source: vendor/autoconf/2.61/NEWS@ 3092

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autoconf 2.61

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1* Major changes in Autoconf 2.61 (2006-11-17)
2
3** New macros AC_C_FLEXIBLE_ARRAY_MEMBER, AC_C_VARARRAYS.
4
5** AC_ARG_ENABLE and AC_ARG_WITH now allow '.' in feature and package names.
6
7* Major changes in Autoconf 2.60b (2006-10-22)
8
9** BIN_SH
10 Autoconf-generated shell scripts no longer export BIN_SH, due to
11 configuration hassles with this. Installers who need BIN_SH in
12 their environment should set it before invoking 'configure' and
13 'make'. As far as we know, this affects only Unixware installations.
14
15** Obsolescent macros
16 The documentation now says that the following macros are obsolescent,
17 as they are superseded by Gnulib:
18
19 AC_FUNC_FNMATCH AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU AC_FUNC_GETLOADVG AC_REPLACE_FNMATCH
20
21 New programs should use the Gnulib counterparts of these macros.
22 We have no current plans to remove them from Autoconf.
23
24** AC_COMPUTE_INT no longer caches or reports results.
25
26** AC_CHECK_DECL now also works with aggregate objects.
27
28** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS now defines _TANDEM_SOURCE for NonStop platforms.
29
30** GNU M4 1.4.7 or later is now recommended.
31
32** m4_mkstemp
33 New M4sugar macro, which is more secure than the POSIX M4 maketemp.
34
35** m4_maketemp
36 Now an alias for m4_mkstemp.
37
38* Major changes in Autoconf 2.60a (2006-08-25)
39
40** GNU M4 1.4.6 or later is now recommended.
41
42** The check for C99 now tests for varargs macros, as documented.
43 It also tests that the preprocessor supports 64-bit integers.
44
45** Autoconf now uses constructs like "#ifdef HAVE_STDLIB_H" rather than
46 "#if HAVE_STDLIB_H", so that it now works with "gcc -Wundef -Werror".
47
48** The functionality of the undocumented _AC_COMPUTE_INT is now provided
49 by a public and documented macro, AC_COMPUTE_INT. The parameters to the
50 two macros are different, so autoupdate will not change the old private name
51 to the new one. _AC_COMPUTE_INT may be removed in a future release.
52
53** AC_TYPE_LONG_LONG_INT and AC_TYPE_UNSIGNED_LONG_LONG_INT now require
54 that long long types be at least 64 bits wide, as C99 and tradition
55 requires. Formerly, they accepted implementations of any width.
56
57
58
59* Major changes in Autoconf 2.60
60
61 Released 2006-06-23, by Ralf Wildenhues.
62
63** Autoconf no longer depends on whether m4wrap is FIFO (as Posix requires)
64 or LIFO (as in GNU M4 1.4.x). GNU M4 2.0 is expected to conform to Posix
65 here, so m4wrap/m4_wrap users should no longer depend on LIFO behavior.
66
67** Provide a way to turn off warnings about the changed directory variables.
68
69* Major changes in Autoconf 2.59d
70
71 Released 2006-06-05, by Ralf Wildenhues.
72
73** GNU make now recommended for VPATH builds
74 INSTALL now suggests VPATH builds (e.g., "sh ../srcdir/configure")
75 only if you use GNU make. In practice, other 'make' implementations
76 have too many subtle incompatibilities in their support for VPATH.
77 Many packages (including Autoconf itself) are portable to other
78 'make' implementations, but some packages are not, and recommending
79 GNU make keeps the installation instructions simpler.
80
81** Even more safety checks for the new Directory variables:
82 Warn about suspicious `${datarootdir}' found in config files output.
83
84** AC_TRY_COMMAND, AC_TRY_EVAL, ac_config_guess, ac_config_sub, ac_configure
85 These never-documented macros and variables have been marked with
86 comments saying that they may be removed in a future release,
87 because their use can lead to unintended code being executed.
88 If you need functionality that only these macros or variables
89 currently supply, please write bug-autoconf@gnu.org.
90
91** AC_SUBST, AC_DEFINE
92 Literal arguments to these are passed to m4_pattern_allow now.
93
94** AC_PROG_CC_STDC
95 Passing 'ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc=no' to 'configure' now sets ac_cv_prog_cc_c99
96 and ac_cv_prog_cc_c89 to 'no' as well, for backward compatibility with
97 obsolete K&R tests in the Automake test suite.
98
99** AC_PROG_CXX_C_O
100 New macro.
101
102** AC_PROG_MKDIR_P
103 New macro.
104
105** AS_MKDIR_P
106 Now more robust with special characters in file names, or when
107 multiple processes create the same directory at the same time.
108
109** Obsolescent macros
110 The documentation now says that the following macros are obsolescent:
111 they test for problems that are so old that they are no longer of
112 practical importance on current systems.
113
114 AC_C_BACKSLASH_A AC_FUNC_MEMCMP AC_HEADER_DIRENT
115 AC_C_CONST AC_FUNC_SELECT_ARGTYPES AC_HEADER_STAT
116 AC_C_PROTOTYPES AC_FUNC_SETPGRP AC_HEADER_STDC
117 AC_C_STRINGIZE AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED AC_HEADER_SYS_WAIT
118 AC_C_VOLATILE AC_FUNC_STAT AC_HEADER_TIME
119 AC_FUNC_CLOSEDIR_VOID AC_FUNC_STRFTIME AC_ISC_POSIX
120 AC_FUNC_GETPGRP AC_FUNC_UTIME_NULL AC_PROG_GCC_TRADITIONAL
121 AC_FUNC_LSTAT AC_FUNC_VPRINTF AC_STRUCT_TM
122
123 New programs need not use these macros. We have no current plans to
124 remove them.
125
126** autoreconf
127 For compatibility with future Libtool 2.0, autoreconf will invoke
128 libtoolize with the option `--ltdl' now, if LT_CONFIG_LTDL_DIR is
129 used.
130
131* Major changes in Autoconf 2.59c
132
133 Released 2006-04-12, by Ralf Wildenhues.
134
135** The configure command now redirects standard input from /dev/null,
136 to help avoid problems with subsidiary commands that might mistakenly
137 read standard input. AS_ORIGINAL_STDIN_FD points to the original
138 standard input before this redirection, if you really want configure to
139 read from standard input.
140
141** Directory variables adjusted to recent changes in the GNU Coding Standards.
142 The following directory variables are new:
143
144 datarootdir read-only architecture-independent data root [PREFIX/share]
145 localedir locale-specific message catalogs [DATAROOTDIR/locale]
146 docdir documentation root [DATAROOTDIR/doc/PACKAGE]
147 htmldir html documentation [DOCDIR]
148 dvidir dvi documentation [DOCDIR]
149 pdfdir pdf documentation [DOCDIR]
150 psdir ps documentation [DOCDIR]
151
152 The following variables have new default values:
153
154 datadir read-only architecture-independent data [DATAROOTDIR]
155 infodir info documentation [DATAROOTDIR/info]
156 mandir man documentation [DATAROOTDIR/man]
157
158 This means that if you use any of `@datadir@', `@infodir@', or
159 `@mandir@' in a file, you will have to ensure `${datarootdir}' is
160 defined in this file. As a temporary measure, if any of those are
161 found but no mention of `datarootdir', the substitutions will be
162 replaced with values that do not contain `${datarootdir}', and a
163 warning will be issued.
164
165** @top_builddir@ is now a dir name: it is always nonempty and doesn't have
166 a trailing slash. Similar change will be made to ac_top_builddir in a
167 future release; the old style value, which matches (../)*, is (and will
168 continue to be) available as ac_top_build_prefix.
169
170** AC_C_TYPEOF
171 New macro to check for support of 'typeof' syntax a la GNU C.
172
173** AC_CHECK_DECLS_ONCE, AC_CHECK_FUNCS_ONCE, AC_CHECK_HEADERS_ONCE
174 New "once-only" variants of commonly-used macros, to make 'configure'
175 smaller and faster in common cases.
176
177** AC_FUNC_STRTOLD
178 New macro to check for strtold with C99 semantics.
179
180** AC_HEADER_ASSERT
181 New macro that lets builder disable assertions at 'configure'-time.
182
183** AC_PATH_X
184 Now checks for X11/Xlib.h and XrmInitialize (X proper) rather than
185 X11/Intrinsic.h and XtMalloc (Xt).
186
187** AC_PRESERVE_HELP_ORDER
188 New macro that causes `configure' to display help strings for AC_ARG_ENABLE
189 and AC_ARG_WITH arguments in one region, in the order defined. The default
190 behavior is to group options of each classes separately.
191
192** AC_PROG_CC, AC_PROG_CXX
193 No longer automatically arrange to declare the 'exit' function of C,
194 when a C++ compiler is used. Standard Autoconf macros no longer use
195 'exit', so this is no longer an issue for them. If you use C++, and
196 want to call 'exit', you'll have to arrange for its declaration
197 yourself. But we now suggest you return from 'main' instead.
198
199** AC_PROG_CC_C89, AC_PROG_CC_C99
200 New macros for ISO C99 support. AC_PROG_CC_C89 and AC_PROG_CC_C99
201 check for ANSI C89 and ISO C99 support respectively.
202
203** AC_PROG_CC_STDC
204 Has been unobsoleted, and will check if the compiler supports ISO
205 C99, falling back to ANSI C89 if not. ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc is
206 retained for backwards compatibility, assuming the value of
207 ac_cv_prog_cc_c99 or ac_cv_prog_cc_c89 (whichever is valid, in
208 that order).
209
210** AC_STRUCT_DIRENT_D_INO, AC_STRUCT_DIRENT_D_TYPE
211 New macros for checking commonly-used members of struct dirent.
212
213** AC_SUBST
214 The substituted value can now contain newlines.
215
216** AC_SUBST_FILE
217 The substitution now occurs only when @variable@ is on a line by itself,
218 optionally surrounded by spaces and tabs. The whole line is replaced.
219
220** AC_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE, AC_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE_WIDER
221 New macros to check for long double, and whether it is wider than double.
222 The old macro AC_C_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE has been marked as obsolete;
223 applications should switch to the new macro.
224
225** AC_TYPE_INT8_T, AC_TYPE_INT16_T, AC_TYPE_INT32_T, AC_TYPE_INT64_T,
226 AC_TYPE_INTMAX_T, AC_TYPE_INTPTR_T, AC_TYPE_LONG_LONG_INT, AC_TYPE_SSIZE_T,
227 AC_TYPE_UINT8_T, AC_TYPE_UINT16_T, AC_TYPE_UINT32_T, AC_TYPE_UINT64_T,
228 AC_TYPE_UINTMAX_T, AC_TYPE_UINTPTR_T, AC_TYPE_UNSIGNED_LONG_LONG_INT
229 New macros to check for C99 and POSIX types.
230
231** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS
232 New macro to enable extensions to Posix.
233
234** AH_HEADER
235 New macro which is defined to the name of the first declared config header
236 or undefined if no config headers have been declared yet.
237
238** AS_HELP_STRING
239 The macro correctly handles quadrigraphs now.
240
241** AS_BOURNE_COMPATIBLE, AS_SHELL_SANITIZE, AS_CASE
242 These macros are new or published now.
243
244** AT_COPYRIGHT
245 New macro for copyright notices in testsuite files.
246
247** ALLOCA, LIBOBJS, LTLIBOBJS
248 Object names added to these variables are now prefixed with `${LIBOBJDIR}',
249 as in `${LIBOBJDIR}alloca.o'. LIBOBJDIR is meant to be defined from
250 `Makefile.in' in case the object files lie in a different directory.
251 The LIBOBJDIR feature is experimental.
252
253** autoreconf
254 Supports --no-recursive now.
255
256** New macros to support Erlang/OTP.
257 New macros for configuring paths to Erlang tools and libraries:
258 AC_ERLANG_PATH_ERLC, AC_ERLANG_NEED_ERLC, AC_ERLANG_PATH_ERL,
259 AC_ERLANG_NEED_ERL, AC_ERLANG_CHECK_LIB, AC_ERLANG_SUBST_ROOT_DIR,
260 AC_ERLANG_SUBST_LIB_DIR.
261
262 New macros for configuring installation of Erlang libraries:
263 AC_ERLANG_SUBST_INSTALL_LIB_DIR, AC_ERLANG_SUBST_INSTALL_LIB_SUBDIR.
264
265** The manual now mentions Gnulib more prominently.
266
267** New macros to support Objective C.
268 AC_PROG_OBJC, AC_PROG_OBJCPP.
269
270* Major changes in Autoconf 2.59b
271
272 Released 2004-08-20, by Paul Eggert.
273
274** AC_CHECK_ALIGNOF
275 New macro that computes the default alignment of a type.
276
277** AC_CHECK_TOOL, AC_PATH_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TOOLS
278 When cross-compiling, these macros will give a warning if the tool
279 is not prefixed. In the future, unprefixed cross tools will not
280 be detected; please consult the info documentation for information
281 about the reason of this change.
282
283** AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOL, AC_PATH_TARGET_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOLS
284 New macros that detect programs whose name is prefixed with the
285 target type, if the build type and target type are different.
286
287** AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE
288 New trace macro that declares expected auxiliary files.
289
290** AC_PROG_GREP
291 New macro that tests for a grep program that accepts as a long a line
292 as possible.
293
294** AC_PROG_EGREP, AC_PROG_FGREP
295 These macros now require AC_PROG_GREP, and try EGREP="$GREP -E" and
296 FGREP="$GREP -F" respectively if possible, or else run a path search for
297 a program that accepts as long a line as possible.
298
299** AC_PROG_SED
300 New macro that tests for a sed program that truncates as few characters
301 as possible.
302
303
304* Major changes in Autoconf 2.59
305
306 Released 2003-11-04, by Akim Demaille
307
308** ac_abs_builddir etc.
309 Absolute file names were actually relative in 2.58.
310
311
312* Major changes in Autoconf 2.58
313
314 Released 2003-11-04, by Akim Demaille
315
316** core.*
317 core.* files are no longer removed, as they may be valid user files.
318
319** autoreconf and auxiliary directory
320 Autoreconf creates the auxiliary directory if needed. This is
321 especially useful for initial "bootstrapping" of fresh CVS checkouts.
322
323** AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR
324 Use this macro to declare the directory for local M4 macros for aclocal.
325
326** AC_LIBOBJS
327 No longer includes twice the same file in LIBOBJS if invoked
328 multiple times.
329
330** AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS
331 The directory for its first argument is automatically created. For
332 instance, with
333
334 AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS([src/modules.hh], [...])
335
336 $top_builddir/src/ is created if needed.
337
338** Autotest and local.at
339 The optional file local.at is always included in Autotest test suites.
340
341** Warnings
342 The warnings are always issued, including with cached runs.
343 This became a significant problem since aclocal and automake can
344 run autoconf behind the scene.
345
346** autoheader warnings
347 The warnings of autoheader can be turned off, using --warning.
348 For instance, -Wno-obsolete disables the complaints about acconfig.h
349 and other deprecated constructs.
350
351** New macros
352 AC_C_RESTRICT, AC_INCLUDES_DEFAULT, AC_LANG_ASSERT, AC_LANG_WERROR,
353 AS_SET_CATFILE.
354
355** AC_DECL_SYS_SIGLIST
356 Works again.
357
358** AC_FUNC_MKTIME
359 Now checks that mktime is the inverse of localtime.
360
361** Improve DJGPP portability
362 The Autoconf tools and configure behave better under DJGPP.
363
364** Present But Cannot Be Compiled
365 New FAQ section dedicated to the mystic
366
367 configure: WARNING: pi.h: present but cannot be compiled
368 configure: WARNING: pi.h: check for missing prerequisite headers?
369 configure: WARNING: pi.h: proceeding with the preprocessor's result
370 messages.
371
372** Concurrent executions of autom4te
373 autom4te now locks its internal files, which enables concurrent
374 executions of autom4te, likely to happen if automake, autoconf,
375 autoheader etc. are run simultaneously.
376
377** Libtool
378 Use of Libtool 1.5 and higher is encouraged. Compatibility with
379 Libtool pre-1.4 is not checked.
380
381** Autotest
382 Testsuites no longer rerun failed tests in verbose mode; instead,
383 failures are logged while the test is run.
384
385 In addition, expected failures can be marked as such.
386
387
388* Major changes in Autoconf 2.57
389
390 Released 2002-12-03 by Paul Eggert.
391
392Bug fixes for problems with AIX linker, with freestanding C compilers,
393with GNU M4 limitations, and with obsolete copies of GNU documents.
394
395The Free Documentation License has been upgraded from 1.1 to 1.2.
396
397
398* Major changes in Autoconf 2.56
399
400 Released 2002-11-15 by Akim Demaille.
401
402One packaging problem fixed (config/install-sh was not executable).
403
404
405* Major changes in Autoconf 2.55
406
407 Released 2002-11-14 by Akim Demaille.
408
409Release tips:
410
411 Have your configure.ac checked by autoscan ("autoscan").
412 Try the warning options ("autoreconf -fv -Wall").
413
414** Documentation
415
416- AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS
417 More information on proper use.
418
419- Writing Test Programs
420
421 This sections explains how to write good test sources to use with
422 AC_COMPILE_IFELSE etc. It documents AC_LANG_PROGRAM and so forth.
423
424- AC_FOO_IFELSE vs. AC_TRY_FOO
425
426 Explains why Autoconf moves from AC_TRY_COMPILE etc. to
427 AC_COMPILE_IFELSE and AC_LANG_PROGRAM etc.
428
429** autoreconf
430
431- Is more robust to different Gettext installations.
432
433- Produces messages (when --verbose) to be understood by Emacs'
434 compile mode.
435
436- Supports -W/--warnings.
437
438- -m/--make
439 Once the GNU Build System reinstalled, run `./config.status
440 --recheck && ./config.status && make' if possible.
441
442** autom4te
443
444- Supports --cache, and --no-cache.
445
446- ~/.autom4te.cfg makes it possible to disable the caching mechanism
447 (autom4te.cache). See `Customizing autom4te' in the documentation.
448
449** config.status
450 Supports --quiet.
451
452** Obsolete options
453
454 Support for the obsoleted options -m, --macrodir, -l, --localdir is
455 dropped in favor of the safer --include/--prepend-include scheme.
456
457** Macros
458
459- New macros
460 AC_COMPILER_IFELSE, AC_FUNC_MBRTOWC, AC_HEADER_STDBOOL,
461 AC_LANG_CONFTEST, AC_LANG_SOURCE, AC_LANG_PROGRAM, AC_LANG_CALL,
462 AC_LANG_FUNC_TRY_LINK, AC_MSG_FAILURE, AC_PREPROC_IFELSE.
463
464- Obsoleted
465 Obsoleted macros are kept for Autoconf backward compatibility, but
466 should be avoided in configure.ac. Running autoupdate is advised.
467 AC_DECL_SYS_SIGLIST.
468
469- AC_DEFINE/AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED
470
471 We have to stop using the old compatibility scheme --that tried to
472 avoid useless backslashes-- because Libtool 1.4.3 contains a
473
474 AC_DEFINE([error_t], [int],
475 [Define to a type to use for \`error_t' if it is not
476 otherwise available.])
477
478 We have to quote the single quotes and backslashes with \. The old
479 compatibility scheme saw that ` was backslashed, and therefore did
480 not quote the single quote... Failure. Hence, Autoconf 2.54 is not
481 compatible with Libtool. Autoconf 2.55 is, but in some cases might
482 produce more \ than wanted.
483
484 Please, note that in the future the same problem will happen with
485 AC_MSG_*: use `autoreconf -f -Wall'.
486
487** Bug Fixes
488
489- Portability of the Autoconf package to Solaris.
490
491- Spurious warnings caused by config.status.
492 This bug is benign, but painful: on some systems (typically
493 FreeBSD), warnings such as:
494
495 config.status: creating Makefile
496 mv: Makefile: set owner/group (was: 1357/0): Operation not permitted
497
498 could be issued. This is fixed.
499
500- Parallel Builds
501 Simultaneous executions of config.status are possible again.
502
503- Precious variables accumulation
504
505 config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
506 assignments.
507
508
509** Plans for later versions
510
511- ./configure <host>
512
513 The compatibility hooks with the old scheme will be completely
514 removed. Please, advice/use `--build', `--host', and `--target'
515 only.
516
517- AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS
518
519 The tests will be stricter, please make sure your invocations are
520 valid.
521
522- shell functions
523
524 Shell functions will gradually be introduced, probably starting with
525 Autotest. If you know machines which are in use that you suspect
526 *not* to support shell functions, please run the test suite of
527 Autoconf 2.55 on it, and report the results to
528 bug-autoconf@gnu.org.
529
530- AC_MSG_*
531
532 Special characters in AC_MSG_* need not be quoted. Currently,
533 Autoconf has heuristics to decide when a string is escaped, or has
534 to be escaped. This scheme is fragile, and will be removed; the
535 only risk is uglified messages. Please, run `autoreconf -f -Wall'
536 to find occurrences that will be affected.
537
538
539* Major changes in Autoconf 2.54
540
541 Released 2002-09-13 by Akim Demaille.
542
543** Executables
544
545- autoreconf no longer changes the version of the gettext/po/intl
546 support files. It now adds the files the correspond to the
547 AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION declared in configure.ac.
548
549 Warning: It now relies on the 'autopoint' program, which is part
550 of GNU gettext 0.11.4 and newer.
551
552 Please note that you need to have a GNU gettext version that
553 corresponds at least to the AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION declared
554 in configure.ac. You can upgrade to newer GNU gettext versions,
555 though, without needing to change configure.ac.
556
557- The -I DIR or --include=DIR option now appends DIR to the include path
558 instead of prepending; this is for consistency with other GNU tools.
559 The new -B DIR or --prepend-include=DIR option has the old behavior.
560
561** Macros
562
563- AC_OUTPUT
564 Now handles all the gory details about LIBOBJS and LTLIBOBJS.
565 Please, remove lines such as
566
567 # This is necessary so that .o files in LIBOBJS are also
568 # built via the ANSI2KNR-filtering rules.
569 LIBOBJS=`echo $LIBOBJS|sed 's/\.o /\$U.o /g;s/\.o$/\$U.o/'`
570
571 and read the `AC_LIBOBJ vs LIBOBJS' section. Do not define U in
572 your Makefiles either.
573
574- AC_CONFIG_LINKS now makes copies if it can't make links.
575
576- AC_FUNC_FNMATCH now tests only for POSIX compatibility, reverting to
577 Autoconf 2.13 behavior. The new macro AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU also
578 tests for GNU extensions to fnmatch, and replaces fnmatch if needed.
579
580- AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED no longer fails when cross-compiling.
581
582- AC_PROG_CC_STDC is integrated into AC_PROG_CC.
583
584- AC_PROG_F77 default search no longer includes cf77 and cfg77.
585
586- New macros
587
588 AC_C_BACKSLASH_A, AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR, AC_GNU_SOURCE,
589 AC_PROG_EGREP, AC_PROG_FGREP, AC_REPLACE_FNMATCH,
590 AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU, AC_FUNC_REALLOC, AC_TYPE_MBSTATE_T.
591
592- AC_FUNC_GETLOADAVG
593 looks for getloadavg.c in the CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR.
594
595- AC_FUNC_MALLOC
596 Now defines HAVE_MALLOC to 0 if `malloc' does not work, and asks
597 for an AC_LIBOBJ replacement.
598
599** Bug fixes
600
601- Spurious complaints from `m4_bmatch' about invalid regular
602 expressions are suppressed.
603
604- Empty top_builddirs are properly handled.
605
606- AC_CHECK_MEMBER works correctly when the member is an aggregate.
607
608- AC_PATH_PROG
609 Now colon in the optional path arguments are properly handled.
610
611** Improved portability
612
613- Both Autoconf the package, and the scripts it produces, should run
614 more reliably with Zsh. Bear in mind it is the default Bourne shell
615 on Darwin.
616
617- Autoconf and the scripts it produces no longer assume the existence of
618 the obsolescent commands egrep and fgrep.
619
620** Documentation
621
622- Limitations of Make
623 More of them.
624
625- GNATS
626 The GNATS base moved to
627 http://bugs.gnu.org/cgi-bin/gnatsweb.pl?database=autoconf
628 (It is no longer available, though.)
629
630** Misc.
631
632- config.log
633 Now contains the list of ouput variables and files (AC_SUBST,
634 AC_SUBST_FILES).
635
636
637* Major changes in Autoconf 2.53
638
639 Released 2002-03-08 by Akim Demaille.
640
641** Requirements
642
643 Perl 5.005_03 or later is required: autom4te is written in Perl and is
644 needed by autoconf. autoheader, autoreconf, ifnames, and autoscan are
645 rewritten in Perl.
646
647** Documentation
648
649- AC_INIT
650 Argument requirements, output variables, defined macros.
651- M4sugar, M4sh, Autotest
652 First sketch.
653- Double quoting macros
654 AC_TRY_CPP, AC_TRY_COMPILE, AC_TRY_LINK and AC_TRY_RUN.
655- Licensing
656 The Autoconf manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
657- Section `Hosts and Cross-Compilation'
658 Explains the rationale for the 2.5x changes in the cross-compilation
659 chain, and in the relationships between build, host, and target
660 types.
661 Emphasizes that `cross-compilation' == `--host is given'.
662 If you are working on compilers etc., be sure to read this section.
663- Section `AC_LIBOBJ vs. LIBOBJS'
664 Explains why assigning LIBOBJS directly is now an error.
665 Details how to update the code.
666
667** configure
668
669- $LINENO
670 Now used instead of hard coded line numbers.
671 This eases the comparison of `configure's, and diminishes the
672 pressure over control version archives.
673 Automatic replacement for shells that don't support this feature.
674- New output variables
675 @builddir@, @top_builddir@, @abs_srcdir@, @abs_top_srcdir@, @abs_builddir@,
676 @abs_top_builddir@.
677
678** Emacs
679
680 Autoconf and Autotest modes are provided.
681
682** Executables
683
684- autom4te
685 New, used by the Autoconf suite to cache and speed up most processing.
686- --force, -f
687 Supported by autom4te, autoconf and autoheader.
688- --include, -I
689 Replaces --autoconf-dir and --localdir in autoconf, autoheader,
690 autoupdate, and autoreconf.
691- autoreconf
692 No longer passes --cygnus, --foreign, --gnits, --gnu, --include-deps:
693 automake options are to be given via AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
694- autoreconf
695 Runs gettextize and libtoolize when appropriate.
696- autoreconf
697 --m4dir is no longer supported.
698- autoreconf
699 Now runs only in the specified directories, defaulting to `.',
700 but understands AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS for dependent directories.
701 Before, it used to run on all the `configure.ac' found in the
702 current tree.
703 Independent packages are properly updated.
704
705** Bug fixes
706
707- The top level $prefix is propagated to the AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS configures.
708- AC_TRY_RUN
709 Under the user pressure, $? is finally available. Probably a mistake.
710- AC_F77_LIBRARY_LDFLAGS now supports the HP/UX f90 compiler.
711- Precious variables accumulation
712 config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
713 assignments.
714- AC_PATH_PROG and family.
715 Works properly when given a literal path.
716- AC_FUNC_SETPGRP
717 Somewhere since 2.13, the result had been reversed.
718
719** C Macros
720
721- AC_C_BIGENDIAN supports the cross-compiling case.
722- AC_C_BIGENDIAN accepts ACTION-IF-TRUE, ACTION-IF-FALSE, and
723 ACTION-IF-UNKNOWN arguments. All are facultative, and the default
724 for ACTION-IF-TRUE is to define WORDS_BIGENDIAN like AC_C_BIGENDIAN
725 always did.
726- AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE now succeeds only if `long double' has more range or
727 precision than `double'.
728
729** Generic macros
730
731- AC_INIT
732 It now defines the preprocessor symbols PACKAGE_NAME,
733 PACKAGE_TARNAME, PACKAGE_VERSION, PACKAGE_STRING, and
734 PACKAGE_BUGREPORT.
735
736- AC_INIT
737 Admits a fourth optional parameter: the tar name.
738
739- AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS.
740 Provide the user with srcdir, ac_srcdir, ac_top_srcdir, ac_builddir,
741 ac_top_builddir, ac_abs_srcdir, ac_abs_top_srcdir, ac_abs_builddir,
742 ac_abs_top_builddir.
743
744- AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS and AC_OUTPUT.
745 Are much less expensive when using long lists of files.
746
747- AC_PREFIX_PROGRAM
748 Works with shell variables, and non alphanumeric names.
749
750** Library macros
751
752- AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R now sets STRERROR_R_CHAR_P, not HAVE_WORKING_STRERROR_R,
753 because POSIX 1003.1-200x draft 7 says strerror_r returns int, not char *.
754
755- AC_FUNC_STRTOD substitutes POW_LIB.
756
757- AC_FUNC_STRNLEN
758 New.
759
760
761* Major changes in Autoconf 2.52
762
763 Released 2001-07-18 by Akim Demaille.
764
765** Documentation
766- AC_ARG_VAR
767- Quadrigraphs
768 This feature was present in autoconf 2.50 but was not documented.
769 For example, `@<:@' is translated to `[' just before output. This
770 is useful when writing strings that contain unbalanced quotes, or
771 other hard-to-quote constructs.
772- m4_pattern_forbid, m4_pattern_allow
773- Tips for upgrading from 2.13.
774- Using autoscan to maintain a configure.ac.
775
776** Default includes
777- Now include stdint.h.
778- sys/types.h and sys/stat.h are guarded.
779- strings.h is included if available, and not conflicting with string.h.
780
781** Bug fixes
782- The test suite is more robust and presents less false failures.
783- Invocation of GNU M4 now robust to POSIXLY_CORRECT.
784- configure accepts --prefix='' again.
785- AC_CHECK_LIB works properly when its first argument is not a
786 literal.
787- HAVE_INTTYPES_H is defined only if not conflicting with sys/types.h.
788- build_, host_, and target_alias are AC_SUBST as in 2.13.
789- AC_ARG_VAR properly propagates precious variables inherited from the
790 environment to ./config.status.
791- Using --program-suffix/--program-prefix is portable.
792- Failures to detect the default compiler's output extension are less
793 likely.
794- `config.status foo' works properly when `foo' depends on variables
795 set in an AC_CONFIG_THING INIT-CMD.
796- autoheader is more robust to broken input.
797- Fixed Fortran name-mangling and link tests on a number of systems,
798 e.g. NetBSD; see AC_F77_DUMMY_MAIN, below.
799
800** Generic macros
801- AC_CHECK_HEADER and AC_CHECK_HEADERS support a fourth argument to
802 specify pre-includes. In this case, the headers are compiled with
803 cc, not merely preprocessed by cpp. Therefore it is the _usability_
804 of a header which is checked for, not just its availability.
805- AC_ARG_VAR refuses to run configure when precious variables have
806 changed.
807- Versions of compilers are dumped in the logs.
808- AC_CHECK_TYPE recognizes use of `foo_t' as a replacement type.
809
810** Specific Macros
811- AC_PATH_XTRA only adds -ldnet to $LIBS if it's needed to link.
812- AC_FUNC_WAIT3 and AC_SYS_RESTARTABLE_SYSCALLS are obsoleted.
813- AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_FNMATCH, AM_FUNC_MKTIME,
814 AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, and AM_FUNC_STRTOD are now activated.
815 Be sure to read `Upgrading from Version 2.13' to understand why
816 running `autoupdate' is needed.
817- AC_F77_DUMMY_MAIN, AC_F77_MAIN: new macros to detect whether
818 a main-like routine is required/possible when linking C/C++ with
819 Fortran. Users of e.g. AC_F77_WRAPPERS should be aware of these.
820- AC_FUNC_GETPGRG behaves better when cross-compiling.
821
822
823* Major changes in Autoconf 2.51
824There was no release of Autoconf 2.51 since some packagers had used
825this version number without permission to ship intermediary versions
826of 2.50. The version was skipped to avoid confusion.
827
828
829* Major changes in Autoconf 2.50
830
831 Released 2001-05-21 by Akim Demaille.
832
833** Lots of bug fixes
834There have been far too many to enumerate them here. Check out
835ChangeLog if you really want to know more.
836
837** Improved documentation
838In particular, portability issues are better covered.
839
840** Use of Automake
841All the standard GNU Makefile targets are supported. The layout has
842changed: m4/ holds the M4 extensions Autoconf needs for its
843configuration, doc/ contains the documentation, and tests/ contains
844the test suite.
845
846** Man pages are provided
847For autoconf, autoreconf, autoupdate, autoheader, autoscan, ifnames,
848config.guess, config.sub.
849
850** autoconf
851- --trace
852 Provides a safe and powerful means to trace the macro uses. This
853 provide the parsing layer for tools which need to `study'
854 configure.in.
855
856- --warnings
857 Specify what category of warnings should be enabled.
858
859- When recursing into subdirectories, try for configure.gnu before
860 configure to adapt for packages not using autoconf on case-insensitive
861 file systems.
862
863- Diagnostics
864 More errors are now caught (circular AC_REQUIRE dependencies,
865 AC_DEFINE in the action part of an AC_CACHE_CHECK, too many pops
866 etc.). In addition, their location and call stack are given.
867
868** autoupdate
869autoupdate is much more powerful, and is able to provide the glue code
870which might be needed to move from an old macro to its newer
871equivalent.
872
873You are strongly encouraged to use it to modernize both your
874`configure.in' and your .m4 extension files.
875
876** autoheader
877The internal machinery of autoheader has completely changed. As a
878result, using `acconfig.h' should be considered to be obsoleted, and
879you are encouraged to get rid of it using the AH macros.
880
881** autoreconf
882Extensive overhaul.
883
884** Fortran 77 compilers
885Globally, the support for Fortran 77 is considerably improved.
886
887Support for automatically determining a Fortran 77 compiler's
888name-mangling scheme. New CPP macros F77_FUNC and F77_FUNC_ are
889provided to wrap C/C++ identifiers, thus making it easier and more
890transparent for C/C++ to call Fortran 77 routines, and Fortran 77 to
891call C/C++ routines. See the Texinfo documentation for details.
892
893** Test suite
894The test suite no longer uses DejaGNU. It should be easy to submit
895test cases in this new framework.
896
897** configure
898- --help, --help=long, -hl
899 no longer dumps useless items.
900- --help=short, -hs
901 lists only specific options.
902- --help=recursive, -hr
903 displays the help of all the embedded packages.
904- Remembers environment variables when reconfiguring.
905 The previous scheme to set envvar before running configure was
906 ENV=VAL ./configure
907 what prevented configure from remembering the environment in which
908 it was run, therefore --recheck was run in an inconsistent
909 environment. Now, one should run
910 ./configure ENV=VAR
911 and then --recheck will work properly. Variables declared with
912 AC_ARG_VAR are also preserved.
913- cross-compilation
914 $build defaults to `config.guess`, $host to $build, and then $target
915 to $host.
916 Cross-compilation is a global status of the package, it no longer
917 depends upon the current language.
918 Cross compilation is enabled iff the user specified `--host'.
919 `configure' now fails if it can't run the executables it compiles,
920 unless cross-compilation is enabled.
921- Cache file
922 The cache file is disabled by default. The new options
923 `--config-cache', `-C' set the cache to `config.cache'.
924
925** config.status
926- faster
927 Much faster on most architectures.
928- concurrent executions
929 It is safe to use `make -j' with config.status.
930- human interface improved
931 It is possible to invoke
932 ./config.status foobar
933 instead of the former form (still valid)
934 CONFIG_COMMANDS= CONFIG_HEADERS= CONFIG_LINKS= \
935 CONFIG_FILES=foobar:foo.in:bar.in \
936 ./config.status
937 The same holds for configuration headers and links.
938 You can instantiate unknown files and headers:
939 ./config.status --header foo.h:foo.h.in --file bar:baz
940- has a useful --help
941- accepts special file name "-" for stdin/stdout
942
943
944** Identity Macros
945- AC_COPYRIGHT
946 Specify additional copyright information.
947
948- AC_INIT
949 Now expects the identity of the package as argument.
950
951** General changes.
952- Uniform quotation
953 Most macros, if not all, now strictly follow the `one quotation
954 level' rule. This results in a more predictable expansion.
955
956- AC_REQUIRE
957 A sly bug in the AC_REQUIRE machinery, which could produce incorrect
958 configure scripts, was fixed by Axel Thimm.
959
960** Setup Macros
961- AC_ARG_VAR
962 Document and ask for the registration of an envvar.
963
964- AC_CONFIG_SRCDIR
965 Specifies the file which `configure' should look for when trying to
966 find the source tree (used to be handled by AC_INIT).
967
968- AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS
969 To add new actions to config.status. Should be used instead of
970 AC_OUTPUT_COMMANDS.
971
972- AC_CONFIG_LINKS
973 Replaces AC_LINK_FILES.
974
975- AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS,
976 AC_CONFIG_LINKS, and AC_CONFIG_FILES
977 They now obey sh: you should no longer use shell variables as
978 argument. Instead of
979
980 test "$package_foo_enabled" = yes && $my_subdirs="$my_subdirs foo"
981 AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS($my_subdirs)
982
983 write
984
985 if test "$package_foo_enabled" = yes; then
986 AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS(foo)
987 fi
988
989- AC_HELP_STRING
990 To format an Autoconf macro's help string so that it looks pretty
991 when the user executes `configure --help'.
992
993
994** Generic Test Macros
995- AC_CHECK families
996 The interface of the AC_CHECK families of macros (decl, header,
997 type, member, func) is now uniform. They support the same set of
998 default includes.
999
1000- AC_CHECK_DECL, AC_CHECK_DECLS
1001 To check whether a symbol is declared.
1002
1003- AC_CHECK_SIZEOF, AC_C_CHAR_UNSIGNED.
1004 No longer need a cross-compilation default.
1005
1006- AC_CHECK_TYPE
1007 The test it performs is much more robust than previously, and makes
1008 it possible to test builtin types in addition to typedefs.
1009 It is now schizophrenic:
1010 - AC_CHECK_TYPE(TYPE, REPLACEMENT)
1011 remains for backward compatibility, but its use is discouraged.
1012 - AC_CHECK_TYPE(TYPE, IF-FOUND, IF-NOT-FOUND, INCLUDES)
1013 behaves exactly like the other AC_CHECK macros.
1014
1015- AC_CHECK_TYPES
1016 Checks whether given types are supported by the system.
1017
1018- AC_CHECK_MEMBER, AC_CHECK_MEMBERS
1019 Check for given members in aggregates (e.g., pw_gecos in struct
1020 passwd).
1021
1022- AC_PROG_CC_STDC
1023 Checks if the compiler supports ISO C, included when needs special
1024 options.
1025
1026- AC_PROG_CPP
1027 Checking whether the preprocessor indicates missing includes by the
1028 error code. stderr is checked by AC_TRY_CPP only as a fallback.
1029
1030- AC_LANG
1031 Takes a language as argument and replaces AC_LANG_C,
1032 AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS and AC_LANG_FORTRAN77.
1033
1034- AC_LANG_PUSH, AC_LANG_POP
1035 Are preferred to AC_LANG_SAVE, AC_LANG_RESTORE.
1036
1037** Specific Macros
1038- AC_FUNC_CHOWN, AC_FUNC_MALLOC, AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R,
1039 AC_FUNC_LSTAT_FOLLOWS_SLASHED_SYMLINK, AC_FUNC_STAT, AC_FUNC_LSTAT,
1040 AC_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AC_FUNC_OBSTACK, AC_FUNC_STRTOD, AC_FUNC_FSEEKO.
1041 New.
1042
1043- AC_FUNC_GETGROUPS
1044 Sets GETGROUPS_LIBS.
1045
1046- AC_FUNC_GETLOADAVG
1047 Defines `HAVE_STRUCT_NLIST_N_UN_N_NAME' instead of `NLIST_NAME_UNION'.
1048
1049- AC_PROG_LEX
1050 Now integrates `AC_DECL_YYTEXT' which is obsoleted.
1051
1052- AC_SYS_LARGEFILE
1053 Arrange for large-file support.
1054
1055- AC_EXEEXT, AC_OBJEXT
1056 You are no longer expected to use them: their computation is
1057 performed by default.
1058
1059** C++ compatibility
1060 Every macro has been revisited in order to support at best CC=c++.
1061
1062
1063Major changes in Autoconf 2.14:
1064 There was no release of GNU Autoconf 2.14.
1065
1066
1067Major changes in Autoconf 2.13:
1068
1069 Released 1999-05-01 by Ben Elliston.
1070
1071* Support for building on Win32 systems where the only available C or
1072 C++ compiler is the Microsoft Visual C++ command line compiler
1073 (`cl'). Additional support for building on Win32 systems which are
1074 using the Cygwin or Mingw32 environments.
1075* Support for alternative object file and executable file extensions.
1076 On Win32, for example, these are .obj and .exe. These are discovered
1077 using AC_OBJEXT and AC_EXEEXT, which substitute @OBJEXT@ and
1078 @EXEEXT@ in the output, respectively.
1079* New macros: AC_CACHE_LOAD, AC_CACHE_SAVE, AC_FUNC_SELECT_ARGTYPES,
1080 AC_VALIDATE_CACHED_SYSTEM_TUPLE, AC_SEARCH_LIBS, AC_TRY_LINK_FUNC,
1081 AC_C_STRINGIZE, AC_CHECK_FILE(S), AC_PROG_F77 (and friends).
1082* AC_DEFINE now has an optional third argument for a description to be
1083 placed in the config header input file (e.g. config.h.in).
1084* The C++ code fragment compiled for the C++ compiler test had to be
1085 improved to include an explicit return type for main(). This was
1086 causing failures on systems using recent versions of the EGCS C++
1087 compiler.
1088* Fixed an important bug in AC_CHECK_TYPE that would cause a configure
1089 script to report that `sometype_t' was present when only `type_t'
1090 was defined.
1091* Merge of the FSF version of config.guess and config.sub to modernize
1092 these scripts. Add support for a few new hosts in config.guess.
1093 Incorporate latest versions of install-sh, mkinstalldirs and
1094 texinfo.tex from the FSF.
1095* autoreconf is capable of running automake if necessary (and
1096 applicable).
1097* Support for Fortran 77. See the Texinfo documentation for details.
1098* Bug fixes and workarounds for quirky bugs in vendor utilities.
1099
1100
1101Major changes in Autoconf 2.12:
1102
1103 Released 1996-11-26 by David J. MacKenzie
1104
1105* AC_OUTPUT and AC_CONFIG_HEADER can create output files by
1106 concatenating multiple input files separated by colons, like so:
1107 AC_CONFIG_HEADER(config.h:conf.pre:config.h.in:conf.post)
1108 AC_OUTPUT(Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.rules)
1109 The arguments may be shell variables, to compute the lists on the fly.
1110* AC_LINK_FILES and AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS may be called multiple times.
1111* New macro AC_OUTPUT_COMMANDS adds more commands to run in config.status.
1112* Bug fixes.
1113
1114
1115Major changes in Autoconf 2.11:
1116
1117 Released November 18th, 1996, by David J. MacKenzie
1118
1119* AC_PROG_CC and AC_PROG_CXX check whether the compiler works.
1120 They also default CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS to "-g -O2" for gcc, instead of "-g -O".
1121* AC_REPLACE_FUNCS defines HAVE_foo if the system has the function `foo'.
1122* AC_CONFIG_HEADER expands shell variables in its argument.
1123* New macros: AC_FUNC_FNMATCH, AC_FUNC_SETPGRP.
1124* The "checking..." messages and the source code for test programs that
1125 fail are saved in config.log.
1126* Another workaround has been added for seds with small command length limits.
1127* config.sub and config.guess recognize more system types.
1128* Bug fixes.
1129
1130
1131Major changes in Autoconf 2.10:
1132
1133 Released May 7th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
1134
1135* Bug fixes.
1136* The cache variable names used by `AC_CHECK_LIB(LIB, FUNC, ...)' has
1137 changed: now $ac_cv_lib_LIB_FUNC, previously $ac_cv_lib_LIB.
1138
1139
1140Major changes in Autoconf 2.9:
1141
1142 Released March 16th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
1143
1144* Bug fixes.
1145
1146
1147Major changes in Autoconf 2.8:
1148
1149 Released March 8th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
1150
1151* Bug fixes.
1152
1153
1154Major changes in Autoconf 2.7:
1155
1156 Released November 22nd, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1157
1158* Bug fixes.
1159
1160
1161Major changes in Autoconf 2.6:
1162
1163 Released November 20th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1164
1165* Bug fixes.
1166
1167
1168Major changes in Autoconf 2.5:
1169
1170 Released November 17th, 1995, by Roland McGrath
1171
1172* New configure options --bindir, --libdir, --datadir, etc., with
1173 corresponding output variables.
1174* New macro: AC_CACHE_CHECK, to make using the cache easier.
1175* config.log contains the command being run as well as any output from it.
1176* AC_CHECK_LIB can check for libraries with "." or "/" or "+" in their name.
1177* AC_PROG_INSTALL doesn't cache a name for install-sh, for sharing caches.
1178* AC_CHECK_PROG, AC_PATH_PROG, AC_CHECK_PROGS, AC_PATH_PROGS, and
1179 AC_CHECK_TOOL can search a path other than $PATH.
1180* AC_CHECK_SIZEOF takes an optional size to use when cross-compiling.
1181
1182
1183Major changes in Autoconf 2.4:
1184
1185 Released June 14th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1186
1187* Fix a few bugs found by Emacs testers.
1188
1189
1190Major changes in Autoconf 2.3:
1191
1192 Released March 27th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1193
1194* Fix the cleanup trap in several ways.
1195* Handle C compilers that are picky about option placement.
1196* ifnames gets the version number from the right directory.
1197
1198
1199Major changes in Autoconf 2.2:
1200
1201 Released March 8th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1202
1203* The ifnames utility is much faster but requires a "new awk" interpreter.
1204* AC_CHECK_LIB and AC_HAVE_LIBRARY check and add the new
1205 library before existing libs, not after, in case it uses them.
1206* New macros: AC_FUNC_GETPGRP, AC_CHECK_TOOL.
1207* Lots of bug fixes.
1208* Many additions to the TODO file :-)
1209
1210
1211Major changes in Autoconf 2.1:
1212
1213 Released November 4th, 1994, by David J. MacKenzie
1214
1215* Fix C++ problems.
1216* More explanations in the manual.
1217* Fix a spurious failure in the testsuite.
1218* Clarify some warning messages.
1219* autoreconf by default only rebuilds configure and config.h.in files
1220 that are older than any of their particular input files; there is a
1221 --force option to use after installing a new version of Autoconf.
1222
1223
1224Thanks to everybody who's submitted changes and additions to Autoconf!
1225I've incorporated many of them, and am still considering others for
1226future releases -- but I didn't want to postpone this release indefinitely.
1227
1228Caution: don't indiscriminately rebuild configure scripts with
1229Autoconf version 2. Some configure.in files need minor adjustments to
1230work with it; the documentation has a chapter on upgrading. A few
1231configure.in files, including those for GNU Emacs and the GNU C
1232Library, need major changes because they relied on undocumented
1233internals of version 1. Future releases of those packages will have
1234updated configure.in files.
1235
1236It's best to use GNU M4 1.3 (or later) with Autoconf version 2.
1237Autoconf now makes heavy use of M4 diversions, which were implemented
1238inefficiently in GNU M4 releases before 1.3.
1239
1240
1241Major changes in Autoconf 2.0:
1242
1243 Released October 26th, 1994, by David J. MacKenzie
1244
1245** New copyright terms:
1246* There are no restrictions on distribution or use of configure scripts.
1247
1248** Documentation:
1249* Autoconf manual is reorganized to make information easier to find
1250 and has several new indexes.
1251* INSTALL is reorganized and clearer and is now made from Texinfo source.
1252
1253** New utilities:
1254* autoscan to generate a preliminary configure.in for a package by
1255 scanning its source code for commonly used nonportable functions,
1256 programs, and header files.
1257* ifnames to list the symbols used in #if and #ifdef directives in a
1258 source tree.
1259* autoupdate to update a configure.in to use the version 2 macro names.
1260* autoreconf to recursively remake configure and configuration header
1261 files in a source tree.
1262
1263** Changed utilities:
1264* autoheader can take pieces of acconfig.h to replace config.h.{top,bot}.
1265* autoconf and autoheader can look for package-local definition files
1266 in an alternate directory.
1267
1268** New macros:
1269* AC_CACHE_VAL to share results of tests between configure runs.
1270* AC_DEFUN to define macros, automatically AC_PROVIDE them, and ensure
1271 that macros invoked with AC_REQUIRE don't interrupt other macros.
1272* AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR, AC_CANONICAL_SYSTEM, AC_CANONICAL_HOST, AC_LINK_FILES to
1273 support deciding unguessable features based on the host and target types.
1274* AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS to recursively configure a source tree.
1275* AC_ARG_PROGRAM to use the options --program-prefix,
1276 --program-suffix, and --program-transform-name to change the names
1277 of programs being installed.
1278* AC_PREFIX_DEFAULT to change the default installation prefix.
1279* AC_TRY_COMPILE to compile a test program without linking it.
1280* AC_CHECK_TYPE to check whether sys/types.h or stdlib.h defines a given type.
1281* AC_CHECK_LIB to check for a particular function and library.
1282* AC_MSG_CHECKING and AC_MSG_RESULT to print test results, on a single line,
1283 whether or not the test succeeds. They obsolete AC_CHECKING and AC_VERBOSE.
1284* AC_SUBST_FILE to insert one file into another.
1285* AC_FUNC_MEMCMP to check whether memcmp is 8-bit clean.
1286* AC_FUNC_STRFTIME to find strftime even if it's in -lintl.
1287* AC_FUNC_GETMNTENT to find getmntent even if it's in -lsun or -lseq.
1288* AC_HEADER_SYS_WAIT to check whether sys/wait.h is POSIX.1 compatible.
1289
1290** Changed macros:
1291* Many macros renamed systematically, but old names are accepted for
1292 backward compatibility.
1293* AC_OUTPUT adds the "automatically generated" comment to
1294 non-Makefiles where it finds @configure_input@ in an input file, to
1295 support files with various comment syntaxes.
1296* AC_OUTPUT does not replace "prefix" and "exec_prefix" in generated
1297 files when they are not enclosed in @ signs.
1298* AC_OUTPUT allows the optional environment variable CONFIG_STATUS to
1299 override the file name "config.status".
1300* AC_OUTPUT takes an optional argument for passing variables from
1301 configure to config.status.
1302* AC_OUTPUT and AC_CONFIG_HEADER allow you to override the input-file names.
1303* AC_OUTPUT automatically substitutes the values of CFLAGS, CXXFLAGS,
1304 CPPFLAGS, and LDFLAGS from the environment.
1305* AC_PROG_CC and AC_PROG_CXX now set CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS, respectively.
1306* AC_PROG_INSTALL looks for install-sh or install.sh in the directory
1307 specified by AC_CONFIG_AUXDIR, or srcdir or srcdir/.. or
1308 srcdir/../.. by default.
1309* AC_DEFINE, AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED, and AC_SUBST are more robust and smaller.
1310* AC_DEFINE no longer prints anything, because of the new result reporting
1311 mechanism (AC_MSG_CHECKING and AC_MSG_RESULT).
1312* AC_VERBOSE pays attention to --quiet/--silent, not --verbose.
1313* AC_ARG_ENABLE and AC_ARG_WITH support whitespace in the arguments to
1314 --enable- and --with- options.
1315* AC_CHECK_FUNCS and AC_CHECK_HEADERS take optional shell commands to
1316 execute on success or failure.
1317* Checking for C functions in C++ works.
1318
1319** Removed macros:
1320* AC_REMOTE_TAPE and AC_RSH removed; too specific to tar and cpio, and
1321 better maintained with them.
1322* AC_ARG_ARRAY removed because no one was likely using it.
1323* AC_HAVE_POUNDBANG replaced with AC_SYS_INTERPRETER, which doesn't
1324 take arguments, for consistency with all of the other specific checks.
1325
1326** New files:
1327* Comes with config.sub and config.guess, and uses them optionally.
1328* Uses config.cache to cache test results. An alternate cache file
1329 can be selected with the --cache-file=FILE option.
1330* Uses optional shell scripts $prefix/share/config.site and
1331 $prefix/etc/config.site to perform site or system specific initializations.
1332* configure saves compiler output to ./config.log for debugging.
1333* New files autoconf.m4 and autoheader.m4 load the other Autoconf macros.
1334* acsite.m4 is the new name for the system-wide aclocal.m4.
1335* Has a DejaGnu test suite.
1336
1337
1338Major changes in Autoconf 1.11:
1339
1340* AC_PROG_INSTALL calls install.sh with the -c option.
1341* AC_SET_MAKE cleans up after itself.
1342* AC_OUTPUT sets prefix and exec_prefix if they weren't set already.
1343* AC_OUTPUT prevents shells from looking in PATH for config.status.
1344
1345Plus a few other bug fixes.
1346
1347
1348Major changes in Autoconf 1.10:
1349
1350* autoheader uses config.h.bot if present, analogous to config.h.top.
1351* AC_PROG_INSTALL looks for install.sh in srcdir or srcdir/.. and
1352 never uses cp.
1353* AC_PROG_CXX looks for cxx as a C++ compiler.
1354
1355Plus several bugs fixed.
1356
1357
1358Major changes in Autoconf 1.9:
1359
1360* AC_YYTEXT_POINTER replaces AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT.
1361* AC_SIZEOF_TYPE generates the cpp symbol name automatically,
1362 and autoheader generates entries for those names automatically.
1363* AC_FIND_X gets the result from xmkmf correctly.
1364* AC_FIND_X assumes no X if --without-x was given.
1365* AC_FIND_XTRA adds libraries to the variable X_EXTRA_LIBS.
1366* AC_PROG_INSTALL finds OSF/1 installbsd.
1367
1368
1369Major changes in Autoconf 1.8:
1370
1371** New macros:
1372* New macros AC_LANG_C, AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS, AC_LANG_SAVE, AC_LANG_RESTORE,
1373 AC_PROG_CXX, AC_PROG_CXXCPP, AC_REQUIRE_CPP
1374 for checking both C++ and C features in one configure script.
1375* New macros AC_CHECKING, AC_VERBOSE, AC_WARN, AC_ERROR for printing messages.
1376* New macros AC_FIND_XTRA, AC_MMAP, AC_SIZEOF_TYPE, AC_PREREQ,
1377 AC_SET_MAKE, AC_ENABLE.
1378
1379** Changed macros:
1380* AC_FIND_X looks for X in more places.
1381* AC_PROG_INSTALL defaults to install.sh instead of cp, if it's in srcdir.
1382 install.sh is distributed with Autoconf.
1383* AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT has been removed because it can't work, pending
1384 a rewrite of quoting in AC_DEFINE.
1385* AC_OUTPUT adds its comments in C format when substituting in C files.
1386* AC_COMPILE_CHECK protects its ECHO-TEXT argument with double quotes.
1387
1388** New or changed command line options:
1389* configure accepts --enable-FEATURE[=ARG] and --disable-FEATURE options.
1390* configure accepts --without-PACKAGE, which sets withval=no.
1391* configure accepts --x-includes=DIR and --x-libraries=DIR.
1392* Giving --with-PACKAGE no argument sets withval=yes instead of withval=1.
1393* configure accepts --help, --version, --silent/--quiet, --no-create options.
1394* configure accepts and ignores most other Cygnus configure options, and
1395 warns about unknown options.
1396* config.status accepts --help, --version options.
1397
1398** File names and other changes:
1399* Relative srcdir values are not made absolute.
1400* The values of @prefix@ and @exec_prefix@ and @top_srcdir@ get substituted.
1401* Autoconf library files are installed in ${datadir}/autoconf, not ${datadir}.
1402* autoheader optionally copies config.h.top to the beginning of config.h.in.
1403* The example Makefile dependencies for configure et al. work better.
1404* Namespace cleanup: all shell variables used internally by Autoconf
1405 have names beginning with `ac_'.
1406
1407More big improvements are in process for future releases, but have not
1408yet been (variously) finished, integrated, tested, or documented enough
1409to release yet.
1410
1411
1412Major changes in Autoconf 1.7:
1413
1414* New macro AC_OBSOLETE.
1415* Bugs in Makefile.in fixed.
1416* AC_LONG_FILE_NAMES improved.
1417
1418
1419Major changes in Autoconf 1.6:
1420
1421* New macro AC_LONG_64_BITS.
1422* Multiple .h files can be created.
1423* AC_FIND_X looks for X files directly if it doesn't find xmkmf.
1424* AC_ALLOCA defines C_ALLOCA if using alloca.c.
1425* --with-NAME can take a value, e.g., --with-targets=sun4,hp300bsd.
1426* Unused --no-create option to configure removed.
1427* autoheader doesn't change the timestamp of its output file if
1428 the file didn't change.
1429* All macros that look for libraries now use AC_HAVE_LIBRARY.
1430* config.status checks three optional environment variables to
1431 modify its behavior.
1432* The usual bug fixes.
1433
1434
1435Major changes in Autoconf 1.5:
1436
1437* New macros AC_FIND_X, AC_OFF_T, AC_STAT_MACROS_BROKEN, AC_REVISION.
1438* autoconf and autoheader scripts have GNU standards conforming
1439 --version and --help options (they print their message and exit).
1440* Many bug fixes.
1441
1442
1443Major changes in Autoconf 1.4:
1444
1445* New macros AC_HAVE_POUNDBANG, AC_TIME_WITH_SYS_TIME, AC_LONG_DOUBLE,
1446 AC_GETGROUPS_T, AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED.
1447* autoconf and autoheader use the M4 environment variable to determine the
1448 name of the M4 program to use.
1449* The --macrodir option to autoconf and autoheader specifies the directory
1450 in which acspecific.m4, acgeneral.m4, etc. reside if not the default.
1451* autoconf and autoheader can take `-' as their file names, which means to
1452 read stdin as input.
1453* Resulting configure scripts can take a --verbose option which causes them
1454 to print the results of their tests.
1455* AC_DEFINE quotes its second argument in such a way that spaces, magic
1456 shell characters, etc. will be preserved during various stages of
1457 expansion done by the shell. If you don't want this, use
1458 AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED instead.
1459* Much textual processing done with external calls to tr and sed have been
1460 internalized with builtin M4 `patsubst' and `translit' calls.
1461* AC_OUTPUT doesn't hardwire the file names it outputs. Instead, you can
1462 set the shell variables `gen_files' and `gen_config' to the list of
1463 file names to output.
1464* AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT does an AC_SUBST of `LEX_OUTPUT_ROOT', which may be
1465 "lex.yy" or "lexyy", depending on the system.
1466* AC_PROGRAMS_CHECK takes an optional third arg. If given, it is used as
1467 the default value.
1468* If AC_ALLOCA chooses alloca.c, it also defines STACK_DIRECTION.
1469* AC_CONST works much more reliably on more systems.
1470* Many bug fixes.
1471
1472
1473Major changes in Autoconf 1.3:
1474
1475configure no longer requires awk for packages that use a config.h.
1476Support handling --with-PACKAGE options.
1477New `autoheader' script to create `config.h.in' from `configure.in'.
1478Ignore troublesome -lucb and -lPW when searching for alloca.
1479Rename --exec_prefix to --exec-prefix for GNU standards conformance.
1480Improve detection of STDC library.
1481Add AC_HAVE_LIBRARY to check for non-default libraries.
1482Function checking should work with future GNU libc releases.
1483
1484
1485Major changes in Autoconf 1.2:
1486
1487The --srcdir option is now usually unnecessary.
1488Add a file containing sample comments describing CPP macros.
1489A comment in config.status tells which host it was configured on.
1490Substituted variable values can now contain commas.
1491Fix bugs in various feature checks.
1492
1493
1494Major changes in Autoconf 1.1:
1495
1496Added AC_STRCOLL macro.
1497Made AC_GETLOADAVG check for more things.
1498AC_OUTPUT argument is now optional.
1499Various bug fixes.
1500
1501-----
1502
1503Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,
15042003, 2004, 2005, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1505
1506This file is part of GNU Autoconf.
1507
1508GNU Autoconf is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
1509it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1510the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
1511any later version.
1512
1513GNU Autoconf is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1514but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1515MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1516GNU General Public License for more details.
1517
1518You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1519along with GNU Autoconf; see the file COPYING. If not, write to
1520the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
1521Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
1522
1523Local Variables:
1524mode: outline
1525End:
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