1 GNU Autoconf NEWS - User visible changes.
3 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.61b (????-??-??)
5 ** Many optimizations have been applied to make overall execution faster.
7 ** Autotest now makes use of shell functions.
9 ** config.status now uses awk instead of sed also for config headers.
11 - As a side effect, AC_DEFINE and AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED now handle multi-line
12 values, i.e., backslash-newline combinations are handled correctly.
13 Further, for config headers, the total size of values is not limited by
14 the POSIX length limit of text lines any more, only each single line.
16 ** New config variable `top_build_prefix'.
18 ** Autoconf is now licensed under the General Public License version 3
19 or later (GPLv3+). As with earlier versions, the license includes
20 an exception clause so that you may release a configure script
21 generated by autoconf under the license of your own program.
22 FIXME - revisit this line once exception clause is finalized.
24 ** New Autoconf macros:
25 AC_AUTOCONF_VERSION AC_OPENMP AC_PATH_PROGS_FEATURE_CHECK
27 ** AC_C_BIGENDIAN now supports universal binaries a la Mac OS X.
29 ** AC_C_RESTRICT now prefers to #define 'restrict' to a variant spelling
30 like '__restrict' if the variant spelling is available, as this is
31 more likely to work when mixing C and C++ code.
33 ** AC_CHECK_ALIGNOF's type argument T is now documented better: it must
34 be a string of tokens such that "T y;" is a valid member declaration
37 ** AC_CHECK_SIZEOF now accepts objects as well as types: the general rule
38 is that sizeof (X) works, then AC_CHECK_SIZEOF (X) should work.
40 ** AC_CHECK_TYPE and AC_CHECK_TYPES now work on any C type-name; formerly,
41 they did not work for function types. In C++, they now work on any
42 type-id that can be the operand of sizeof; this is similar to C,
43 except it excludes anonymous struct and union types. Formerly,
44 some (but not all) C++ types involving anonymous struct and union
45 were accepted, though this was not documented.
47 ** AC_CONFIG_LINKS now prefers to link against files in the build tree
48 if found, and it works to link against a file of the same name in
49 the source tree, even if both trees coincide.
51 ** AC_INIT no longer alters $@; regression introduced in 2.60.
53 ** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS now defines _ALL_SOURCE for Interix platforms.
55 ** AS_HELP_STRING no longer underquotes its first argument; it also handles
56 the case where the first argument contains single-quoted commas.
57 For example, "AS_HELP_STRING([-a, [--arg[=foo]]], [bar])" produces:
58 " -a, --arg=[foo] bar"
59 Additionally, the macro now takes two additional arguments,
60 indent-column and wrap-column; these should not normally be needed,
61 but can be used to fine-tune how the output text is wrapped.
63 ** AC_PROG_INSTALL now requires an install program that can install multiple
64 files into a target directory.
66 ** The command 'autoconf -' now correctly processes a file from stdin.
68 ** 'autoreconf -m' now honors $MAKE.
70 ** For all of the directory arguments for 'configure', such as '--prefix'
71 or '--bindir', trailing slashes are stripped. As an example, if
72 tab completion in the user's shell appends trailing slashes, the
73 command './configure --prefix=/usr/' will still result in an
74 expanded libdir value of /usr/lib, not /usr//lib.
76 ** `configure --help=recursive' now works in read-only trees and from
77 unconfigured build trees.
79 ** If precious variables differ only in whitespace, then the cache consistency
80 check warns instead of fails, and reuses the old value.
82 ** AT_BANNER is now documented.
84 ** AT_SETUP now handles macro expansions properly when calculating line
87 ** Autotest now determines $srcdir correctly.
89 ** Testsuites built by autotest now accept a -C/--directory=DIR option
90 to adjust the working directory prior to creating files.
92 ** Autoconf now requires GNU M4 1.4.5 or later. Earlier versions of M4 have
93 a bug in macro tracing that interferes with the interaction between
94 Autoconf and Automake. GNU M4 1.4.8 or later is recommended. The
95 configure search for a working M4 is improved.
97 ** Documentation for m4sugar is improved.
99 - The following macros were previously available as undocumented
100 interfaces; the macros are now documented as stable interfaces.
102 __oline__ m4_assert m4_bmatch m4_bpatsubsts m4_car m4_case
103 m4_cdr m4_default m4_divert_once m4_divert_pop m4_divert_push
104 m4_divert_text m4_do m4_errprintn m4_fatal m4_flatten
105 m4_ifndef m4_ifset m4_ifval m4_ifvaln m4_location
106 m4_n m4_shiftn m4_strip m4_warn
108 - The following macros were previously available as undocumented
109 interfaces, but had bug fixes or semantic changes as part of this
110 release. Packages that relied on the undocumented behavior
111 should be analyzed to make sure they will still work with the
112 new documented behavior.
114 m4_cmp m4_list_cmp m4_join m4_map m4_map_sep m4_sign
115 m4_text_box m4_text_wrap m4_version_compare
117 - The m4_wrap macro used to have unspecified order, but now
118 guarantees FIFO order. m4_wrap_lifo was added to guarantee LIFO
121 - Packages using the undocumented m4sugar macro m4_PACKAGE_VERSION
122 should consider using the new AC_AUTOCONF_VERSION instead.
124 - m4sugar macros that are not documented in the manual are still
125 deemed experimental, and should not be used outside of Autoconf.
127 ** The m4sugar macros m4_append and m4_append_uniq, first documented in
128 2.60, have been fixed to treat both the string and the separator
129 arguments consistently with regards to quoting. Prior to this fix,
130 m4_append_uniq could mistakenly duplicate entries if the expansion
131 of the separator resulted in a different string (for example, if it
132 contained quotes, a comma, or a macro name). However, it means
133 that programs previously using
134 m4_append([name], [string], [[, ]])
135 are now using a four-character separator instead of the intended
136 comma and space. If you need portability to earlier versions of
137 Autoconf, you can insert the following snippet after AC_INIT but
138 before any other macro expansions, to enforce the new semantics:
139 m4_pushdef([m4_append], [m4_define([$1],
140 m4_ifdef([$1], [m4_defn([$1])[$3]])[$2])])
141 Additionally, m4_append_uniq now takes optional parameters that can
142 be used to take action depending on whether anything was appended,
143 and warns if a non-empty separator occurs within the string being
144 appended, since that can lead to duplicates.
146 ** The following m4sugar macros are new:
147 m4_append_uniq_w m4_apply m4_combine m4_cond m4_count
148 m4_dquote_elt m4_echo m4_expand m4_ignore m4_make_list m4_max
149 m4_min m4_newline m4_shift2 m4_shift3 m4_unquote m4_wrap_lifo
151 ** Warnings are now generated by default when an installer invokes
152 'configure' with an unknown --enable-* or --with-* option.
153 These warnings can be disabled with the new AC_DISABLE_OPTION_CHECKING
154 macro, or by invoking 'configure' with --disable-option-checking.
156 ** For portability with the eventual M4 2.0, macros should no longer use
157 anything larger than $9 to refer to arguments.
159 ** Existing obsolete macros
160 The documentation for the following macros is adjusted to make it
161 more clear that they have previously been marked obsolete, as their
162 functionality can be accomplished by other macros. We have no
163 current plans to remove them from Autoconf.
165 AC_ENABLE AC_STRUCT_ST_BLKSIZE AC_STRUCT_ST_RDEV AC_WITH
167 ** Newly obsolete macros
168 The following macros have been marked obsolete, as they only
169 perform a subset of AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS. We have no current
170 plans to remove them.
172 AC_AIX AC_GNU_SOURCE AC_ISC_POSIX AC_MINIX
174 ** AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE is obsolescent.
175 The documentation now says that AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE is obsolescent: it
176 tests for problems that are so old that it is no longer of
177 practical importance on current systems. New programs need not use
178 AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE. We have no current plans to remove it.
180 ** AC_DIAGNOSE, AC_WARNING, and AC_FATAL are obsolescent.
181 The documentation now favors the use of M4sugar macros m4_warn and
182 m4_fatal, since the naming makes it more obvious that the
183 diagnostics are associated with M4 expansion (ie. when running
184 `autoconf'), and offers less confusion with the AC_MSG_ERROR,
185 AC_MSG_FAILURE, and AC_MSG_WARN macros which manage diagnostics
186 when running `configure'. We have no current plans to remove these
189 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.61a (2006-12-11)
191 ** AC_FUNC_FSEEKO was broken in 2.61; it didn't make fseeko and ftello visible
192 on many platforms. This has been fixed.
194 ** AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED is now obsolete. It is still defined for backward
195 compatibility but it does nothing. The macro was already
196 obsolescent, as the last systems to have the problem were those
197 based on SVR2, which became obsolete in 1987. The macro had bugs
198 on some modern systems and could no longer be maintained reliably
199 due to lack of ancient systems to test it on.
201 ** config.status now uses awk instead of sed for most substitutions, for speed.
203 - As a side effect multi-line values of substituted variables no
204 longer have a small limit in total size, though for portability
205 each line should not exceed the POSIX length limit for text lines.
207 - It is now documented that Makefile.in should not contain
208 overlapping variable occurrences, e.g., @VAR1@VAR2@.
209 Autoconf's behavior was always iffy in such cases, and the
210 awk implementation has changed the behavior.
212 ** Many uses of 'echo' have been rewritten so that Autoconf-generated
213 scripts have fewer problems with strings or file names containing
214 embedded special characters such as backslash or leading "-". This
215 was implemented by using `printf '%s\n' "$foo"' instead of `echo
216 "$foo"' when printf works. Due to the implementation technique
217 used, Autoconf-generated scripts now run considerably more slowly
218 on ancient implementations lacking printf. However, this should
219 not be a problem, since Autoconf-generated scripts in practice
220 invariably find a more-modern shell these days.
222 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.61 (2006-11-17)
224 ** New macros AC_C_FLEXIBLE_ARRAY_MEMBER, AC_C_VARARRAYS.
226 ** AC_ARG_ENABLE and AC_ARG_WITH now allow '.' in feature and package names.
228 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.60b (2006-10-22)
231 Autoconf-generated shell scripts no longer export BIN_SH, due to
232 configuration hassles with this. Installers who need BIN_SH in
233 their environment should set it before invoking 'configure' and
234 'make'. As far as we know, this affects only Unixware installations.
236 ** Obsolescent macros
237 The documentation now says that the following macros are obsolescent,
238 as they are superseded by Gnulib:
240 AC_FUNC_FNMATCH AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU AC_FUNC_GETLOADVG AC_REPLACE_FNMATCH
242 New programs should use the Gnulib counterparts of these macros.
243 We have no current plans to remove them from Autoconf.
245 ** AC_COMPUTE_INT no longer caches or reports results.
247 ** AC_CHECK_DECL now also works with aggregate objects.
249 ** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS now defines _TANDEM_SOURCE for NonStop platforms.
251 ** GNU M4 1.4.7 or later is now recommended.
254 New M4sugar macro, which is more secure than the POSIX M4 maketemp.
257 Now an alias for m4_mkstemp.
259 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.60a (2006-08-25)
261 ** GNU M4 1.4.6 or later is now recommended.
263 ** The check for C99 now tests for varargs macros, as documented.
264 It also tests that the preprocessor supports 64-bit integers.
266 ** Autoconf now uses constructs like "#ifdef HAVE_STDLIB_H" rather than
267 "#if HAVE_STDLIB_H", so that it now works with "gcc -Wundef -Werror".
269 ** The functionality of the undocumented _AC_COMPUTE_INT is now provided
270 by a public and documented macro, AC_COMPUTE_INT. The parameters to the
271 two macros are different, so autoupdate will not change the old private name
272 to the new one. _AC_COMPUTE_INT may be removed in a future release.
274 ** AC_TYPE_LONG_LONG_INT and AC_TYPE_UNSIGNED_LONG_LONG_INT now require
275 that long long types be at least 64 bits wide, as C99 and tradition
276 requires. Formerly, they accepted implementations of any width.
279 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.60
281 Released 2006-06-23, by Ralf Wildenhues.
283 ** Autoconf no longer depends on whether m4wrap is FIFO (as Posix requires)
284 or LIFO (as in GNU M4 1.4.x). GNU M4 2.0 is expected to conform to Posix
285 here, so m4wrap/m4_wrap users should no longer depend on LIFO behavior.
287 ** Provide a way to turn off warnings about the changed directory variables.
289 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59d
291 Released 2006-06-05, by Ralf Wildenhues.
293 ** GNU make now recommended for VPATH builds
294 INSTALL now suggests VPATH builds (e.g., "sh ../srcdir/configure")
295 only if you use GNU make. In practice, other 'make' implementations
296 have too many subtle incompatibilities in their support for VPATH.
297 Many packages (including Autoconf itself) are portable to other
298 'make' implementations, but some packages are not, and recommending
299 GNU make keeps the installation instructions simpler.
301 ** Even more safety checks for the new Directory variables:
302 Warn about suspicious `${datarootdir}' found in config files output.
304 ** AC_TRY_COMMAND, AC_TRY_EVAL, ac_config_guess, ac_config_sub, ac_configure
305 These never-documented macros and variables have been marked with
306 comments saying that they may be removed in a future release,
307 because their use can lead to unintended code being executed.
308 If you need functionality that only these macros or variables
309 currently supply, please write bug-autoconf@gnu.org.
311 ** AC_SUBST, AC_DEFINE
312 Literal arguments to these are passed to m4_pattern_allow now.
315 Passing 'ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc=no' to 'configure' now sets ac_cv_prog_cc_c99
316 and ac_cv_prog_cc_c89 to 'no' as well, for backward compatibility with
317 obsolete K&R tests in the Automake test suite.
326 Now more robust with special characters in file names, or when
327 multiple processes create the same directory at the same time.
329 ** Obsolescent macros
330 The documentation now says that the following macros are obsolescent:
331 they test for problems that are so old that they are no longer of
332 practical importance on current systems.
334 AC_C_BACKSLASH_A AC_FUNC_MEMCMP AC_HEADER_DIRENT
335 AC_C_CONST AC_FUNC_SELECT_ARGTYPES AC_HEADER_STAT
336 AC_C_PROTOTYPES AC_FUNC_SETPGRP AC_HEADER_STDC
337 AC_C_STRINGIZE AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED AC_HEADER_SYS_WAIT
338 AC_C_VOLATILE AC_FUNC_STAT AC_HEADER_TIME
339 AC_FUNC_CLOSEDIR_VOID AC_FUNC_STRFTIME AC_ISC_POSIX
340 AC_FUNC_GETPGRP AC_FUNC_UTIME_NULL AC_PROG_GCC_TRADITIONAL
341 AC_FUNC_LSTAT AC_FUNC_VPRINTF AC_STRUCT_TM
343 New programs need not use these macros. We have no current plans to
347 For compatibility with future Libtool 2.0, autoreconf will invoke
348 libtoolize with the option `--ltdl' now, if LT_CONFIG_LTDL_DIR is
351 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59c
353 Released 2006-04-12, by Ralf Wildenhues.
355 ** The configure command now redirects standard input from /dev/null,
356 to help avoid problems with subsidiary commands that might mistakenly
357 read standard input. AS_ORIGINAL_STDIN_FD points to the original
358 standard input before this redirection, if you really want configure to
359 read from standard input.
361 ** Directory variables adjusted to recent changes in the GNU Coding Standards.
362 The following directory variables are new:
364 datarootdir read-only architecture-independent data root [PREFIX/share]
365 localedir locale-specific message catalogs [DATAROOTDIR/locale]
366 docdir documentation root [DATAROOTDIR/doc/PACKAGE]
367 htmldir html documentation [DOCDIR]
368 dvidir dvi documentation [DOCDIR]
369 pdfdir pdf documentation [DOCDIR]
370 psdir ps documentation [DOCDIR]
372 The following variables have new default values:
374 datadir read-only architecture-independent data [DATAROOTDIR]
375 infodir info documentation [DATAROOTDIR/info]
376 mandir man documentation [DATAROOTDIR/man]
378 This means that if you use any of `@datadir@', `@infodir@', or
379 `@mandir@' in a file, you will have to ensure `${datarootdir}' is
380 defined in this file. As a temporary measure, if any of those are
381 found but no mention of `datarootdir', the substitutions will be
382 replaced with values that do not contain `${datarootdir}', and a
383 warning will be issued.
385 ** @top_builddir@ is now a dir name: it is always nonempty and doesn't have
386 a trailing slash. Similar change will be made to ac_top_builddir in a
387 future release; the old style value, which matches (../)*, is (and will
388 continue to be) available as ac_top_build_prefix.
391 New macro to check for support of 'typeof' syntax a la GNU C.
393 ** AC_CHECK_DECLS_ONCE, AC_CHECK_FUNCS_ONCE, AC_CHECK_HEADERS_ONCE
394 New "once-only" variants of commonly-used macros, to make 'configure'
395 smaller and faster in common cases.
398 New macro to check for strtold with C99 semantics.
401 New macro that lets builder disable assertions at 'configure'-time.
404 Now checks for X11/Xlib.h and XrmInitialize (X proper) rather than
405 X11/Intrinsic.h and XtMalloc (Xt).
407 ** AC_PRESERVE_HELP_ORDER
408 New macro that causes `configure' to display help strings for AC_ARG_ENABLE
409 and AC_ARG_WITH arguments in one region, in the order defined. The default
410 behavior is to group options of each classes separately.
412 ** AC_PROG_CC, AC_PROG_CXX
413 No longer automatically arrange to declare the 'exit' function of C,
414 when a C++ compiler is used. Standard Autoconf macros no longer use
415 'exit', so this is no longer an issue for them. If you use C++, and
416 want to call 'exit', you'll have to arrange for its declaration
417 yourself. But we now suggest you return from 'main' instead.
419 ** AC_PROG_CC_C89, AC_PROG_CC_C99
420 New macros for ISO C99 support. AC_PROG_CC_C89 and AC_PROG_CC_C99
421 check for ANSI C89 and ISO C99 support respectively.
424 Has been unobsoleted, and will check if the compiler supports ISO
425 C99, falling back to ANSI C89 if not. ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc is
426 retained for backwards compatibility, assuming the value of
427 ac_cv_prog_cc_c99 or ac_cv_prog_cc_c89 (whichever is valid, in
430 ** AC_STRUCT_DIRENT_D_INO, AC_STRUCT_DIRENT_D_TYPE
431 New macros for checking commonly-used members of struct dirent.
434 The substituted value can now contain newlines.
437 The substitution now occurs only when @variable@ is on a line by itself,
438 optionally surrounded by spaces and tabs. The whole line is replaced.
440 ** AC_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE, AC_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE_WIDER
441 New macros to check for long double, and whether it is wider than double.
442 The old macro AC_C_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE has been marked as obsolete;
443 applications should switch to the new macro.
445 ** AC_TYPE_INT8_T, AC_TYPE_INT16_T, AC_TYPE_INT32_T, AC_TYPE_INT64_T,
446 AC_TYPE_INTMAX_T, AC_TYPE_INTPTR_T, AC_TYPE_LONG_LONG_INT, AC_TYPE_SSIZE_T,
447 AC_TYPE_UINT8_T, AC_TYPE_UINT16_T, AC_TYPE_UINT32_T, AC_TYPE_UINT64_T,
448 AC_TYPE_UINTMAX_T, AC_TYPE_UINTPTR_T, AC_TYPE_UNSIGNED_LONG_LONG_INT
449 New macros to check for C99 and POSIX types.
451 ** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS
452 New macro to enable extensions to Posix.
455 New macro which is defined to the name of the first declared config header
456 or undefined if no config headers have been declared yet.
459 The macro correctly handles quadrigraphs now.
461 ** AS_BOURNE_COMPATIBLE, AS_SHELL_SANITIZE, AS_CASE
462 These macros are new or published now.
465 New macro for copyright notices in testsuite files.
467 ** ALLOCA, LIBOBJS, LTLIBOBJS
468 Object names added to these variables are now prefixed with `${LIBOBJDIR}',
469 as in `${LIBOBJDIR}alloca.o'. LIBOBJDIR is meant to be defined from
470 `Makefile.in' in case the object files lie in a different directory.
471 The LIBOBJDIR feature is experimental.
474 Supports --no-recursive now.
476 ** New macros to support Erlang/OTP.
477 New macros for configuring paths to Erlang tools and libraries:
478 AC_ERLANG_PATH_ERLC, AC_ERLANG_NEED_ERLC, AC_ERLANG_PATH_ERL,
479 AC_ERLANG_NEED_ERL, AC_ERLANG_CHECK_LIB, AC_ERLANG_SUBST_ROOT_DIR,
480 AC_ERLANG_SUBST_LIB_DIR.
482 New macros for configuring installation of Erlang libraries:
483 AC_ERLANG_SUBST_INSTALL_LIB_DIR, AC_ERLANG_SUBST_INSTALL_LIB_SUBDIR.
485 ** The manual now mentions Gnulib more prominently.
487 ** New macros to support Objective C.
488 AC_PROG_OBJC, AC_PROG_OBJCPP.
490 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59b
492 Released 2004-08-20, by Paul Eggert.
495 New macro that computes the default alignment of a type.
497 ** AC_CHECK_TOOL, AC_PATH_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TOOLS
498 When cross-compiling, these macros will give a warning if the tool
499 is not prefixed. In the future, unprefixed cross tools will not
500 be detected; please consult the info documentation for information
501 about the reason of this change.
503 ** AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOL, AC_PATH_TARGET_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOLS
504 New macros that detect programs whose name is prefixed with the
505 target type, if the build type and target type are different.
507 ** AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE
508 New trace macro that declares expected auxiliary files.
511 New macro that tests for a grep program that accepts as a long a line
514 ** AC_PROG_EGREP, AC_PROG_FGREP
515 These macros now require AC_PROG_GREP, and try EGREP="$GREP -E" and
516 FGREP="$GREP -F" respectively if possible, or else run a path search for
517 a program that accepts as long a line as possible.
520 New macro that tests for a sed program that truncates as few characters
523 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59
525 Released 2003-11-04, by Akim Demaille
527 ** ac_abs_builddir etc.
528 Absolute file names were actually relative in 2.58.
530 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.58
532 Released 2003-11-04, by Akim Demaille
535 core.* files are no longer removed, as they may be valid user files.
537 ** autoreconf and auxiliary directory
538 Autoreconf creates the auxiliary directory if needed. This is
539 especially useful for initial "bootstrapping" of fresh CVS checkouts.
541 ** AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR
542 Use this macro to declare the directory for local M4 macros for aclocal.
545 No longer includes twice the same file in LIBOBJS if invoked
548 ** AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS
549 The directory for its first argument is automatically created. For
552 AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS([src/modules.hh], [...])
554 $top_builddir/src/ is created if needed.
556 ** Autotest and local.at
557 The optional file local.at is always included in Autotest test suites.
560 The warnings are always issued, including with cached runs.
561 This became a significant problem since aclocal and automake can
562 run autoconf behind the scene.
564 ** autoheader warnings
565 The warnings of autoheader can be turned off, using --warning.
566 For instance, -Wno-obsolete disables the complaints about acconfig.h
567 and other deprecated constructs.
570 AC_C_RESTRICT, AC_INCLUDES_DEFAULT, AC_LANG_ASSERT, AC_LANG_WERROR,
573 ** AC_DECL_SYS_SIGLIST
577 Now checks that mktime is the inverse of localtime.
579 ** Improve DJGPP portability
580 The Autoconf tools and configure behave better under DJGPP.
582 ** Present But Cannot Be Compiled
583 New FAQ section dedicated to the mystic
585 configure: WARNING: pi.h: present but cannot be compiled
586 configure: WARNING: pi.h: check for missing prerequisite headers?
587 configure: WARNING: pi.h: proceeding with the preprocessor's result
590 ** Concurrent executions of autom4te
591 autom4te now locks its internal files, which enables concurrent
592 executions of autom4te, likely to happen if automake, autoconf,
593 autoheader etc. are run simultaneously.
596 Use of Libtool 1.5 and higher is encouraged. Compatibility with
597 Libtool pre-1.4 is not checked.
600 Testsuites no longer rerun failed tests in verbose mode; instead,
601 failures are logged while the test is run.
603 In addition, expected failures can be marked as such.
605 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.57
607 Released 2002-12-03 by Paul Eggert.
609 Bug fixes for problems with AIX linker, with freestanding C compilers,
610 with GNU M4 limitations, and with obsolete copies of GNU documents.
612 The Free Documentation License has been upgraded from 1.1 to 1.2.
614 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.56
616 Released 2002-11-15 by Akim Demaille.
618 One packaging problem fixed (config/install-sh was not executable).
620 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.55
622 Released 2002-11-14 by Akim Demaille.
626 Have your configure.ac checked by autoscan ("autoscan").
627 Try the warning options ("autoreconf -fv -Wall").
631 - AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS
632 More information on proper use.
634 - Writing Test Programs
636 This sections explains how to write good test sources to use with
637 AC_COMPILE_IFELSE etc. It documents AC_LANG_PROGRAM and so forth.
639 - AC_FOO_IFELSE vs. AC_TRY_FOO
641 Explains why Autoconf moves from AC_TRY_COMPILE etc. to
642 AC_COMPILE_IFELSE and AC_LANG_PROGRAM etc.
646 - Is more robust to different Gettext installations.
648 - Produces messages (when --verbose) to be understood by Emacs'
651 - Supports -W/--warnings.
654 Once the GNU Build System reinstalled, run `./config.status
655 --recheck && ./config.status && make' if possible.
659 - Supports --cache, and --no-cache.
661 - ~/.autom4te.cfg makes it possible to disable the caching mechanism
662 (autom4te.cache). See `Customizing autom4te' in the documentation.
669 Support for the obsoleted options -m, --macrodir, -l, --localdir is
670 dropped in favor of the safer --include/--prepend-include scheme.
675 AC_COMPILER_IFELSE, AC_FUNC_MBRTOWC, AC_HEADER_STDBOOL,
676 AC_LANG_CONFTEST, AC_LANG_SOURCE, AC_LANG_PROGRAM, AC_LANG_CALL,
677 AC_LANG_FUNC_TRY_LINK, AC_MSG_FAILURE, AC_PREPROC_IFELSE.
680 Obsoleted macros are kept for Autoconf backward compatibility, but
681 should be avoided in configure.ac. Running autoupdate is advised.
684 - AC_DEFINE/AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED
686 We have to stop using the old compatibility scheme --that tried to
687 avoid useless backslashes-- because Libtool 1.4.3 contains a
689 AC_DEFINE([error_t], [int],
690 [Define to a type to use for \`error_t' if it is not
691 otherwise available.])
693 We have to quote the single quotes and backslashes with \. The old
694 compatibility scheme saw that ` was backslashed, and therefore did
695 not quote the single quote... Failure. Hence, Autoconf 2.54 is not
696 compatible with Libtool. Autoconf 2.55 is, but in some cases might
697 produce more \ than wanted.
699 Please, note that in the future the same problem will happen with
700 AC_MSG_*: use `autoreconf -f -Wall'.
704 - Portability of the Autoconf package to Solaris.
706 - Spurious warnings caused by config.status.
707 This bug is benign, but painful: on some systems (typically
708 FreeBSD), warnings such as:
710 config.status: creating Makefile
711 mv: Makefile: set owner/group (was: 1357/0): Operation not permitted
713 could be issued. This is fixed.
716 Simultaneous executions of config.status are possible again.
718 - Precious variables accumulation
720 config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
724 ** Plans for later versions
728 The compatibility hooks with the old scheme will be completely
729 removed. Please, advice/use `--build', `--host', and `--target'
732 - AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS
734 The tests will be stricter, please make sure your invocations are
739 Shell functions will gradually be introduced, probably starting with
740 Autotest. If you know machines which are in use that you suspect
741 *not* to support shell functions, please run the test suite of
742 Autoconf 2.55 on it, and report the results to
743 bug-autoconf@gnu.org.
747 Special characters in AC_MSG_* need not be quoted. Currently,
748 Autoconf has heuristics to decide when a string is escaped, or has
749 to be escaped. This scheme is fragile, and will be removed; the
750 only risk is uglified messages. Please, run `autoreconf -f -Wall'
751 to find occurrences that will be affected.
753 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.54
755 Released 2002-09-13 by Akim Demaille.
759 - autoreconf no longer changes the version of the gettext/po/intl
760 support files. It now adds the files the correspond to the
761 AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION declared in configure.ac.
763 Warning: It now relies on the 'autopoint' program, which is part
764 of GNU gettext 0.11.4 and newer.
766 Please note that you need to have a GNU gettext version that
767 corresponds at least to the AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION declared
768 in configure.ac. You can upgrade to newer GNU gettext versions,
769 though, without needing to change configure.ac.
771 - The -I DIR or --include=DIR option now appends DIR to the include path
772 instead of prepending; this is for consistency with other GNU tools.
773 The new -B DIR or --prepend-include=DIR option has the old behavior.
778 Now handles all the gory details about LIBOBJS and LTLIBOBJS.
779 Please, remove lines such as
781 # This is necessary so that .o files in LIBOBJS are also
782 # built via the ANSI2KNR-filtering rules.
783 LIBOBJS=`echo $LIBOBJS|sed 's/\.o /\$U.o /g;s/\.o$/\$U.o/'`
785 and read the `AC_LIBOBJ vs LIBOBJS' section. Do not define U in
786 your Makefiles either.
788 - AC_CONFIG_LINKS now makes copies if it can't make links.
790 - AC_FUNC_FNMATCH now tests only for POSIX compatibility, reverting to
791 Autoconf 2.13 behavior. The new macro AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU also
792 tests for GNU extensions to fnmatch, and replaces fnmatch if needed.
794 - AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED no longer fails when cross-compiling.
796 - AC_PROG_CC_STDC is integrated into AC_PROG_CC.
798 - AC_PROG_F77 default search no longer includes cf77 and cfg77.
802 AC_C_BACKSLASH_A, AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR, AC_GNU_SOURCE,
803 AC_PROG_EGREP, AC_PROG_FGREP, AC_REPLACE_FNMATCH,
804 AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU, AC_FUNC_REALLOC, AC_TYPE_MBSTATE_T.
807 looks for getloadavg.c in the CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR.
810 Now defines HAVE_MALLOC to 0 if `malloc' does not work, and asks
811 for an AC_LIBOBJ replacement.
815 - Spurious complaints from `m4_bmatch' about invalid regular
816 expressions are suppressed.
818 - Empty top_builddirs are properly handled.
820 - AC_CHECK_MEMBER works correctly when the member is an aggregate.
823 Now colon in the optional path arguments are properly handled.
825 ** Improved portability
827 - Both Autoconf the package, and the scripts it produces, should run
828 more reliably with Zsh. Bear in mind it is the default Bourne shell
831 - Autoconf and the scripts it produces no longer assume the existence of
832 the obsolescent commands egrep and fgrep.
836 - Limitations of Make
840 The GNATS base moved to
841 http://bugs.gnu.org/cgi-bin/gnatsweb.pl?database=autoconf
842 (It is no longer available, though.)
847 Now contains the list of ouput variables and files (AC_SUBST,
850 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.53
852 Released 2002-03-08 by Akim Demaille.
856 Perl 5.005_03 or later is required: autom4te is written in Perl and is
857 needed by autoconf. autoheader, autoreconf, ifnames, and autoscan are
863 Argument requirements, output variables, defined macros.
864 - M4sugar, M4sh, Autotest
866 - Double quoting macros
867 AC_TRY_CPP, AC_TRY_COMPILE, AC_TRY_LINK and AC_TRY_RUN.
869 The Autoconf manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
870 - Section `Hosts and Cross-Compilation'
871 Explains the rationale for the 2.5x changes in the cross-compilation
872 chain, and in the relationships between build, host, and target
874 Emphasizes that `cross-compilation' == `--host is given'.
875 If you are working on compilers etc., be sure to read this section.
876 - Section `AC_LIBOBJ vs. LIBOBJS'
877 Explains why assigning LIBOBJS directly is now an error.
878 Details how to update the code.
883 Now used instead of hard coded line numbers.
884 This eases the comparison of `configure's, and diminishes the
885 pressure over control version archives.
886 Automatic replacement for shells that don't support this feature.
887 - New output variables
888 @builddir@, @top_builddir@, @abs_srcdir@, @abs_top_srcdir@, @abs_builddir@,
893 Autoconf and Autotest modes are provided.
898 New, used by the Autoconf suite to cache and speed up most processing.
900 Supported by autom4te, autoconf and autoheader.
902 Replaces --autoconf-dir and --localdir in autoconf, autoheader,
903 autoupdate, and autoreconf.
905 No longer passes --cygnus, --foreign, --gnits, --gnu, --include-deps:
906 automake options are to be given via AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
908 Runs gettextize and libtoolize when appropriate.
910 --m4dir is no longer supported.
912 Now runs only in the specified directories, defaulting to `.',
913 but understands AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS for dependent directories.
914 Before, it used to run on all the `configure.ac' found in the
916 Independent packages are properly updated.
920 - The top level $prefix is propagated to the AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS configures.
922 Under the user pressure, $? is finally available. Probably a mistake.
923 - AC_F77_LIBRARY_LDFLAGS now supports the HP/UX f90 compiler.
924 - Precious variables accumulation
925 config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
927 - AC_PATH_PROG and family.
928 Works properly when given a literal path.
930 Somewhere since 2.13, the result had been reversed.
934 - AC_C_BIGENDIAN supports the cross-compiling case.
935 - AC_C_BIGENDIAN accepts ACTION-IF-TRUE, ACTION-IF-FALSE, and
936 ACTION-IF-UNKNOWN arguments. All are facultative, and the default
937 for ACTION-IF-TRUE is to define WORDS_BIGENDIAN like AC_C_BIGENDIAN
939 - AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE now succeeds only if `long double' has more range or
940 precision than `double'.
945 It now defines the preprocessor symbols PACKAGE_NAME,
946 PACKAGE_TARNAME, PACKAGE_VERSION, PACKAGE_STRING, and
950 Admits a fourth optional parameter: the tar name.
952 - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS.
953 Provide the user with srcdir, ac_srcdir, ac_top_srcdir, ac_builddir,
954 ac_top_builddir, ac_abs_srcdir, ac_abs_top_srcdir, ac_abs_builddir,
957 - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS and AC_OUTPUT.
958 Are much less expensive when using long lists of files.
961 Works with shell variables, and non alphanumeric names.
965 - AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R now sets STRERROR_R_CHAR_P, not HAVE_WORKING_STRERROR_R,
966 because POSIX 1003.1-200x draft 7 says strerror_r returns int, not char *.
968 - AC_FUNC_STRTOD substitutes POW_LIB.
973 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.52
975 Released 2001-07-18 by Akim Demaille.
980 This feature was present in autoconf 2.50 but was not documented.
981 For example, `@<:@' is translated to `[' just before output. This
982 is useful when writing strings that contain unbalanced quotes, or
983 other hard-to-quote constructs.
984 - m4_pattern_forbid, m4_pattern_allow
985 - Tips for upgrading from 2.13.
986 - Using autoscan to maintain a configure.ac.
989 - Now include stdint.h.
990 - sys/types.h and sys/stat.h are guarded.
991 - strings.h is included if available, and not conflicting with string.h.
994 - The test suite is more robust and presents less false failures.
995 - Invocation of GNU M4 now robust to POSIXLY_CORRECT.
996 - configure accepts --prefix='' again.
997 - AC_CHECK_LIB works properly when its first argument is not a
999 - HAVE_INTTYPES_H is defined only if not conflicting with sys/types.h.
1000 - build_, host_, and target_alias are AC_SUBST as in 2.13.
1001 - AC_ARG_VAR properly propagates precious variables inherited from the
1002 environment to ./config.status.
1003 - Using --program-suffix/--program-prefix is portable.
1004 - Failures to detect the default compiler's output extension are less
1006 - `config.status foo' works properly when `foo' depends on variables
1007 set in an AC_CONFIG_THING INIT-CMD.
1008 - autoheader is more robust to broken input.
1009 - Fixed Fortran name-mangling and link tests on a number of systems,
1010 e.g. NetBSD; see AC_F77_DUMMY_MAIN, below.
1013 - AC_CHECK_HEADER and AC_CHECK_HEADERS support a fourth argument to
1014 specify pre-includes. In this case, the headers are compiled with
1015 cc, not merely preprocessed by cpp. Therefore it is the _usability_
1016 of a header which is checked for, not just its availability.
1017 - AC_ARG_VAR refuses to run configure when precious variables have
1019 - Versions of compilers are dumped in the logs.
1020 - AC_CHECK_TYPE recognizes use of `foo_t' as a replacement type.
1023 - AC_PATH_XTRA only adds -ldnet to $LIBS if it's needed to link.
1024 - AC_FUNC_WAIT3 and AC_SYS_RESTARTABLE_SYSCALLS are obsoleted.
1025 - AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_FNMATCH, AM_FUNC_MKTIME,
1026 AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, and AM_FUNC_STRTOD are now activated.
1027 Be sure to read `Upgrading from Version 2.13' to understand why
1028 running `autoupdate' is needed.
1029 - AC_F77_DUMMY_MAIN, AC_F77_MAIN: new macros to detect whether
1030 a main-like routine is required/possible when linking C/C++ with
1031 Fortran. Users of e.g. AC_F77_WRAPPERS should be aware of these.
1032 - AC_FUNC_GETPGRG behaves better when cross-compiling.
1034 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.51
1035 There was no release of Autoconf 2.51 since some packagers had used
1036 this version number without permission to ship intermediary versions
1037 of 2.50. The version was skipped to avoid confusion.
1039 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.50
1041 Released 2001-05-21 by Akim Demaille.
1043 ** Lots of bug fixes
1044 There have been far too many to enumerate them here. Check out
1045 ChangeLog if you really want to know more.
1047 ** Improved documentation
1048 In particular, portability issues are better covered.
1051 All the standard GNU Makefile targets are supported. The layout has
1052 changed: m4/ holds the M4 extensions Autoconf needs for its
1053 configuration, doc/ contains the documentation, and tests/ contains
1056 ** Man pages are provided
1057 For autoconf, autoreconf, autoupdate, autoheader, autoscan, ifnames,
1058 config.guess, config.sub.
1062 Provides a safe and powerful means to trace the macro uses. This
1063 provide the parsing layer for tools which need to `study'
1067 Specify what category of warnings should be enabled.
1069 - When recursing into subdirectories, try for configure.gnu before
1070 configure to adapt for packages not using autoconf on case-insensitive
1074 More errors are now caught (circular AC_REQUIRE dependencies,
1075 AC_DEFINE in the action part of an AC_CACHE_CHECK, too many pops
1076 etc.). In addition, their location and call stack are given.
1079 autoupdate is much more powerful, and is able to provide the glue code
1080 which might be needed to move from an old macro to its newer
1083 You are strongly encouraged to use it to modernize both your
1084 `configure.in' and your .m4 extension files.
1087 The internal machinery of autoheader has completely changed. As a
1088 result, using `acconfig.h' should be considered to be obsoleted, and
1089 you are encouraged to get rid of it using the AH macros.
1094 ** Fortran 77 compilers
1095 Globally, the support for Fortran 77 is considerably improved.
1097 Support for automatically determining a Fortran 77 compiler's
1098 name-mangling scheme. New CPP macros F77_FUNC and F77_FUNC_ are
1099 provided to wrap C/C++ identifiers, thus making it easier and more
1100 transparent for C/C++ to call Fortran 77 routines, and Fortran 77 to
1101 call C/C++ routines. See the Texinfo documentation for details.
1104 The test suite no longer uses DejaGNU. It should be easy to submit
1105 test cases in this new framework.
1108 - --help, --help=long, -hl
1109 no longer dumps useless items.
1111 lists only specific options.
1112 - --help=recursive, -hr
1113 displays the help of all the embedded packages.
1114 - Remembers environment variables when reconfiguring.
1115 The previous scheme to set envvar before running configure was
1117 what prevented configure from remembering the environment in which
1118 it was run, therefore --recheck was run in an inconsistent
1119 environment. Now, one should run
1121 and then --recheck will work properly. Variables declared with
1122 AC_ARG_VAR are also preserved.
1124 $build defaults to `config.guess`, $host to $build, and then $target
1126 Cross-compilation is a global status of the package, it no longer
1127 depends upon the current language.
1128 Cross compilation is enabled iff the user specified `--host'.
1129 `configure' now fails if it can't run the executables it compiles,
1130 unless cross-compilation is enabled.
1132 The cache file is disabled by default. The new options
1133 `--config-cache', `-C' set the cache to `config.cache'.
1137 Much faster on most architectures.
1138 - concurrent executions
1139 It is safe to use `make -j' with config.status.
1140 - human interface improved
1141 It is possible to invoke
1142 ./config.status foobar
1143 instead of the former form (still valid)
1144 CONFIG_COMMANDS= CONFIG_HEADERS= CONFIG_LINKS= \
1145 CONFIG_FILES=foobar:foo.in:bar.in \
1147 The same holds for configuration headers and links.
1148 You can instantiate unknown files and headers:
1149 ./config.status --header foo.h:foo.h.in --file bar:baz
1150 - has a useful --help
1151 - accepts special file name "-" for stdin/stdout
1156 Specify additional copyright information.
1159 Now expects the identity of the package as argument.
1163 Most macros, if not all, now strictly follow the `one quotation
1164 level' rule. This results in a more predictable expansion.
1167 A sly bug in the AC_REQUIRE machinery, which could produce incorrect
1168 configure scripts, was fixed by Axel Thimm.
1172 Document and ask for the registration of an envvar.
1175 Specifies the file which `configure' should look for when trying to
1176 find the source tree (used to be handled by AC_INIT).
1178 - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS
1179 To add new actions to config.status. Should be used instead of
1183 Replaces AC_LINK_FILES.
1185 - AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS,
1186 AC_CONFIG_LINKS, and AC_CONFIG_FILES
1187 They now obey sh: you should no longer use shell variables as
1188 argument. Instead of
1190 test "$package_foo_enabled" = yes && $my_subdirs="$my_subdirs foo"
1191 AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS($my_subdirs)
1195 if test "$package_foo_enabled" = yes; then
1196 AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS(foo)
1200 To format an Autoconf macro's help string so that it looks pretty
1201 when the user executes `configure --help'.
1204 ** Generic Test Macros
1206 The interface of the AC_CHECK families of macros (decl, header,
1207 type, member, func) is now uniform. They support the same set of
1210 - AC_CHECK_DECL, AC_CHECK_DECLS
1211 To check whether a symbol is declared.
1213 - AC_CHECK_SIZEOF, AC_C_CHAR_UNSIGNED.
1214 No longer need a cross-compilation default.
1217 The test it performs is much more robust than previously, and makes
1218 it possible to test builtin types in addition to typedefs.
1219 It is now schizophrenic:
1220 - AC_CHECK_TYPE(TYPE, REPLACEMENT)
1221 remains for backward compatibility, but its use is discouraged.
1222 - AC_CHECK_TYPE(TYPE, IF-FOUND, IF-NOT-FOUND, INCLUDES)
1223 behaves exactly like the other AC_CHECK macros.
1226 Checks whether given types are supported by the system.
1228 - AC_CHECK_MEMBER, AC_CHECK_MEMBERS
1229 Check for given members in aggregates (e.g., pw_gecos in struct
1233 Checks if the compiler supports ISO C, included when needs special
1237 Checking whether the preprocessor indicates missing includes by the
1238 error code. stderr is checked by AC_TRY_CPP only as a fallback.
1241 Takes a language as argument and replaces AC_LANG_C,
1242 AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS and AC_LANG_FORTRAN77.
1244 - AC_LANG_PUSH, AC_LANG_POP
1245 Are preferred to AC_LANG_SAVE, AC_LANG_RESTORE.
1248 - AC_FUNC_CHOWN, AC_FUNC_MALLOC, AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R,
1249 AC_FUNC_LSTAT_FOLLOWS_SLASHED_SYMLINK, AC_FUNC_STAT, AC_FUNC_LSTAT,
1250 AC_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AC_FUNC_OBSTACK, AC_FUNC_STRTOD, AC_FUNC_FSEEKO.
1254 Sets GETGROUPS_LIBS.
1256 - AC_FUNC_GETLOADAVG
1257 Defines `HAVE_STRUCT_NLIST_N_UN_N_NAME' instead of `NLIST_NAME_UNION'.
1260 Now integrates `AC_DECL_YYTEXT' which is obsoleted.
1263 Arrange for large-file support.
1265 - AC_EXEEXT, AC_OBJEXT
1266 You are no longer expected to use them: their computation is
1267 performed by default.
1269 ** C++ compatibility
1270 Every macro has been revisited in order to support at best CC=c++.
1272 Major changes in Autoconf 2.14:
1273 There was no release of GNU Autoconf 2.14.
1275 Major changes in Autoconf 2.13:
1277 Released 1999-05-01 by Ben Elliston.
1279 * Support for building on Win32 systems where the only available C or
1280 C++ compiler is the Microsoft Visual C++ command line compiler
1281 (`cl'). Additional support for building on Win32 systems which are
1282 using the Cygwin or Mingw32 environments.
1283 * Support for alternative object file and executable file extensions.
1284 On Win32, for example, these are .obj and .exe. These are discovered
1285 using AC_OBJEXT and AC_EXEEXT, which substitute @OBJEXT@ and
1286 @EXEEXT@ in the output, respectively.
1287 * New macros: AC_CACHE_LOAD, AC_CACHE_SAVE, AC_FUNC_SELECT_ARGTYPES,
1288 AC_VALIDATE_CACHED_SYSTEM_TUPLE, AC_SEARCH_LIBS, AC_TRY_LINK_FUNC,
1289 AC_C_STRINGIZE, AC_CHECK_FILE(S), AC_PROG_F77 (and friends).
1290 * AC_DEFINE now has an optional third argument for a description to be
1291 placed in the config header input file (e.g. config.h.in).
1292 * The C++ code fragment compiled for the C++ compiler test had to be
1293 improved to include an explicit return type for main(). This was
1294 causing failures on systems using recent versions of the EGCS C++
1296 * Fixed an important bug in AC_CHECK_TYPE that would cause a configure
1297 script to report that `sometype_t' was present when only `type_t'
1299 * Merge of the FSF version of config.guess and config.sub to modernize
1300 these scripts. Add support for a few new hosts in config.guess.
1301 Incorporate latest versions of install-sh, mkinstalldirs and
1302 texinfo.tex from the FSF.
1303 * autoreconf is capable of running automake if necessary (and
1305 * Support for Fortran 77. See the Texinfo documentation for details.
1306 * Bug fixes and workarounds for quirky bugs in vendor utilities.
1308 Major changes in Autoconf 2.12:
1310 Released 1996-11-26 by David J. MacKenzie
1312 * AC_OUTPUT and AC_CONFIG_HEADER can create output files by
1313 concatenating multiple input files separated by colons, like so:
1314 AC_CONFIG_HEADER(config.h:conf.pre:config.h.in:conf.post)
1315 AC_OUTPUT(Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.rules)
1316 The arguments may be shell variables, to compute the lists on the fly.
1317 * AC_LINK_FILES and AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS may be called multiple times.
1318 * New macro AC_OUTPUT_COMMANDS adds more commands to run in config.status.
1321 Major changes in Autoconf 2.11:
1323 Released November 18th, 1996, by David J. MacKenzie
1325 * AC_PROG_CC and AC_PROG_CXX check whether the compiler works.
1326 They also default CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS to "-g -O2" for gcc, instead of "-g -O".
1327 * AC_REPLACE_FUNCS defines HAVE_foo if the system has the function `foo'.
1328 * AC_CONFIG_HEADER expands shell variables in its argument.
1329 * New macros: AC_FUNC_FNMATCH, AC_FUNC_SETPGRP.
1330 * The "checking..." messages and the source code for test programs that
1331 fail are saved in config.log.
1332 * Another workaround has been added for seds with small command length limits.
1333 * config.sub and config.guess recognize more system types.
1336 Major changes in Autoconf 2.10:
1338 Released May 7th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
1341 * The cache variable names used by `AC_CHECK_LIB(LIB, FUNC, ...)' has
1342 changed: now $ac_cv_lib_LIB_FUNC, previously $ac_cv_lib_LIB.
1344 Major changes in Autoconf 2.9:
1346 Released March 16th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
1350 Major changes in Autoconf 2.8:
1352 Released March 8th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
1356 Major changes in Autoconf 2.7:
1358 Released November 22nd, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1362 Major changes in Autoconf 2.6:
1364 Released November 20th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1368 Major changes in Autoconf 2.5:
1370 Released November 17th, 1995, by Roland McGrath
1372 * New configure options --bindir, --libdir, --datadir, etc., with
1373 corresponding output variables.
1374 * New macro: AC_CACHE_CHECK, to make using the cache easier.
1375 * config.log contains the command being run as well as any output from it.
1376 * AC_CHECK_LIB can check for libraries with "." or "/" or "+" in their name.
1377 * AC_PROG_INSTALL doesn't cache a name for install-sh, for sharing caches.
1378 * AC_CHECK_PROG, AC_PATH_PROG, AC_CHECK_PROGS, AC_PATH_PROGS, and
1379 AC_CHECK_TOOL can search a path other than $PATH.
1380 * AC_CHECK_SIZEOF takes an optional size to use when cross-compiling.
1382 Major changes in Autoconf 2.4:
1384 Released June 14th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1386 * Fix a few bugs found by Emacs testers.
1388 Major changes in Autoconf 2.3:
1390 Released March 27th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1392 * Fix the cleanup trap in several ways.
1393 * Handle C compilers that are picky about option placement.
1394 * ifnames gets the version number from the right directory.
1396 Major changes in Autoconf 2.2:
1398 Released March 8th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1400 * The ifnames utility is much faster but requires a "new awk" interpreter.
1401 * AC_CHECK_LIB and AC_HAVE_LIBRARY check and add the new
1402 library before existing libs, not after, in case it uses them.
1403 * New macros: AC_FUNC_GETPGRP, AC_CHECK_TOOL.
1404 * Lots of bug fixes.
1405 * Many additions to the TODO file :-)
1407 Major changes in Autoconf 2.1:
1409 Released November 4th, 1994, by David J. MacKenzie
1412 * More explanations in the manual.
1413 * Fix a spurious failure in the testsuite.
1414 * Clarify some warning messages.
1415 * autoreconf by default only rebuilds configure and config.h.in files
1416 that are older than any of their particular input files; there is a
1417 --force option to use after installing a new version of Autoconf.
1419 Thanks to everybody who's submitted changes and additions to Autoconf!
1420 I've incorporated many of them, and am still considering others for
1421 future releases -- but I didn't want to postpone this release indefinitely.
1423 Caution: don't indiscriminately rebuild configure scripts with
1424 Autoconf version 2. Some configure.in files need minor adjustments to
1425 work with it; the documentation has a chapter on upgrading. A few
1426 configure.in files, including those for GNU Emacs and the GNU C
1427 Library, need major changes because they relied on undocumented
1428 internals of version 1. Future releases of those packages will have
1429 updated configure.in files.
1431 It's best to use GNU M4 1.3 (or later) with Autoconf version 2.
1432 Autoconf now makes heavy use of M4 diversions, which were implemented
1433 inefficiently in GNU M4 releases before 1.3.
1435 Major changes in Autoconf 2.0:
1437 Released October 26th, 1994, by David J. MacKenzie
1439 ** New copyright terms:
1440 * There are no restrictions on distribution or use of configure scripts.
1443 * Autoconf manual is reorganized to make information easier to find
1444 and has several new indexes.
1445 * INSTALL is reorganized and clearer and is now made from Texinfo source.
1448 * autoscan to generate a preliminary configure.in for a package by
1449 scanning its source code for commonly used nonportable functions,
1450 programs, and header files.
1451 * ifnames to list the symbols used in #if and #ifdef directives in a
1453 * autoupdate to update a configure.in to use the version 2 macro names.
1454 * autoreconf to recursively remake configure and configuration header
1455 files in a source tree.
1457 ** Changed utilities:
1458 * autoheader can take pieces of acconfig.h to replace config.h.{top,bot}.
1459 * autoconf and autoheader can look for package-local definition files
1460 in an alternate directory.
1463 * AC_CACHE_VAL to share results of tests between configure runs.
1464 * AC_DEFUN to define macros, automatically AC_PROVIDE them, and ensure
1465 that macros invoked with AC_REQUIRE don't interrupt other macros.
1466 * AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR, AC_CANONICAL_SYSTEM, AC_CANONICAL_HOST, AC_LINK_FILES to
1467 support deciding unguessable features based on the host and target types.
1468 * AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS to recursively configure a source tree.
1469 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM to use the options --program-prefix,
1470 --program-suffix, and --program-transform-name to change the names
1471 of programs being installed.
1472 * AC_PREFIX_DEFAULT to change the default installation prefix.
1473 * AC_TRY_COMPILE to compile a test program without linking it.
1474 * AC_CHECK_TYPE to check whether sys/types.h or stdlib.h defines a given type.
1475 * AC_CHECK_LIB to check for a particular function and library.
1476 * AC_MSG_CHECKING and AC_MSG_RESULT to print test results, on a single line,
1477 whether or not the test succeeds. They obsolete AC_CHECKING and AC_VERBOSE.
1478 * AC_SUBST_FILE to insert one file into another.
1479 * AC_FUNC_MEMCMP to check whether memcmp is 8-bit clean.
1480 * AC_FUNC_STRFTIME to find strftime even if it's in -lintl.
1481 * AC_FUNC_GETMNTENT to find getmntent even if it's in -lsun or -lseq.
1482 * AC_HEADER_SYS_WAIT to check whether sys/wait.h is POSIX.1 compatible.
1485 * Many macros renamed systematically, but old names are accepted for
1486 backward compatibility.
1487 * AC_OUTPUT adds the "automatically generated" comment to
1488 non-Makefiles where it finds @configure_input@ in an input file, to
1489 support files with various comment syntaxes.
1490 * AC_OUTPUT does not replace "prefix" and "exec_prefix" in generated
1491 files when they are not enclosed in @ signs.
1492 * AC_OUTPUT allows the optional environment variable CONFIG_STATUS to
1493 override the file name "config.status".
1494 * AC_OUTPUT takes an optional argument for passing variables from
1495 configure to config.status.
1496 * AC_OUTPUT and AC_CONFIG_HEADER allow you to override the input-file names.
1497 * AC_OUTPUT automatically substitutes the values of CFLAGS, CXXFLAGS,
1498 CPPFLAGS, and LDFLAGS from the environment.
1499 * AC_PROG_CC and AC_PROG_CXX now set CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS, respectively.
1500 * AC_PROG_INSTALL looks for install-sh or install.sh in the directory
1501 specified by AC_CONFIG_AUXDIR, or srcdir or srcdir/.. or
1502 srcdir/../.. by default.
1503 * AC_DEFINE, AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED, and AC_SUBST are more robust and smaller.
1504 * AC_DEFINE no longer prints anything, because of the new result reporting
1505 mechanism (AC_MSG_CHECKING and AC_MSG_RESULT).
1506 * AC_VERBOSE pays attention to --quiet/--silent, not --verbose.
1507 * AC_ARG_ENABLE and AC_ARG_WITH support whitespace in the arguments to
1508 --enable- and --with- options.
1509 * AC_CHECK_FUNCS and AC_CHECK_HEADERS take optional shell commands to
1510 execute on success or failure.
1511 * Checking for C functions in C++ works.
1514 * AC_REMOTE_TAPE and AC_RSH removed; too specific to tar and cpio, and
1515 better maintained with them.
1516 * AC_ARG_ARRAY removed because no one was likely using it.
1517 * AC_HAVE_POUNDBANG replaced with AC_SYS_INTERPRETER, which doesn't
1518 take arguments, for consistency with all of the other specific checks.
1521 * Comes with config.sub and config.guess, and uses them optionally.
1522 * Uses config.cache to cache test results. An alternate cache file
1523 can be selected with the --cache-file=FILE option.
1524 * Uses optional shell scripts $prefix/share/config.site and
1525 $prefix/etc/config.site to perform site or system specific initializations.
1526 * configure saves compiler output to ./config.log for debugging.
1527 * New files autoconf.m4 and autoheader.m4 load the other Autoconf macros.
1528 * acsite.m4 is the new name for the system-wide aclocal.m4.
1529 * Has a DejaGnu test suite.
1531 Major changes in Autoconf 1.11:
1533 * AC_PROG_INSTALL calls install.sh with the -c option.
1534 * AC_SET_MAKE cleans up after itself.
1535 * AC_OUTPUT sets prefix and exec_prefix if they weren't set already.
1536 * AC_OUTPUT prevents shells from looking in PATH for config.status.
1538 Plus a few other bug fixes.
1540 Major changes in Autoconf 1.10:
1542 * autoheader uses config.h.bot if present, analogous to config.h.top.
1543 * AC_PROG_INSTALL looks for install.sh in srcdir or srcdir/.. and
1545 * AC_PROG_CXX looks for cxx as a C++ compiler.
1547 Plus several bugs fixed.
1549 Major changes in Autoconf 1.9:
1551 * AC_YYTEXT_POINTER replaces AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT.
1552 * AC_SIZEOF_TYPE generates the cpp symbol name automatically,
1553 and autoheader generates entries for those names automatically.
1554 * AC_FIND_X gets the result from xmkmf correctly.
1555 * AC_FIND_X assumes no X if --without-x was given.
1556 * AC_FIND_XTRA adds libraries to the variable X_EXTRA_LIBS.
1557 * AC_PROG_INSTALL finds OSF/1 installbsd.
1559 Major changes in Autoconf 1.8:
1562 * New macros AC_LANG_C, AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS, AC_LANG_SAVE, AC_LANG_RESTORE,
1563 AC_PROG_CXX, AC_PROG_CXXCPP, AC_REQUIRE_CPP
1564 for checking both C++ and C features in one configure script.
1565 * New macros AC_CHECKING, AC_VERBOSE, AC_WARN, AC_ERROR for printing messages.
1566 * New macros AC_FIND_XTRA, AC_MMAP, AC_SIZEOF_TYPE, AC_PREREQ,
1567 AC_SET_MAKE, AC_ENABLE.
1570 * AC_FIND_X looks for X in more places.
1571 * AC_PROG_INSTALL defaults to install.sh instead of cp, if it's in srcdir.
1572 install.sh is distributed with Autoconf.
1573 * AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT has been removed because it can't work, pending
1574 a rewrite of quoting in AC_DEFINE.
1575 * AC_OUTPUT adds its comments in C format when substituting in C files.
1576 * AC_COMPILE_CHECK protects its ECHO-TEXT argument with double quotes.
1578 ** New or changed command line options:
1579 * configure accepts --enable-FEATURE[=ARG] and --disable-FEATURE options.
1580 * configure accepts --without-PACKAGE, which sets withval=no.
1581 * configure accepts --x-includes=DIR and --x-libraries=DIR.
1582 * Giving --with-PACKAGE no argument sets withval=yes instead of withval=1.
1583 * configure accepts --help, --version, --silent/--quiet, --no-create options.
1584 * configure accepts and ignores most other Cygnus configure options, and
1585 warns about unknown options.
1586 * config.status accepts --help, --version options.
1588 ** File names and other changes:
1589 * Relative srcdir values are not made absolute.
1590 * The values of @prefix@ and @exec_prefix@ and @top_srcdir@ get substituted.
1591 * Autoconf library files are installed in ${datadir}/autoconf, not ${datadir}.
1592 * autoheader optionally copies config.h.top to the beginning of config.h.in.
1593 * The example Makefile dependencies for configure et al. work better.
1594 * Namespace cleanup: all shell variables used internally by Autoconf
1595 have names beginning with `ac_'.
1597 More big improvements are in process for future releases, but have not
1598 yet been (variously) finished, integrated, tested, or documented enough
1601 Major changes in Autoconf 1.7:
1603 * New macro AC_OBSOLETE.
1604 * Bugs in Makefile.in fixed.
1605 * AC_LONG_FILE_NAMES improved.
1607 Major changes in Autoconf 1.6:
1609 * New macro AC_LONG_64_BITS.
1610 * Multiple .h files can be created.
1611 * AC_FIND_X looks for X files directly if it doesn't find xmkmf.
1612 * AC_ALLOCA defines C_ALLOCA if using alloca.c.
1613 * --with-NAME can take a value, e.g., --with-targets=sun4,hp300bsd.
1614 * Unused --no-create option to configure removed.
1615 * autoheader doesn't change the timestamp of its output file if
1616 the file didn't change.
1617 * All macros that look for libraries now use AC_HAVE_LIBRARY.
1618 * config.status checks three optional environment variables to
1619 modify its behavior.
1620 * The usual bug fixes.
1622 Major changes in Autoconf 1.5:
1624 * New macros AC_FIND_X, AC_OFF_T, AC_STAT_MACROS_BROKEN, AC_REVISION.
1625 * autoconf and autoheader scripts have GNU standards conforming
1626 --version and --help options (they print their message and exit).
1629 Major changes in Autoconf 1.4:
1631 * New macros AC_HAVE_POUNDBANG, AC_TIME_WITH_SYS_TIME, AC_LONG_DOUBLE,
1632 AC_GETGROUPS_T, AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED.
1633 * autoconf and autoheader use the M4 environment variable to determine the
1634 name of the M4 program to use.
1635 * The --macrodir option to autoconf and autoheader specifies the directory
1636 in which acspecific.m4, acgeneral.m4, etc. reside if not the default.
1637 * autoconf and autoheader can take `-' as their file names, which means to
1638 read stdin as input.
1639 * Resulting configure scripts can take a --verbose option which causes them
1640 to print the results of their tests.
1641 * AC_DEFINE quotes its second argument in such a way that spaces, magic
1642 shell characters, etc. will be preserved during various stages of
1643 expansion done by the shell. If you don't want this, use
1644 AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED instead.
1645 * Much textual processing done with external calls to tr and sed have been
1646 internalized with builtin M4 `patsubst' and `translit' calls.
1647 * AC_OUTPUT doesn't hardwire the file names it outputs. Instead, you can
1648 set the shell variables `gen_files' and `gen_config' to the list of
1649 file names to output.
1650 * AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT does an AC_SUBST of `LEX_OUTPUT_ROOT', which may be
1651 "lex.yy" or "lexyy", depending on the system.
1652 * AC_PROGRAMS_CHECK takes an optional third arg. If given, it is used as
1654 * If AC_ALLOCA chooses alloca.c, it also defines STACK_DIRECTION.
1655 * AC_CONST works much more reliably on more systems.
1658 Major changes in Autoconf 1.3:
1660 configure no longer requires awk for packages that use a config.h.
1661 Support handling --with-PACKAGE options.
1662 New `autoheader' script to create `config.h.in' from `configure.in'.
1663 Ignore troublesome -lucb and -lPW when searching for alloca.
1664 Rename --exec_prefix to --exec-prefix for GNU standards conformance.
1665 Improve detection of STDC library.
1666 Add AC_HAVE_LIBRARY to check for non-default libraries.
1667 Function checking should work with future GNU libc releases.
1669 Major changes in Autoconf 1.2:
1671 The --srcdir option is now usually unnecessary.
1672 Add a file containing sample comments describing CPP macros.
1673 A comment in config.status tells which host it was configured on.
1674 Substituted variable values can now contain commas.
1675 Fix bugs in various feature checks.
1677 Major changes in Autoconf 1.1:
1679 Added AC_STRCOLL macro.
1680 Made AC_GETLOADAVG check for more things.
1681 AC_OUTPUT argument is now optional.
1686 Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,
1687 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1689 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
1690 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1691 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
1692 (at your option) any later version.
1694 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1695 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1696 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1697 GNU General Public License for more details.
1699 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1700 along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.