Bug#628515: recommending verbose build logs

[Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>]

Bill Allombert <Bill.Allombert@math.u-bordeaux1.fr> writes:

> For example upgrading automake to 1.11 will activate terse log by
> default without notice, so the developpers are in the painful situation
> to have to disable a feature they never wanted to activate in the first
> place.

I'm fairly certain this is not the case.  That was the original proposal,
and perhaps the original implementation, but there was a lot of pushback
on the Automake development list, and looking at the documentation for
Automake 1.11, it is not currently the default.

     To enable less verbose build rules, both the developer and the user
     of the package have to take a number of steps.  The developer needs
     to do either of the following:

        * Add the `silent-rules' option as argument to
          `AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE'.

        * Call the `AM_SILENT_RULES' macro from within the
          `configure.ac' file.

     It is not possible to instead specify `silent-rules' in a
     `Makefile.am' file.

     If the developer has done either of the above, then the user of the
     package may influence the verbosity at `configure' run time as
     well as at `make' run time:

        * Passing `--enable-silent-rules' to `configure' will cause
          build rules to be less verbose; the option
          `--disable-silent-rules' is the default and will cause normal
          verbose output.

        * At `make' run time, the default chosen at `configure' time
          may be overridden: `make V=1' will produce verbose output,
          `make V=0' less verbose output.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org)               <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>