1 GNU Autoconf NEWS - User visible changes.
3 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.62a (2008-??-??)
5 ** AC_PATH_X now includes /lib64 and /usr/lib64 in its list of default
8 ** Newly obsolete macros
9 The following macro has been marked obsolete, since current porting
10 targets can safely assume C89 semantics that signal handlers return
11 void. We have no current plans to remove the macro.
15 ** Clients of m4_expand, such as AS_HELP_STRING and AT_SETUP, can now
16 handle properly quoted but otherwise unbalanced parentheses (for
17 some macros, this fixes a regression in 2.62).
19 ** Two new quadrigraphs have been introduced: @{:@ for (, and @:}@ for ),
20 allowing the output of unbalanced parantheses in more contexts.
22 ** The following m4sugar macros are new:
25 ** AT_KEYWORDS once again performs expansion on its argument, such that
26 AT_KEYWORDS([m4_if([$1], [], [default])]) no longer complains about
27 the possibly unexpanded m4_if [regression introduced in 2.62].
29 ** Config header templates `#undef UNDEFINED /* comment */' do not lead to
30 nested comments any more; regression introduced in 2.62.
33 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.62 (2008-04-05) [stable]
34 Released by Eric Blake, based on git versions 2.61a.*.
36 ** Many optimizations have been applied to make overall execution faster.
38 ** Autotest now makes use of shell functions.
40 ** config.status now uses awk instead of sed also for config headers.
42 - As a side effect, AC_DEFINE and AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED now handle multi-line
43 values, i.e., backslash-newline combinations are handled correctly.
44 Further, for config headers, the total size of values is not limited by
45 the POSIX length limit of text lines any more, only each single line.
47 ** New config variable `top_build_prefix'.
49 ** New Autoconf macros:
50 AC_AUTOCONF_VERSION AC_OPENMP AC_PATH_PROGS_FEATURE_CHECK
52 ** AC_C_BIGENDIAN now supports universal binaries a la Mac OS X.
54 ** AC_C_RESTRICT now prefers to #define 'restrict' to a variant spelling
55 like '__restrict' if the variant spelling is available, as this is
56 more likely to work when mixing C and C++ code.
58 ** AC_CHECK_ALIGNOF's type argument T is now documented better: it must
59 be a string of tokens such that "T y;" is a valid member declaration
62 ** AC_CHECK_SIZEOF now accepts objects as well as types: the general rule
63 is that sizeof (X) works, then AC_CHECK_SIZEOF (X) should work.
65 ** AC_CHECK_TYPE and AC_CHECK_TYPES now work on any C type-name; formerly,
66 they did not work for function types. In C++, they now work on any
67 type-id that can be the operand of sizeof; this is similar to C,
68 except it excludes anonymous struct and union types. Formerly,
69 some (but not all) C++ types involving anonymous struct and union
70 were accepted, though this was not documented.
72 ** AC_CONFIG_LINKS now prefers to link against files in the build tree
73 if found, and it works to link against a file of the same name in
74 the source tree, even if both trees coincide.
76 ** AC_INIT no longer alters $@; regression introduced in 2.60.
78 ** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS now defines _ALL_SOURCE for Interix platforms.
80 ** AS_HELP_STRING no longer underquotes its first argument; it also handles
81 the case where the first argument contains single-quoted commas.
82 For example, "AS_HELP_STRING([-a, [--arg[=foo]]], [bar])" produces:
83 " -a, --arg[=foo] bar"
84 Additionally, the macro now takes two additional arguments,
85 indent-column and wrap-column; these should not normally be needed,
86 but can be used to fine-tune how the output text is wrapped.
88 ** AC_PROG_INSTALL now requires an install program that can install multiple
89 files into a target directory.
91 ** The command 'autoconf -' now correctly processes a file from stdin.
93 ** 'autoreconf -m' now honors $MAKE.
95 ** For all of the directory arguments for 'configure', such as '--prefix'
96 or '--bindir', trailing slashes are stripped. As an example, if
97 tab completion in the user's shell appends trailing slashes, the
98 command './configure --prefix=/usr/' will still result in an
99 expanded libdir value of /usr/lib, not /usr//lib.
101 ** `configure --help=recursive' now works in read-only trees and from
102 unconfigured build trees.
104 ** If precious variables differ only in whitespace, then the cache consistency
105 check warns instead of fails, and reuses the old value.
107 ** AT_BANNER is now documented.
109 ** AT_SETUP now handles macro expansions properly when calculating line
112 ** Autotest now determines $srcdir correctly.
114 ** Testsuites built by autotest now accept a -C/--directory=DIR option
115 to adjust the working directory prior to creating files.
117 ** Autoconf now requires GNU M4 1.4.5 or later. Earlier versions of M4 have
118 a bug in macro tracing that interferes with the interaction between
119 Autoconf and Automake. GNU M4 1.4.11 or later is recommended. The
120 configure search for a working M4 is improved.
122 ** For portability with the eventual M4 2.0, macros should no longer use
123 anything larger than $9 to refer to arguments.
125 ** Documentation for m4sugar is improved.
127 - The following macros were previously available as undocumented
128 interfaces; the macros are now documented as stable interfaces.
130 __oline__ m4_assert m4_bmatch m4_bpatsubsts m4_car m4_case
131 m4_cdr m4_default m4_divert_once m4_divert_pop m4_divert_push
132 m4_divert_text m4_do m4_errprintn m4_fatal m4_flatten
133 m4_ifndef m4_ifset m4_ifval m4_ifvaln m4_location
134 m4_n m4_shiftn m4_strip m4_warn
136 - The following macros were previously available as undocumented
137 interfaces, but had bug fixes or semantic changes as part of this
138 release. Packages that relied on the undocumented behavior
139 should be analyzed to make sure they will still work with the
140 new documented behavior.
142 m4_cmp m4_list_cmp m4_join m4_map m4_map_sep m4_sign
143 m4_text_box m4_text_wrap m4_version_compare
145 - The m4_wrap macro used to have unspecified order, but now
146 guarantees FIFO order. m4_wrap_lifo was added to guarantee LIFO
149 - Packages using the undocumented m4sugar macro m4_PACKAGE_VERSION
150 should consider using the new AC_AUTOCONF_VERSION instead.
152 - m4sugar macros that are not documented in the manual are still
153 deemed experimental, and should not be used outside of Autoconf.
155 ** The m4sugar macros m4_append and m4_append_uniq, first documented in
156 2.60, have been fixed to treat both the string and the separator
157 arguments consistently with regards to quoting. Prior to this fix,
158 m4_append_uniq could mistakenly duplicate entries if the expansion
159 of the separator resulted in a different string (for example, if it
160 contained quotes, a comma, or a macro name). However, it means
161 that programs previously using
162 m4_append([name], [string], [[, ]])
163 are now using a four-character separator instead of the intended
164 comma and space. If you need portability to earlier versions of
165 Autoconf, you can insert the following snippet after AC_INIT but
166 before any other macro expansions, to enforce the new semantics:
167 m4_pushdef([m4_append], [m4_define([$1],
168 m4_ifdef([$1], [m4_defn([$1])[$3]])[$2])])
169 Additionally, m4_append_uniq now takes optional parameters that can
170 be used to take action depending on whether anything was appended,
171 and warns if a non-empty separator occurs within the string being
172 appended, since that can lead to duplicates.
174 ** The following m4sugar macros are new:
175 m4_append_uniq_w m4_apply m4_combine m4_cond m4_count
176 m4_dquote_elt m4_echo m4_expand m4_ignore m4_make_list m4_max
177 m4_min m4_newline m4_shift2 m4_shift3 m4_unquote m4_wrap_lifo
179 ** Warnings are now generated by default when an installer invokes
180 'configure' with an unknown --enable-* or --with-* option.
181 These warnings can be disabled with the new AC_DISABLE_OPTION_CHECKING
182 macro, or by invoking 'configure' with --disable-option-checking.
184 ** Existing obsolete macros
185 The documentation for the following macros is adjusted to make it
186 more clear that they have previously been marked obsolete, as their
187 functionality can be accomplished by other macros. We have no
188 current plans to remove them from Autoconf.
190 AC_ENABLE AC_STRUCT_ST_BLKSIZE AC_STRUCT_ST_RDEV AC_WITH
192 ** Newly obsolete macros
193 The following macros have been marked obsolete, as they only
194 perform a subset of AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS. We have no current
195 plans to remove them.
197 AC_AIX AC_GNU_SOURCE AC_ISC_POSIX AC_MINIX
199 ** AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE is obsolescent.
200 The documentation now says that AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE is obsolescent: it
201 tests for problems that are so old that it is no longer of
202 practical importance on current systems. New programs need not use
203 AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE. We have no current plans to remove it.
205 ** AC_DIAGNOSE, AC_WARNING, and AC_FATAL are obsolescent.
206 The documentation now favors the use of M4sugar macros m4_warn and
207 m4_fatal, since the naming makes it more obvious that the
208 diagnostics are associated with M4 expansion (ie. when running
209 `autoconf'), and offers less confusion with the AC_MSG_ERROR,
210 AC_MSG_FAILURE, and AC_MSG_WARN macros which manage diagnostics
211 when running `configure'. We have no current plans to remove these
215 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.61a (2006-12-11)
217 ** AC_FUNC_FSEEKO was broken in 2.61; it didn't make fseeko and ftello visible
218 on many platforms. This has been fixed.
220 ** AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED is now obsolete. It is still defined for backward
221 compatibility but it does nothing. The macro was already
222 obsolescent, as the last systems to have the problem were those
223 based on SVR2, which became obsolete in 1987. The macro had bugs
224 on some modern systems and could no longer be maintained reliably
225 due to lack of ancient systems to test it on.
227 ** config.status now uses awk instead of sed for most substitutions, for speed.
229 - As a side effect multi-line values of substituted variables no
230 longer have a small limit in total size, though for portability
231 each line should not exceed the POSIX length limit for text lines.
233 - It is now documented that Makefile.in should not contain
234 overlapping variable occurrences, e.g., @VAR1@VAR2@.
235 Autoconf's behavior was always iffy in such cases, and the
236 awk implementation has changed the behavior.
238 ** Many uses of 'echo' have been rewritten so that Autoconf-generated
239 scripts have fewer problems with strings or file names containing
240 embedded special characters such as backslash or leading "-". This
241 was implemented by using `printf '%s\n' "$foo"' instead of `echo
242 "$foo"' when printf works. Due to the implementation technique
243 used, Autoconf-generated scripts now run considerably more slowly
244 on ancient implementations lacking printf. However, this should
245 not be a problem, since Autoconf-generated scripts in practice
246 invariably find a more-modern shell these days.
249 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.61 (2006-11-17)
251 ** New macros AC_C_FLEXIBLE_ARRAY_MEMBER, AC_C_VARARRAYS.
253 ** AC_ARG_ENABLE and AC_ARG_WITH now allow '.' in feature and package names.
256 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.60b (2006-10-22)
259 Autoconf-generated shell scripts no longer export BIN_SH, due to
260 configuration hassles with this. Installers who need BIN_SH in
261 their environment should set it before invoking 'configure' and
262 'make'. As far as we know, this affects only Unixware installations.
264 ** Obsolescent macros
265 The documentation now says that the following macros are obsolescent,
266 as they are superseded by Gnulib:
268 AC_FUNC_FNMATCH AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU AC_FUNC_GETLOADVG AC_REPLACE_FNMATCH
270 New programs should use the Gnulib counterparts of these macros.
271 We have no current plans to remove them from Autoconf.
273 ** AC_COMPUTE_INT no longer caches or reports results.
275 ** AC_CHECK_DECL now also works with aggregate objects.
277 ** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS now defines _TANDEM_SOURCE for NonStop platforms.
279 ** GNU M4 1.4.7 or later is now recommended.
282 New M4sugar macro, which is more secure than the POSIX M4 maketemp.
285 Now an alias for m4_mkstemp.
287 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.60a (2006-08-25)
289 ** GNU M4 1.4.6 or later is now recommended.
291 ** The check for C99 now tests for varargs macros, as documented.
292 It also tests that the preprocessor supports 64-bit integers.
294 ** Autoconf now uses constructs like "#ifdef HAVE_STDLIB_H" rather than
295 "#if HAVE_STDLIB_H", so that it now works with "gcc -Wundef -Werror".
297 ** The functionality of the undocumented _AC_COMPUTE_INT is now provided
298 by a public and documented macro, AC_COMPUTE_INT. The parameters to the
299 two macros are different, so autoupdate will not change the old private name
300 to the new one. _AC_COMPUTE_INT may be removed in a future release.
302 ** AC_TYPE_LONG_LONG_INT and AC_TYPE_UNSIGNED_LONG_LONG_INT now require
303 that long long types be at least 64 bits wide, as C99 and tradition
304 requires. Formerly, they accepted implementations of any width.
307 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.60
309 Released 2006-06-23, by Ralf Wildenhues.
311 ** Autoconf no longer depends on whether m4wrap is FIFO (as Posix requires)
312 or LIFO (as in GNU M4 1.4.x). GNU M4 2.0 is expected to conform to Posix
313 here, so m4wrap/m4_wrap users should no longer depend on LIFO behavior.
315 ** Provide a way to turn off warnings about the changed directory variables.
317 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59d
319 Released 2006-06-05, by Ralf Wildenhues.
321 ** GNU make now recommended for VPATH builds
322 INSTALL now suggests VPATH builds (e.g., "sh ../srcdir/configure")
323 only if you use GNU make. In practice, other 'make' implementations
324 have too many subtle incompatibilities in their support for VPATH.
325 Many packages (including Autoconf itself) are portable to other
326 'make' implementations, but some packages are not, and recommending
327 GNU make keeps the installation instructions simpler.
329 ** Even more safety checks for the new Directory variables:
330 Warn about suspicious `${datarootdir}' found in config files output.
332 ** AC_TRY_COMMAND, AC_TRY_EVAL, ac_config_guess, ac_config_sub, ac_configure
333 These never-documented macros and variables have been marked with
334 comments saying that they may be removed in a future release,
335 because their use can lead to unintended code being executed.
336 If you need functionality that only these macros or variables
337 currently supply, please write bug-autoconf@gnu.org.
339 ** AC_SUBST, AC_DEFINE
340 Literal arguments to these are passed to m4_pattern_allow now.
343 Passing 'ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc=no' to 'configure' now sets ac_cv_prog_cc_c99
344 and ac_cv_prog_cc_c89 to 'no' as well, for backward compatibility with
345 obsolete K&R tests in the Automake test suite.
354 Now more robust with special characters in file names, or when
355 multiple processes create the same directory at the same time.
357 ** Obsolescent macros
358 The documentation now says that the following macros are obsolescent:
359 they test for problems that are so old that they are no longer of
360 practical importance on current systems.
362 AC_C_BACKSLASH_A AC_FUNC_MEMCMP AC_HEADER_DIRENT
363 AC_C_CONST AC_FUNC_SELECT_ARGTYPES AC_HEADER_STAT
364 AC_C_PROTOTYPES AC_FUNC_SETPGRP AC_HEADER_STDC
365 AC_C_STRINGIZE AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED AC_HEADER_SYS_WAIT
366 AC_C_VOLATILE AC_FUNC_STAT AC_HEADER_TIME
367 AC_FUNC_CLOSEDIR_VOID AC_FUNC_STRFTIME AC_ISC_POSIX
368 AC_FUNC_GETPGRP AC_FUNC_UTIME_NULL AC_PROG_GCC_TRADITIONAL
369 AC_FUNC_LSTAT AC_FUNC_VPRINTF AC_STRUCT_TM
371 New programs need not use these macros. We have no current plans to
375 For compatibility with future Libtool 2.0, autoreconf will invoke
376 libtoolize with the option `--ltdl' now, if LT_CONFIG_LTDL_DIR is
379 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59c
381 Released 2006-04-12, by Ralf Wildenhues.
383 ** The configure command now redirects standard input from /dev/null,
384 to help avoid problems with subsidiary commands that might mistakenly
385 read standard input. AS_ORIGINAL_STDIN_FD points to the original
386 standard input before this redirection, if you really want configure to
387 read from standard input.
389 ** Directory variables adjusted to recent changes in the GNU Coding Standards.
390 The following directory variables are new:
392 datarootdir read-only architecture-independent data root [PREFIX/share]
393 localedir locale-specific message catalogs [DATAROOTDIR/locale]
394 docdir documentation root [DATAROOTDIR/doc/PACKAGE]
395 htmldir html documentation [DOCDIR]
396 dvidir dvi documentation [DOCDIR]
397 pdfdir pdf documentation [DOCDIR]
398 psdir ps documentation [DOCDIR]
400 The following variables have new default values:
402 datadir read-only architecture-independent data [DATAROOTDIR]
403 infodir info documentation [DATAROOTDIR/info]
404 mandir man documentation [DATAROOTDIR/man]
406 This means that if you use any of `@datadir@', `@infodir@', or
407 `@mandir@' in a file, you will have to ensure `${datarootdir}' is
408 defined in this file. As a temporary measure, if any of those are
409 found but no mention of `datarootdir', the substitutions will be
410 replaced with values that do not contain `${datarootdir}', and a
411 warning will be issued.
413 ** @top_builddir@ is now a dir name: it is always nonempty and doesn't have
414 a trailing slash. Similar change will be made to ac_top_builddir in a
415 future release; the old style value, which matches (../)*, is (and will
416 continue to be) available as ac_top_build_prefix.
419 New macro to check for support of 'typeof' syntax a la GNU C.
421 ** AC_CHECK_DECLS_ONCE, AC_CHECK_FUNCS_ONCE, AC_CHECK_HEADERS_ONCE
422 New "once-only" variants of commonly-used macros, to make 'configure'
423 smaller and faster in common cases.
426 New macro to check for strtold with C99 semantics.
429 New macro that lets builder disable assertions at 'configure'-time.
432 Now checks for X11/Xlib.h and XrmInitialize (X proper) rather than
433 X11/Intrinsic.h and XtMalloc (Xt).
435 ** AC_PRESERVE_HELP_ORDER
436 New macro that causes `configure' to display help strings for AC_ARG_ENABLE
437 and AC_ARG_WITH arguments in one region, in the order defined. The default
438 behavior is to group options of each classes separately.
440 ** AC_PROG_CC, AC_PROG_CXX
441 No longer automatically arrange to declare the 'exit' function of C,
442 when a C++ compiler is used. Standard Autoconf macros no longer use
443 'exit', so this is no longer an issue for them. If you use C++, and
444 want to call 'exit', you'll have to arrange for its declaration
445 yourself. But we now suggest you return from 'main' instead.
447 ** AC_PROG_CC_C89, AC_PROG_CC_C99
448 New macros for ISO C99 support. AC_PROG_CC_C89 and AC_PROG_CC_C99
449 check for ANSI C89 and ISO C99 support respectively.
452 Has been unobsoleted, and will check if the compiler supports ISO
453 C99, falling back to ANSI C89 if not. ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc is
454 retained for backwards compatibility, assuming the value of
455 ac_cv_prog_cc_c99 or ac_cv_prog_cc_c89 (whichever is valid, in
458 ** AC_STRUCT_DIRENT_D_INO, AC_STRUCT_DIRENT_D_TYPE
459 New macros for checking commonly-used members of struct dirent.
462 The substituted value can now contain newlines.
465 The substitution now occurs only when @variable@ is on a line by itself,
466 optionally surrounded by spaces and tabs. The whole line is replaced.
468 ** AC_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE, AC_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE_WIDER
469 New macros to check for long double, and whether it is wider than double.
470 The old macro AC_C_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE has been marked as obsolete;
471 applications should switch to the new macro.
473 ** AC_TYPE_INT8_T, AC_TYPE_INT16_T, AC_TYPE_INT32_T, AC_TYPE_INT64_T,
474 AC_TYPE_INTMAX_T, AC_TYPE_INTPTR_T, AC_TYPE_LONG_LONG_INT, AC_TYPE_SSIZE_T,
475 AC_TYPE_UINT8_T, AC_TYPE_UINT16_T, AC_TYPE_UINT32_T, AC_TYPE_UINT64_T,
476 AC_TYPE_UINTMAX_T, AC_TYPE_UINTPTR_T, AC_TYPE_UNSIGNED_LONG_LONG_INT
477 New macros to check for C99 and POSIX types.
479 ** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS
480 New macro to enable extensions to Posix.
483 New macro which is defined to the name of the first declared config header
484 or undefined if no config headers have been declared yet.
487 The macro correctly handles quadrigraphs now.
489 ** AS_BOURNE_COMPATIBLE, AS_SHELL_SANITIZE, AS_CASE
490 These macros are new or published now.
493 New macro for copyright notices in testsuite files.
495 ** ALLOCA, LIBOBJS, LTLIBOBJS
496 Object names added to these variables are now prefixed with `${LIBOBJDIR}',
497 as in `${LIBOBJDIR}alloca.o'. LIBOBJDIR is meant to be defined from
498 `Makefile.in' in case the object files lie in a different directory.
499 The LIBOBJDIR feature is experimental.
502 Supports --no-recursive now.
504 ** New macros to support Erlang/OTP.
505 New macros for configuring paths to Erlang tools and libraries:
506 AC_ERLANG_PATH_ERLC, AC_ERLANG_NEED_ERLC, AC_ERLANG_PATH_ERL,
507 AC_ERLANG_NEED_ERL, AC_ERLANG_CHECK_LIB, AC_ERLANG_SUBST_ROOT_DIR,
508 AC_ERLANG_SUBST_LIB_DIR.
510 New macros for configuring installation of Erlang libraries:
511 AC_ERLANG_SUBST_INSTALL_LIB_DIR, AC_ERLANG_SUBST_INSTALL_LIB_SUBDIR.
513 ** The manual now mentions Gnulib more prominently.
515 ** New macros to support Objective C.
516 AC_PROG_OBJC, AC_PROG_OBJCPP.
518 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59b
520 Released 2004-08-20, by Paul Eggert.
523 New macro that computes the default alignment of a type.
525 ** AC_CHECK_TOOL, AC_PATH_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TOOLS
526 When cross-compiling, these macros will give a warning if the tool
527 is not prefixed. In the future, unprefixed cross tools will not
528 be detected; please consult the info documentation for information
529 about the reason of this change.
531 ** AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOL, AC_PATH_TARGET_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOLS
532 New macros that detect programs whose name is prefixed with the
533 target type, if the build type and target type are different.
535 ** AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE
536 New trace macro that declares expected auxiliary files.
539 New macro that tests for a grep program that accepts as a long a line
542 ** AC_PROG_EGREP, AC_PROG_FGREP
543 These macros now require AC_PROG_GREP, and try EGREP="$GREP -E" and
544 FGREP="$GREP -F" respectively if possible, or else run a path search for
545 a program that accepts as long a line as possible.
548 New macro that tests for a sed program that truncates as few characters
551 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59
553 Released 2003-11-04, by Akim Demaille
555 ** ac_abs_builddir etc.
556 Absolute file names were actually relative in 2.58.
558 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.58
560 Released 2003-11-04, by Akim Demaille
563 core.* files are no longer removed, as they may be valid user files.
565 ** autoreconf and auxiliary directory
566 Autoreconf creates the auxiliary directory if needed. This is
567 especially useful for initial "bootstrapping" of fresh CVS checkouts.
569 ** AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR
570 Use this macro to declare the directory for local M4 macros for aclocal.
573 No longer includes twice the same file in LIBOBJS if invoked
576 ** AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS
577 The directory for its first argument is automatically created. For
580 AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS([src/modules.hh], [...])
582 $top_builddir/src/ is created if needed.
584 ** Autotest and local.at
585 The optional file local.at is always included in Autotest test suites.
588 The warnings are always issued, including with cached runs.
589 This became a significant problem since aclocal and automake can
590 run autoconf behind the scene.
592 ** autoheader warnings
593 The warnings of autoheader can be turned off, using --warning.
594 For instance, -Wno-obsolete disables the complaints about acconfig.h
595 and other deprecated constructs.
598 AC_C_RESTRICT, AC_INCLUDES_DEFAULT, AC_LANG_ASSERT, AC_LANG_WERROR,
601 ** AC_DECL_SYS_SIGLIST
605 Now checks that mktime is the inverse of localtime.
607 ** Improve DJGPP portability
608 The Autoconf tools and configure behave better under DJGPP.
610 ** Present But Cannot Be Compiled
611 New FAQ section dedicated to the mystic
613 configure: WARNING: pi.h: present but cannot be compiled
614 configure: WARNING: pi.h: check for missing prerequisite headers?
615 configure: WARNING: pi.h: proceeding with the preprocessor's result
618 ** Concurrent executions of autom4te
619 autom4te now locks its internal files, which enables concurrent
620 executions of autom4te, likely to happen if automake, autoconf,
621 autoheader etc. are run simultaneously.
624 Use of Libtool 1.5 and higher is encouraged. Compatibility with
625 Libtool pre-1.4 is not checked.
628 Testsuites no longer rerun failed tests in verbose mode; instead,
629 failures are logged while the test is run.
631 In addition, expected failures can be marked as such.
633 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.57
635 Released 2002-12-03 by Paul Eggert.
637 Bug fixes for problems with AIX linker, with freestanding C compilers,
638 with GNU M4 limitations, and with obsolete copies of GNU documents.
640 The Free Documentation License has been upgraded from 1.1 to 1.2.
642 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.56
644 Released 2002-11-15 by Akim Demaille.
646 One packaging problem fixed (config/install-sh was not executable).
648 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.55
650 Released 2002-11-14 by Akim Demaille.
654 Have your configure.ac checked by autoscan ("autoscan").
655 Try the warning options ("autoreconf -fv -Wall").
659 - AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS
660 More information on proper use.
662 - Writing Test Programs
664 This sections explains how to write good test sources to use with
665 AC_COMPILE_IFELSE etc. It documents AC_LANG_PROGRAM and so forth.
667 - AC_FOO_IFELSE vs. AC_TRY_FOO
669 Explains why Autoconf moves from AC_TRY_COMPILE etc. to
670 AC_COMPILE_IFELSE and AC_LANG_PROGRAM etc.
674 - Is more robust to different Gettext installations.
676 - Produces messages (when --verbose) to be understood by Emacs'
679 - Supports -W/--warnings.
682 Once the GNU Build System reinstalled, run `./config.status
683 --recheck && ./config.status && make' if possible.
687 - Supports --cache, and --no-cache.
689 - ~/.autom4te.cfg makes it possible to disable the caching mechanism
690 (autom4te.cache). See `Customizing autom4te' in the documentation.
697 Support for the obsoleted options -m, --macrodir, -l, --localdir is
698 dropped in favor of the safer --include/--prepend-include scheme.
703 AC_COMPILER_IFELSE, AC_FUNC_MBRTOWC, AC_HEADER_STDBOOL,
704 AC_LANG_CONFTEST, AC_LANG_SOURCE, AC_LANG_PROGRAM, AC_LANG_CALL,
705 AC_LANG_FUNC_TRY_LINK, AC_MSG_FAILURE, AC_PREPROC_IFELSE.
708 Obsoleted macros are kept for Autoconf backward compatibility, but
709 should be avoided in configure.ac. Running autoupdate is advised.
712 - AC_DEFINE/AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED
714 We have to stop using the old compatibility scheme --that tried to
715 avoid useless backslashes-- because Libtool 1.4.3 contains a
717 AC_DEFINE([error_t], [int],
718 [Define to a type to use for \`error_t' if it is not
719 otherwise available.])
721 We have to quote the single quotes and backslashes with \. The old
722 compatibility scheme saw that ` was backslashed, and therefore did
723 not quote the single quote... Failure. Hence, Autoconf 2.54 is not
724 compatible with Libtool. Autoconf 2.55 is, but in some cases might
725 produce more \ than wanted.
727 Please, note that in the future the same problem will happen with
728 AC_MSG_*: use `autoreconf -f -Wall'.
732 - Portability of the Autoconf package to Solaris.
734 - Spurious warnings caused by config.status.
735 This bug is benign, but painful: on some systems (typically
736 FreeBSD), warnings such as:
738 config.status: creating Makefile
739 mv: Makefile: set owner/group (was: 1357/0): Operation not permitted
741 could be issued. This is fixed.
744 Simultaneous executions of config.status are possible again.
746 - Precious variables accumulation
748 config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
752 ** Plans for later versions
756 The compatibility hooks with the old scheme will be completely
757 removed. Please, advice/use `--build', `--host', and `--target'
760 - AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS
762 The tests will be stricter, please make sure your invocations are
767 Shell functions will gradually be introduced, probably starting with
768 Autotest. If you know machines which are in use that you suspect
769 *not* to support shell functions, please run the test suite of
770 Autoconf 2.55 on it, and report the results to
771 bug-autoconf@gnu.org.
775 Special characters in AC_MSG_* need not be quoted. Currently,
776 Autoconf has heuristics to decide when a string is escaped, or has
777 to be escaped. This scheme is fragile, and will be removed; the
778 only risk is uglified messages. Please, run `autoreconf -f -Wall'
779 to find occurrences that will be affected.
781 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.54
783 Released 2002-09-13 by Akim Demaille.
787 - autoreconf no longer changes the version of the gettext/po/intl
788 support files. It now adds the files the correspond to the
789 AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION declared in configure.ac.
791 Warning: It now relies on the 'autopoint' program, which is part
792 of GNU gettext 0.11.4 and newer.
794 Please note that you need to have a GNU gettext version that
795 corresponds at least to the AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION declared
796 in configure.ac. You can upgrade to newer GNU gettext versions,
797 though, without needing to change configure.ac.
799 - The -I DIR or --include=DIR option now appends DIR to the include path
800 instead of prepending; this is for consistency with other GNU tools.
801 The new -B DIR or --prepend-include=DIR option has the old behavior.
806 Now handles all the gory details about LIBOBJS and LTLIBOBJS.
807 Please, remove lines such as
809 # This is necessary so that .o files in LIBOBJS are also
810 # built via the ANSI2KNR-filtering rules.
811 LIBOBJS=`echo $LIBOBJS|sed 's/\.o /\$U.o /g;s/\.o$/\$U.o/'`
813 and read the `AC_LIBOBJ vs LIBOBJS' section. Do not define U in
814 your Makefiles either.
816 - AC_CONFIG_LINKS now makes copies if it can't make links.
818 - AC_FUNC_FNMATCH now tests only for POSIX compatibility, reverting to
819 Autoconf 2.13 behavior. The new macro AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU also
820 tests for GNU extensions to fnmatch, and replaces fnmatch if needed.
822 - AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED no longer fails when cross-compiling.
824 - AC_PROG_CC_STDC is integrated into AC_PROG_CC.
826 - AC_PROG_F77 default search no longer includes cf77 and cfg77.
830 AC_C_BACKSLASH_A, AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR, AC_GNU_SOURCE,
831 AC_PROG_EGREP, AC_PROG_FGREP, AC_REPLACE_FNMATCH,
832 AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU, AC_FUNC_REALLOC, AC_TYPE_MBSTATE_T.
835 looks for getloadavg.c in the CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR.
838 Now defines HAVE_MALLOC to 0 if `malloc' does not work, and asks
839 for an AC_LIBOBJ replacement.
843 - Spurious complaints from `m4_bmatch' about invalid regular
844 expressions are suppressed.
846 - Empty top_builddirs are properly handled.
848 - AC_CHECK_MEMBER works correctly when the member is an aggregate.
851 Now colon in the optional path arguments are properly handled.
853 ** Improved portability
855 - Both Autoconf the package, and the scripts it produces, should run
856 more reliably with Zsh. Bear in mind it is the default Bourne shell
859 - Autoconf and the scripts it produces no longer assume the existence of
860 the obsolescent commands egrep and fgrep.
864 - Limitations of Make
868 The GNATS base moved to
869 http://bugs.gnu.org/cgi-bin/gnatsweb.pl?database=autoconf
870 (It is no longer available, though.)
875 Now contains the list of ouput variables and files (AC_SUBST,
878 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.53
880 Released 2002-03-08 by Akim Demaille.
884 Perl 5.005_03 or later is required: autom4te is written in Perl and is
885 needed by autoconf. autoheader, autoreconf, ifnames, and autoscan are
891 Argument requirements, output variables, defined macros.
892 - M4sugar, M4sh, Autotest
894 - Double quoting macros
895 AC_TRY_CPP, AC_TRY_COMPILE, AC_TRY_LINK and AC_TRY_RUN.
897 The Autoconf manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
898 - Section `Hosts and Cross-Compilation'
899 Explains the rationale for the 2.5x changes in the cross-compilation
900 chain, and in the relationships between build, host, and target
902 Emphasizes that `cross-compilation' == `--host is given'.
903 If you are working on compilers etc., be sure to read this section.
904 - Section `AC_LIBOBJ vs. LIBOBJS'
905 Explains why assigning LIBOBJS directly is now an error.
906 Details how to update the code.
911 Now used instead of hard coded line numbers.
912 This eases the comparison of `configure's, and diminishes the
913 pressure over control version archives.
914 Automatic replacement for shells that don't support this feature.
915 - New output variables
916 @builddir@, @top_builddir@, @abs_srcdir@, @abs_top_srcdir@, @abs_builddir@,
921 Autoconf and Autotest modes are provided.
926 New, used by the Autoconf suite to cache and speed up most processing.
928 Supported by autom4te, autoconf and autoheader.
930 Replaces --autoconf-dir and --localdir in autoconf, autoheader,
931 autoupdate, and autoreconf.
933 No longer passes --cygnus, --foreign, --gnits, --gnu, --include-deps:
934 automake options are to be given via AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
936 Runs gettextize and libtoolize when appropriate.
938 --m4dir is no longer supported.
940 Now runs only in the specified directories, defaulting to `.',
941 but understands AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS for dependent directories.
942 Before, it used to run on all the `configure.ac' found in the
944 Independent packages are properly updated.
948 - The top level $prefix is propagated to the AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS configures.
950 Under the user pressure, $? is finally available. Probably a mistake.
951 - AC_F77_LIBRARY_LDFLAGS now supports the HP/UX f90 compiler.
952 - Precious variables accumulation
953 config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
955 - AC_PATH_PROG and family.
956 Works properly when given a literal path.
958 Somewhere since 2.13, the result had been reversed.
962 - AC_C_BIGENDIAN supports the cross-compiling case.
963 - AC_C_BIGENDIAN accepts ACTION-IF-TRUE, ACTION-IF-FALSE, and
964 ACTION-IF-UNKNOWN arguments. All are facultative, and the default
965 for ACTION-IF-TRUE is to define WORDS_BIGENDIAN like AC_C_BIGENDIAN
967 - AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE now succeeds only if `long double' has more range or
968 precision than `double'.
973 It now defines the preprocessor symbols PACKAGE_NAME,
974 PACKAGE_TARNAME, PACKAGE_VERSION, PACKAGE_STRING, and
978 Admits a fourth optional parameter: the tar name.
980 - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS.
981 Provide the user with srcdir, ac_srcdir, ac_top_srcdir, ac_builddir,
982 ac_top_builddir, ac_abs_srcdir, ac_abs_top_srcdir, ac_abs_builddir,
985 - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS and AC_OUTPUT.
986 Are much less expensive when using long lists of files.
989 Works with shell variables, and non alphanumeric names.
993 - AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R now sets STRERROR_R_CHAR_P, not HAVE_WORKING_STRERROR_R,
994 because POSIX 1003.1-200x draft 7 says strerror_r returns int, not char *.
996 - AC_FUNC_STRTOD substitutes POW_LIB.
1001 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.52
1003 Released 2001-07-18 by Akim Demaille.
1008 This feature was present in autoconf 2.50 but was not documented.
1009 For example, `@<:@' is translated to `[' just before output. This
1010 is useful when writing strings that contain unbalanced quotes, or
1011 other hard-to-quote constructs.
1012 - m4_pattern_forbid, m4_pattern_allow
1013 - Tips for upgrading from 2.13.
1014 - Using autoscan to maintain a configure.ac.
1017 - Now include stdint.h.
1018 - sys/types.h and sys/stat.h are guarded.
1019 - strings.h is included if available, and not conflicting with string.h.
1022 - The test suite is more robust and presents less false failures.
1023 - Invocation of GNU M4 now robust to POSIXLY_CORRECT.
1024 - configure accepts --prefix='' again.
1025 - AC_CHECK_LIB works properly when its first argument is not a
1027 - HAVE_INTTYPES_H is defined only if not conflicting with sys/types.h.
1028 - build_, host_, and target_alias are AC_SUBST as in 2.13.
1029 - AC_ARG_VAR properly propagates precious variables inherited from the
1030 environment to ./config.status.
1031 - Using --program-suffix/--program-prefix is portable.
1032 - Failures to detect the default compiler's output extension are less
1034 - `config.status foo' works properly when `foo' depends on variables
1035 set in an AC_CONFIG_THING INIT-CMD.
1036 - autoheader is more robust to broken input.
1037 - Fixed Fortran name-mangling and link tests on a number of systems,
1038 e.g. NetBSD; see AC_F77_DUMMY_MAIN, below.
1041 - AC_CHECK_HEADER and AC_CHECK_HEADERS support a fourth argument to
1042 specify pre-includes. In this case, the headers are compiled with
1043 cc, not merely preprocessed by cpp. Therefore it is the _usability_
1044 of a header which is checked for, not just its availability.
1045 - AC_ARG_VAR refuses to run configure when precious variables have
1047 - Versions of compilers are dumped in the logs.
1048 - AC_CHECK_TYPE recognizes use of `foo_t' as a replacement type.
1051 - AC_PATH_XTRA only adds -ldnet to $LIBS if it's needed to link.
1052 - AC_FUNC_WAIT3 and AC_SYS_RESTARTABLE_SYSCALLS are obsoleted.
1053 - AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_FNMATCH, AM_FUNC_MKTIME,
1054 AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, and AM_FUNC_STRTOD are now activated.
1055 Be sure to read `Upgrading from Version 2.13' to understand why
1056 running `autoupdate' is needed.
1057 - AC_F77_DUMMY_MAIN, AC_F77_MAIN: new macros to detect whether
1058 a main-like routine is required/possible when linking C/C++ with
1059 Fortran. Users of e.g. AC_F77_WRAPPERS should be aware of these.
1060 - AC_FUNC_GETPGRG behaves better when cross-compiling.
1062 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.51
1063 There was no release of Autoconf 2.51 since some packagers had used
1064 this version number without permission to ship intermediary versions
1065 of 2.50. The version was skipped to avoid confusion.
1067 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.50
1069 Released 2001-05-21 by Akim Demaille.
1071 ** Lots of bug fixes
1072 There have been far too many to enumerate them here. Check out
1073 ChangeLog if you really want to know more.
1075 ** Improved documentation
1076 In particular, portability issues are better covered.
1079 All the standard GNU Makefile targets are supported. The layout has
1080 changed: m4/ holds the M4 extensions Autoconf needs for its
1081 configuration, doc/ contains the documentation, and tests/ contains
1084 ** Man pages are provided
1085 For autoconf, autoreconf, autoupdate, autoheader, autoscan, ifnames,
1086 config.guess, config.sub.
1090 Provides a safe and powerful means to trace the macro uses. This
1091 provide the parsing layer for tools which need to `study'
1095 Specify what category of warnings should be enabled.
1097 - When recursing into subdirectories, try for configure.gnu before
1098 configure to adapt for packages not using autoconf on case-insensitive
1102 More errors are now caught (circular AC_REQUIRE dependencies,
1103 AC_DEFINE in the action part of an AC_CACHE_CHECK, too many pops
1104 etc.). In addition, their location and call stack are given.
1107 autoupdate is much more powerful, and is able to provide the glue code
1108 which might be needed to move from an old macro to its newer
1111 You are strongly encouraged to use it to modernize both your
1112 `configure.in' and your .m4 extension files.
1115 The internal machinery of autoheader has completely changed. As a
1116 result, using `acconfig.h' should be considered to be obsoleted, and
1117 you are encouraged to get rid of it using the AH macros.
1122 ** Fortran 77 compilers
1123 Globally, the support for Fortran 77 is considerably improved.
1125 Support for automatically determining a Fortran 77 compiler's
1126 name-mangling scheme. New CPP macros F77_FUNC and F77_FUNC_ are
1127 provided to wrap C/C++ identifiers, thus making it easier and more
1128 transparent for C/C++ to call Fortran 77 routines, and Fortran 77 to
1129 call C/C++ routines. See the Texinfo documentation for details.
1132 The test suite no longer uses DejaGNU. It should be easy to submit
1133 test cases in this new framework.
1136 - --help, --help=long, -hl
1137 no longer dumps useless items.
1139 lists only specific options.
1140 - --help=recursive, -hr
1141 displays the help of all the embedded packages.
1142 - Remembers environment variables when reconfiguring.
1143 The previous scheme to set envvar before running configure was
1145 what prevented configure from remembering the environment in which
1146 it was run, therefore --recheck was run in an inconsistent
1147 environment. Now, one should run
1149 and then --recheck will work properly. Variables declared with
1150 AC_ARG_VAR are also preserved.
1152 $build defaults to `config.guess`, $host to $build, and then $target
1154 Cross-compilation is a global status of the package, it no longer
1155 depends upon the current language.
1156 Cross compilation is enabled iff the user specified `--host'.
1157 `configure' now fails if it can't run the executables it compiles,
1158 unless cross-compilation is enabled.
1160 The cache file is disabled by default. The new options
1161 `--config-cache', `-C' set the cache to `config.cache'.
1165 Much faster on most architectures.
1166 - concurrent executions
1167 It is safe to use `make -j' with config.status.
1168 - human interface improved
1169 It is possible to invoke
1170 ./config.status foobar
1171 instead of the former form (still valid)
1172 CONFIG_COMMANDS= CONFIG_HEADERS= CONFIG_LINKS= \
1173 CONFIG_FILES=foobar:foo.in:bar.in \
1175 The same holds for configuration headers and links.
1176 You can instantiate unknown files and headers:
1177 ./config.status --header foo.h:foo.h.in --file bar:baz
1178 - has a useful --help
1179 - accepts special file name "-" for stdin/stdout
1184 Specify additional copyright information.
1187 Now expects the identity of the package as argument.
1191 Most macros, if not all, now strictly follow the `one quotation
1192 level' rule. This results in a more predictable expansion.
1195 A sly bug in the AC_REQUIRE machinery, which could produce incorrect
1196 configure scripts, was fixed by Axel Thimm.
1200 Document and ask for the registration of an envvar.
1203 Specifies the file which `configure' should look for when trying to
1204 find the source tree (used to be handled by AC_INIT).
1206 - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS
1207 To add new actions to config.status. Should be used instead of
1211 Replaces AC_LINK_FILES.
1213 - AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS,
1214 AC_CONFIG_LINKS, and AC_CONFIG_FILES
1215 They now obey sh: you should no longer use shell variables as
1216 argument. Instead of
1218 test "$package_foo_enabled" = yes && $my_subdirs="$my_subdirs foo"
1219 AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS($my_subdirs)
1223 if test "$package_foo_enabled" = yes; then
1224 AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS(foo)
1228 To format an Autoconf macro's help string so that it looks pretty
1229 when the user executes `configure --help'.
1232 ** Generic Test Macros
1234 The interface of the AC_CHECK families of macros (decl, header,
1235 type, member, func) is now uniform. They support the same set of
1238 - AC_CHECK_DECL, AC_CHECK_DECLS
1239 To check whether a symbol is declared.
1241 - AC_CHECK_SIZEOF, AC_C_CHAR_UNSIGNED.
1242 No longer need a cross-compilation default.
1245 The test it performs is much more robust than previously, and makes
1246 it possible to test builtin types in addition to typedefs.
1247 It is now schizophrenic:
1248 - AC_CHECK_TYPE(TYPE, REPLACEMENT)
1249 remains for backward compatibility, but its use is discouraged.
1250 - AC_CHECK_TYPE(TYPE, IF-FOUND, IF-NOT-FOUND, INCLUDES)
1251 behaves exactly like the other AC_CHECK macros.
1254 Checks whether given types are supported by the system.
1256 - AC_CHECK_MEMBER, AC_CHECK_MEMBERS
1257 Check for given members in aggregates (e.g., pw_gecos in struct
1261 Checks if the compiler supports ISO C, included when needs special
1265 Checking whether the preprocessor indicates missing includes by the
1266 error code. stderr is checked by AC_TRY_CPP only as a fallback.
1269 Takes a language as argument and replaces AC_LANG_C,
1270 AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS and AC_LANG_FORTRAN77.
1272 - AC_LANG_PUSH, AC_LANG_POP
1273 Are preferred to AC_LANG_SAVE, AC_LANG_RESTORE.
1276 - AC_FUNC_CHOWN, AC_FUNC_MALLOC, AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R,
1277 AC_FUNC_LSTAT_FOLLOWS_SLASHED_SYMLINK, AC_FUNC_STAT, AC_FUNC_LSTAT,
1278 AC_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AC_FUNC_OBSTACK, AC_FUNC_STRTOD, AC_FUNC_FSEEKO.
1282 Sets GETGROUPS_LIBS.
1284 - AC_FUNC_GETLOADAVG
1285 Defines `HAVE_STRUCT_NLIST_N_UN_N_NAME' instead of `NLIST_NAME_UNION'.
1288 Now integrates `AC_DECL_YYTEXT' which is obsoleted.
1291 Arrange for large-file support.
1293 - AC_EXEEXT, AC_OBJEXT
1294 You are no longer expected to use them: their computation is
1295 performed by default.
1297 ** C++ compatibility
1298 Every macro has been revisited in order to support at best CC=c++.
1300 Major changes in Autoconf 2.14:
1301 There was no release of GNU Autoconf 2.14.
1303 Major changes in Autoconf 2.13:
1305 Released 1999-05-01 by Ben Elliston.
1307 * Support for building on Win32 systems where the only available C or
1308 C++ compiler is the Microsoft Visual C++ command line compiler
1309 (`cl'). Additional support for building on Win32 systems which are
1310 using the Cygwin or Mingw32 environments.
1311 * Support for alternative object file and executable file extensions.
1312 On Win32, for example, these are .obj and .exe. These are discovered
1313 using AC_OBJEXT and AC_EXEEXT, which substitute @OBJEXT@ and
1314 @EXEEXT@ in the output, respectively.
1315 * New macros: AC_CACHE_LOAD, AC_CACHE_SAVE, AC_FUNC_SELECT_ARGTYPES,
1316 AC_VALIDATE_CACHED_SYSTEM_TUPLE, AC_SEARCH_LIBS, AC_TRY_LINK_FUNC,
1317 AC_C_STRINGIZE, AC_CHECK_FILE(S), AC_PROG_F77 (and friends).
1318 * AC_DEFINE now has an optional third argument for a description to be
1319 placed in the config header input file (e.g. config.h.in).
1320 * The C++ code fragment compiled for the C++ compiler test had to be
1321 improved to include an explicit return type for main(). This was
1322 causing failures on systems using recent versions of the EGCS C++
1324 * Fixed an important bug in AC_CHECK_TYPE that would cause a configure
1325 script to report that `sometype_t' was present when only `type_t'
1327 * Merge of the FSF version of config.guess and config.sub to modernize
1328 these scripts. Add support for a few new hosts in config.guess.
1329 Incorporate latest versions of install-sh, mkinstalldirs and
1330 texinfo.tex from the FSF.
1331 * autoreconf is capable of running automake if necessary (and
1333 * Support for Fortran 77. See the Texinfo documentation for details.
1334 * Bug fixes and workarounds for quirky bugs in vendor utilities.
1336 Major changes in Autoconf 2.12:
1338 Released 1996-11-26 by David J. MacKenzie
1340 * AC_OUTPUT and AC_CONFIG_HEADER can create output files by
1341 concatenating multiple input files separated by colons, like so:
1342 AC_CONFIG_HEADER(config.h:conf.pre:config.h.in:conf.post)
1343 AC_OUTPUT(Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.rules)
1344 The arguments may be shell variables, to compute the lists on the fly.
1345 * AC_LINK_FILES and AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS may be called multiple times.
1346 * New macro AC_OUTPUT_COMMANDS adds more commands to run in config.status.
1349 Major changes in Autoconf 2.11:
1351 Released November 18th, 1996, by David J. MacKenzie
1353 * AC_PROG_CC and AC_PROG_CXX check whether the compiler works.
1354 They also default CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS to "-g -O2" for gcc, instead of "-g -O".
1355 * AC_REPLACE_FUNCS defines HAVE_foo if the system has the function `foo'.
1356 * AC_CONFIG_HEADER expands shell variables in its argument.
1357 * New macros: AC_FUNC_FNMATCH, AC_FUNC_SETPGRP.
1358 * The "checking..." messages and the source code for test programs that
1359 fail are saved in config.log.
1360 * Another workaround has been added for seds with small command length limits.
1361 * config.sub and config.guess recognize more system types.
1364 Major changes in Autoconf 2.10:
1366 Released May 7th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
1369 * The cache variable names used by `AC_CHECK_LIB(LIB, FUNC, ...)' has
1370 changed: now $ac_cv_lib_LIB_FUNC, previously $ac_cv_lib_LIB.
1372 Major changes in Autoconf 2.9:
1374 Released March 16th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
1378 Major changes in Autoconf 2.8:
1380 Released March 8th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
1384 Major changes in Autoconf 2.7:
1386 Released November 22nd, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1390 Major changes in Autoconf 2.6:
1392 Released November 20th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1396 Major changes in Autoconf 2.5:
1398 Released November 17th, 1995, by Roland McGrath
1400 * New configure options --bindir, --libdir, --datadir, etc., with
1401 corresponding output variables.
1402 * New macro: AC_CACHE_CHECK, to make using the cache easier.
1403 * config.log contains the command being run as well as any output from it.
1404 * AC_CHECK_LIB can check for libraries with "." or "/" or "+" in their name.
1405 * AC_PROG_INSTALL doesn't cache a name for install-sh, for sharing caches.
1406 * AC_CHECK_PROG, AC_PATH_PROG, AC_CHECK_PROGS, AC_PATH_PROGS, and
1407 AC_CHECK_TOOL can search a path other than $PATH.
1408 * AC_CHECK_SIZEOF takes an optional size to use when cross-compiling.
1410 Major changes in Autoconf 2.4:
1412 Released June 14th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1414 * Fix a few bugs found by Emacs testers.
1416 Major changes in Autoconf 2.3:
1418 Released March 27th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1420 * Fix the cleanup trap in several ways.
1421 * Handle C compilers that are picky about option placement.
1422 * ifnames gets the version number from the right directory.
1424 Major changes in Autoconf 2.2:
1426 Released March 8th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1428 * The ifnames utility is much faster but requires a "new awk" interpreter.
1429 * AC_CHECK_LIB and AC_HAVE_LIBRARY check and add the new
1430 library before existing libs, not after, in case it uses them.
1431 * New macros: AC_FUNC_GETPGRP, AC_CHECK_TOOL.
1432 * Lots of bug fixes.
1433 * Many additions to the TODO file :-)
1435 Major changes in Autoconf 2.1:
1437 Released November 4th, 1994, by David J. MacKenzie
1440 * More explanations in the manual.
1441 * Fix a spurious failure in the testsuite.
1442 * Clarify some warning messages.
1443 * autoreconf by default only rebuilds configure and config.h.in files
1444 that are older than any of their particular input files; there is a
1445 --force option to use after installing a new version of Autoconf.
1447 Thanks to everybody who's submitted changes and additions to Autoconf!
1448 I've incorporated many of them, and am still considering others for
1449 future releases -- but I didn't want to postpone this release indefinitely.
1451 Caution: don't indiscriminately rebuild configure scripts with
1452 Autoconf version 2. Some configure.in files need minor adjustments to
1453 work with it; the documentation has a chapter on upgrading. A few
1454 configure.in files, including those for GNU Emacs and the GNU C
1455 Library, need major changes because they relied on undocumented
1456 internals of version 1. Future releases of those packages will have
1457 updated configure.in files.
1459 It's best to use GNU M4 1.3 (or later) with Autoconf version 2.
1460 Autoconf now makes heavy use of M4 diversions, which were implemented
1461 inefficiently in GNU M4 releases before 1.3.
1463 Major changes in Autoconf 2.0:
1465 Released October 26th, 1994, by David J. MacKenzie
1467 ** New copyright terms:
1468 * There are no restrictions on distribution or use of configure scripts.
1471 * Autoconf manual is reorganized to make information easier to find
1472 and has several new indexes.
1473 * INSTALL is reorganized and clearer and is now made from Texinfo source.
1476 * autoscan to generate a preliminary configure.in for a package by
1477 scanning its source code for commonly used nonportable functions,
1478 programs, and header files.
1479 * ifnames to list the symbols used in #if and #ifdef directives in a
1481 * autoupdate to update a configure.in to use the version 2 macro names.
1482 * autoreconf to recursively remake configure and configuration header
1483 files in a source tree.
1485 ** Changed utilities:
1486 * autoheader can take pieces of acconfig.h to replace config.h.{top,bot}.
1487 * autoconf and autoheader can look for package-local definition files
1488 in an alternate directory.
1491 * AC_CACHE_VAL to share results of tests between configure runs.
1492 * AC_DEFUN to define macros, automatically AC_PROVIDE them, and ensure
1493 that macros invoked with AC_REQUIRE don't interrupt other macros.
1494 * AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR, AC_CANONICAL_SYSTEM, AC_CANONICAL_HOST, AC_LINK_FILES to
1495 support deciding unguessable features based on the host and target types.
1496 * AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS to recursively configure a source tree.
1497 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM to use the options --program-prefix,
1498 --program-suffix, and --program-transform-name to change the names
1499 of programs being installed.
1500 * AC_PREFIX_DEFAULT to change the default installation prefix.
1501 * AC_TRY_COMPILE to compile a test program without linking it.
1502 * AC_CHECK_TYPE to check whether sys/types.h or stdlib.h defines a given type.
1503 * AC_CHECK_LIB to check for a particular function and library.
1504 * AC_MSG_CHECKING and AC_MSG_RESULT to print test results, on a single line,
1505 whether or not the test succeeds. They obsolete AC_CHECKING and AC_VERBOSE.
1506 * AC_SUBST_FILE to insert one file into another.
1507 * AC_FUNC_MEMCMP to check whether memcmp is 8-bit clean.
1508 * AC_FUNC_STRFTIME to find strftime even if it's in -lintl.
1509 * AC_FUNC_GETMNTENT to find getmntent even if it's in -lsun or -lseq.
1510 * AC_HEADER_SYS_WAIT to check whether sys/wait.h is POSIX.1 compatible.
1513 * Many macros renamed systematically, but old names are accepted for
1514 backward compatibility.
1515 * AC_OUTPUT adds the "automatically generated" comment to
1516 non-Makefiles where it finds @configure_input@ in an input file, to
1517 support files with various comment syntaxes.
1518 * AC_OUTPUT does not replace "prefix" and "exec_prefix" in generated
1519 files when they are not enclosed in @ signs.
1520 * AC_OUTPUT allows the optional environment variable CONFIG_STATUS to
1521 override the file name "config.status".
1522 * AC_OUTPUT takes an optional argument for passing variables from
1523 configure to config.status.
1524 * AC_OUTPUT and AC_CONFIG_HEADER allow you to override the input-file names.
1525 * AC_OUTPUT automatically substitutes the values of CFLAGS, CXXFLAGS,
1526 CPPFLAGS, and LDFLAGS from the environment.
1527 * AC_PROG_CC and AC_PROG_CXX now set CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS, respectively.
1528 * AC_PROG_INSTALL looks for install-sh or install.sh in the directory
1529 specified by AC_CONFIG_AUXDIR, or srcdir or srcdir/.. or
1530 srcdir/../.. by default.
1531 * AC_DEFINE, AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED, and AC_SUBST are more robust and smaller.
1532 * AC_DEFINE no longer prints anything, because of the new result reporting
1533 mechanism (AC_MSG_CHECKING and AC_MSG_RESULT).
1534 * AC_VERBOSE pays attention to --quiet/--silent, not --verbose.
1535 * AC_ARG_ENABLE and AC_ARG_WITH support whitespace in the arguments to
1536 --enable- and --with- options.
1537 * AC_CHECK_FUNCS and AC_CHECK_HEADERS take optional shell commands to
1538 execute on success or failure.
1539 * Checking for C functions in C++ works.
1542 * AC_REMOTE_TAPE and AC_RSH removed; too specific to tar and cpio, and
1543 better maintained with them.
1544 * AC_ARG_ARRAY removed because no one was likely using it.
1545 * AC_HAVE_POUNDBANG replaced with AC_SYS_INTERPRETER, which doesn't
1546 take arguments, for consistency with all of the other specific checks.
1549 * Comes with config.sub and config.guess, and uses them optionally.
1550 * Uses config.cache to cache test results. An alternate cache file
1551 can be selected with the --cache-file=FILE option.
1552 * Uses optional shell scripts $prefix/share/config.site and
1553 $prefix/etc/config.site to perform site or system specific initializations.
1554 * configure saves compiler output to ./config.log for debugging.
1555 * New files autoconf.m4 and autoheader.m4 load the other Autoconf macros.
1556 * acsite.m4 is the new name for the system-wide aclocal.m4.
1557 * Has a DejaGnu test suite.
1559 Major changes in Autoconf 1.11:
1561 * AC_PROG_INSTALL calls install.sh with the -c option.
1562 * AC_SET_MAKE cleans up after itself.
1563 * AC_OUTPUT sets prefix and exec_prefix if they weren't set already.
1564 * AC_OUTPUT prevents shells from looking in PATH for config.status.
1566 Plus a few other bug fixes.
1568 Major changes in Autoconf 1.10:
1570 * autoheader uses config.h.bot if present, analogous to config.h.top.
1571 * AC_PROG_INSTALL looks for install.sh in srcdir or srcdir/.. and
1573 * AC_PROG_CXX looks for cxx as a C++ compiler.
1575 Plus several bugs fixed.
1577 Major changes in Autoconf 1.9:
1579 * AC_YYTEXT_POINTER replaces AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT.
1580 * AC_SIZEOF_TYPE generates the cpp symbol name automatically,
1581 and autoheader generates entries for those names automatically.
1582 * AC_FIND_X gets the result from xmkmf correctly.
1583 * AC_FIND_X assumes no X if --without-x was given.
1584 * AC_FIND_XTRA adds libraries to the variable X_EXTRA_LIBS.
1585 * AC_PROG_INSTALL finds OSF/1 installbsd.
1587 Major changes in Autoconf 1.8:
1590 * New macros AC_LANG_C, AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS, AC_LANG_SAVE, AC_LANG_RESTORE,
1591 AC_PROG_CXX, AC_PROG_CXXCPP, AC_REQUIRE_CPP
1592 for checking both C++ and C features in one configure script.
1593 * New macros AC_CHECKING, AC_VERBOSE, AC_WARN, AC_ERROR for printing messages.
1594 * New macros AC_FIND_XTRA, AC_MMAP, AC_SIZEOF_TYPE, AC_PREREQ,
1595 AC_SET_MAKE, AC_ENABLE.
1598 * AC_FIND_X looks for X in more places.
1599 * AC_PROG_INSTALL defaults to install.sh instead of cp, if it's in srcdir.
1600 install.sh is distributed with Autoconf.
1601 * AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT has been removed because it can't work, pending
1602 a rewrite of quoting in AC_DEFINE.
1603 * AC_OUTPUT adds its comments in C format when substituting in C files.
1604 * AC_COMPILE_CHECK protects its ECHO-TEXT argument with double quotes.
1606 ** New or changed command line options:
1607 * configure accepts --enable-FEATURE[=ARG] and --disable-FEATURE options.
1608 * configure accepts --without-PACKAGE, which sets withval=no.
1609 * configure accepts --x-includes=DIR and --x-libraries=DIR.
1610 * Giving --with-PACKAGE no argument sets withval=yes instead of withval=1.
1611 * configure accepts --help, --version, --silent/--quiet, --no-create options.
1612 * configure accepts and ignores most other Cygnus configure options, and
1613 warns about unknown options.
1614 * config.status accepts --help, --version options.
1616 ** File names and other changes:
1617 * Relative srcdir values are not made absolute.
1618 * The values of @prefix@ and @exec_prefix@ and @top_srcdir@ get substituted.
1619 * Autoconf library files are installed in ${datadir}/autoconf, not ${datadir}.
1620 * autoheader optionally copies config.h.top to the beginning of config.h.in.
1621 * The example Makefile dependencies for configure et al. work better.
1622 * Namespace cleanup: all shell variables used internally by Autoconf
1623 have names beginning with `ac_'.
1625 More big improvements are in process for future releases, but have not
1626 yet been (variously) finished, integrated, tested, or documented enough
1629 Major changes in Autoconf 1.7:
1631 * New macro AC_OBSOLETE.
1632 * Bugs in Makefile.in fixed.
1633 * AC_LONG_FILE_NAMES improved.
1635 Major changes in Autoconf 1.6:
1637 * New macro AC_LONG_64_BITS.
1638 * Multiple .h files can be created.
1639 * AC_FIND_X looks for X files directly if it doesn't find xmkmf.
1640 * AC_ALLOCA defines C_ALLOCA if using alloca.c.
1641 * --with-NAME can take a value, e.g., --with-targets=sun4,hp300bsd.
1642 * Unused --no-create option to configure removed.
1643 * autoheader doesn't change the timestamp of its output file if
1644 the file didn't change.
1645 * All macros that look for libraries now use AC_HAVE_LIBRARY.
1646 * config.status checks three optional environment variables to
1647 modify its behavior.
1648 * The usual bug fixes.
1650 Major changes in Autoconf 1.5:
1652 * New macros AC_FIND_X, AC_OFF_T, AC_STAT_MACROS_BROKEN, AC_REVISION.
1653 * autoconf and autoheader scripts have GNU standards conforming
1654 --version and --help options (they print their message and exit).
1657 Major changes in Autoconf 1.4:
1659 * New macros AC_HAVE_POUNDBANG, AC_TIME_WITH_SYS_TIME, AC_LONG_DOUBLE,
1660 AC_GETGROUPS_T, AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED.
1661 * autoconf and autoheader use the M4 environment variable to determine the
1662 name of the M4 program to use.
1663 * The --macrodir option to autoconf and autoheader specifies the directory
1664 in which acspecific.m4, acgeneral.m4, etc. reside if not the default.
1665 * autoconf and autoheader can take `-' as their file names, which means to
1666 read stdin as input.
1667 * Resulting configure scripts can take a --verbose option which causes them
1668 to print the results of their tests.
1669 * AC_DEFINE quotes its second argument in such a way that spaces, magic
1670 shell characters, etc. will be preserved during various stages of
1671 expansion done by the shell. If you don't want this, use
1672 AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED instead.
1673 * Much textual processing done with external calls to tr and sed have been
1674 internalized with builtin M4 `patsubst' and `translit' calls.
1675 * AC_OUTPUT doesn't hardwire the file names it outputs. Instead, you can
1676 set the shell variables `gen_files' and `gen_config' to the list of
1677 file names to output.
1678 * AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT does an AC_SUBST of `LEX_OUTPUT_ROOT', which may be
1679 "lex.yy" or "lexyy", depending on the system.
1680 * AC_PROGRAMS_CHECK takes an optional third arg. If given, it is used as
1682 * If AC_ALLOCA chooses alloca.c, it also defines STACK_DIRECTION.
1683 * AC_CONST works much more reliably on more systems.
1686 Major changes in Autoconf 1.3:
1688 configure no longer requires awk for packages that use a config.h.
1689 Support handling --with-PACKAGE options.
1690 New `autoheader' script to create `config.h.in' from `configure.in'.
1691 Ignore troublesome -lucb and -lPW when searching for alloca.
1692 Rename --exec_prefix to --exec-prefix for GNU standards conformance.
1693 Improve detection of STDC library.
1694 Add AC_HAVE_LIBRARY to check for non-default libraries.
1695 Function checking should work with future GNU libc releases.
1697 Major changes in Autoconf 1.2:
1699 The --srcdir option is now usually unnecessary.
1700 Add a file containing sample comments describing CPP macros.
1701 A comment in config.status tells which host it was configured on.
1702 Substituted variable values can now contain commas.
1703 Fix bugs in various feature checks.
1705 Major changes in Autoconf 1.1:
1707 Added AC_STRCOLL macro.
1708 Made AC_GETLOADAVG check for more things.
1709 AC_OUTPUT argument is now optional.
1714 Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,
1715 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1717 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1718 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1719 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1720 (at your option) any later version.
1722 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1723 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1724 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1725 GNU General Public License for more details.
1727 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1728 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.