromey Tom Tromey · Accepted Answer · 2016-10-25T14:01:13

There's no way to do this in Automake.

One workaround is to simply change the name of the target. That is, instead of typing make check, type make mycheck (or whatever you like). Then the mycheck rule is very easy to write.

Another idea is to simply dispense with subdirectory Makefiles. It's generally better, these days, to have one single Makefile for the entire tree. Then this problem goes away -- or, if you really want, with this you can write a tiny src/Makefile that just has the single check target.

Automake: adding local convenience behavior to "make check"

1 Answers