6.2.3 How DIST_SUBDIRS is used

As shown in the above examples, DIST_SUBDIRS is used by targets that need to recurse in all directories, even those which have been conditionally left out of the build.

Precisely, DIST_SUBDIRS is used by make dist, make distclean, and make maintainer-clean. All other recursive targets use SUBDIRS.

Automake will define DIST_SUBDIRS automatically from the possibles values of SUBDIRS in all conditions.

If SUBDIRS contains AC_SUBST variables, DIST_SUBDIRS will not be defined correctly because Automake doesn't know the possible values of these variables. In this case DIST_SUBDIRS needs to be defined manually.