Using BUILT_SOURCES

A solution is to require `bindir.h' to be built before anything else. This is what BUILT_SOURCES is meant for (see section 10.4 Built sources).

bin_PROGRAMS = foo foo_SOURCES = foo.c BUILT_SOURCES = bindir.h CLEANFILES = bindir.h bindir.h: Makefile echo '#define bindir "$(bindir)"' >$@

See how `bindir.h' get built first:

% make echo '#define bindir "/usr/local/bin"' >bindir.h make all-am make[1]: Entering directory `/home/adl/tmp' source='foo.c' object='foo.o' libtool=no \ depfile='.deps/foo.Po' tmpdepfile='.deps/foo.TPo' \ depmode=gcc /bin/sh ./depcomp \ gcc -I. -I. -g -O2 -c `test -f 'foo.c' || echo './'`foo.c gcc -g -O2 -o foo foo.o make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/adl/tmp'

However, as said earlier, BUILT_SOURCES applies only to the all and check targets. It still fails if you try to run make foo explicitly:

% make clean test -z "bindir.h" || rm -f bindir.h test -z "foo" || rm -f foo rm -f *.o core *.core % : > .deps/foo.Po # Suppress previously recorded dependencies % make foo source='foo.c' object='foo.o' libtool=no \ depfile='.deps/foo.Po' tmpdepfile='.deps/foo.TPo' \ depmode=gcc /bin/sh ./depcomp \ gcc -I. -I. -g -O2 -c `test -f 'foo.c' || echo './'`foo.c foo.c:2: bindir.h: No such file or directory make: *** [foo.o] Error 1