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 ** The following m4sugar macros are new:
18 ** The following m4sh macros are documented now:
22 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.63 (2008-09-09) [stable]
23 Released by Eric Blake, based on git versions 2.62.*.
25 ** AC_C_BIGENDIAN does not mistakenly report "universal" for some
26 bigendian hosts, a regression introduced with universal binary
29 ** AC_PATH_X now includes /lib64 and /usr/lib64 in its list of default
32 ** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS no longer conflicts with an external
33 AC_DEFINE([__EXTENSIONS__]). This fixes a regression introduced in
34 2.62 when using macros such as AC_AIX that were made obsolete in
35 favor of the more portable AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS.
37 ** AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOLS is usable in the non-cross-compile case.
39 ** Newly obsolete macros
40 The following macro has been marked obsolete, since current porting
41 targets can safely assume C89 semantics that signal handlers return
42 void. We have no current plans to remove the macro.
46 ** The macros m4_map and m4_map_sep now ignore any list elements
47 consisting of just empty quotes, and m4_map_sep now expands its
48 separator. This fixes a regression in 2.62 when these macros were
49 first documented, for the sake of clients expecting the semantics
50 that these macros had prior to that time. The new macros m4_mapall
51 and m4_mapall_sep, along with extra quoting of the separator, can
52 be used to get the semantics that m4_map_sep had in 2.62.
54 ** Clients of m4_expand, such as AS_HELP_STRING and AT_SETUP, can now
55 handle properly quoted but otherwise unbalanced parentheses (for
56 some macros, this fixes a regression in 2.62).
58 ** Two new quadrigraphs have been introduced: @{:@ for (, and @:}@ for ),
59 allowing the output of unbalanced parentheses in more contexts.
61 ** The following m4sugar macros are new:
62 m4_joinall m4_mapall m4_mapall_sep m4_reverse m4_set_add
63 m4_set_add_all m4_set_contains m4_set_contents m4_set_delete
64 m4_set_difference m4_set_dump m4_set_empty m4_set_foreach
65 m4_set_intersection m4_set_list m4_set_listc m4_set_remove
66 m4_set_size m4_set_union
68 ** The following m4sugar macros now accept multiple arguments, as is the
69 case with underlying m4:
70 m4_defn m4_popdef m4_undefine
72 ** The following m4sugar macros now guarantee linear scaling; they
73 previously had linear scaling with m4 1.6 but quadratic scaling
74 when using m4 1.4.x. All macros built on top of these also gain
75 the scaling improvements.
76 m4_bmatch m4_bpatsubsts m4_case m4_cond m4_do m4_dquote_elt
77 m4_foreach m4_join m4_list_cmp m4_map m4_map_sep m4_max
80 ** AT_KEYWORDS once again performs expansion on its argument, such that
81 AT_KEYWORDS([m4_if([$1], [], [default])]) no longer complains about
82 the possibly unexpanded m4_if [regression introduced in 2.62].
84 ** Config header templates `#undef UNDEFINED /* comment */' do not lead to
85 nested comments any more; regression introduced in 2.62.
88 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.62 (2008-04-05) [stable]
89 Released by Eric Blake, based on git versions 2.61a.*.
91 ** Many optimizations have been applied to make overall execution faster.
93 ** Autotest now makes use of shell functions.
95 ** config.status now uses awk instead of sed also for config headers.
97 - As a side effect, AC_DEFINE and AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED now handle multi-line
98 values, i.e., backslash-newline combinations are handled correctly.
99 Further, for config headers, the total size of values is not limited by
100 the POSIX length limit of text lines any more, only each single line.
102 ** New config variable `top_build_prefix'.
104 ** New Autoconf macros:
105 AC_AUTOCONF_VERSION AC_OPENMP AC_PATH_PROGS_FEATURE_CHECK
107 ** AC_C_BIGENDIAN now supports universal binaries a la Mac OS X.
109 ** AC_C_RESTRICT now prefers to #define 'restrict' to a variant spelling
110 like '__restrict' if the variant spelling is available, as this is
111 more likely to work when mixing C and C++ code.
113 ** AC_CHECK_ALIGNOF's type argument T is now documented better: it must
114 be a string of tokens such that "T y;" is a valid member declaration
117 ** AC_CHECK_SIZEOF now accepts objects as well as types: the general rule
118 is that sizeof (X) works, then AC_CHECK_SIZEOF (X) should work.
120 ** AC_CHECK_TYPE and AC_CHECK_TYPES now work on any C type-name; formerly,
121 they did not work for function types. In C++, they now work on any
122 type-id that can be the operand of sizeof; this is similar to C,
123 except it excludes anonymous struct and union types. Formerly,
124 some (but not all) C++ types involving anonymous struct and union
125 were accepted, though this was not documented.
127 ** AC_CONFIG_LINKS now prefers to link against files in the build tree
128 if found, and it works to link against a file of the same name in
129 the source tree, even if both trees coincide.
131 ** AC_INIT no longer alters $@; regression introduced in 2.60.
133 ** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS now defines _ALL_SOURCE for Interix platforms.
135 ** AS_HELP_STRING no longer underquotes its first argument; it also handles
136 the case where the first argument contains single-quoted commas.
137 For example, "AS_HELP_STRING([-a, [--arg[=foo]]], [bar])" produces:
138 " -a, --arg[=foo] bar"
139 Additionally, the macro now takes two additional arguments,
140 indent-column and wrap-column; these should not normally be needed,
141 but can be used to fine-tune how the output text is wrapped.
143 ** AC_PROG_INSTALL now requires an install program that can install multiple
144 files into a target directory.
146 ** The command 'autoconf -' now correctly processes a file from stdin.
148 ** 'autoreconf -m' now honors $MAKE.
150 ** For all of the directory arguments for 'configure', such as '--prefix'
151 or '--bindir', trailing slashes are stripped. As an example, if
152 tab completion in the user's shell appends trailing slashes, the
153 command './configure --prefix=/usr/' will still result in an
154 expanded libdir value of /usr/lib, not /usr//lib.
156 ** `configure --help=recursive' now works in read-only trees and from
157 unconfigured build trees.
159 ** If precious variables differ only in whitespace, then the cache consistency
160 check warns instead of fails, and reuses the old value.
162 ** AT_BANNER is now documented.
164 ** AT_SETUP now handles macro expansions properly when calculating line
167 ** Autotest now determines $srcdir correctly.
169 ** Testsuites built by autotest now accept a -C/--directory=DIR option
170 to adjust the working directory prior to creating files.
172 ** Autoconf now requires GNU M4 1.4.5 or later. Earlier versions of M4 have
173 a bug in macro tracing that interferes with the interaction between
174 Autoconf and Automake. GNU M4 1.4.11 or later is recommended. The
175 configure search for a working M4 is improved.
177 ** For portability with the eventual M4 2.0, macros should no longer use
178 anything larger than $9 to refer to arguments.
180 ** Documentation for m4sugar is improved.
182 - The following macros were previously available as undocumented
183 interfaces; the macros are now documented as stable interfaces.
185 __oline__ m4_assert m4_bmatch m4_bpatsubsts m4_car m4_case
186 m4_cdr m4_default m4_divert_once m4_divert_pop m4_divert_push
187 m4_divert_text m4_do m4_errprintn m4_fatal m4_flatten
188 m4_ifndef m4_ifset m4_ifval m4_ifvaln m4_location
189 m4_n m4_shiftn m4_strip m4_warn
191 - The following macros were previously available as undocumented
192 interfaces, but had bug fixes or semantic changes as part of this
193 release. Packages that relied on the undocumented behavior
194 should be analyzed to make sure they will still work with the
195 new documented behavior.
197 m4_cmp m4_list_cmp m4_join m4_map m4_map_sep m4_sign
198 m4_text_box m4_text_wrap m4_version_compare
200 - The m4_wrap macro used to have unspecified order, but now
201 guarantees FIFO order. m4_wrap_lifo was added to guarantee LIFO
204 - Packages using the undocumented m4sugar macro m4_PACKAGE_VERSION
205 should consider using the new AC_AUTOCONF_VERSION instead.
207 - m4sugar macros that are not documented in the manual are still
208 deemed experimental, and should not be used outside of Autoconf.
210 ** The m4sugar macros m4_append and m4_append_uniq, first documented in
211 2.60, have been fixed to treat both the string and the separator
212 arguments consistently with regards to quoting. Prior to this fix,
213 m4_append_uniq could mistakenly duplicate entries if the expansion
214 of the separator resulted in a different string (for example, if it
215 contained quotes, a comma, or a macro name). However, it means
216 that programs previously using
217 m4_append([name], [string], [[, ]])
218 are now using a four-character separator instead of the intended
219 comma and space. If you need portability to earlier versions of
220 Autoconf, you can insert the following snippet after AC_INIT but
221 before any other macro expansions, to enforce the new semantics:
222 m4_pushdef([m4_append], [m4_define([$1],
223 m4_ifdef([$1], [m4_defn([$1])[$3]])[$2])])
224 Additionally, m4_append_uniq now takes optional parameters that can
225 be used to take action depending on whether anything was appended,
226 and warns if a non-empty separator occurs within the string being
227 appended, since that can lead to duplicates.
229 ** The following m4sugar macros are new:
230 m4_append_uniq_w m4_apply m4_combine m4_cond m4_count
231 m4_dquote_elt m4_echo m4_expand m4_ignore m4_make_list m4_max
232 m4_min m4_newline m4_shift2 m4_shift3 m4_unquote m4_wrap_lifo
234 ** Warnings are now generated by default when an installer invokes
235 'configure' with an unknown --enable-* or --with-* option.
236 These warnings can be disabled with the new AC_DISABLE_OPTION_CHECKING
237 macro, or by invoking 'configure' with --disable-option-checking.
239 ** Existing obsolete macros
240 The documentation for the following macros is adjusted to make it
241 more clear that they have previously been marked obsolete, as their
242 functionality can be accomplished by other macros. We have no
243 current plans to remove them from Autoconf.
245 AC_ENABLE AC_STRUCT_ST_BLKSIZE AC_STRUCT_ST_RDEV AC_WITH
247 ** Newly obsolete macros
248 The following macros have been marked obsolete, as they only
249 perform a subset of AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS. We have no current
250 plans to remove them.
252 AC_AIX AC_GNU_SOURCE AC_ISC_POSIX AC_MINIX
254 ** AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE is obsolescent.
255 The documentation now says that AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE is obsolescent: it
256 tests for problems that are so old that it is no longer of
257 practical importance on current systems. New programs need not use
258 AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE. We have no current plans to remove it.
260 ** AC_DIAGNOSE, AC_WARNING, and AC_FATAL are obsolescent.
261 The documentation now favors the use of M4sugar macros m4_warn and
262 m4_fatal, since the naming makes it more obvious that the
263 diagnostics are associated with M4 expansion (ie. when running
264 `autoconf'), and offers less confusion with the AC_MSG_ERROR,
265 AC_MSG_FAILURE, and AC_MSG_WARN macros which manage diagnostics
266 when running `configure'. We have no current plans to remove these
270 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.61a (2006-12-11)
272 ** AC_FUNC_FSEEKO was broken in 2.61; it didn't make fseeko and ftello visible
273 on many platforms. This has been fixed.
275 ** AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED is now obsolete. It is still defined for backward
276 compatibility but it does nothing. The macro was already
277 obsolescent, as the last systems to have the problem were those
278 based on SVR2, which became obsolete in 1987. The macro had bugs
279 on some modern systems and could no longer be maintained reliably
280 due to lack of ancient systems to test it on.
282 ** config.status now uses awk instead of sed for most substitutions, for speed.
284 - As a side effect multi-line values of substituted variables no
285 longer have a small limit in total size, though for portability
286 each line should not exceed the POSIX length limit for text lines.
288 - It is now documented that Makefile.in should not contain
289 overlapping variable occurrences, e.g., @VAR1@VAR2@.
290 Autoconf's behavior was always iffy in such cases, and the
291 awk implementation has changed the behavior.
293 ** Many uses of 'echo' have been rewritten so that Autoconf-generated
294 scripts have fewer problems with strings or file names containing
295 embedded special characters such as backslash or leading "-". This
296 was implemented by using `printf '%s\n' "$foo"' instead of `echo
297 "$foo"' when printf works. Due to the implementation technique
298 used, Autoconf-generated scripts now run considerably more slowly
299 on ancient implementations lacking printf. However, this should
300 not be a problem, since Autoconf-generated scripts in practice
301 invariably find a more-modern shell these days.
304 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.61 (2006-11-17)
306 ** New macros AC_C_FLEXIBLE_ARRAY_MEMBER, AC_C_VARARRAYS.
308 ** AC_ARG_ENABLE and AC_ARG_WITH now allow '.' in feature and package names.
311 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.60b (2006-10-22)
314 Autoconf-generated shell scripts no longer export BIN_SH, due to
315 configuration hassles with this. Installers who need BIN_SH in
316 their environment should set it before invoking 'configure' and
317 'make'. As far as we know, this affects only Unixware installations.
319 ** Obsolescent macros
320 The documentation now says that the following macros are obsolescent,
321 as they are superseded by Gnulib:
323 AC_FUNC_FNMATCH AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU AC_FUNC_GETLOADVG AC_REPLACE_FNMATCH
325 New programs should use the Gnulib counterparts of these macros.
326 We have no current plans to remove them from Autoconf.
328 ** AC_COMPUTE_INT no longer caches or reports results.
330 ** AC_CHECK_DECL now also works with aggregate objects.
332 ** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS now defines _TANDEM_SOURCE for NonStop platforms.
334 ** GNU M4 1.4.7 or later is now recommended.
337 New M4sugar macro, which is more secure than the POSIX M4 maketemp.
340 Now an alias for m4_mkstemp.
342 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.60a (2006-08-25)
344 ** GNU M4 1.4.6 or later is now recommended.
346 ** The check for C99 now tests for varargs macros, as documented.
347 It also tests that the preprocessor supports 64-bit integers.
349 ** Autoconf now uses constructs like "#ifdef HAVE_STDLIB_H" rather than
350 "#if HAVE_STDLIB_H", so that it now works with "gcc -Wundef -Werror".
352 ** The functionality of the undocumented _AC_COMPUTE_INT is now provided
353 by a public and documented macro, AC_COMPUTE_INT. The parameters to the
354 two macros are different, so autoupdate will not change the old private name
355 to the new one. _AC_COMPUTE_INT may be removed in a future release.
357 ** AC_TYPE_LONG_LONG_INT and AC_TYPE_UNSIGNED_LONG_LONG_INT now require
358 that long long types be at least 64 bits wide, as C99 and tradition
359 requires. Formerly, they accepted implementations of any width.
362 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.60
364 Released 2006-06-23, by Ralf Wildenhues.
366 ** Autoconf no longer depends on whether m4wrap is FIFO (as Posix requires)
367 or LIFO (as in GNU M4 1.4.x). GNU M4 2.0 is expected to conform to Posix
368 here, so m4wrap/m4_wrap users should no longer depend on LIFO behavior.
370 ** Provide a way to turn off warnings about the changed directory variables.
372 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59d
374 Released 2006-06-05, by Ralf Wildenhues.
376 ** GNU make now recommended for VPATH builds
377 INSTALL now suggests VPATH builds (e.g., "sh ../srcdir/configure")
378 only if you use GNU make. In practice, other 'make' implementations
379 have too many subtle incompatibilities in their support for VPATH.
380 Many packages (including Autoconf itself) are portable to other
381 'make' implementations, but some packages are not, and recommending
382 GNU make keeps the installation instructions simpler.
384 ** Even more safety checks for the new Directory variables:
385 Warn about suspicious `${datarootdir}' found in config files output.
387 ** AC_TRY_COMMAND, AC_TRY_EVAL, ac_config_guess, ac_config_sub, ac_configure
388 These never-documented macros and variables have been marked with
389 comments saying that they may be removed in a future release,
390 because their use can lead to unintended code being executed.
391 If you need functionality that only these macros or variables
392 currently supply, please write bug-autoconf@gnu.org.
394 ** AC_SUBST, AC_DEFINE
395 Literal arguments to these are passed to m4_pattern_allow now.
398 Passing 'ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc=no' to 'configure' now sets ac_cv_prog_cc_c99
399 and ac_cv_prog_cc_c89 to 'no' as well, for backward compatibility with
400 obsolete K&R tests in the Automake test suite.
409 Now more robust with special characters in file names, or when
410 multiple processes create the same directory at the same time.
412 ** Obsolescent macros
413 The documentation now says that the following macros are obsolescent:
414 they test for problems that are so old that they are no longer of
415 practical importance on current systems.
417 AC_C_BACKSLASH_A AC_FUNC_MEMCMP AC_HEADER_DIRENT
418 AC_C_CONST AC_FUNC_SELECT_ARGTYPES AC_HEADER_STAT
419 AC_C_PROTOTYPES AC_FUNC_SETPGRP AC_HEADER_STDC
420 AC_C_STRINGIZE AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED AC_HEADER_SYS_WAIT
421 AC_C_VOLATILE AC_FUNC_STAT AC_HEADER_TIME
422 AC_FUNC_CLOSEDIR_VOID AC_FUNC_STRFTIME AC_ISC_POSIX
423 AC_FUNC_GETPGRP AC_FUNC_UTIME_NULL AC_PROG_GCC_TRADITIONAL
424 AC_FUNC_LSTAT AC_FUNC_VPRINTF AC_STRUCT_TM
426 New programs need not use these macros. We have no current plans to
430 For compatibility with future Libtool 2.0, autoreconf will invoke
431 libtoolize with the option `--ltdl' now, if LT_CONFIG_LTDL_DIR is
434 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59c
436 Released 2006-04-12, by Ralf Wildenhues.
438 ** The configure command now redirects standard input from /dev/null,
439 to help avoid problems with subsidiary commands that might mistakenly
440 read standard input. AS_ORIGINAL_STDIN_FD points to the original
441 standard input before this redirection, if you really want configure to
442 read from standard input.
444 ** Directory variables adjusted to recent changes in the GNU Coding Standards.
445 The following directory variables are new:
447 datarootdir read-only architecture-independent data root [PREFIX/share]
448 localedir locale-specific message catalogs [DATAROOTDIR/locale]
449 docdir documentation root [DATAROOTDIR/doc/PACKAGE]
450 htmldir html documentation [DOCDIR]
451 dvidir dvi documentation [DOCDIR]
452 pdfdir pdf documentation [DOCDIR]
453 psdir ps documentation [DOCDIR]
455 The following variables have new default values:
457 datadir read-only architecture-independent data [DATAROOTDIR]
458 infodir info documentation [DATAROOTDIR/info]
459 mandir man documentation [DATAROOTDIR/man]
461 This means that if you use any of `@datadir@', `@infodir@', or
462 `@mandir@' in a file, you will have to ensure `${datarootdir}' is
463 defined in this file. As a temporary measure, if any of those are
464 found but no mention of `datarootdir', the substitutions will be
465 replaced with values that do not contain `${datarootdir}', and a
466 warning will be issued.
468 ** @top_builddir@ is now a dir name: it is always nonempty and doesn't have
469 a trailing slash. Similar change will be made to ac_top_builddir in a
470 future release; the old style value, which matches (../)*, is (and will
471 continue to be) available as ac_top_build_prefix.
474 New macro to check for support of 'typeof' syntax a la GNU C.
476 ** AC_CHECK_DECLS_ONCE, AC_CHECK_FUNCS_ONCE, AC_CHECK_HEADERS_ONCE
477 New "once-only" variants of commonly-used macros, to make 'configure'
478 smaller and faster in common cases.
481 New macro to check for strtold with C99 semantics.
484 New macro that lets builder disable assertions at 'configure'-time.
487 Now checks for X11/Xlib.h and XrmInitialize (X proper) rather than
488 X11/Intrinsic.h and XtMalloc (Xt).
490 ** AC_PRESERVE_HELP_ORDER
491 New macro that causes `configure' to display help strings for AC_ARG_ENABLE
492 and AC_ARG_WITH arguments in one region, in the order defined. The default
493 behavior is to group options of each classes separately.
495 ** AC_PROG_CC, AC_PROG_CXX
496 No longer automatically arrange to declare the 'exit' function of C,
497 when a C++ compiler is used. Standard Autoconf macros no longer use
498 'exit', so this is no longer an issue for them. If you use C++, and
499 want to call 'exit', you'll have to arrange for its declaration
500 yourself. But we now suggest you return from 'main' instead.
502 ** AC_PROG_CC_C89, AC_PROG_CC_C99
503 New macros for ISO C99 support. AC_PROG_CC_C89 and AC_PROG_CC_C99
504 check for ANSI C89 and ISO C99 support respectively.
507 Has been unobsoleted, and will check if the compiler supports ISO
508 C99, falling back to ANSI C89 if not. ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc is
509 retained for backwards compatibility, assuming the value of
510 ac_cv_prog_cc_c99 or ac_cv_prog_cc_c89 (whichever is valid, in
513 ** AC_STRUCT_DIRENT_D_INO, AC_STRUCT_DIRENT_D_TYPE
514 New macros for checking commonly-used members of struct dirent.
517 The substituted value can now contain newlines.
520 The substitution now occurs only when @variable@ is on a line by itself,
521 optionally surrounded by spaces and tabs. The whole line is replaced.
523 ** AC_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE, AC_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE_WIDER
524 New macros to check for long double, and whether it is wider than double.
525 The old macro AC_C_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE has been marked as obsolete;
526 applications should switch to the new macro.
528 ** AC_TYPE_INT8_T, AC_TYPE_INT16_T, AC_TYPE_INT32_T, AC_TYPE_INT64_T,
529 AC_TYPE_INTMAX_T, AC_TYPE_INTPTR_T, AC_TYPE_LONG_LONG_INT, AC_TYPE_SSIZE_T,
530 AC_TYPE_UINT8_T, AC_TYPE_UINT16_T, AC_TYPE_UINT32_T, AC_TYPE_UINT64_T,
531 AC_TYPE_UINTMAX_T, AC_TYPE_UINTPTR_T, AC_TYPE_UNSIGNED_LONG_LONG_INT
532 New macros to check for C99 and POSIX types.
534 ** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS
535 New macro to enable extensions to Posix.
538 New macro which is defined to the name of the first declared config header
539 or undefined if no config headers have been declared yet.
542 The macro correctly handles quadrigraphs now.
544 ** AS_BOURNE_COMPATIBLE, AS_SHELL_SANITIZE, AS_CASE
545 These macros are new or published now.
548 New macro for copyright notices in testsuite files.
550 ** ALLOCA, LIBOBJS, LTLIBOBJS
551 Object names added to these variables are now prefixed with `${LIBOBJDIR}',
552 as in `${LIBOBJDIR}alloca.o'. LIBOBJDIR is meant to be defined from
553 `Makefile.in' in case the object files lie in a different directory.
554 The LIBOBJDIR feature is experimental.
557 Supports --no-recursive now.
559 ** New macros to support Erlang/OTP.
560 New macros for configuring paths to Erlang tools and libraries:
561 AC_ERLANG_PATH_ERLC, AC_ERLANG_NEED_ERLC, AC_ERLANG_PATH_ERL,
562 AC_ERLANG_NEED_ERL, AC_ERLANG_CHECK_LIB, AC_ERLANG_SUBST_ROOT_DIR,
563 AC_ERLANG_SUBST_LIB_DIR.
565 New macros for configuring installation of Erlang libraries:
566 AC_ERLANG_SUBST_INSTALL_LIB_DIR, AC_ERLANG_SUBST_INSTALL_LIB_SUBDIR.
568 ** The manual now mentions Gnulib more prominently.
570 ** New macros to support Objective C.
571 AC_PROG_OBJC, AC_PROG_OBJCPP.
573 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59b
575 Released 2004-08-20, by Paul Eggert.
578 New macro that computes the default alignment of a type.
580 ** AC_CHECK_TOOL, AC_PATH_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TOOLS
581 When cross-compiling, these macros will give a warning if the tool
582 is not prefixed. In the future, unprefixed cross tools will not
583 be detected; please consult the info documentation for information
584 about the reason of this change.
586 ** AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOL, AC_PATH_TARGET_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOLS
587 New macros that detect programs whose name is prefixed with the
588 target type, if the build type and target type are different.
590 ** AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE
591 New trace macro that declares expected auxiliary files.
594 New macro that tests for a grep program that accepts as a long a line
597 ** AC_PROG_EGREP, AC_PROG_FGREP
598 These macros now require AC_PROG_GREP, and try EGREP="$GREP -E" and
599 FGREP="$GREP -F" respectively if possible, or else run a path search for
600 a program that accepts as long a line as possible.
603 New macro that tests for a sed program that truncates as few characters
606 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59
608 Released 2003-11-04, by Akim Demaille
610 ** ac_abs_builddir etc.
611 Absolute file names were actually relative in 2.58.
613 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.58
615 Released 2003-11-04, by Akim Demaille
618 core.* files are no longer removed, as they may be valid user files.
620 ** autoreconf and auxiliary directory
621 Autoreconf creates the auxiliary directory if needed. This is
622 especially useful for initial "bootstrapping" of fresh CVS checkouts.
624 ** AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR
625 Use this macro to declare the directory for local M4 macros for aclocal.
628 No longer includes twice the same file in LIBOBJS if invoked
631 ** AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS
632 The directory for its first argument is automatically created. For
635 AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS([src/modules.hh], [...])
637 $top_builddir/src/ is created if needed.
639 ** Autotest and local.at
640 The optional file local.at is always included in Autotest test suites.
643 The warnings are always issued, including with cached runs.
644 This became a significant problem since aclocal and automake can
645 run autoconf behind the scene.
647 ** autoheader warnings
648 The warnings of autoheader can be turned off, using --warning.
649 For instance, -Wno-obsolete disables the complaints about acconfig.h
650 and other deprecated constructs.
653 AC_C_RESTRICT, AC_INCLUDES_DEFAULT, AC_LANG_ASSERT, AC_LANG_WERROR,
656 ** AC_DECL_SYS_SIGLIST
660 Now checks that mktime is the inverse of localtime.
662 ** Improve DJGPP portability
663 The Autoconf tools and configure behave better under DJGPP.
665 ** Present But Cannot Be Compiled
666 New FAQ section dedicated to the mystic
668 configure: WARNING: pi.h: present but cannot be compiled
669 configure: WARNING: pi.h: check for missing prerequisite headers?
670 configure: WARNING: pi.h: proceeding with the preprocessor's result
673 ** Concurrent executions of autom4te
674 autom4te now locks its internal files, which enables concurrent
675 executions of autom4te, likely to happen if automake, autoconf,
676 autoheader etc. are run simultaneously.
679 Use of Libtool 1.5 and higher is encouraged. Compatibility with
680 Libtool pre-1.4 is not checked.
683 Testsuites no longer rerun failed tests in verbose mode; instead,
684 failures are logged while the test is run.
686 In addition, expected failures can be marked as such.
688 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.57
690 Released 2002-12-03 by Paul Eggert.
692 Bug fixes for problems with AIX linker, with freestanding C compilers,
693 with GNU M4 limitations, and with obsolete copies of GNU documents.
695 The Free Documentation License has been upgraded from 1.1 to 1.2.
697 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.56
699 Released 2002-11-15 by Akim Demaille.
701 One packaging problem fixed (config/install-sh was not executable).
703 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.55
705 Released 2002-11-14 by Akim Demaille.
709 Have your configure.ac checked by autoscan ("autoscan").
710 Try the warning options ("autoreconf -fv -Wall").
714 - AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS
715 More information on proper use.
717 - Writing Test Programs
719 This sections explains how to write good test sources to use with
720 AC_COMPILE_IFELSE etc. It documents AC_LANG_PROGRAM and so forth.
722 - AC_FOO_IFELSE vs. AC_TRY_FOO
724 Explains why Autoconf moves from AC_TRY_COMPILE etc. to
725 AC_COMPILE_IFELSE and AC_LANG_PROGRAM etc.
729 - Is more robust to different Gettext installations.
731 - Produces messages (when --verbose) to be understood by Emacs'
734 - Supports -W/--warnings.
737 Once the GNU Build System reinstalled, run `./config.status
738 --recheck && ./config.status && make' if possible.
742 - Supports --cache, and --no-cache.
744 - ~/.autom4te.cfg makes it possible to disable the caching mechanism
745 (autom4te.cache). See `Customizing autom4te' in the documentation.
752 Support for the obsoleted options -m, --macrodir, -l, --localdir is
753 dropped in favor of the safer --include/--prepend-include scheme.
758 AC_COMPILER_IFELSE, AC_FUNC_MBRTOWC, AC_HEADER_STDBOOL,
759 AC_LANG_CONFTEST, AC_LANG_SOURCE, AC_LANG_PROGRAM, AC_LANG_CALL,
760 AC_LANG_FUNC_TRY_LINK, AC_MSG_FAILURE, AC_PREPROC_IFELSE.
763 Obsoleted macros are kept for Autoconf backward compatibility, but
764 should be avoided in configure.ac. Running autoupdate is advised.
767 - AC_DEFINE/AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED
769 We have to stop using the old compatibility scheme --that tried to
770 avoid useless backslashes-- because Libtool 1.4.3 contains a
772 AC_DEFINE([error_t], [int],
773 [Define to a type to use for \`error_t' if it is not
774 otherwise available.])
776 We have to quote the single quotes and backslashes with \. The old
777 compatibility scheme saw that ` was backslashed, and therefore did
778 not quote the single quote... Failure. Hence, Autoconf 2.54 is not
779 compatible with Libtool. Autoconf 2.55 is, but in some cases might
780 produce more \ than wanted.
782 Please, note that in the future the same problem will happen with
783 AC_MSG_*: use `autoreconf -f -Wall'.
787 - Portability of the Autoconf package to Solaris.
789 - Spurious warnings caused by config.status.
790 This bug is benign, but painful: on some systems (typically
791 FreeBSD), warnings such as:
793 config.status: creating Makefile
794 mv: Makefile: set owner/group (was: 1357/0): Operation not permitted
796 could be issued. This is fixed.
799 Simultaneous executions of config.status are possible again.
801 - Precious variables accumulation
803 config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
807 ** Plans for later versions
811 The compatibility hooks with the old scheme will be completely
812 removed. Please, advice/use `--build', `--host', and `--target'
815 - AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS
817 The tests will be stricter, please make sure your invocations are
822 Shell functions will gradually be introduced, probably starting with
823 Autotest. If you know machines which are in use that you suspect
824 *not* to support shell functions, please run the test suite of
825 Autoconf 2.55 on it, and report the results to
826 bug-autoconf@gnu.org.
830 Special characters in AC_MSG_* need not be quoted. Currently,
831 Autoconf has heuristics to decide when a string is escaped, or has
832 to be escaped. This scheme is fragile, and will be removed; the
833 only risk is uglified messages. Please, run `autoreconf -f -Wall'
834 to find occurrences that will be affected.
836 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.54
838 Released 2002-09-13 by Akim Demaille.
842 - autoreconf no longer changes the version of the gettext/po/intl
843 support files. It now adds the files the correspond to the
844 AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION declared in configure.ac.
846 Warning: It now relies on the 'autopoint' program, which is part
847 of GNU gettext 0.11.4 and newer.
849 Please note that you need to have a GNU gettext version that
850 corresponds at least to the AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION declared
851 in configure.ac. You can upgrade to newer GNU gettext versions,
852 though, without needing to change configure.ac.
854 - The -I DIR or --include=DIR option now appends DIR to the include path
855 instead of prepending; this is for consistency with other GNU tools.
856 The new -B DIR or --prepend-include=DIR option has the old behavior.
861 Now handles all the gory details about LIBOBJS and LTLIBOBJS.
862 Please, remove lines such as
864 # This is necessary so that .o files in LIBOBJS are also
865 # built via the ANSI2KNR-filtering rules.
866 LIBOBJS=`echo $LIBOBJS|sed 's/\.o /\$U.o /g;s/\.o$/\$U.o/'`
868 and read the `AC_LIBOBJ vs LIBOBJS' section. Do not define U in
869 your Makefiles either.
871 - AC_CONFIG_LINKS now makes copies if it can't make links.
873 - AC_FUNC_FNMATCH now tests only for POSIX compatibility, reverting to
874 Autoconf 2.13 behavior. The new macro AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU also
875 tests for GNU extensions to fnmatch, and replaces fnmatch if needed.
877 - AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED no longer fails when cross-compiling.
879 - AC_PROG_CC_STDC is integrated into AC_PROG_CC.
881 - AC_PROG_F77 default search no longer includes cf77 and cfg77.
885 AC_C_BACKSLASH_A, AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR, AC_GNU_SOURCE,
886 AC_PROG_EGREP, AC_PROG_FGREP, AC_REPLACE_FNMATCH,
887 AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU, AC_FUNC_REALLOC, AC_TYPE_MBSTATE_T.
890 looks for getloadavg.c in the CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR.
893 Now defines HAVE_MALLOC to 0 if `malloc' does not work, and asks
894 for an AC_LIBOBJ replacement.
898 - Spurious complaints from `m4_bmatch' about invalid regular
899 expressions are suppressed.
901 - Empty top_builddirs are properly handled.
903 - AC_CHECK_MEMBER works correctly when the member is an aggregate.
906 Now colon in the optional path arguments are properly handled.
908 ** Improved portability
910 - Both Autoconf the package, and the scripts it produces, should run
911 more reliably with Zsh. Bear in mind it is the default Bourne shell
914 - Autoconf and the scripts it produces no longer assume the existence of
915 the obsolescent commands egrep and fgrep.
919 - Limitations of Make
923 The GNATS base moved to
924 http://bugs.gnu.org/cgi-bin/gnatsweb.pl?database=autoconf
925 (It is no longer available, though.)
930 Now contains the list of ouput variables and files (AC_SUBST,
933 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.53
935 Released 2002-03-08 by Akim Demaille.
939 Perl 5.005_03 or later is required: autom4te is written in Perl and is
940 needed by autoconf. autoheader, autoreconf, ifnames, and autoscan are
946 Argument requirements, output variables, defined macros.
947 - M4sugar, M4sh, Autotest
949 - Double quoting macros
950 AC_TRY_CPP, AC_TRY_COMPILE, AC_TRY_LINK and AC_TRY_RUN.
952 The Autoconf manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
953 - Section `Hosts and Cross-Compilation'
954 Explains the rationale for the 2.5x changes in the cross-compilation
955 chain, and in the relationships between build, host, and target
957 Emphasizes that `cross-compilation' == `--host is given'.
958 If you are working on compilers etc., be sure to read this section.
959 - Section `AC_LIBOBJ vs. LIBOBJS'
960 Explains why assigning LIBOBJS directly is now an error.
961 Details how to update the code.
966 Now used instead of hard coded line numbers.
967 This eases the comparison of `configure's, and diminishes the
968 pressure over control version archives.
969 Automatic replacement for shells that don't support this feature.
970 - New output variables
971 @builddir@, @top_builddir@, @abs_srcdir@, @abs_top_srcdir@, @abs_builddir@,
976 Autoconf and Autotest modes are provided.
981 New, used by the Autoconf suite to cache and speed up most processing.
983 Supported by autom4te, autoconf and autoheader.
985 Replaces --autoconf-dir and --localdir in autoconf, autoheader,
986 autoupdate, and autoreconf.
988 No longer passes --cygnus, --foreign, --gnits, --gnu, --include-deps:
989 automake options are to be given via AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
991 Runs gettextize and libtoolize when appropriate.
993 --m4dir is no longer supported.
995 Now runs only in the specified directories, defaulting to `.',
996 but understands AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS for dependent directories.
997 Before, it used to run on all the `configure.ac' found in the
999 Independent packages are properly updated.
1003 - The top level $prefix is propagated to the AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS configures.
1005 Under the user pressure, $? is finally available. Probably a mistake.
1006 - AC_F77_LIBRARY_LDFLAGS now supports the HP/UX f90 compiler.
1007 - Precious variables accumulation
1008 config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
1010 - AC_PATH_PROG and family.
1011 Works properly when given a literal path.
1013 Somewhere since 2.13, the result had been reversed.
1017 - AC_C_BIGENDIAN supports the cross-compiling case.
1018 - AC_C_BIGENDIAN accepts ACTION-IF-TRUE, ACTION-IF-FALSE, and
1019 ACTION-IF-UNKNOWN arguments. All are facultative, and the default
1020 for ACTION-IF-TRUE is to define WORDS_BIGENDIAN like AC_C_BIGENDIAN
1022 - AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE now succeeds only if `long double' has more range or
1023 precision than `double'.
1028 It now defines the preprocessor symbols PACKAGE_NAME,
1029 PACKAGE_TARNAME, PACKAGE_VERSION, PACKAGE_STRING, and
1033 Admits a fourth optional parameter: the tar name.
1035 - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS.
1036 Provide the user with srcdir, ac_srcdir, ac_top_srcdir, ac_builddir,
1037 ac_top_builddir, ac_abs_srcdir, ac_abs_top_srcdir, ac_abs_builddir,
1038 ac_abs_top_builddir.
1040 - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS and AC_OUTPUT.
1041 Are much less expensive when using long lists of files.
1044 Works with shell variables, and non alphanumeric names.
1048 - AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R now sets STRERROR_R_CHAR_P, not HAVE_WORKING_STRERROR_R,
1049 because POSIX 1003.1-200x draft 7 says strerror_r returns int, not char *.
1051 - AC_FUNC_STRTOD substitutes POW_LIB.
1056 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.52
1058 Released 2001-07-18 by Akim Demaille.
1063 This feature was present in autoconf 2.50 but was not documented.
1064 For example, `@<:@' is translated to `[' just before output. This
1065 is useful when writing strings that contain unbalanced quotes, or
1066 other hard-to-quote constructs.
1067 - m4_pattern_forbid, m4_pattern_allow
1068 - Tips for upgrading from 2.13.
1069 - Using autoscan to maintain a configure.ac.
1072 - Now include stdint.h.
1073 - sys/types.h and sys/stat.h are guarded.
1074 - strings.h is included if available, and not conflicting with string.h.
1077 - The test suite is more robust and presents less false failures.
1078 - Invocation of GNU M4 now robust to POSIXLY_CORRECT.
1079 - configure accepts --prefix='' again.
1080 - AC_CHECK_LIB works properly when its first argument is not a
1082 - HAVE_INTTYPES_H is defined only if not conflicting with sys/types.h.
1083 - build_, host_, and target_alias are AC_SUBST as in 2.13.
1084 - AC_ARG_VAR properly propagates precious variables inherited from the
1085 environment to ./config.status.
1086 - Using --program-suffix/--program-prefix is portable.
1087 - Failures to detect the default compiler's output extension are less
1089 - `config.status foo' works properly when `foo' depends on variables
1090 set in an AC_CONFIG_THING INIT-CMD.
1091 - autoheader is more robust to broken input.
1092 - Fixed Fortran name-mangling and link tests on a number of systems,
1093 e.g. NetBSD; see AC_F77_DUMMY_MAIN, below.
1096 - AC_CHECK_HEADER and AC_CHECK_HEADERS support a fourth argument to
1097 specify pre-includes. In this case, the headers are compiled with
1098 cc, not merely preprocessed by cpp. Therefore it is the _usability_
1099 of a header which is checked for, not just its availability.
1100 - AC_ARG_VAR refuses to run configure when precious variables have
1102 - Versions of compilers are dumped in the logs.
1103 - AC_CHECK_TYPE recognizes use of `foo_t' as a replacement type.
1106 - AC_PATH_XTRA only adds -ldnet to $LIBS if it's needed to link.
1107 - AC_FUNC_WAIT3 and AC_SYS_RESTARTABLE_SYSCALLS are obsoleted.
1108 - AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_FNMATCH, AM_FUNC_MKTIME,
1109 AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, and AM_FUNC_STRTOD are now activated.
1110 Be sure to read `Upgrading from Version 2.13' to understand why
1111 running `autoupdate' is needed.
1112 - AC_F77_DUMMY_MAIN, AC_F77_MAIN: new macros to detect whether
1113 a main-like routine is required/possible when linking C/C++ with
1114 Fortran. Users of e.g. AC_F77_WRAPPERS should be aware of these.
1115 - AC_FUNC_GETPGRG behaves better when cross-compiling.
1117 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.51
1118 There was no release of Autoconf 2.51 since some packagers had used
1119 this version number without permission to ship intermediary versions
1120 of 2.50. The version was skipped to avoid confusion.
1122 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.50
1124 Released 2001-05-21 by Akim Demaille.
1126 ** Lots of bug fixes
1127 There have been far too many to enumerate them here. Check out
1128 ChangeLog if you really want to know more.
1130 ** Improved documentation
1131 In particular, portability issues are better covered.
1134 All the standard GNU Makefile targets are supported. The layout has
1135 changed: m4/ holds the M4 extensions Autoconf needs for its
1136 configuration, doc/ contains the documentation, and tests/ contains
1139 ** Man pages are provided
1140 For autoconf, autoreconf, autoupdate, autoheader, autoscan, ifnames,
1141 config.guess, config.sub.
1145 Provides a safe and powerful means to trace the macro uses. This
1146 provide the parsing layer for tools which need to `study'
1150 Specify what category of warnings should be enabled.
1152 - When recursing into subdirectories, try for configure.gnu before
1153 configure to adapt for packages not using autoconf on case-insensitive
1157 More errors are now caught (circular AC_REQUIRE dependencies,
1158 AC_DEFINE in the action part of an AC_CACHE_CHECK, too many pops
1159 etc.). In addition, their location and call stack are given.
1162 autoupdate is much more powerful, and is able to provide the glue code
1163 which might be needed to move from an old macro to its newer
1166 You are strongly encouraged to use it to modernize both your
1167 `configure.in' and your .m4 extension files.
1170 The internal machinery of autoheader has completely changed. As a
1171 result, using `acconfig.h' should be considered to be obsoleted, and
1172 you are encouraged to get rid of it using the AH macros.
1177 ** Fortran 77 compilers
1178 Globally, the support for Fortran 77 is considerably improved.
1180 Support for automatically determining a Fortran 77 compiler's
1181 name-mangling scheme. New CPP macros F77_FUNC and F77_FUNC_ are
1182 provided to wrap C/C++ identifiers, thus making it easier and more
1183 transparent for C/C++ to call Fortran 77 routines, and Fortran 77 to
1184 call C/C++ routines. See the Texinfo documentation for details.
1187 The test suite no longer uses DejaGNU. It should be easy to submit
1188 test cases in this new framework.
1191 - --help, --help=long, -hl
1192 no longer dumps useless items.
1194 lists only specific options.
1195 - --help=recursive, -hr
1196 displays the help of all the embedded packages.
1197 - Remembers environment variables when reconfiguring.
1198 The previous scheme to set envvar before running configure was
1200 what prevented configure from remembering the environment in which
1201 it was run, therefore --recheck was run in an inconsistent
1202 environment. Now, one should run
1204 and then --recheck will work properly. Variables declared with
1205 AC_ARG_VAR are also preserved.
1207 $build defaults to `config.guess`, $host to $build, and then $target
1209 Cross-compilation is a global status of the package, it no longer
1210 depends upon the current language.
1211 Cross compilation is enabled iff the user specified `--host'.
1212 `configure' now fails if it can't run the executables it compiles,
1213 unless cross-compilation is enabled.
1215 The cache file is disabled by default. The new options
1216 `--config-cache', `-C' set the cache to `config.cache'.
1220 Much faster on most architectures.
1221 - concurrent executions
1222 It is safe to use `make -j' with config.status.
1223 - human interface improved
1224 It is possible to invoke
1225 ./config.status foobar
1226 instead of the former form (still valid)
1227 CONFIG_COMMANDS= CONFIG_HEADERS= CONFIG_LINKS= \
1228 CONFIG_FILES=foobar:foo.in:bar.in \
1230 The same holds for configuration headers and links.
1231 You can instantiate unknown files and headers:
1232 ./config.status --header foo.h:foo.h.in --file bar:baz
1233 - has a useful --help
1234 - accepts special file name "-" for stdin/stdout
1239 Specify additional copyright information.
1242 Now expects the identity of the package as argument.
1246 Most macros, if not all, now strictly follow the `one quotation
1247 level' rule. This results in a more predictable expansion.
1250 A sly bug in the AC_REQUIRE machinery, which could produce incorrect
1251 configure scripts, was fixed by Axel Thimm.
1255 Document and ask for the registration of an envvar.
1258 Specifies the file which `configure' should look for when trying to
1259 find the source tree (used to be handled by AC_INIT).
1261 - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS
1262 To add new actions to config.status. Should be used instead of
1266 Replaces AC_LINK_FILES.
1268 - AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS,
1269 AC_CONFIG_LINKS, and AC_CONFIG_FILES
1270 They now obey sh: you should no longer use shell variables as
1271 argument. Instead of
1273 test "$package_foo_enabled" = yes && $my_subdirs="$my_subdirs foo"
1274 AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS($my_subdirs)
1278 if test "$package_foo_enabled" = yes; then
1279 AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS(foo)
1283 To format an Autoconf macro's help string so that it looks pretty
1284 when the user executes `configure --help'.
1287 ** Generic Test Macros
1289 The interface of the AC_CHECK families of macros (decl, header,
1290 type, member, func) is now uniform. They support the same set of
1293 - AC_CHECK_DECL, AC_CHECK_DECLS
1294 To check whether a symbol is declared.
1296 - AC_CHECK_SIZEOF, AC_C_CHAR_UNSIGNED.
1297 No longer need a cross-compilation default.
1300 The test it performs is much more robust than previously, and makes
1301 it possible to test builtin types in addition to typedefs.
1302 It is now schizophrenic:
1303 - AC_CHECK_TYPE(TYPE, REPLACEMENT)
1304 remains for backward compatibility, but its use is discouraged.
1305 - AC_CHECK_TYPE(TYPE, IF-FOUND, IF-NOT-FOUND, INCLUDES)
1306 behaves exactly like the other AC_CHECK macros.
1309 Checks whether given types are supported by the system.
1311 - AC_CHECK_MEMBER, AC_CHECK_MEMBERS
1312 Check for given members in aggregates (e.g., pw_gecos in struct
1316 Checks if the compiler supports ISO C, included when needs special
1320 Checking whether the preprocessor indicates missing includes by the
1321 error code. stderr is checked by AC_TRY_CPP only as a fallback.
1324 Takes a language as argument and replaces AC_LANG_C,
1325 AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS and AC_LANG_FORTRAN77.
1327 - AC_LANG_PUSH, AC_LANG_POP
1328 Are preferred to AC_LANG_SAVE, AC_LANG_RESTORE.
1331 - AC_FUNC_CHOWN, AC_FUNC_MALLOC, AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R,
1332 AC_FUNC_LSTAT_FOLLOWS_SLASHED_SYMLINK, AC_FUNC_STAT, AC_FUNC_LSTAT,
1333 AC_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AC_FUNC_OBSTACK, AC_FUNC_STRTOD, AC_FUNC_FSEEKO.
1337 Sets GETGROUPS_LIBS.
1339 - AC_FUNC_GETLOADAVG
1340 Defines `HAVE_STRUCT_NLIST_N_UN_N_NAME' instead of `NLIST_NAME_UNION'.
1343 Now integrates `AC_DECL_YYTEXT' which is obsoleted.
1346 Arrange for large-file support.
1348 - AC_EXEEXT, AC_OBJEXT
1349 You are no longer expected to use them: their computation is
1350 performed by default.
1352 ** C++ compatibility
1353 Every macro has been revisited in order to support at best CC=c++.
1355 Major changes in Autoconf 2.14:
1356 There was no release of GNU Autoconf 2.14.
1358 Major changes in Autoconf 2.13:
1360 Released 1999-05-01 by Ben Elliston.
1362 * Support for building on Win32 systems where the only available C or
1363 C++ compiler is the Microsoft Visual C++ command line compiler
1364 (`cl'). Additional support for building on Win32 systems which are
1365 using the Cygwin or Mingw32 environments.
1366 * Support for alternative object file and executable file extensions.
1367 On Win32, for example, these are .obj and .exe. These are discovered
1368 using AC_OBJEXT and AC_EXEEXT, which substitute @OBJEXT@ and
1369 @EXEEXT@ in the output, respectively.
1370 * New macros: AC_CACHE_LOAD, AC_CACHE_SAVE, AC_FUNC_SELECT_ARGTYPES,
1371 AC_VALIDATE_CACHED_SYSTEM_TUPLE, AC_SEARCH_LIBS, AC_TRY_LINK_FUNC,
1372 AC_C_STRINGIZE, AC_CHECK_FILE(S), AC_PROG_F77 (and friends).
1373 * AC_DEFINE now has an optional third argument for a description to be
1374 placed in the config header input file (e.g. config.h.in).
1375 * The C++ code fragment compiled for the C++ compiler test had to be
1376 improved to include an explicit return type for main(). This was
1377 causing failures on systems using recent versions of the EGCS C++
1379 * Fixed an important bug in AC_CHECK_TYPE that would cause a configure
1380 script to report that `sometype_t' was present when only `type_t'
1382 * Merge of the FSF version of config.guess and config.sub to modernize
1383 these scripts. Add support for a few new hosts in config.guess.
1384 Incorporate latest versions of install-sh, mkinstalldirs and
1385 texinfo.tex from the FSF.
1386 * autoreconf is capable of running automake if necessary (and
1388 * Support for Fortran 77. See the Texinfo documentation for details.
1389 * Bug fixes and workarounds for quirky bugs in vendor utilities.
1391 Major changes in Autoconf 2.12:
1393 Released 1996-11-26 by David J. MacKenzie
1395 * AC_OUTPUT and AC_CONFIG_HEADER can create output files by
1396 concatenating multiple input files separated by colons, like so:
1397 AC_CONFIG_HEADER(config.h:conf.pre:config.h.in:conf.post)
1398 AC_OUTPUT(Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.rules)
1399 The arguments may be shell variables, to compute the lists on the fly.
1400 * AC_LINK_FILES and AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS may be called multiple times.
1401 * New macro AC_OUTPUT_COMMANDS adds more commands to run in config.status.
1404 Major changes in Autoconf 2.11:
1406 Released November 18th, 1996, by David J. MacKenzie
1408 * AC_PROG_CC and AC_PROG_CXX check whether the compiler works.
1409 They also default CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS to "-g -O2" for gcc, instead of "-g -O".
1410 * AC_REPLACE_FUNCS defines HAVE_foo if the system has the function `foo'.
1411 * AC_CONFIG_HEADER expands shell variables in its argument.
1412 * New macros: AC_FUNC_FNMATCH, AC_FUNC_SETPGRP.
1413 * The "checking..." messages and the source code for test programs that
1414 fail are saved in config.log.
1415 * Another workaround has been added for seds with small command length limits.
1416 * config.sub and config.guess recognize more system types.
1419 Major changes in Autoconf 2.10:
1421 Released May 7th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
1424 * The cache variable names used by `AC_CHECK_LIB(LIB, FUNC, ...)' has
1425 changed: now $ac_cv_lib_LIB_FUNC, previously $ac_cv_lib_LIB.
1427 Major changes in Autoconf 2.9:
1429 Released March 16th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
1433 Major changes in Autoconf 2.8:
1435 Released March 8th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
1439 Major changes in Autoconf 2.7:
1441 Released November 22nd, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1445 Major changes in Autoconf 2.6:
1447 Released November 20th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1451 Major changes in Autoconf 2.5:
1453 Released November 17th, 1995, by Roland McGrath
1455 * New configure options --bindir, --libdir, --datadir, etc., with
1456 corresponding output variables.
1457 * New macro: AC_CACHE_CHECK, to make using the cache easier.
1458 * config.log contains the command being run as well as any output from it.
1459 * AC_CHECK_LIB can check for libraries with "." or "/" or "+" in their name.
1460 * AC_PROG_INSTALL doesn't cache a name for install-sh, for sharing caches.
1461 * AC_CHECK_PROG, AC_PATH_PROG, AC_CHECK_PROGS, AC_PATH_PROGS, and
1462 AC_CHECK_TOOL can search a path other than $PATH.
1463 * AC_CHECK_SIZEOF takes an optional size to use when cross-compiling.
1465 Major changes in Autoconf 2.4:
1467 Released June 14th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1469 * Fix a few bugs found by Emacs testers.
1471 Major changes in Autoconf 2.3:
1473 Released March 27th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1475 * Fix the cleanup trap in several ways.
1476 * Handle C compilers that are picky about option placement.
1477 * ifnames gets the version number from the right directory.
1479 Major changes in Autoconf 2.2:
1481 Released March 8th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1483 * The ifnames utility is much faster but requires a "new awk" interpreter.
1484 * AC_CHECK_LIB and AC_HAVE_LIBRARY check and add the new
1485 library before existing libs, not after, in case it uses them.
1486 * New macros: AC_FUNC_GETPGRP, AC_CHECK_TOOL.
1487 * Lots of bug fixes.
1488 * Many additions to the TODO file :-)
1490 Major changes in Autoconf 2.1:
1492 Released November 4th, 1994, by David J. MacKenzie
1495 * More explanations in the manual.
1496 * Fix a spurious failure in the testsuite.
1497 * Clarify some warning messages.
1498 * autoreconf by default only rebuilds configure and config.h.in files
1499 that are older than any of their particular input files; there is a
1500 --force option to use after installing a new version of Autoconf.
1502 Thanks to everybody who's submitted changes and additions to Autoconf!
1503 I've incorporated many of them, and am still considering others for
1504 future releases -- but I didn't want to postpone this release indefinitely.
1506 Caution: don't indiscriminately rebuild configure scripts with
1507 Autoconf version 2. Some configure.in files need minor adjustments to
1508 work with it; the documentation has a chapter on upgrading. A few
1509 configure.in files, including those for GNU Emacs and the GNU C
1510 Library, need major changes because they relied on undocumented
1511 internals of version 1. Future releases of those packages will have
1512 updated configure.in files.
1514 It's best to use GNU M4 1.3 (or later) with Autoconf version 2.
1515 Autoconf now makes heavy use of M4 diversions, which were implemented
1516 inefficiently in GNU M4 releases before 1.3.
1518 Major changes in Autoconf 2.0:
1520 Released October 26th, 1994, by David J. MacKenzie
1522 ** New copyright terms:
1523 * There are no restrictions on distribution or use of configure scripts.
1526 * Autoconf manual is reorganized to make information easier to find
1527 and has several new indexes.
1528 * INSTALL is reorganized and clearer and is now made from Texinfo source.
1531 * autoscan to generate a preliminary configure.in for a package by
1532 scanning its source code for commonly used nonportable functions,
1533 programs, and header files.
1534 * ifnames to list the symbols used in #if and #ifdef directives in a
1536 * autoupdate to update a configure.in to use the version 2 macro names.
1537 * autoreconf to recursively remake configure and configuration header
1538 files in a source tree.
1540 ** Changed utilities:
1541 * autoheader can take pieces of acconfig.h to replace config.h.{top,bot}.
1542 * autoconf and autoheader can look for package-local definition files
1543 in an alternate directory.
1546 * AC_CACHE_VAL to share results of tests between configure runs.
1547 * AC_DEFUN to define macros, automatically AC_PROVIDE them, and ensure
1548 that macros invoked with AC_REQUIRE don't interrupt other macros.
1549 * AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR, AC_CANONICAL_SYSTEM, AC_CANONICAL_HOST, AC_LINK_FILES to
1550 support deciding unguessable features based on the host and target types.
1551 * AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS to recursively configure a source tree.
1552 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM to use the options --program-prefix,
1553 --program-suffix, and --program-transform-name to change the names
1554 of programs being installed.
1555 * AC_PREFIX_DEFAULT to change the default installation prefix.
1556 * AC_TRY_COMPILE to compile a test program without linking it.
1557 * AC_CHECK_TYPE to check whether sys/types.h or stdlib.h defines a given type.
1558 * AC_CHECK_LIB to check for a particular function and library.
1559 * AC_MSG_CHECKING and AC_MSG_RESULT to print test results, on a single line,
1560 whether or not the test succeeds. They obsolete AC_CHECKING and AC_VERBOSE.
1561 * AC_SUBST_FILE to insert one file into another.
1562 * AC_FUNC_MEMCMP to check whether memcmp is 8-bit clean.
1563 * AC_FUNC_STRFTIME to find strftime even if it's in -lintl.
1564 * AC_FUNC_GETMNTENT to find getmntent even if it's in -lsun or -lseq.
1565 * AC_HEADER_SYS_WAIT to check whether sys/wait.h is POSIX.1 compatible.
1568 * Many macros renamed systematically, but old names are accepted for
1569 backward compatibility.
1570 * AC_OUTPUT adds the "automatically generated" comment to
1571 non-Makefiles where it finds @configure_input@ in an input file, to
1572 support files with various comment syntaxes.
1573 * AC_OUTPUT does not replace "prefix" and "exec_prefix" in generated
1574 files when they are not enclosed in @ signs.
1575 * AC_OUTPUT allows the optional environment variable CONFIG_STATUS to
1576 override the file name "config.status".
1577 * AC_OUTPUT takes an optional argument for passing variables from
1578 configure to config.status.
1579 * AC_OUTPUT and AC_CONFIG_HEADER allow you to override the input-file names.
1580 * AC_OUTPUT automatically substitutes the values of CFLAGS, CXXFLAGS,
1581 CPPFLAGS, and LDFLAGS from the environment.
1582 * AC_PROG_CC and AC_PROG_CXX now set CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS, respectively.
1583 * AC_PROG_INSTALL looks for install-sh or install.sh in the directory
1584 specified by AC_CONFIG_AUXDIR, or srcdir or srcdir/.. or
1585 srcdir/../.. by default.
1586 * AC_DEFINE, AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED, and AC_SUBST are more robust and smaller.
1587 * AC_DEFINE no longer prints anything, because of the new result reporting
1588 mechanism (AC_MSG_CHECKING and AC_MSG_RESULT).
1589 * AC_VERBOSE pays attention to --quiet/--silent, not --verbose.
1590 * AC_ARG_ENABLE and AC_ARG_WITH support whitespace in the arguments to
1591 --enable- and --with- options.
1592 * AC_CHECK_FUNCS and AC_CHECK_HEADERS take optional shell commands to
1593 execute on success or failure.
1594 * Checking for C functions in C++ works.
1597 * AC_REMOTE_TAPE and AC_RSH removed; too specific to tar and cpio, and
1598 better maintained with them.
1599 * AC_ARG_ARRAY removed because no one was likely using it.
1600 * AC_HAVE_POUNDBANG replaced with AC_SYS_INTERPRETER, which doesn't
1601 take arguments, for consistency with all of the other specific checks.
1604 * Comes with config.sub and config.guess, and uses them optionally.
1605 * Uses config.cache to cache test results. An alternate cache file
1606 can be selected with the --cache-file=FILE option.
1607 * Uses optional shell scripts $prefix/share/config.site and
1608 $prefix/etc/config.site to perform site or system specific initializations.
1609 * configure saves compiler output to ./config.log for debugging.
1610 * New files autoconf.m4 and autoheader.m4 load the other Autoconf macros.
1611 * acsite.m4 is the new name for the system-wide aclocal.m4.
1612 * Has a DejaGnu test suite.
1614 Major changes in Autoconf 1.11:
1616 * AC_PROG_INSTALL calls install.sh with the -c option.
1617 * AC_SET_MAKE cleans up after itself.
1618 * AC_OUTPUT sets prefix and exec_prefix if they weren't set already.
1619 * AC_OUTPUT prevents shells from looking in PATH for config.status.
1621 Plus a few other bug fixes.
1623 Major changes in Autoconf 1.10:
1625 * autoheader uses config.h.bot if present, analogous to config.h.top.
1626 * AC_PROG_INSTALL looks for install.sh in srcdir or srcdir/.. and
1628 * AC_PROG_CXX looks for cxx as a C++ compiler.
1630 Plus several bugs fixed.
1632 Major changes in Autoconf 1.9:
1634 * AC_YYTEXT_POINTER replaces AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT.
1635 * AC_SIZEOF_TYPE generates the cpp symbol name automatically,
1636 and autoheader generates entries for those names automatically.
1637 * AC_FIND_X gets the result from xmkmf correctly.
1638 * AC_FIND_X assumes no X if --without-x was given.
1639 * AC_FIND_XTRA adds libraries to the variable X_EXTRA_LIBS.
1640 * AC_PROG_INSTALL finds OSF/1 installbsd.
1642 Major changes in Autoconf 1.8:
1645 * New macros AC_LANG_C, AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS, AC_LANG_SAVE, AC_LANG_RESTORE,
1646 AC_PROG_CXX, AC_PROG_CXXCPP, AC_REQUIRE_CPP
1647 for checking both C++ and C features in one configure script.
1648 * New macros AC_CHECKING, AC_VERBOSE, AC_WARN, AC_ERROR for printing messages.
1649 * New macros AC_FIND_XTRA, AC_MMAP, AC_SIZEOF_TYPE, AC_PREREQ,
1650 AC_SET_MAKE, AC_ENABLE.
1653 * AC_FIND_X looks for X in more places.
1654 * AC_PROG_INSTALL defaults to install.sh instead of cp, if it's in srcdir.
1655 install.sh is distributed with Autoconf.
1656 * AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT has been removed because it can't work, pending
1657 a rewrite of quoting in AC_DEFINE.
1658 * AC_OUTPUT adds its comments in C format when substituting in C files.
1659 * AC_COMPILE_CHECK protects its ECHO-TEXT argument with double quotes.
1661 ** New or changed command line options:
1662 * configure accepts --enable-FEATURE[=ARG] and --disable-FEATURE options.
1663 * configure accepts --without-PACKAGE, which sets withval=no.
1664 * configure accepts --x-includes=DIR and --x-libraries=DIR.
1665 * Giving --with-PACKAGE no argument sets withval=yes instead of withval=1.
1666 * configure accepts --help, --version, --silent/--quiet, --no-create options.
1667 * configure accepts and ignores most other Cygnus configure options, and
1668 warns about unknown options.
1669 * config.status accepts --help, --version options.
1671 ** File names and other changes:
1672 * Relative srcdir values are not made absolute.
1673 * The values of @prefix@ and @exec_prefix@ and @top_srcdir@ get substituted.
1674 * Autoconf library files are installed in ${datadir}/autoconf, not ${datadir}.
1675 * autoheader optionally copies config.h.top to the beginning of config.h.in.
1676 * The example Makefile dependencies for configure et al. work better.
1677 * Namespace cleanup: all shell variables used internally by Autoconf
1678 have names beginning with `ac_'.
1680 More big improvements are in process for future releases, but have not
1681 yet been (variously) finished, integrated, tested, or documented enough
1684 Major changes in Autoconf 1.7:
1686 * New macro AC_OBSOLETE.
1687 * Bugs in Makefile.in fixed.
1688 * AC_LONG_FILE_NAMES improved.
1690 Major changes in Autoconf 1.6:
1692 * New macro AC_LONG_64_BITS.
1693 * Multiple .h files can be created.
1694 * AC_FIND_X looks for X files directly if it doesn't find xmkmf.
1695 * AC_ALLOCA defines C_ALLOCA if using alloca.c.
1696 * --with-NAME can take a value, e.g., --with-targets=sun4,hp300bsd.
1697 * Unused --no-create option to configure removed.
1698 * autoheader doesn't change the timestamp of its output file if
1699 the file didn't change.
1700 * All macros that look for libraries now use AC_HAVE_LIBRARY.
1701 * config.status checks three optional environment variables to
1702 modify its behavior.
1703 * The usual bug fixes.
1705 Major changes in Autoconf 1.5:
1707 * New macros AC_FIND_X, AC_OFF_T, AC_STAT_MACROS_BROKEN, AC_REVISION.
1708 * autoconf and autoheader scripts have GNU standards conforming
1709 --version and --help options (they print their message and exit).
1712 Major changes in Autoconf 1.4:
1714 * New macros AC_HAVE_POUNDBANG, AC_TIME_WITH_SYS_TIME, AC_LONG_DOUBLE,
1715 AC_GETGROUPS_T, AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED.
1716 * autoconf and autoheader use the M4 environment variable to determine the
1717 name of the M4 program to use.
1718 * The --macrodir option to autoconf and autoheader specifies the directory
1719 in which acspecific.m4, acgeneral.m4, etc. reside if not the default.
1720 * autoconf and autoheader can take `-' as their file names, which means to
1721 read stdin as input.
1722 * Resulting configure scripts can take a --verbose option which causes them
1723 to print the results of their tests.
1724 * AC_DEFINE quotes its second argument in such a way that spaces, magic
1725 shell characters, etc. will be preserved during various stages of
1726 expansion done by the shell. If you don't want this, use
1727 AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED instead.
1728 * Much textual processing done with external calls to tr and sed have been
1729 internalized with builtin M4 `patsubst' and `translit' calls.
1730 * AC_OUTPUT doesn't hardwire the file names it outputs. Instead, you can
1731 set the shell variables `gen_files' and `gen_config' to the list of
1732 file names to output.
1733 * AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT does an AC_SUBST of `LEX_OUTPUT_ROOT', which may be
1734 "lex.yy" or "lexyy", depending on the system.
1735 * AC_PROGRAMS_CHECK takes an optional third arg. If given, it is used as
1737 * If AC_ALLOCA chooses alloca.c, it also defines STACK_DIRECTION.
1738 * AC_CONST works much more reliably on more systems.
1741 Major changes in Autoconf 1.3:
1743 configure no longer requires awk for packages that use a config.h.
1744 Support handling --with-PACKAGE options.
1745 New `autoheader' script to create `config.h.in' from `configure.in'.
1746 Ignore troublesome -lucb and -lPW when searching for alloca.
1747 Rename --exec_prefix to --exec-prefix for GNU standards conformance.
1748 Improve detection of STDC library.
1749 Add AC_HAVE_LIBRARY to check for non-default libraries.
1750 Function checking should work with future GNU libc releases.
1752 Major changes in Autoconf 1.2:
1754 The --srcdir option is now usually unnecessary.
1755 Add a file containing sample comments describing CPP macros.
1756 A comment in config.status tells which host it was configured on.
1757 Substituted variable values can now contain commas.
1758 Fix bugs in various feature checks.
1760 Major changes in Autoconf 1.1:
1762 Added AC_STRCOLL macro.
1763 Made AC_GETLOADAVG check for more things.
1764 AC_OUTPUT argument is now optional.
1769 Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,
1770 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1772 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1773 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1774 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1775 (at your option) any later version.
1777 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1778 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1779 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1780 GNU General Public License for more details.
1782 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1783 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.