1 GNU Autoconf NEWS - User visible changes.
3 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.64 (????-??-??) [stable]
4 Released by Eric Blake, based on git versions 2.63.*.
6 ** AC_LANG_ERLANG works once again (regression introduced in 2.61a).
8 ** Autotest testsuites accept an option --jobs[=N] for parallel testing.
10 ** Autotest testsuites do not attempt to write startup error messages
11 to the log file before that is opened (regression introduced in 2.63).
13 ** Configure scripts now use shell functions.
15 ** m4sugar requires m4_init in order to use m4_divert.
17 ** The following documented m4sugar macros are new:
18 m4_curry m4_default_quoted m4_map_args m4_map_args_pair
21 ** The following m4sugar macros are documented now:
22 m4_copy m4_dumpdefs m4_rename
24 ** The following documented m4sh macros are new:
25 AS_LINENO_PREPARE AS_ME_PREPARE AS_VAR_APPEND AS_VAR_ARITH
28 ** The following m4sh macros are documented now:
29 AS_ECHO AS_ECHO_N AS_EXIT AS_LITERAL_IF AS_UNSET AS_VAR_IF
30 AS_VAR_POPDEF AS_VAR_PUSHDEF AS_VAR_SET AS_VAR_SET_IF
31 AS_VAR_TEST_SET AS_VERSION_COMPARE
33 ** The m4sh macros AS_IF and AS_CASE can now be used in shell lists.
34 The responsibility for supplying a trailing newline now belongs to
35 the call site, but since most users did not add dnl, this generally
36 results in fewer empty lines in configure.
39 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.63 (2008-09-09) [stable]
40 Released by Eric Blake, based on git versions 2.62.*.
42 ** AC_C_BIGENDIAN does not mistakenly report "universal" for some
43 bigendian hosts, a regression introduced with universal binary
46 ** AC_PATH_X now includes /lib64 and /usr/lib64 in its list of default
49 ** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS no longer conflicts with an external
50 AC_DEFINE([__EXTENSIONS__]). This fixes a regression introduced in
51 2.62 when using macros such as AC_AIX that were made obsolete in
52 favor of the more portable AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS.
54 ** AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOLS is usable in the non-cross-compile case.
56 ** Newly obsolete macros
57 The following macro has been marked obsolete, since current porting
58 targets can safely assume C89 semantics that signal handlers return
59 void. We have no current plans to remove the macro.
63 ** The macros m4_map and m4_map_sep now ignore any list elements
64 consisting of just empty quotes, and m4_map_sep now expands its
65 separator. This fixes a regression in 2.62 when these macros were
66 first documented, for the sake of clients expecting the semantics
67 that these macros had prior to that time. The new macros m4_mapall
68 and m4_mapall_sep, along with extra quoting of the separator, can
69 be used to get the semantics that m4_map_sep had in 2.62.
71 ** Clients of m4_expand, such as AS_HELP_STRING and AT_SETUP, can now
72 handle properly quoted but otherwise unbalanced parentheses (for
73 some macros, this fixes a regression in 2.62).
75 ** Two new quadrigraphs have been introduced: @{:@ for (, and @:}@ for ),
76 allowing the output of unbalanced parentheses in more contexts.
78 ** The following m4sugar macros are new:
79 m4_joinall m4_mapall m4_mapall_sep m4_reverse m4_set_add
80 m4_set_add_all m4_set_contains m4_set_contents m4_set_delete
81 m4_set_difference m4_set_dump m4_set_empty m4_set_foreach
82 m4_set_intersection m4_set_list m4_set_listc m4_set_remove
83 m4_set_size m4_set_union
85 ** The following m4sugar macros now accept multiple arguments, as is the
86 case with underlying m4:
87 m4_defn m4_popdef m4_undefine
89 ** The following m4sugar macros now guarantee linear scaling; they
90 previously had linear scaling with m4 1.6 but quadratic scaling
91 when using m4 1.4.x. All macros built on top of these also gain
92 the scaling improvements.
93 m4_bmatch m4_bpatsubsts m4_case m4_cond m4_do m4_dquote_elt
94 m4_foreach m4_join m4_list_cmp m4_map m4_map_sep m4_max
97 ** AT_KEYWORDS once again performs expansion on its argument, such that
98 AT_KEYWORDS([m4_if([$1], [], [default])]) no longer complains about
99 the possibly unexpanded m4_if [regression introduced in 2.62].
101 ** Config header templates `#undef UNDEFINED /* comment */' do not lead to
102 nested comments any more; regression introduced in 2.62.
105 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.62 (2008-04-05) [stable]
106 Released by Eric Blake, based on git versions 2.61a.*.
108 ** Many optimizations have been applied to make overall execution faster.
110 ** Autotest now makes use of shell functions.
112 ** config.status now uses awk instead of sed also for config headers.
114 - As a side effect, AC_DEFINE and AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED now handle multi-line
115 values, i.e., backslash-newline combinations are handled correctly.
116 Further, for config headers, the total size of values is not limited by
117 the POSIX length limit of text lines any more, only each single line.
119 ** New config variable `top_build_prefix'.
121 ** New Autoconf macros:
122 AC_AUTOCONF_VERSION AC_OPENMP AC_PATH_PROGS_FEATURE_CHECK
124 ** AC_C_BIGENDIAN now supports universal binaries a la Mac OS X.
126 ** AC_C_RESTRICT now prefers to #define 'restrict' to a variant spelling
127 like '__restrict' if the variant spelling is available, as this is
128 more likely to work when mixing C and C++ code.
130 ** AC_CHECK_ALIGNOF's type argument T is now documented better: it must
131 be a string of tokens such that "T y;" is a valid member declaration
134 ** AC_CHECK_SIZEOF now accepts objects as well as types: the general rule
135 is that sizeof (X) works, then AC_CHECK_SIZEOF (X) should work.
137 ** AC_CHECK_TYPE and AC_CHECK_TYPES now work on any C type-name; formerly,
138 they did not work for function types. In C++, they now work on any
139 type-id that can be the operand of sizeof; this is similar to C,
140 except it excludes anonymous struct and union types. Formerly,
141 some (but not all) C++ types involving anonymous struct and union
142 were accepted, though this was not documented.
144 ** AC_CONFIG_LINKS now prefers to link against files in the build tree
145 if found, and it works to link against a file of the same name in
146 the source tree, even if both trees coincide.
148 ** AC_INIT no longer alters $@; regression introduced in 2.60.
150 ** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS now defines _ALL_SOURCE for Interix platforms.
152 ** AS_HELP_STRING no longer underquotes its first argument; it also handles
153 the case where the first argument contains single-quoted commas.
154 For example, "AS_HELP_STRING([-a, [--arg[=foo]]], [bar])" produces:
155 " -a, --arg[=foo] bar"
156 Additionally, the macro now takes two additional arguments,
157 indent-column and wrap-column; these should not normally be needed,
158 but can be used to fine-tune how the output text is wrapped.
160 ** AC_PROG_INSTALL now requires an install program that can install multiple
161 files into a target directory.
163 ** The command 'autoconf -' now correctly processes a file from stdin.
165 ** 'autoreconf -m' now honors $MAKE.
167 ** For all of the directory arguments for 'configure', such as '--prefix'
168 or '--bindir', trailing slashes are stripped. As an example, if
169 tab completion in the user's shell appends trailing slashes, the
170 command './configure --prefix=/usr/' will still result in an
171 expanded libdir value of /usr/lib, not /usr//lib.
173 ** `configure --help=recursive' now works in read-only trees and from
174 unconfigured build trees.
176 ** If precious variables differ only in whitespace, then the cache consistency
177 check warns instead of fails, and reuses the old value.
179 ** AT_BANNER is now documented.
181 ** AT_SETUP now handles macro expansions properly when calculating line
184 ** Autotest now determines $srcdir correctly.
186 ** Testsuites built by autotest now accept a -C/--directory=DIR option
187 to adjust the working directory prior to creating files.
189 ** Autoconf now requires GNU M4 1.4.5 or later. Earlier versions of M4 have
190 a bug in macro tracing that interferes with the interaction between
191 Autoconf and Automake. GNU M4 1.4.11 or later is recommended. The
192 configure search for a working M4 is improved.
194 ** For portability with the eventual M4 2.0, macros should no longer use
195 anything larger than $9 to refer to arguments.
197 ** Documentation for m4sugar is improved.
199 - The following macros were previously available as undocumented
200 interfaces; the macros are now documented as stable interfaces.
202 __oline__ m4_assert m4_bmatch m4_bpatsubsts m4_car m4_case
203 m4_cdr m4_default m4_divert_once m4_divert_pop m4_divert_push
204 m4_divert_text m4_do m4_errprintn m4_fatal m4_flatten
205 m4_ifndef m4_ifset m4_ifval m4_ifvaln m4_location
206 m4_n m4_shiftn m4_strip m4_warn
208 - The following macros were previously available as undocumented
209 interfaces, but had bug fixes or semantic changes as part of this
210 release. Packages that relied on the undocumented behavior
211 should be analyzed to make sure they will still work with the
212 new documented behavior.
214 m4_cmp m4_list_cmp m4_join m4_map m4_map_sep m4_sign
215 m4_text_box m4_text_wrap m4_version_compare
217 - The m4_wrap macro used to have unspecified order, but now
218 guarantees FIFO order. m4_wrap_lifo was added to guarantee LIFO
221 - Packages using the undocumented m4sugar macro m4_PACKAGE_VERSION
222 should consider using the new AC_AUTOCONF_VERSION instead.
224 - m4sugar macros that are not documented in the manual are still
225 deemed experimental, and should not be used outside of Autoconf.
227 ** The m4sugar macros m4_append and m4_append_uniq, first documented in
228 2.60, have been fixed to treat both the string and the separator
229 arguments consistently with regards to quoting. Prior to this fix,
230 m4_append_uniq could mistakenly duplicate entries if the expansion
231 of the separator resulted in a different string (for example, if it
232 contained quotes, a comma, or a macro name). However, it means
233 that programs previously using
234 m4_append([name], [string], [[, ]])
235 are now using a four-character separator instead of the intended
236 comma and space. If you need portability to earlier versions of
237 Autoconf, you can insert the following snippet after AC_INIT but
238 before any other macro expansions, to enforce the new semantics:
239 m4_pushdef([m4_append], [m4_define([$1],
240 m4_ifdef([$1], [m4_defn([$1])[$3]])[$2])])
241 Additionally, m4_append_uniq now takes optional parameters that can
242 be used to take action depending on whether anything was appended,
243 and warns if a non-empty separator occurs within the string being
244 appended, since that can lead to duplicates.
246 ** The following m4sugar macros are new:
247 m4_append_uniq_w m4_apply m4_combine m4_cond m4_count
248 m4_dquote_elt m4_echo m4_expand m4_ignore m4_make_list m4_max
249 m4_min m4_newline m4_shift2 m4_shift3 m4_unquote m4_wrap_lifo
251 ** Warnings are now generated by default when an installer invokes
252 'configure' with an unknown --enable-* or --with-* option.
253 These warnings can be disabled with the new AC_DISABLE_OPTION_CHECKING
254 macro, or by invoking 'configure' with --disable-option-checking.
256 ** Existing obsolete macros
257 The documentation for the following macros is adjusted to make it
258 more clear that they have previously been marked obsolete, as their
259 functionality can be accomplished by other macros. We have no
260 current plans to remove them from Autoconf.
262 AC_ENABLE AC_STRUCT_ST_BLKSIZE AC_STRUCT_ST_RDEV AC_WITH
264 ** Newly obsolete macros
265 The following macros have been marked obsolete, as they only
266 perform a subset of AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS. We have no current
267 plans to remove them.
269 AC_AIX AC_GNU_SOURCE AC_ISC_POSIX AC_MINIX
271 ** AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE is obsolescent.
272 The documentation now says that AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE is obsolescent: it
273 tests for problems that are so old that it is no longer of
274 practical importance on current systems. New programs need not use
275 AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE. We have no current plans to remove it.
277 ** AC_DIAGNOSE, AC_WARNING, and AC_FATAL are obsolescent.
278 The documentation now favors the use of M4sugar macros m4_warn and
279 m4_fatal, since the naming makes it more obvious that the
280 diagnostics are associated with M4 expansion (ie. when running
281 `autoconf'), and offers less confusion with the AC_MSG_ERROR,
282 AC_MSG_FAILURE, and AC_MSG_WARN macros which manage diagnostics
283 when running `configure'. We have no current plans to remove these
287 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.61a (2006-12-11)
289 ** AC_FUNC_FSEEKO was broken in 2.61; it didn't make fseeko and ftello visible
290 on many platforms. This has been fixed.
292 ** AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED is now obsolete. It is still defined for backward
293 compatibility but it does nothing. The macro was already
294 obsolescent, as the last systems to have the problem were those
295 based on SVR2, which became obsolete in 1987. The macro had bugs
296 on some modern systems and could no longer be maintained reliably
297 due to lack of ancient systems to test it on.
299 ** config.status now uses awk instead of sed for most substitutions, for speed.
301 - As a side effect multi-line values of substituted variables no
302 longer have a small limit in total size, though for portability
303 each line should not exceed the POSIX length limit for text lines.
305 - It is now documented that Makefile.in should not contain
306 overlapping variable occurrences, e.g., @VAR1@VAR2@.
307 Autoconf's behavior was always iffy in such cases, and the
308 awk implementation has changed the behavior.
310 ** Many uses of 'echo' have been rewritten so that Autoconf-generated
311 scripts have fewer problems with strings or file names containing
312 embedded special characters such as backslash or leading "-". This
313 was implemented by using `printf '%s\n' "$foo"' instead of `echo
314 "$foo"' when printf works. Due to the implementation technique
315 used, Autoconf-generated scripts now run considerably more slowly
316 on ancient implementations lacking printf. However, this should
317 not be a problem, since Autoconf-generated scripts in practice
318 invariably find a more-modern shell these days.
321 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.61 (2006-11-17)
323 ** New macros AC_C_FLEXIBLE_ARRAY_MEMBER, AC_C_VARARRAYS.
325 ** AC_ARG_ENABLE and AC_ARG_WITH now allow '.' in feature and package names.
328 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.60b (2006-10-22)
331 Autoconf-generated shell scripts no longer export BIN_SH, due to
332 configuration hassles with this. Installers who need BIN_SH in
333 their environment should set it before invoking 'configure' and
334 'make'. As far as we know, this affects only Unixware installations.
336 ** Obsolescent macros
337 The documentation now says that the following macros are obsolescent,
338 as they are superseded by Gnulib:
340 AC_FUNC_FNMATCH AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU AC_FUNC_GETLOADVG AC_REPLACE_FNMATCH
342 New programs should use the Gnulib counterparts of these macros.
343 We have no current plans to remove them from Autoconf.
345 ** AC_COMPUTE_INT no longer caches or reports results.
347 ** AC_CHECK_DECL now also works with aggregate objects.
349 ** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS now defines _TANDEM_SOURCE for NonStop platforms.
351 ** GNU M4 1.4.7 or later is now recommended.
354 New M4sugar macro, which is more secure than the POSIX M4 maketemp.
357 Now an alias for m4_mkstemp.
359 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.60a (2006-08-25)
361 ** GNU M4 1.4.6 or later is now recommended.
363 ** The check for C99 now tests for varargs macros, as documented.
364 It also tests that the preprocessor supports 64-bit integers.
366 ** Autoconf now uses constructs like "#ifdef HAVE_STDLIB_H" rather than
367 "#if HAVE_STDLIB_H", so that it now works with "gcc -Wundef -Werror".
369 ** The functionality of the undocumented _AC_COMPUTE_INT is now provided
370 by a public and documented macro, AC_COMPUTE_INT. The parameters to the
371 two macros are different, so autoupdate will not change the old private name
372 to the new one. _AC_COMPUTE_INT may be removed in a future release.
374 ** AC_TYPE_LONG_LONG_INT and AC_TYPE_UNSIGNED_LONG_LONG_INT now require
375 that long long types be at least 64 bits wide, as C99 and tradition
376 requires. Formerly, they accepted implementations of any width.
379 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.60
381 Released 2006-06-23, by Ralf Wildenhues.
383 ** Autoconf no longer depends on whether m4wrap is FIFO (as Posix requires)
384 or LIFO (as in GNU M4 1.4.x). GNU M4 2.0 is expected to conform to Posix
385 here, so m4wrap/m4_wrap users should no longer depend on LIFO behavior.
387 ** Provide a way to turn off warnings about the changed directory variables.
389 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59d
391 Released 2006-06-05, by Ralf Wildenhues.
393 ** GNU make now recommended for VPATH builds
394 INSTALL now suggests VPATH builds (e.g., "sh ../srcdir/configure")
395 only if you use GNU make. In practice, other 'make' implementations
396 have too many subtle incompatibilities in their support for VPATH.
397 Many packages (including Autoconf itself) are portable to other
398 'make' implementations, but some packages are not, and recommending
399 GNU make keeps the installation instructions simpler.
401 ** Even more safety checks for the new Directory variables:
402 Warn about suspicious `${datarootdir}' found in config files output.
404 ** AC_TRY_COMMAND, AC_TRY_EVAL, ac_config_guess, ac_config_sub, ac_configure
405 These never-documented macros and variables have been marked with
406 comments saying that they may be removed in a future release,
407 because their use can lead to unintended code being executed.
408 If you need functionality that only these macros or variables
409 currently supply, please write bug-autoconf@gnu.org.
411 ** AC_SUBST, AC_DEFINE
412 Literal arguments to these are passed to m4_pattern_allow now.
415 Passing 'ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc=no' to 'configure' now sets ac_cv_prog_cc_c99
416 and ac_cv_prog_cc_c89 to 'no' as well, for backward compatibility with
417 obsolete K&R tests in the Automake test suite.
426 Now more robust with special characters in file names, or when
427 multiple processes create the same directory at the same time.
429 ** Obsolescent macros
430 The documentation now says that the following macros are obsolescent:
431 they test for problems that are so old that they are no longer of
432 practical importance on current systems.
434 AC_C_BACKSLASH_A AC_FUNC_MEMCMP AC_HEADER_DIRENT
435 AC_C_CONST AC_FUNC_SELECT_ARGTYPES AC_HEADER_STAT
436 AC_C_PROTOTYPES AC_FUNC_SETPGRP AC_HEADER_STDC
437 AC_C_STRINGIZE AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED AC_HEADER_SYS_WAIT
438 AC_C_VOLATILE AC_FUNC_STAT AC_HEADER_TIME
439 AC_FUNC_CLOSEDIR_VOID AC_FUNC_STRFTIME AC_ISC_POSIX
440 AC_FUNC_GETPGRP AC_FUNC_UTIME_NULL AC_PROG_GCC_TRADITIONAL
441 AC_FUNC_LSTAT AC_FUNC_VPRINTF AC_STRUCT_TM
443 New programs need not use these macros. We have no current plans to
447 For compatibility with future Libtool 2.0, autoreconf will invoke
448 libtoolize with the option `--ltdl' now, if LT_CONFIG_LTDL_DIR is
451 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59c
453 Released 2006-04-12, by Ralf Wildenhues.
455 ** The configure command now redirects standard input from /dev/null,
456 to help avoid problems with subsidiary commands that might mistakenly
457 read standard input. AS_ORIGINAL_STDIN_FD points to the original
458 standard input before this redirection, if you really want configure to
459 read from standard input.
461 ** Directory variables adjusted to recent changes in the GNU Coding Standards.
462 The following directory variables are new:
464 datarootdir read-only architecture-independent data root [PREFIX/share]
465 localedir locale-specific message catalogs [DATAROOTDIR/locale]
466 docdir documentation root [DATAROOTDIR/doc/PACKAGE]
467 htmldir html documentation [DOCDIR]
468 dvidir dvi documentation [DOCDIR]
469 pdfdir pdf documentation [DOCDIR]
470 psdir ps documentation [DOCDIR]
472 The following variables have new default values:
474 datadir read-only architecture-independent data [DATAROOTDIR]
475 infodir info documentation [DATAROOTDIR/info]
476 mandir man documentation [DATAROOTDIR/man]
478 This means that if you use any of `@datadir@', `@infodir@', or
479 `@mandir@' in a file, you will have to ensure `${datarootdir}' is
480 defined in this file. As a temporary measure, if any of those are
481 found but no mention of `datarootdir', the substitutions will be
482 replaced with values that do not contain `${datarootdir}', and a
483 warning will be issued.
485 ** @top_builddir@ is now a dir name: it is always nonempty and doesn't have
486 a trailing slash. Similar change will be made to ac_top_builddir in a
487 future release; the old style value, which matches (../)*, is (and will
488 continue to be) available as ac_top_build_prefix.
491 New macro to check for support of 'typeof' syntax a la GNU C.
493 ** AC_CHECK_DECLS_ONCE, AC_CHECK_FUNCS_ONCE, AC_CHECK_HEADERS_ONCE
494 New "once-only" variants of commonly-used macros, to make 'configure'
495 smaller and faster in common cases.
498 New macro to check for strtold with C99 semantics.
501 New macro that lets builder disable assertions at 'configure'-time.
504 Now checks for X11/Xlib.h and XrmInitialize (X proper) rather than
505 X11/Intrinsic.h and XtMalloc (Xt).
507 ** AC_PRESERVE_HELP_ORDER
508 New macro that causes `configure' to display help strings for AC_ARG_ENABLE
509 and AC_ARG_WITH arguments in one region, in the order defined. The default
510 behavior is to group options of each classes separately.
512 ** AC_PROG_CC, AC_PROG_CXX
513 No longer automatically arrange to declare the 'exit' function of C,
514 when a C++ compiler is used. Standard Autoconf macros no longer use
515 'exit', so this is no longer an issue for them. If you use C++, and
516 want to call 'exit', you'll have to arrange for its declaration
517 yourself. But we now suggest you return from 'main' instead.
519 ** AC_PROG_CC_C89, AC_PROG_CC_C99
520 New macros for ISO C99 support. AC_PROG_CC_C89 and AC_PROG_CC_C99
521 check for ANSI C89 and ISO C99 support respectively.
524 Has been unobsoleted, and will check if the compiler supports ISO
525 C99, falling back to ANSI C89 if not. ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc is
526 retained for backwards compatibility, assuming the value of
527 ac_cv_prog_cc_c99 or ac_cv_prog_cc_c89 (whichever is valid, in
530 ** AC_STRUCT_DIRENT_D_INO, AC_STRUCT_DIRENT_D_TYPE
531 New macros for checking commonly-used members of struct dirent.
534 The substituted value can now contain newlines.
537 The substitution now occurs only when @variable@ is on a line by itself,
538 optionally surrounded by spaces and tabs. The whole line is replaced.
540 ** AC_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE, AC_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE_WIDER
541 New macros to check for long double, and whether it is wider than double.
542 The old macro AC_C_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE has been marked as obsolete;
543 applications should switch to the new macro.
545 ** AC_TYPE_INT8_T, AC_TYPE_INT16_T, AC_TYPE_INT32_T, AC_TYPE_INT64_T,
546 AC_TYPE_INTMAX_T, AC_TYPE_INTPTR_T, AC_TYPE_LONG_LONG_INT, AC_TYPE_SSIZE_T,
547 AC_TYPE_UINT8_T, AC_TYPE_UINT16_T, AC_TYPE_UINT32_T, AC_TYPE_UINT64_T,
548 AC_TYPE_UINTMAX_T, AC_TYPE_UINTPTR_T, AC_TYPE_UNSIGNED_LONG_LONG_INT
549 New macros to check for C99 and POSIX types.
551 ** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS
552 New macro to enable extensions to Posix.
555 New macro which is defined to the name of the first declared config header
556 or undefined if no config headers have been declared yet.
559 The macro correctly handles quadrigraphs now.
561 ** AS_BOURNE_COMPATIBLE, AS_SHELL_SANITIZE, AS_CASE
562 These macros are new or published now.
565 New macro for copyright notices in testsuite files.
567 ** ALLOCA, LIBOBJS, LTLIBOBJS
568 Object names added to these variables are now prefixed with `${LIBOBJDIR}',
569 as in `${LIBOBJDIR}alloca.o'. LIBOBJDIR is meant to be defined from
570 `Makefile.in' in case the object files lie in a different directory.
571 The LIBOBJDIR feature is experimental.
574 Supports --no-recursive now.
576 ** New macros to support Erlang/OTP.
577 New macros for configuring paths to Erlang tools and libraries:
578 AC_ERLANG_PATH_ERLC, AC_ERLANG_NEED_ERLC, AC_ERLANG_PATH_ERL,
579 AC_ERLANG_NEED_ERL, AC_ERLANG_CHECK_LIB, AC_ERLANG_SUBST_ROOT_DIR,
580 AC_ERLANG_SUBST_LIB_DIR.
582 New macros for configuring installation of Erlang libraries:
583 AC_ERLANG_SUBST_INSTALL_LIB_DIR, AC_ERLANG_SUBST_INSTALL_LIB_SUBDIR.
585 ** The manual now mentions Gnulib more prominently.
587 ** New macros to support Objective C.
588 AC_PROG_OBJC, AC_PROG_OBJCPP.
590 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59b
592 Released 2004-08-20, by Paul Eggert.
595 New macro that computes the default alignment of a type.
597 ** AC_CHECK_TOOL, AC_PATH_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TOOLS
598 When cross-compiling, these macros will give a warning if the tool
599 is not prefixed. In the future, unprefixed cross tools will not
600 be detected; please consult the info documentation for information
601 about the reason of this change.
603 ** AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOL, AC_PATH_TARGET_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOLS
604 New macros that detect programs whose name is prefixed with the
605 target type, if the build type and target type are different.
607 ** AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE
608 New trace macro that declares expected auxiliary files.
611 New macro that tests for a grep program that accepts as a long a line
614 ** AC_PROG_EGREP, AC_PROG_FGREP
615 These macros now require AC_PROG_GREP, and try EGREP="$GREP -E" and
616 FGREP="$GREP -F" respectively if possible, or else run a path search for
617 a program that accepts as long a line as possible.
620 New macro that tests for a sed program that truncates as few characters
623 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59
625 Released 2003-11-04, by Akim Demaille
627 ** ac_abs_builddir etc.
628 Absolute file names were actually relative in 2.58.
630 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.58
632 Released 2003-11-04, by Akim Demaille
635 core.* files are no longer removed, as they may be valid user files.
637 ** autoreconf and auxiliary directory
638 Autoreconf creates the auxiliary directory if needed. This is
639 especially useful for initial "bootstrapping" of fresh CVS checkouts.
641 ** AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR
642 Use this macro to declare the directory for local M4 macros for aclocal.
645 No longer includes twice the same file in LIBOBJS if invoked
648 ** AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS
649 The directory for its first argument is automatically created. For
652 AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS([src/modules.hh], [...])
654 $top_builddir/src/ is created if needed.
656 ** Autotest and local.at
657 The optional file local.at is always included in Autotest test suites.
660 The warnings are always issued, including with cached runs.
661 This became a significant problem since aclocal and automake can
662 run autoconf behind the scene.
664 ** autoheader warnings
665 The warnings of autoheader can be turned off, using --warning.
666 For instance, -Wno-obsolete disables the complaints about acconfig.h
667 and other deprecated constructs.
670 AC_C_RESTRICT, AC_INCLUDES_DEFAULT, AC_LANG_ASSERT, AC_LANG_WERROR,
673 ** AC_DECL_SYS_SIGLIST
677 Now checks that mktime is the inverse of localtime.
679 ** Improve DJGPP portability
680 The Autoconf tools and configure behave better under DJGPP.
682 ** Present But Cannot Be Compiled
683 New FAQ section dedicated to the mystic
685 configure: WARNING: pi.h: present but cannot be compiled
686 configure: WARNING: pi.h: check for missing prerequisite headers?
687 configure: WARNING: pi.h: proceeding with the preprocessor's result
690 ** Concurrent executions of autom4te
691 autom4te now locks its internal files, which enables concurrent
692 executions of autom4te, likely to happen if automake, autoconf,
693 autoheader etc. are run simultaneously.
696 Use of Libtool 1.5 and higher is encouraged. Compatibility with
697 Libtool pre-1.4 is not checked.
700 Testsuites no longer rerun failed tests in verbose mode; instead,
701 failures are logged while the test is run.
703 In addition, expected failures can be marked as such.
705 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.57
707 Released 2002-12-03 by Paul Eggert.
709 Bug fixes for problems with AIX linker, with freestanding C compilers,
710 with GNU M4 limitations, and with obsolete copies of GNU documents.
712 The Free Documentation License has been upgraded from 1.1 to 1.2.
714 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.56
716 Released 2002-11-15 by Akim Demaille.
718 One packaging problem fixed (config/install-sh was not executable).
720 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.55
722 Released 2002-11-14 by Akim Demaille.
726 Have your configure.ac checked by autoscan ("autoscan").
727 Try the warning options ("autoreconf -fv -Wall").
731 - AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS
732 More information on proper use.
734 - Writing Test Programs
736 This sections explains how to write good test sources to use with
737 AC_COMPILE_IFELSE etc. It documents AC_LANG_PROGRAM and so forth.
739 - AC_FOO_IFELSE vs. AC_TRY_FOO
741 Explains why Autoconf moves from AC_TRY_COMPILE etc. to
742 AC_COMPILE_IFELSE and AC_LANG_PROGRAM etc.
746 - Is more robust to different Gettext installations.
748 - Produces messages (when --verbose) to be understood by Emacs'
751 - Supports -W/--warnings.
754 Once the GNU Build System reinstalled, run `./config.status
755 --recheck && ./config.status && make' if possible.
759 - Supports --cache, and --no-cache.
761 - ~/.autom4te.cfg makes it possible to disable the caching mechanism
762 (autom4te.cache). See `Customizing autom4te' in the documentation.
769 Support for the obsoleted options -m, --macrodir, -l, --localdir is
770 dropped in favor of the safer --include/--prepend-include scheme.
775 AC_COMPILER_IFELSE, AC_FUNC_MBRTOWC, AC_HEADER_STDBOOL,
776 AC_LANG_CONFTEST, AC_LANG_SOURCE, AC_LANG_PROGRAM, AC_LANG_CALL,
777 AC_LANG_FUNC_TRY_LINK, AC_MSG_FAILURE, AC_PREPROC_IFELSE.
780 Obsoleted macros are kept for Autoconf backward compatibility, but
781 should be avoided in configure.ac. Running autoupdate is advised.
784 - AC_DEFINE/AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED
786 We have to stop using the old compatibility scheme --that tried to
787 avoid useless backslashes-- because Libtool 1.4.3 contains a
789 AC_DEFINE([error_t], [int],
790 [Define to a type to use for \`error_t' if it is not
791 otherwise available.])
793 We have to quote the single quotes and backslashes with \. The old
794 compatibility scheme saw that ` was backslashed, and therefore did
795 not quote the single quote... Failure. Hence, Autoconf 2.54 is not
796 compatible with Libtool. Autoconf 2.55 is, but in some cases might
797 produce more \ than wanted.
799 Please, note that in the future the same problem will happen with
800 AC_MSG_*: use `autoreconf -f -Wall'.
804 - Portability of the Autoconf package to Solaris.
806 - Spurious warnings caused by config.status.
807 This bug is benign, but painful: on some systems (typically
808 FreeBSD), warnings such as:
810 config.status: creating Makefile
811 mv: Makefile: set owner/group (was: 1357/0): Operation not permitted
813 could be issued. This is fixed.
816 Simultaneous executions of config.status are possible again.
818 - Precious variables accumulation
820 config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
824 ** Plans for later versions
828 The compatibility hooks with the old scheme will be completely
829 removed. Please, advice/use `--build', `--host', and `--target'
832 - AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS
834 The tests will be stricter, please make sure your invocations are
839 Shell functions will gradually be introduced, probably starting with
840 Autotest. If you know machines which are in use that you suspect
841 *not* to support shell functions, please run the test suite of
842 Autoconf 2.55 on it, and report the results to
843 bug-autoconf@gnu.org.
847 Special characters in AC_MSG_* need not be quoted. Currently,
848 Autoconf has heuristics to decide when a string is escaped, or has
849 to be escaped. This scheme is fragile, and will be removed; the
850 only risk is uglified messages. Please, run `autoreconf -f -Wall'
851 to find occurrences that will be affected.
853 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.54
855 Released 2002-09-13 by Akim Demaille.
859 - autoreconf no longer changes the version of the gettext/po/intl
860 support files. It now adds the files the correspond to the
861 AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION declared in configure.ac.
863 Warning: It now relies on the 'autopoint' program, which is part
864 of GNU gettext 0.11.4 and newer.
866 Please note that you need to have a GNU gettext version that
867 corresponds at least to the AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION declared
868 in configure.ac. You can upgrade to newer GNU gettext versions,
869 though, without needing to change configure.ac.
871 - The -I DIR or --include=DIR option now appends DIR to the include path
872 instead of prepending; this is for consistency with other GNU tools.
873 The new -B DIR or --prepend-include=DIR option has the old behavior.
878 Now handles all the gory details about LIBOBJS and LTLIBOBJS.
879 Please, remove lines such as
881 # This is necessary so that .o files in LIBOBJS are also
882 # built via the ANSI2KNR-filtering rules.
883 LIBOBJS=`echo $LIBOBJS|sed 's/\.o /\$U.o /g;s/\.o$/\$U.o/'`
885 and read the `AC_LIBOBJ vs LIBOBJS' section. Do not define U in
886 your Makefiles either.
888 - AC_CONFIG_LINKS now makes copies if it can't make links.
890 - AC_FUNC_FNMATCH now tests only for POSIX compatibility, reverting to
891 Autoconf 2.13 behavior. The new macro AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU also
892 tests for GNU extensions to fnmatch, and replaces fnmatch if needed.
894 - AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED no longer fails when cross-compiling.
896 - AC_PROG_CC_STDC is integrated into AC_PROG_CC.
898 - AC_PROG_F77 default search no longer includes cf77 and cfg77.
902 AC_C_BACKSLASH_A, AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR, AC_GNU_SOURCE,
903 AC_PROG_EGREP, AC_PROG_FGREP, AC_REPLACE_FNMATCH,
904 AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU, AC_FUNC_REALLOC, AC_TYPE_MBSTATE_T.
907 looks for getloadavg.c in the CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR.
910 Now defines HAVE_MALLOC to 0 if `malloc' does not work, and asks
911 for an AC_LIBOBJ replacement.
915 - Spurious complaints from `m4_bmatch' about invalid regular
916 expressions are suppressed.
918 - Empty top_builddirs are properly handled.
920 - AC_CHECK_MEMBER works correctly when the member is an aggregate.
923 Now colon in the optional path arguments are properly handled.
925 ** Improved portability
927 - Both Autoconf the package, and the scripts it produces, should run
928 more reliably with Zsh. Bear in mind it is the default Bourne shell
931 - Autoconf and the scripts it produces no longer assume the existence of
932 the obsolescent commands egrep and fgrep.
936 - Limitations of Make
940 The GNATS base moved to
941 http://bugs.gnu.org/cgi-bin/gnatsweb.pl?database=autoconf
942 (It is no longer available, though.)
947 Now contains the list of ouput variables and files (AC_SUBST,
950 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.53
952 Released 2002-03-08 by Akim Demaille.
956 Perl 5.005_03 or later is required: autom4te is written in Perl and is
957 needed by autoconf. autoheader, autoreconf, ifnames, and autoscan are
963 Argument requirements, output variables, defined macros.
964 - M4sugar, M4sh, Autotest
966 - Double quoting macros
967 AC_TRY_CPP, AC_TRY_COMPILE, AC_TRY_LINK and AC_TRY_RUN.
969 The Autoconf manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
970 - Section `Hosts and Cross-Compilation'
971 Explains the rationale for the 2.5x changes in the cross-compilation
972 chain, and in the relationships between build, host, and target
974 Emphasizes that `cross-compilation' == `--host is given'.
975 If you are working on compilers etc., be sure to read this section.
976 - Section `AC_LIBOBJ vs. LIBOBJS'
977 Explains why assigning LIBOBJS directly is now an error.
978 Details how to update the code.
983 Now used instead of hard coded line numbers.
984 This eases the comparison of `configure's, and diminishes the
985 pressure over control version archives.
986 Automatic replacement for shells that don't support this feature.
987 - New output variables
988 @builddir@, @top_builddir@, @abs_srcdir@, @abs_top_srcdir@, @abs_builddir@,
993 Autoconf and Autotest modes are provided.
998 New, used by the Autoconf suite to cache and speed up most processing.
1000 Supported by autom4te, autoconf and autoheader.
1002 Replaces --autoconf-dir and --localdir in autoconf, autoheader,
1003 autoupdate, and autoreconf.
1005 No longer passes --cygnus, --foreign, --gnits, --gnu, --include-deps:
1006 automake options are to be given via AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
1008 Runs gettextize and libtoolize when appropriate.
1010 --m4dir is no longer supported.
1012 Now runs only in the specified directories, defaulting to `.',
1013 but understands AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS for dependent directories.
1014 Before, it used to run on all the `configure.ac' found in the
1016 Independent packages are properly updated.
1020 - The top level $prefix is propagated to the AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS configures.
1022 Under the user pressure, $? is finally available. Probably a mistake.
1023 - AC_F77_LIBRARY_LDFLAGS now supports the HP/UX f90 compiler.
1024 - Precious variables accumulation
1025 config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
1027 - AC_PATH_PROG and family.
1028 Works properly when given a literal path.
1030 Somewhere since 2.13, the result had been reversed.
1034 - AC_C_BIGENDIAN supports the cross-compiling case.
1035 - AC_C_BIGENDIAN accepts ACTION-IF-TRUE, ACTION-IF-FALSE, and
1036 ACTION-IF-UNKNOWN arguments. All are facultative, and the default
1037 for ACTION-IF-TRUE is to define WORDS_BIGENDIAN like AC_C_BIGENDIAN
1039 - AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE now succeeds only if `long double' has more range or
1040 precision than `double'.
1045 It now defines the preprocessor symbols PACKAGE_NAME,
1046 PACKAGE_TARNAME, PACKAGE_VERSION, PACKAGE_STRING, and
1050 Admits a fourth optional parameter: the tar name.
1052 - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS.
1053 Provide the user with srcdir, ac_srcdir, ac_top_srcdir, ac_builddir,
1054 ac_top_builddir, ac_abs_srcdir, ac_abs_top_srcdir, ac_abs_builddir,
1055 ac_abs_top_builddir.
1057 - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS and AC_OUTPUT.
1058 Are much less expensive when using long lists of files.
1061 Works with shell variables, and non alphanumeric names.
1065 - AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R now sets STRERROR_R_CHAR_P, not HAVE_WORKING_STRERROR_R,
1066 because POSIX 1003.1-200x draft 7 says strerror_r returns int, not char *.
1068 - AC_FUNC_STRTOD substitutes POW_LIB.
1073 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.52
1075 Released 2001-07-18 by Akim Demaille.
1080 This feature was present in autoconf 2.50 but was not documented.
1081 For example, `@<:@' is translated to `[' just before output. This
1082 is useful when writing strings that contain unbalanced quotes, or
1083 other hard-to-quote constructs.
1084 - m4_pattern_forbid, m4_pattern_allow
1085 - Tips for upgrading from 2.13.
1086 - Using autoscan to maintain a configure.ac.
1089 - Now include stdint.h.
1090 - sys/types.h and sys/stat.h are guarded.
1091 - strings.h is included if available, and not conflicting with string.h.
1094 - The test suite is more robust and presents less false failures.
1095 - Invocation of GNU M4 now robust to POSIXLY_CORRECT.
1096 - configure accepts --prefix='' again.
1097 - AC_CHECK_LIB works properly when its first argument is not a
1099 - HAVE_INTTYPES_H is defined only if not conflicting with sys/types.h.
1100 - build_, host_, and target_alias are AC_SUBST as in 2.13.
1101 - AC_ARG_VAR properly propagates precious variables inherited from the
1102 environment to ./config.status.
1103 - Using --program-suffix/--program-prefix is portable.
1104 - Failures to detect the default compiler's output extension are less
1106 - `config.status foo' works properly when `foo' depends on variables
1107 set in an AC_CONFIG_THING INIT-CMD.
1108 - autoheader is more robust to broken input.
1109 - Fixed Fortran name-mangling and link tests on a number of systems,
1110 e.g. NetBSD; see AC_F77_DUMMY_MAIN, below.
1113 - AC_CHECK_HEADER and AC_CHECK_HEADERS support a fourth argument to
1114 specify pre-includes. In this case, the headers are compiled with
1115 cc, not merely preprocessed by cpp. Therefore it is the _usability_
1116 of a header which is checked for, not just its availability.
1117 - AC_ARG_VAR refuses to run configure when precious variables have
1119 - Versions of compilers are dumped in the logs.
1120 - AC_CHECK_TYPE recognizes use of `foo_t' as a replacement type.
1123 - AC_PATH_XTRA only adds -ldnet to $LIBS if it's needed to link.
1124 - AC_FUNC_WAIT3 and AC_SYS_RESTARTABLE_SYSCALLS are obsoleted.
1125 - AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_FNMATCH, AM_FUNC_MKTIME,
1126 AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, and AM_FUNC_STRTOD are now activated.
1127 Be sure to read `Upgrading from Version 2.13' to understand why
1128 running `autoupdate' is needed.
1129 - AC_F77_DUMMY_MAIN, AC_F77_MAIN: new macros to detect whether
1130 a main-like routine is required/possible when linking C/C++ with
1131 Fortran. Users of e.g. AC_F77_WRAPPERS should be aware of these.
1132 - AC_FUNC_GETPGRG behaves better when cross-compiling.
1134 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.51
1135 There was no release of Autoconf 2.51 since some packagers had used
1136 this version number without permission to ship intermediary versions
1137 of 2.50. The version was skipped to avoid confusion.
1139 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.50
1141 Released 2001-05-21 by Akim Demaille.
1143 ** Lots of bug fixes
1144 There have been far too many to enumerate them here. Check out
1145 ChangeLog if you really want to know more.
1147 ** Improved documentation
1148 In particular, portability issues are better covered.
1151 All the standard GNU Makefile targets are supported. The layout has
1152 changed: m4/ holds the M4 extensions Autoconf needs for its
1153 configuration, doc/ contains the documentation, and tests/ contains
1156 ** Man pages are provided
1157 For autoconf, autoreconf, autoupdate, autoheader, autoscan, ifnames,
1158 config.guess, config.sub.
1162 Provides a safe and powerful means to trace the macro uses. This
1163 provide the parsing layer for tools which need to `study'
1167 Specify what category of warnings should be enabled.
1169 - When recursing into subdirectories, try for configure.gnu before
1170 configure to adapt for packages not using autoconf on case-insensitive
1174 More errors are now caught (circular AC_REQUIRE dependencies,
1175 AC_DEFINE in the action part of an AC_CACHE_CHECK, too many pops
1176 etc.). In addition, their location and call stack are given.
1179 autoupdate is much more powerful, and is able to provide the glue code
1180 which might be needed to move from an old macro to its newer
1183 You are strongly encouraged to use it to modernize both your
1184 `configure.in' and your .m4 extension files.
1187 The internal machinery of autoheader has completely changed. As a
1188 result, using `acconfig.h' should be considered to be obsoleted, and
1189 you are encouraged to get rid of it using the AH macros.
1194 ** Fortran 77 compilers
1195 Globally, the support for Fortran 77 is considerably improved.
1197 Support for automatically determining a Fortran 77 compiler's
1198 name-mangling scheme. New CPP macros F77_FUNC and F77_FUNC_ are
1199 provided to wrap C/C++ identifiers, thus making it easier and more
1200 transparent for C/C++ to call Fortran 77 routines, and Fortran 77 to
1201 call C/C++ routines. See the Texinfo documentation for details.
1204 The test suite no longer uses DejaGNU. It should be easy to submit
1205 test cases in this new framework.
1208 - --help, --help=long, -hl
1209 no longer dumps useless items.
1211 lists only specific options.
1212 - --help=recursive, -hr
1213 displays the help of all the embedded packages.
1214 - Remembers environment variables when reconfiguring.
1215 The previous scheme to set envvar before running configure was
1217 what prevented configure from remembering the environment in which
1218 it was run, therefore --recheck was run in an inconsistent
1219 environment. Now, one should run
1221 and then --recheck will work properly. Variables declared with
1222 AC_ARG_VAR are also preserved.
1224 $build defaults to `config.guess`, $host to $build, and then $target
1226 Cross-compilation is a global status of the package, it no longer
1227 depends upon the current language.
1228 Cross compilation is enabled iff the user specified `--host'.
1229 `configure' now fails if it can't run the executables it compiles,
1230 unless cross-compilation is enabled.
1232 The cache file is disabled by default. The new options
1233 `--config-cache', `-C' set the cache to `config.cache'.
1237 Much faster on most architectures.
1238 - concurrent executions
1239 It is safe to use `make -j' with config.status.
1240 - human interface improved
1241 It is possible to invoke
1242 ./config.status foobar
1243 instead of the former form (still valid)
1244 CONFIG_COMMANDS= CONFIG_HEADERS= CONFIG_LINKS= \
1245 CONFIG_FILES=foobar:foo.in:bar.in \
1247 The same holds for configuration headers and links.
1248 You can instantiate unknown files and headers:
1249 ./config.status --header foo.h:foo.h.in --file bar:baz
1250 - has a useful --help
1251 - accepts special file name "-" for stdin/stdout
1256 Specify additional copyright information.
1259 Now expects the identity of the package as argument.
1263 Most macros, if not all, now strictly follow the `one quotation
1264 level' rule. This results in a more predictable expansion.
1267 A sly bug in the AC_REQUIRE machinery, which could produce incorrect
1268 configure scripts, was fixed by Axel Thimm.
1272 Document and ask for the registration of an envvar.
1275 Specifies the file which `configure' should look for when trying to
1276 find the source tree (used to be handled by AC_INIT).
1278 - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS
1279 To add new actions to config.status. Should be used instead of
1283 Replaces AC_LINK_FILES.
1285 - AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS,
1286 AC_CONFIG_LINKS, and AC_CONFIG_FILES
1287 They now obey sh: you should no longer use shell variables as
1288 argument. Instead of
1290 test "$package_foo_enabled" = yes && $my_subdirs="$my_subdirs foo"
1291 AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS($my_subdirs)
1295 if test "$package_foo_enabled" = yes; then
1296 AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS(foo)
1300 To format an Autoconf macro's help string so that it looks pretty
1301 when the user executes `configure --help'.
1304 ** Generic Test Macros
1306 The interface of the AC_CHECK families of macros (decl, header,
1307 type, member, func) is now uniform. They support the same set of
1310 - AC_CHECK_DECL, AC_CHECK_DECLS
1311 To check whether a symbol is declared.
1313 - AC_CHECK_SIZEOF, AC_C_CHAR_UNSIGNED.
1314 No longer need a cross-compilation default.
1317 The test it performs is much more robust than previously, and makes
1318 it possible to test builtin types in addition to typedefs.
1319 It is now schizophrenic:
1320 - AC_CHECK_TYPE(TYPE, REPLACEMENT)
1321 remains for backward compatibility, but its use is discouraged.
1322 - AC_CHECK_TYPE(TYPE, IF-FOUND, IF-NOT-FOUND, INCLUDES)
1323 behaves exactly like the other AC_CHECK macros.
1326 Checks whether given types are supported by the system.
1328 - AC_CHECK_MEMBER, AC_CHECK_MEMBERS
1329 Check for given members in aggregates (e.g., pw_gecos in struct
1333 Checks if the compiler supports ISO C, included when needs special
1337 Checking whether the preprocessor indicates missing includes by the
1338 error code. stderr is checked by AC_TRY_CPP only as a fallback.
1341 Takes a language as argument and replaces AC_LANG_C,
1342 AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS and AC_LANG_FORTRAN77.
1344 - AC_LANG_PUSH, AC_LANG_POP
1345 Are preferred to AC_LANG_SAVE, AC_LANG_RESTORE.
1348 - AC_FUNC_CHOWN, AC_FUNC_MALLOC, AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R,
1349 AC_FUNC_LSTAT_FOLLOWS_SLASHED_SYMLINK, AC_FUNC_STAT, AC_FUNC_LSTAT,
1350 AC_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AC_FUNC_OBSTACK, AC_FUNC_STRTOD, AC_FUNC_FSEEKO.
1354 Sets GETGROUPS_LIBS.
1356 - AC_FUNC_GETLOADAVG
1357 Defines `HAVE_STRUCT_NLIST_N_UN_N_NAME' instead of `NLIST_NAME_UNION'.
1360 Now integrates `AC_DECL_YYTEXT' which is obsoleted.
1363 Arrange for large-file support.
1365 - AC_EXEEXT, AC_OBJEXT
1366 You are no longer expected to use them: their computation is
1367 performed by default.
1369 ** C++ compatibility
1370 Every macro has been revisited in order to support at best CC=c++.
1372 Major changes in Autoconf 2.14:
1373 There was no release of GNU Autoconf 2.14.
1375 Major changes in Autoconf 2.13:
1377 Released 1999-05-01 by Ben Elliston.
1379 * Support for building on Win32 systems where the only available C or
1380 C++ compiler is the Microsoft Visual C++ command line compiler
1381 (`cl'). Additional support for building on Win32 systems which are
1382 using the Cygwin or Mingw32 environments.
1383 * Support for alternative object file and executable file extensions.
1384 On Win32, for example, these are .obj and .exe. These are discovered
1385 using AC_OBJEXT and AC_EXEEXT, which substitute @OBJEXT@ and
1386 @EXEEXT@ in the output, respectively.
1387 * New macros: AC_CACHE_LOAD, AC_CACHE_SAVE, AC_FUNC_SELECT_ARGTYPES,
1388 AC_VALIDATE_CACHED_SYSTEM_TUPLE, AC_SEARCH_LIBS, AC_TRY_LINK_FUNC,
1389 AC_C_STRINGIZE, AC_CHECK_FILE(S), AC_PROG_F77 (and friends).
1390 * AC_DEFINE now has an optional third argument for a description to be
1391 placed in the config header input file (e.g. config.h.in).
1392 * The C++ code fragment compiled for the C++ compiler test had to be
1393 improved to include an explicit return type for main(). This was
1394 causing failures on systems using recent versions of the EGCS C++
1396 * Fixed an important bug in AC_CHECK_TYPE that would cause a configure
1397 script to report that `sometype_t' was present when only `type_t'
1399 * Merge of the FSF version of config.guess and config.sub to modernize
1400 these scripts. Add support for a few new hosts in config.guess.
1401 Incorporate latest versions of install-sh, mkinstalldirs and
1402 texinfo.tex from the FSF.
1403 * autoreconf is capable of running automake if necessary (and
1405 * Support for Fortran 77. See the Texinfo documentation for details.
1406 * Bug fixes and workarounds for quirky bugs in vendor utilities.
1408 Major changes in Autoconf 2.12:
1410 Released 1996-11-26 by David J. MacKenzie
1412 * AC_OUTPUT and AC_CONFIG_HEADER can create output files by
1413 concatenating multiple input files separated by colons, like so:
1414 AC_CONFIG_HEADER(config.h:conf.pre:config.h.in:conf.post)
1415 AC_OUTPUT(Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.rules)
1416 The arguments may be shell variables, to compute the lists on the fly.
1417 * AC_LINK_FILES and AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS may be called multiple times.
1418 * New macro AC_OUTPUT_COMMANDS adds more commands to run in config.status.
1421 Major changes in Autoconf 2.11:
1423 Released November 18th, 1996, by David J. MacKenzie
1425 * AC_PROG_CC and AC_PROG_CXX check whether the compiler works.
1426 They also default CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS to "-g -O2" for gcc, instead of "-g -O".
1427 * AC_REPLACE_FUNCS defines HAVE_foo if the system has the function `foo'.
1428 * AC_CONFIG_HEADER expands shell variables in its argument.
1429 * New macros: AC_FUNC_FNMATCH, AC_FUNC_SETPGRP.
1430 * The "checking..." messages and the source code for test programs that
1431 fail are saved in config.log.
1432 * Another workaround has been added for seds with small command length limits.
1433 * config.sub and config.guess recognize more system types.
1436 Major changes in Autoconf 2.10:
1438 Released May 7th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
1441 * The cache variable names used by `AC_CHECK_LIB(LIB, FUNC, ...)' has
1442 changed: now $ac_cv_lib_LIB_FUNC, previously $ac_cv_lib_LIB.
1444 Major changes in Autoconf 2.9:
1446 Released March 16th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
1450 Major changes in Autoconf 2.8:
1452 Released March 8th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
1456 Major changes in Autoconf 2.7:
1458 Released November 22nd, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1462 Major changes in Autoconf 2.6:
1464 Released November 20th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1468 Major changes in Autoconf 2.5:
1470 Released November 17th, 1995, by Roland McGrath
1472 * New configure options --bindir, --libdir, --datadir, etc., with
1473 corresponding output variables.
1474 * New macro: AC_CACHE_CHECK, to make using the cache easier.
1475 * config.log contains the command being run as well as any output from it.
1476 * AC_CHECK_LIB can check for libraries with "." or "/" or "+" in their name.
1477 * AC_PROG_INSTALL doesn't cache a name for install-sh, for sharing caches.
1478 * AC_CHECK_PROG, AC_PATH_PROG, AC_CHECK_PROGS, AC_PATH_PROGS, and
1479 AC_CHECK_TOOL can search a path other than $PATH.
1480 * AC_CHECK_SIZEOF takes an optional size to use when cross-compiling.
1482 Major changes in Autoconf 2.4:
1484 Released June 14th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1486 * Fix a few bugs found by Emacs testers.
1488 Major changes in Autoconf 2.3:
1490 Released March 27th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1492 * Fix the cleanup trap in several ways.
1493 * Handle C compilers that are picky about option placement.
1494 * ifnames gets the version number from the right directory.
1496 Major changes in Autoconf 2.2:
1498 Released March 8th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1500 * The ifnames utility is much faster but requires a "new awk" interpreter.
1501 * AC_CHECK_LIB and AC_HAVE_LIBRARY check and add the new
1502 library before existing libs, not after, in case it uses them.
1503 * New macros: AC_FUNC_GETPGRP, AC_CHECK_TOOL.
1504 * Lots of bug fixes.
1505 * Many additions to the TODO file :-)
1507 Major changes in Autoconf 2.1:
1509 Released November 4th, 1994, by David J. MacKenzie
1512 * More explanations in the manual.
1513 * Fix a spurious failure in the testsuite.
1514 * Clarify some warning messages.
1515 * autoreconf by default only rebuilds configure and config.h.in files
1516 that are older than any of their particular input files; there is a
1517 --force option to use after installing a new version of Autoconf.
1519 Thanks to everybody who's submitted changes and additions to Autoconf!
1520 I've incorporated many of them, and am still considering others for
1521 future releases -- but I didn't want to postpone this release indefinitely.
1523 Caution: don't indiscriminately rebuild configure scripts with
1524 Autoconf version 2. Some configure.in files need minor adjustments to
1525 work with it; the documentation has a chapter on upgrading. A few
1526 configure.in files, including those for GNU Emacs and the GNU C
1527 Library, need major changes because they relied on undocumented
1528 internals of version 1. Future releases of those packages will have
1529 updated configure.in files.
1531 It's best to use GNU M4 1.3 (or later) with Autoconf version 2.
1532 Autoconf now makes heavy use of M4 diversions, which were implemented
1533 inefficiently in GNU M4 releases before 1.3.
1535 Major changes in Autoconf 2.0:
1537 Released October 26th, 1994, by David J. MacKenzie
1539 ** New copyright terms:
1540 * There are no restrictions on distribution or use of configure scripts.
1543 * Autoconf manual is reorganized to make information easier to find
1544 and has several new indexes.
1545 * INSTALL is reorganized and clearer and is now made from Texinfo source.
1548 * autoscan to generate a preliminary configure.in for a package by
1549 scanning its source code for commonly used nonportable functions,
1550 programs, and header files.
1551 * ifnames to list the symbols used in #if and #ifdef directives in a
1553 * autoupdate to update a configure.in to use the version 2 macro names.
1554 * autoreconf to recursively remake configure and configuration header
1555 files in a source tree.
1557 ** Changed utilities:
1558 * autoheader can take pieces of acconfig.h to replace config.h.{top,bot}.
1559 * autoconf and autoheader can look for package-local definition files
1560 in an alternate directory.
1563 * AC_CACHE_VAL to share results of tests between configure runs.
1564 * AC_DEFUN to define macros, automatically AC_PROVIDE them, and ensure
1565 that macros invoked with AC_REQUIRE don't interrupt other macros.
1566 * AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR, AC_CANONICAL_SYSTEM, AC_CANONICAL_HOST, AC_LINK_FILES to
1567 support deciding unguessable features based on the host and target types.
1568 * AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS to recursively configure a source tree.
1569 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM to use the options --program-prefix,
1570 --program-suffix, and --program-transform-name to change the names
1571 of programs being installed.
1572 * AC_PREFIX_DEFAULT to change the default installation prefix.
1573 * AC_TRY_COMPILE to compile a test program without linking it.
1574 * AC_CHECK_TYPE to check whether sys/types.h or stdlib.h defines a given type.
1575 * AC_CHECK_LIB to check for a particular function and library.
1576 * AC_MSG_CHECKING and AC_MSG_RESULT to print test results, on a single line,
1577 whether or not the test succeeds. They obsolete AC_CHECKING and AC_VERBOSE.
1578 * AC_SUBST_FILE to insert one file into another.
1579 * AC_FUNC_MEMCMP to check whether memcmp is 8-bit clean.
1580 * AC_FUNC_STRFTIME to find strftime even if it's in -lintl.
1581 * AC_FUNC_GETMNTENT to find getmntent even if it's in -lsun or -lseq.
1582 * AC_HEADER_SYS_WAIT to check whether sys/wait.h is POSIX.1 compatible.
1585 * Many macros renamed systematically, but old names are accepted for
1586 backward compatibility.
1587 * AC_OUTPUT adds the "automatically generated" comment to
1588 non-Makefiles where it finds @configure_input@ in an input file, to
1589 support files with various comment syntaxes.
1590 * AC_OUTPUT does not replace "prefix" and "exec_prefix" in generated
1591 files when they are not enclosed in @ signs.
1592 * AC_OUTPUT allows the optional environment variable CONFIG_STATUS to
1593 override the file name "config.status".
1594 * AC_OUTPUT takes an optional argument for passing variables from
1595 configure to config.status.
1596 * AC_OUTPUT and AC_CONFIG_HEADER allow you to override the input-file names.
1597 * AC_OUTPUT automatically substitutes the values of CFLAGS, CXXFLAGS,
1598 CPPFLAGS, and LDFLAGS from the environment.
1599 * AC_PROG_CC and AC_PROG_CXX now set CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS, respectively.
1600 * AC_PROG_INSTALL looks for install-sh or install.sh in the directory
1601 specified by AC_CONFIG_AUXDIR, or srcdir or srcdir/.. or
1602 srcdir/../.. by default.
1603 * AC_DEFINE, AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED, and AC_SUBST are more robust and smaller.
1604 * AC_DEFINE no longer prints anything, because of the new result reporting
1605 mechanism (AC_MSG_CHECKING and AC_MSG_RESULT).
1606 * AC_VERBOSE pays attention to --quiet/--silent, not --verbose.
1607 * AC_ARG_ENABLE and AC_ARG_WITH support whitespace in the arguments to
1608 --enable- and --with- options.
1609 * AC_CHECK_FUNCS and AC_CHECK_HEADERS take optional shell commands to
1610 execute on success or failure.
1611 * Checking for C functions in C++ works.
1614 * AC_REMOTE_TAPE and AC_RSH removed; too specific to tar and cpio, and
1615 better maintained with them.
1616 * AC_ARG_ARRAY removed because no one was likely using it.
1617 * AC_HAVE_POUNDBANG replaced with AC_SYS_INTERPRETER, which doesn't
1618 take arguments, for consistency with all of the other specific checks.
1621 * Comes with config.sub and config.guess, and uses them optionally.
1622 * Uses config.cache to cache test results. An alternate cache file
1623 can be selected with the --cache-file=FILE option.
1624 * Uses optional shell scripts $prefix/share/config.site and
1625 $prefix/etc/config.site to perform site or system specific initializations.
1626 * configure saves compiler output to ./config.log for debugging.
1627 * New files autoconf.m4 and autoheader.m4 load the other Autoconf macros.
1628 * acsite.m4 is the new name for the system-wide aclocal.m4.
1629 * Has a DejaGnu test suite.
1631 Major changes in Autoconf 1.11:
1633 * AC_PROG_INSTALL calls install.sh with the -c option.
1634 * AC_SET_MAKE cleans up after itself.
1635 * AC_OUTPUT sets prefix and exec_prefix if they weren't set already.
1636 * AC_OUTPUT prevents shells from looking in PATH for config.status.
1638 Plus a few other bug fixes.
1640 Major changes in Autoconf 1.10:
1642 * autoheader uses config.h.bot if present, analogous to config.h.top.
1643 * AC_PROG_INSTALL looks for install.sh in srcdir or srcdir/.. and
1645 * AC_PROG_CXX looks for cxx as a C++ compiler.
1647 Plus several bugs fixed.
1649 Major changes in Autoconf 1.9:
1651 * AC_YYTEXT_POINTER replaces AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT.
1652 * AC_SIZEOF_TYPE generates the cpp symbol name automatically,
1653 and autoheader generates entries for those names automatically.
1654 * AC_FIND_X gets the result from xmkmf correctly.
1655 * AC_FIND_X assumes no X if --without-x was given.
1656 * AC_FIND_XTRA adds libraries to the variable X_EXTRA_LIBS.
1657 * AC_PROG_INSTALL finds OSF/1 installbsd.
1659 Major changes in Autoconf 1.8:
1662 * New macros AC_LANG_C, AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS, AC_LANG_SAVE, AC_LANG_RESTORE,
1663 AC_PROG_CXX, AC_PROG_CXXCPP, AC_REQUIRE_CPP
1664 for checking both C++ and C features in one configure script.
1665 * New macros AC_CHECKING, AC_VERBOSE, AC_WARN, AC_ERROR for printing messages.
1666 * New macros AC_FIND_XTRA, AC_MMAP, AC_SIZEOF_TYPE, AC_PREREQ,
1667 AC_SET_MAKE, AC_ENABLE.
1670 * AC_FIND_X looks for X in more places.
1671 * AC_PROG_INSTALL defaults to install.sh instead of cp, if it's in srcdir.
1672 install.sh is distributed with Autoconf.
1673 * AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT has been removed because it can't work, pending
1674 a rewrite of quoting in AC_DEFINE.
1675 * AC_OUTPUT adds its comments in C format when substituting in C files.
1676 * AC_COMPILE_CHECK protects its ECHO-TEXT argument with double quotes.
1678 ** New or changed command line options:
1679 * configure accepts --enable-FEATURE[=ARG] and --disable-FEATURE options.
1680 * configure accepts --without-PACKAGE, which sets withval=no.
1681 * configure accepts --x-includes=DIR and --x-libraries=DIR.
1682 * Giving --with-PACKAGE no argument sets withval=yes instead of withval=1.
1683 * configure accepts --help, --version, --silent/--quiet, --no-create options.
1684 * configure accepts and ignores most other Cygnus configure options, and
1685 warns about unknown options.
1686 * config.status accepts --help, --version options.
1688 ** File names and other changes:
1689 * Relative srcdir values are not made absolute.
1690 * The values of @prefix@ and @exec_prefix@ and @top_srcdir@ get substituted.
1691 * Autoconf library files are installed in ${datadir}/autoconf, not ${datadir}.
1692 * autoheader optionally copies config.h.top to the beginning of config.h.in.
1693 * The example Makefile dependencies for configure et al. work better.
1694 * Namespace cleanup: all shell variables used internally by Autoconf
1695 have names beginning with `ac_'.
1697 More big improvements are in process for future releases, but have not
1698 yet been (variously) finished, integrated, tested, or documented enough
1701 Major changes in Autoconf 1.7:
1703 * New macro AC_OBSOLETE.
1704 * Bugs in Makefile.in fixed.
1705 * AC_LONG_FILE_NAMES improved.
1707 Major changes in Autoconf 1.6:
1709 * New macro AC_LONG_64_BITS.
1710 * Multiple .h files can be created.
1711 * AC_FIND_X looks for X files directly if it doesn't find xmkmf.
1712 * AC_ALLOCA defines C_ALLOCA if using alloca.c.
1713 * --with-NAME can take a value, e.g., --with-targets=sun4,hp300bsd.
1714 * Unused --no-create option to configure removed.
1715 * autoheader doesn't change the timestamp of its output file if
1716 the file didn't change.
1717 * All macros that look for libraries now use AC_HAVE_LIBRARY.
1718 * config.status checks three optional environment variables to
1719 modify its behavior.
1720 * The usual bug fixes.
1722 Major changes in Autoconf 1.5:
1724 * New macros AC_FIND_X, AC_OFF_T, AC_STAT_MACROS_BROKEN, AC_REVISION.
1725 * autoconf and autoheader scripts have GNU standards conforming
1726 --version and --help options (they print their message and exit).
1729 Major changes in Autoconf 1.4:
1731 * New macros AC_HAVE_POUNDBANG, AC_TIME_WITH_SYS_TIME, AC_LONG_DOUBLE,
1732 AC_GETGROUPS_T, AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED.
1733 * autoconf and autoheader use the M4 environment variable to determine the
1734 name of the M4 program to use.
1735 * The --macrodir option to autoconf and autoheader specifies the directory
1736 in which acspecific.m4, acgeneral.m4, etc. reside if not the default.
1737 * autoconf and autoheader can take `-' as their file names, which means to
1738 read stdin as input.
1739 * Resulting configure scripts can take a --verbose option which causes them
1740 to print the results of their tests.
1741 * AC_DEFINE quotes its second argument in such a way that spaces, magic
1742 shell characters, etc. will be preserved during various stages of
1743 expansion done by the shell. If you don't want this, use
1744 AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED instead.
1745 * Much textual processing done with external calls to tr and sed have been
1746 internalized with builtin M4 `patsubst' and `translit' calls.
1747 * AC_OUTPUT doesn't hardwire the file names it outputs. Instead, you can
1748 set the shell variables `gen_files' and `gen_config' to the list of
1749 file names to output.
1750 * AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT does an AC_SUBST of `LEX_OUTPUT_ROOT', which may be
1751 "lex.yy" or "lexyy", depending on the system.
1752 * AC_PROGRAMS_CHECK takes an optional third arg. If given, it is used as
1754 * If AC_ALLOCA chooses alloca.c, it also defines STACK_DIRECTION.
1755 * AC_CONST works much more reliably on more systems.
1758 Major changes in Autoconf 1.3:
1760 configure no longer requires awk for packages that use a config.h.
1761 Support handling --with-PACKAGE options.
1762 New `autoheader' script to create `config.h.in' from `configure.in'.
1763 Ignore troublesome -lucb and -lPW when searching for alloca.
1764 Rename --exec_prefix to --exec-prefix for GNU standards conformance.
1765 Improve detection of STDC library.
1766 Add AC_HAVE_LIBRARY to check for non-default libraries.
1767 Function checking should work with future GNU libc releases.
1769 Major changes in Autoconf 1.2:
1771 The --srcdir option is now usually unnecessary.
1772 Add a file containing sample comments describing CPP macros.
1773 A comment in config.status tells which host it was configured on.
1774 Substituted variable values can now contain commas.
1775 Fix bugs in various feature checks.
1777 Major changes in Autoconf 1.1:
1779 Added AC_STRCOLL macro.
1780 Made AC_GETLOADAVG check for more things.
1781 AC_OUTPUT argument is now optional.
1786 Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,
1787 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1789 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1790 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1791 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1792 (at your option) any later version.
1794 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1795 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1796 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1797 GNU General Public License for more details.
1799 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1800 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.