1 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.61b (????-??-??)
3 ** Warnings are now generated by default when an installer invokes
4 'configure' with an unknown --enable-* or --with-* option.
5 These warnings can be disabled with the new AC_DISABLE_OPTION_CHECKING
6 macro, or by invoking 'configure' with --disable-option-checking.
8 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.61a (2006-12-11)
10 ** AC_FUNC_FSEEKO was broken in 2.61; it didn't make fseeko and ftello visible
11 on many platforms. This has been fixed.
13 ** AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED is now obsolete. It is still defined for backward
14 compatibility but it does nothing. The macro was already
15 obsolescent, as the last systems to have the problem were those
16 based on SVR2, which became obsolete in 1987. The macro had bugs
17 on some modern systems and could no longer be maintained reliably
18 due to lack of ancient systems to test it on.
20 ** config.status now uses awk instead of sed for most substitutions, for speed.
22 - As a side effect multi-line values of substituted variables no
23 longer have a small limit in total size, though for portability
24 each line should not exceed the POSIX length limit for text lines.
26 - It is now documented that Makefile.in should not contain
27 overlapping variable occurrences, e.g., @VAR1@VAR2@.
28 Autoconf's behavior was always iffy in such cases, and the
29 awk implementation has changed the behavior.
31 ** Many uses of 'echo' have been rewritten so that Autoconf-generated
32 scripts have fewer problems with strings or file names containing
33 embedded special characters such as backslash or leading "-". This
34 was implemented by using `printf '%s\n' "$foo"' instead of `echo
35 "$foo"' when printf works. Due to the implementation technique
36 used, Autoconf-generated scripts now run considerably more slowly
37 on ancient implementations lacking printf. However, this should
38 not be a problem, since Autoconf-generated scripts in practice
39 invariably find a more-modern shell these days.
41 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.61 (2006-11-17)
43 ** New macros AC_C_FLEXIBLE_ARRAY_MEMBER, AC_C_VARARRAYS.
45 ** AC_ARG_ENABLE and AC_ARG_WITH now allow '.' in feature and package names.
47 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.60b (2006-10-22)
50 Autoconf-generated shell scripts no longer export BIN_SH, due to
51 configuration hassles with this. Installers who need BIN_SH in
52 their environment should set it before invoking 'configure' and
53 'make'. As far as we know, this affects only Unixware installations.
56 The documentation now says that the following macros are obsolescent,
57 as they are superseded by Gnulib:
59 AC_FUNC_FNMATCH AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU AC_FUNC_GETLOADVG AC_REPLACE_FNMATCH
61 New programs should use the Gnulib counterparts of these macros.
62 We have no current plans to remove them from Autoconf.
64 ** AC_COMPUTE_INT no longer caches or reports results.
66 ** AC_CHECK_DECL now also works with aggregate objects.
68 ** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS now defines _TANDEM_SOURCE for NonStop platforms.
70 ** GNU M4 1.4.7 or later is now recommended.
73 New M4sugar macro, which is more secure than the POSIX M4 maketemp.
76 Now an alias for m4_mkstemp.
78 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.60a (2006-08-25)
80 ** GNU M4 1.4.6 or later is now recommended.
82 ** The check for C99 now tests for varargs macros, as documented.
83 It also tests that the preprocessor supports 64-bit integers.
85 ** Autoconf now uses constructs like "#ifdef HAVE_STDLIB_H" rather than
86 "#if HAVE_STDLIB_H", so that it now works with "gcc -Wundef -Werror".
88 ** The functionality of the undocumented _AC_COMPUTE_INT is now provided
89 by a public and documented macro, AC_COMPUTE_INT. The parameters to the
90 two macros are different, so autoupdate will not change the old private name
91 to the new one. _AC_COMPUTE_INT may be removed in a future release.
93 ** AC_TYPE_LONG_LONG_INT and AC_TYPE_UNSIGNED_LONG_LONG_INT now require
94 that long long types be at least 64 bits wide, as C99 and tradition
95 requires. Formerly, they accepted implementations of any width.
98 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.60
100 Released 2006-06-23, by Ralf Wildenhues.
102 ** Autoconf no longer depends on whether m4wrap is FIFO (as Posix requires)
103 or LIFO (as in GNU M4 1.4.x). GNU M4 2.0 is expected to conform to Posix
104 here, so m4wrap/m4_wrap users should no longer depend on LIFO behavior.
106 ** Provide a way to turn off warnings about the changed directory variables.
108 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59d
110 Released 2006-06-05, by Ralf Wildenhues.
112 ** GNU make now recommended for VPATH builds
113 INSTALL now suggests VPATH builds (e.g., "sh ../srcdir/configure")
114 only if you use GNU make. In practice, other 'make' implementations
115 have too many subtle incompatibilities in their support for VPATH.
116 Many packages (including Autoconf itself) are portable to other
117 'make' implementations, but some packages are not, and recommending
118 GNU make keeps the installation instructions simpler.
120 ** Even more safety checks for the new Directory variables:
121 Warn about suspicious `${datarootdir}' found in config files output.
123 ** AC_TRY_COMMAND, AC_TRY_EVAL, ac_config_guess, ac_config_sub, ac_configure
124 These never-documented macros and variables have been marked with
125 comments saying that they may be removed in a future release,
126 because their use can lead to unintended code being executed.
127 If you need functionality that only these macros or variables
128 currently supply, please write bug-autoconf@gnu.org.
130 ** AC_SUBST, AC_DEFINE
131 Literal arguments to these are passed to m4_pattern_allow now.
134 Passing 'ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc=no' to 'configure' now sets ac_cv_prog_cc_c99
135 and ac_cv_prog_cc_c89 to 'no' as well, for backward compatibility with
136 obsolete K&R tests in the Automake test suite.
145 Now more robust with special characters in file names, or when
146 multiple processes create the same directory at the same time.
148 ** Obsolescent macros
149 The documentation now says that the following macros are obsolescent:
150 they test for problems that are so old that they are no longer of
151 practical importance on current systems.
153 AC_C_BACKSLASH_A AC_FUNC_MEMCMP AC_HEADER_DIRENT
154 AC_C_CONST AC_FUNC_SELECT_ARGTYPES AC_HEADER_STAT
155 AC_C_PROTOTYPES AC_FUNC_SETPGRP AC_HEADER_STDC
156 AC_C_STRINGIZE AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED AC_HEADER_SYS_WAIT
157 AC_C_VOLATILE AC_FUNC_STAT AC_HEADER_TIME
158 AC_FUNC_CLOSEDIR_VOID AC_FUNC_STRFTIME AC_ISC_POSIX
159 AC_FUNC_GETPGRP AC_FUNC_UTIME_NULL AC_PROG_GCC_TRADITIONAL
160 AC_FUNC_LSTAT AC_FUNC_VPRINTF AC_STRUCT_TM
162 New programs need not use these macros. We have no current plans to
166 For compatibility with future Libtool 2.0, autoreconf will invoke
167 libtoolize with the option `--ltdl' now, if LT_CONFIG_LTDL_DIR is
170 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59c
172 Released 2006-04-12, by Ralf Wildenhues.
174 ** The configure command now redirects standard input from /dev/null,
175 to help avoid problems with subsidiary commands that might mistakenly
176 read standard input. AS_ORIGINAL_STDIN_FD points to the original
177 standard input before this redirection, if you really want configure to
178 read from standard input.
180 ** Directory variables adjusted to recent changes in the GNU Coding Standards.
181 The following directory variables are new:
183 datarootdir read-only architecture-independent data root [PREFIX/share]
184 localedir locale-specific message catalogs [DATAROOTDIR/locale]
185 docdir documentation root [DATAROOTDIR/doc/PACKAGE]
186 htmldir html documentation [DOCDIR]
187 dvidir dvi documentation [DOCDIR]
188 pdfdir pdf documentation [DOCDIR]
189 psdir ps documentation [DOCDIR]
191 The following variables have new default values:
193 datadir read-only architecture-independent data [DATAROOTDIR]
194 infodir info documentation [DATAROOTDIR/info]
195 mandir man documentation [DATAROOTDIR/man]
197 This means that if you use any of `@datadir@', `@infodir@', or
198 `@mandir@' in a file, you will have to ensure `${datarootdir}' is
199 defined in this file. As a temporary measure, if any of those are
200 found but no mention of `datarootdir', the substitutions will be
201 replaced with values that do not contain `${datarootdir}', and a
202 warning will be issued.
204 ** @top_builddir@ is now a dir name: it is always nonempty and doesn't have
205 a trailing slash. Similar change will be made to ac_top_builddir in a
206 future release; the old style value, which matches (../)*, is (and will
207 continue to be) available as ac_top_build_prefix.
210 New macro to check for support of 'typeof' syntax a la GNU C.
212 ** AC_CHECK_DECLS_ONCE, AC_CHECK_FUNCS_ONCE, AC_CHECK_HEADERS_ONCE
213 New "once-only" variants of commonly-used macros, to make 'configure'
214 smaller and faster in common cases.
217 New macro to check for strtold with C99 semantics.
220 New macro that lets builder disable assertions at 'configure'-time.
223 Now checks for X11/Xlib.h and XrmInitialize (X proper) rather than
224 X11/Intrinsic.h and XtMalloc (Xt).
226 ** AC_PRESERVE_HELP_ORDER
227 New macro that causes `configure' to display help strings for AC_ARG_ENABLE
228 and AC_ARG_WITH arguments in one region, in the order defined. The default
229 behavior is to group options of each classes separately.
231 ** AC_PROG_CC, AC_PROG_CXX
232 No longer automatically arrange to declare the 'exit' function of C,
233 when a C++ compiler is used. Standard Autoconf macros no longer use
234 'exit', so this is no longer an issue for them. If you use C++, and
235 want to call 'exit', you'll have to arrange for its declaration
236 yourself. But we now suggest you return from 'main' instead.
238 ** AC_PROG_CC_C89, AC_PROG_CC_C99
239 New macros for ISO C99 support. AC_PROG_CC_C89 and AC_PROG_CC_C99
240 check for ANSI C89 and ISO C99 support respectively.
243 Has been unobsoleted, and will check if the compiler supports ISO
244 C99, falling back to ANSI C89 if not. ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc is
245 retained for backwards compatibility, assuming the value of
246 ac_cv_prog_cc_c99 or ac_cv_prog_cc_c89 (whichever is valid, in
249 ** AC_STRUCT_DIRENT_D_INO, AC_STRUCT_DIRENT_D_TYPE
250 New macros for checking commonly-used members of struct dirent.
253 The substituted value can now contain newlines.
256 The substitution now occurs only when @variable@ is on a line by itself,
257 optionally surrounded by spaces and tabs. The whole line is replaced.
259 ** AC_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE, AC_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE_WIDER
260 New macros to check for long double, and whether it is wider than double.
261 The old macro AC_C_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE has been marked as obsolete;
262 applications should switch to the new macro.
264 ** AC_TYPE_INT8_T, AC_TYPE_INT16_T, AC_TYPE_INT32_T, AC_TYPE_INT64_T,
265 AC_TYPE_INTMAX_T, AC_TYPE_INTPTR_T, AC_TYPE_LONG_LONG_INT, AC_TYPE_SSIZE_T,
266 AC_TYPE_UINT8_T, AC_TYPE_UINT16_T, AC_TYPE_UINT32_T, AC_TYPE_UINT64_T,
267 AC_TYPE_UINTMAX_T, AC_TYPE_UINTPTR_T, AC_TYPE_UNSIGNED_LONG_LONG_INT
268 New macros to check for C99 and POSIX types.
270 ** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS
271 New macro to enable extensions to Posix.
274 New macro which is defined to the name of the first declared config header
275 or undefined if no config headers have been declared yet.
278 The macro correctly handles quadrigraphs now.
280 ** AS_BOURNE_COMPATIBLE, AS_SHELL_SANITIZE, AS_CASE
281 These macros are new or published now.
284 New macro for copyright notices in testsuite files.
286 ** ALLOCA, LIBOBJS, LTLIBOBJS
287 Object names added to these variables are now prefixed with `${LIBOBJDIR}',
288 as in `${LIBOBJDIR}alloca.o'. LIBOBJDIR is meant to be defined from
289 `Makefile.in' in case the object files lie in a different directory.
290 The LIBOBJDIR feature is experimental.
293 Supports --no-recursive now.
295 ** New macros to support Erlang/OTP.
296 New macros for configuring paths to Erlang tools and libraries:
297 AC_ERLANG_PATH_ERLC, AC_ERLANG_NEED_ERLC, AC_ERLANG_PATH_ERL,
298 AC_ERLANG_NEED_ERL, AC_ERLANG_CHECK_LIB, AC_ERLANG_SUBST_ROOT_DIR,
299 AC_ERLANG_SUBST_LIB_DIR.
301 New macros for configuring installation of Erlang libraries:
302 AC_ERLANG_SUBST_INSTALL_LIB_DIR, AC_ERLANG_SUBST_INSTALL_LIB_SUBDIR.
304 ** The manual now mentions Gnulib more prominently.
306 ** New macros to support Objective C.
307 AC_PROG_OBJC, AC_PROG_OBJCPP.
309 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59b
311 Released 2004-08-20, by Paul Eggert.
314 New macro that computes the default alignment of a type.
316 ** AC_CHECK_TOOL, AC_PATH_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TOOLS
317 When cross-compiling, these macros will give a warning if the tool
318 is not prefixed. In the future, unprefixed cross tools will not
319 be detected; please consult the info documentation for information
320 about the reason of this change.
322 ** AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOL, AC_PATH_TARGET_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOLS
323 New macros that detect programs whose name is prefixed with the
324 target type, if the build type and target type are different.
326 ** AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE
327 New trace macro that declares expected auxiliary files.
330 New macro that tests for a grep program that accepts as a long a line
333 ** AC_PROG_EGREP, AC_PROG_FGREP
334 These macros now require AC_PROG_GREP, and try EGREP="$GREP -E" and
335 FGREP="$GREP -F" respectively if possible, or else run a path search for
336 a program that accepts as long a line as possible.
339 New macro that tests for a sed program that truncates as few characters
342 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59
344 Released 2003-11-04, by Akim Demaille
346 ** ac_abs_builddir etc.
347 Absolute file names were actually relative in 2.58.
349 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.58
351 Released 2003-11-04, by Akim Demaille
354 core.* files are no longer removed, as they may be valid user files.
356 ** autoreconf and auxiliary directory
357 Autoreconf creates the auxiliary directory if needed. This is
358 especially useful for initial "bootstrapping" of fresh CVS checkouts.
360 ** AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR
361 Use this macro to declare the directory for local M4 macros for aclocal.
364 No longer includes twice the same file in LIBOBJS if invoked
367 ** AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS
368 The directory for its first argument is automatically created. For
371 AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS([src/modules.hh], [...])
373 $top_builddir/src/ is created if needed.
375 ** Autotest and local.at
376 The optional file local.at is always included in Autotest test suites.
379 The warnings are always issued, including with cached runs.
380 This became a significant problem since aclocal and automake can
381 run autoconf behind the scene.
383 ** autoheader warnings
384 The warnings of autoheader can be turned off, using --warning.
385 For instance, -Wno-obsolete disables the complaints about acconfig.h
386 and other deprecated constructs.
389 AC_C_RESTRICT, AC_INCLUDES_DEFAULT, AC_LANG_ASSERT, AC_LANG_WERROR,
392 ** AC_DECL_SYS_SIGLIST
396 Now checks that mktime is the inverse of localtime.
398 ** Improve DJGPP portability
399 The Autoconf tools and configure behave better under DJGPP.
401 ** Present But Cannot Be Compiled
402 New FAQ section dedicated to the mystic
404 configure: WARNING: pi.h: present but cannot be compiled
405 configure: WARNING: pi.h: check for missing prerequisite headers?
406 configure: WARNING: pi.h: proceeding with the preprocessor's result
409 ** Concurrent executions of autom4te
410 autom4te now locks its internal files, which enables concurrent
411 executions of autom4te, likely to happen if automake, autoconf,
412 autoheader etc. are run simultaneously.
415 Use of Libtool 1.5 and higher is encouraged. Compatibility with
416 Libtool pre-1.4 is not checked.
419 Testsuites no longer rerun failed tests in verbose mode; instead,
420 failures are logged while the test is run.
422 In addition, expected failures can be marked as such.
424 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.57
426 Released 2002-12-03 by Paul Eggert.
428 Bug fixes for problems with AIX linker, with freestanding C compilers,
429 with GNU M4 limitations, and with obsolete copies of GNU documents.
431 The Free Documentation License has been upgraded from 1.1 to 1.2.
433 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.56
435 Released 2002-11-15 by Akim Demaille.
437 One packaging problem fixed (config/install-sh was not executable).
439 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.55
441 Released 2002-11-14 by Akim Demaille.
445 Have your configure.ac checked by autoscan ("autoscan").
446 Try the warning options ("autoreconf -fv -Wall").
450 - AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS
451 More information on proper use.
453 - Writing Test Programs
455 This sections explains how to write good test sources to use with
456 AC_COMPILE_IFELSE etc. It documents AC_LANG_PROGRAM and so forth.
458 - AC_FOO_IFELSE vs. AC_TRY_FOO
460 Explains why Autoconf moves from AC_TRY_COMPILE etc. to
461 AC_COMPILE_IFELSE and AC_LANG_PROGRAM etc.
465 - Is more robust to different Gettext installations.
467 - Produces messages (when --verbose) to be understood by Emacs'
470 - Supports -W/--warnings.
473 Once the GNU Build System reinstalled, run `./config.status
474 --recheck && ./config.status && make' if possible.
478 - Supports --cache, and --no-cache.
480 - ~/.autom4te.cfg makes it possible to disable the caching mechanism
481 (autom4te.cache). See `Customizing autom4te' in the documentation.
488 Support for the obsoleted options -m, --macrodir, -l, --localdir is
489 dropped in favor of the safer --include/--prepend-include scheme.
494 AC_COMPILER_IFELSE, AC_FUNC_MBRTOWC, AC_HEADER_STDBOOL,
495 AC_LANG_CONFTEST, AC_LANG_SOURCE, AC_LANG_PROGRAM, AC_LANG_CALL,
496 AC_LANG_FUNC_TRY_LINK, AC_MSG_FAILURE, AC_PREPROC_IFELSE.
499 Obsoleted macros are kept for Autoconf backward compatibility, but
500 should be avoided in configure.ac. Running autoupdate is advised.
503 - AC_DEFINE/AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED
505 We have to stop using the old compatibility scheme --that tried to
506 avoid useless backslashes-- because Libtool 1.4.3 contains a
508 AC_DEFINE([error_t], [int],
509 [Define to a type to use for \`error_t' if it is not
510 otherwise available.])
512 We have to quote the single quotes and backslashes with \. The old
513 compatibility scheme saw that ` was backslashed, and therefore did
514 not quote the single quote... Failure. Hence, Autoconf 2.54 is not
515 compatible with Libtool. Autoconf 2.55 is, but in some cases might
516 produce more \ than wanted.
518 Please, note that in the future the same problem will happen with
519 AC_MSG_*: use `autoreconf -f -Wall'.
523 - Portability of the Autoconf package to Solaris.
525 - Spurious warnings caused by config.status.
526 This bug is benign, but painful: on some systems (typically
527 FreeBSD), warnings such as:
529 config.status: creating Makefile
530 mv: Makefile: set owner/group (was: 1357/0): Operation not permitted
532 could be issued. This is fixed.
535 Simultaneous executions of config.status are possible again.
537 - Precious variables accumulation
539 config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
543 ** Plans for later versions
547 The compatibility hooks with the old scheme will be completely
548 removed. Please, advice/use `--build', `--host', and `--target'
551 - AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS
553 The tests will be stricter, please make sure your invocations are
558 Shell functions will gradually be introduced, probably starting with
559 Autotest. If you know machines which are in use that you suspect
560 *not* to support shell functions, please run the test suite of
561 Autoconf 2.55 on it, and report the results to
562 bug-autoconf@gnu.org.
566 Special characters in AC_MSG_* need not be quoted. Currently,
567 Autoconf has heuristics to decide when a string is escaped, or has
568 to be escaped. This scheme is fragile, and will be removed; the
569 only risk is uglified messages. Please, run `autoreconf -f -Wall'
570 to find occurrences that will be affected.
572 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.54
574 Released 2002-09-13 by Akim Demaille.
578 - autoreconf no longer changes the version of the gettext/po/intl
579 support files. It now adds the files the correspond to the
580 AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION declared in configure.ac.
582 Warning: It now relies on the 'autopoint' program, which is part
583 of GNU gettext 0.11.4 and newer.
585 Please note that you need to have a GNU gettext version that
586 corresponds at least to the AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION declared
587 in configure.ac. You can upgrade to newer GNU gettext versions,
588 though, without needing to change configure.ac.
590 - The -I DIR or --include=DIR option now appends DIR to the include path
591 instead of prepending; this is for consistency with other GNU tools.
592 The new -B DIR or --prepend-include=DIR option has the old behavior.
597 Now handles all the gory details about LIBOBJS and LTLIBOBJS.
598 Please, remove lines such as
600 # This is necessary so that .o files in LIBOBJS are also
601 # built via the ANSI2KNR-filtering rules.
602 LIBOBJS=`echo $LIBOBJS|sed 's/\.o /\$U.o /g;s/\.o$/\$U.o/'`
604 and read the `AC_LIBOBJ vs LIBOBJS' section. Do not define U in
605 your Makefiles either.
607 - AC_CONFIG_LINKS now makes copies if it can't make links.
609 - AC_FUNC_FNMATCH now tests only for POSIX compatibility, reverting to
610 Autoconf 2.13 behavior. The new macro AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU also
611 tests for GNU extensions to fnmatch, and replaces fnmatch if needed.
613 - AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED no longer fails when cross-compiling.
615 - AC_PROG_CC_STDC is integrated into AC_PROG_CC.
617 - AC_PROG_F77 default search no longer includes cf77 and cfg77.
621 AC_C_BACKSLASH_A, AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR, AC_GNU_SOURCE,
622 AC_PROG_EGREP, AC_PROG_FGREP, AC_REPLACE_FNMATCH,
623 AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU, AC_FUNC_REALLOC, AC_TYPE_MBSTATE_T.
626 looks for getloadavg.c in the CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR.
629 Now defines HAVE_MALLOC to 0 if `malloc' does not work, and asks
630 for an AC_LIBOBJ replacement.
634 - Spurious complaints from `m4_bmatch' about invalid regular
635 expressions are suppressed.
637 - Empty top_builddirs are properly handled.
639 - AC_CHECK_MEMBER works correctly when the member is an aggregate.
642 Now colon in the optional path arguments are properly handled.
644 ** Improved portability
646 - Both Autoconf the package, and the scripts it produces, should run
647 more reliably with Zsh. Bear in mind it is the default Bourne shell
650 - Autoconf and the scripts it produces no longer assume the existence of
651 the obsolescent commands egrep and fgrep.
655 - Limitations of Make
659 The GNATS base moved to
660 http://bugs.gnu.org/cgi-bin/gnatsweb.pl?database=autoconf
661 (It is no longer available, though.)
666 Now contains the list of ouput variables and files (AC_SUBST,
669 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.53
671 Released 2002-03-08 by Akim Demaille.
675 Perl 5.005_03 or later is required: autom4te is written in Perl and is
676 needed by autoconf. autoheader, autoreconf, ifnames, and autoscan are
682 Argument requirements, output variables, defined macros.
683 - M4sugar, M4sh, Autotest
685 - Double quoting macros
686 AC_TRY_CPP, AC_TRY_COMPILE, AC_TRY_LINK and AC_TRY_RUN.
688 The Autoconf manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
689 - Section `Hosts and Cross-Compilation'
690 Explains the rationale for the 2.5x changes in the cross-compilation
691 chain, and in the relationships between build, host, and target
693 Emphasizes that `cross-compilation' == `--host is given'.
694 If you are working on compilers etc., be sure to read this section.
695 - Section `AC_LIBOBJ vs. LIBOBJS'
696 Explains why assigning LIBOBJS directly is now an error.
697 Details how to update the code.
702 Now used instead of hard coded line numbers.
703 This eases the comparison of `configure's, and diminishes the
704 pressure over control version archives.
705 Automatic replacement for shells that don't support this feature.
706 - New output variables
707 @builddir@, @top_builddir@, @abs_srcdir@, @abs_top_srcdir@, @abs_builddir@,
712 Autoconf and Autotest modes are provided.
717 New, used by the Autoconf suite to cache and speed up most processing.
719 Supported by autom4te, autoconf and autoheader.
721 Replaces --autoconf-dir and --localdir in autoconf, autoheader,
722 autoupdate, and autoreconf.
724 No longer passes --cygnus, --foreign, --gnits, --gnu, --include-deps:
725 automake options are to be given via AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
727 Runs gettextize and libtoolize when appropriate.
729 --m4dir is no longer supported.
731 Now runs only in the specified directories, defaulting to `.',
732 but understands AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS for dependent directories.
733 Before, it used to run on all the `configure.ac' found in the
735 Independent packages are properly updated.
739 - The top level $prefix is propagated to the AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS configures.
741 Under the user pressure, $? is finally available. Probably a mistake.
742 - AC_F77_LIBRARY_LDFLAGS now supports the HP/UX f90 compiler.
743 - Precious variables accumulation
744 config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
746 - AC_PATH_PROG and family.
747 Works properly when given a literal path.
749 Somewhere since 2.13, the result had been reversed.
753 - AC_C_BIGENDIAN supports the cross-compiling case.
754 - AC_C_BIGENDIAN accepts ACTION-IF-TRUE, ACTION-IF-FALSE, and
755 ACTION-IF-UNKNOWN arguments. All are facultative, and the default
756 for ACTION-IF-TRUE is to define WORDS_BIGENDIAN like AC_C_BIGENDIAN
758 - AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE now succeeds only if `long double' has more range or
759 precision than `double'.
764 It now defines the preprocessor symbols PACKAGE_NAME,
765 PACKAGE_TARNAME, PACKAGE_VERSION, PACKAGE_STRING, and
769 Admits a fourth optional parameter: the tar name.
771 - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS.
772 Provide the user with srcdir, ac_srcdir, ac_top_srcdir, ac_builddir,
773 ac_top_builddir, ac_abs_srcdir, ac_abs_top_srcdir, ac_abs_builddir,
776 - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS and AC_OUTPUT.
777 Are much less expensive when using long lists of files.
780 Works with shell variables, and non alphanumeric names.
784 - AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R now sets STRERROR_R_CHAR_P, not HAVE_WORKING_STRERROR_R,
785 because POSIX 1003.1-200x draft 7 says strerror_r returns int, not char *.
787 - AC_FUNC_STRTOD substitutes POW_LIB.
792 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.52
794 Released 2001-07-18 by Akim Demaille.
799 This feature was present in autoconf 2.50 but was not documented.
800 For example, `@<:@' is translated to `[' just before output. This
801 is useful when writing strings that contain unbalanced quotes, or
802 other hard-to-quote constructs.
803 - m4_pattern_forbid, m4_pattern_allow
804 - Tips for upgrading from 2.13.
805 - Using autoscan to maintain a configure.ac.
808 - Now include stdint.h.
809 - sys/types.h and sys/stat.h are guarded.
810 - strings.h is included if available, and not conflicting with string.h.
813 - The test suite is more robust and presents less false failures.
814 - Invocation of GNU M4 now robust to POSIXLY_CORRECT.
815 - configure accepts --prefix='' again.
816 - AC_CHECK_LIB works properly when its first argument is not a
818 - HAVE_INTTYPES_H is defined only if not conflicting with sys/types.h.
819 - build_, host_, and target_alias are AC_SUBST as in 2.13.
820 - AC_ARG_VAR properly propagates precious variables inherited from the
821 environment to ./config.status.
822 - Using --program-suffix/--program-prefix is portable.
823 - Failures to detect the default compiler's output extension are less
825 - `config.status foo' works properly when `foo' depends on variables
826 set in an AC_CONFIG_THING INIT-CMD.
827 - autoheader is more robust to broken input.
828 - Fixed Fortran name-mangling and link tests on a number of systems,
829 e.g. NetBSD; see AC_F77_DUMMY_MAIN, below.
832 - AC_CHECK_HEADER and AC_CHECK_HEADERS support a fourth argument to
833 specify pre-includes. In this case, the headers are compiled with
834 cc, not merely preprocessed by cpp. Therefore it is the _usability_
835 of a header which is checked for, not just its availability.
836 - AC_ARG_VAR refuses to run configure when precious variables have
838 - Versions of compilers are dumped in the logs.
839 - AC_CHECK_TYPE recognizes use of `foo_t' as a replacement type.
842 - AC_PATH_XTRA only adds -ldnet to $LIBS if it's needed to link.
843 - AC_FUNC_WAIT3 and AC_SYS_RESTARTABLE_SYSCALLS are obsoleted.
844 - AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_FNMATCH, AM_FUNC_MKTIME,
845 AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, and AM_FUNC_STRTOD are now activated.
846 Be sure to read `Upgrading from Version 2.13' to understand why
847 running `autoupdate' is needed.
848 - AC_F77_DUMMY_MAIN, AC_F77_MAIN: new macros to detect whether
849 a main-like routine is required/possible when linking C/C++ with
850 Fortran. Users of e.g. AC_F77_WRAPPERS should be aware of these.
851 - AC_FUNC_GETPGRG behaves better when cross-compiling.
853 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.51
854 There was no release of Autoconf 2.51 since some packagers had used
855 this version number without permission to ship intermediary versions
856 of 2.50. The version was skipped to avoid confusion.
858 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.50
860 Released 2001-05-21 by Akim Demaille.
863 There have been far too many to enumerate them here. Check out
864 ChangeLog if you really want to know more.
866 ** Improved documentation
867 In particular, portability issues are better covered.
870 All the standard GNU Makefile targets are supported. The layout has
871 changed: m4/ holds the M4 extensions Autoconf needs for its
872 configuration, doc/ contains the documentation, and tests/ contains
875 ** Man pages are provided
876 For autoconf, autoreconf, autoupdate, autoheader, autoscan, ifnames,
877 config.guess, config.sub.
881 Provides a safe and powerful means to trace the macro uses. This
882 provide the parsing layer for tools which need to `study'
886 Specify what category of warnings should be enabled.
888 - When recursing into subdirectories, try for configure.gnu before
889 configure to adapt for packages not using autoconf on case-insensitive
893 More errors are now caught (circular AC_REQUIRE dependencies,
894 AC_DEFINE in the action part of an AC_CACHE_CHECK, too many pops
895 etc.). In addition, their location and call stack are given.
898 autoupdate is much more powerful, and is able to provide the glue code
899 which might be needed to move from an old macro to its newer
902 You are strongly encouraged to use it to modernize both your
903 `configure.in' and your .m4 extension files.
906 The internal machinery of autoheader has completely changed. As a
907 result, using `acconfig.h' should be considered to be obsoleted, and
908 you are encouraged to get rid of it using the AH macros.
913 ** Fortran 77 compilers
914 Globally, the support for Fortran 77 is considerably improved.
916 Support for automatically determining a Fortran 77 compiler's
917 name-mangling scheme. New CPP macros F77_FUNC and F77_FUNC_ are
918 provided to wrap C/C++ identifiers, thus making it easier and more
919 transparent for C/C++ to call Fortran 77 routines, and Fortran 77 to
920 call C/C++ routines. See the Texinfo documentation for details.
923 The test suite no longer uses DejaGNU. It should be easy to submit
924 test cases in this new framework.
927 - --help, --help=long, -hl
928 no longer dumps useless items.
930 lists only specific options.
931 - --help=recursive, -hr
932 displays the help of all the embedded packages.
933 - Remembers environment variables when reconfiguring.
934 The previous scheme to set envvar before running configure was
936 what prevented configure from remembering the environment in which
937 it was run, therefore --recheck was run in an inconsistent
938 environment. Now, one should run
940 and then --recheck will work properly. Variables declared with
941 AC_ARG_VAR are also preserved.
943 $build defaults to `config.guess`, $host to $build, and then $target
945 Cross-compilation is a global status of the package, it no longer
946 depends upon the current language.
947 Cross compilation is enabled iff the user specified `--host'.
948 `configure' now fails if it can't run the executables it compiles,
949 unless cross-compilation is enabled.
951 The cache file is disabled by default. The new options
952 `--config-cache', `-C' set the cache to `config.cache'.
956 Much faster on most architectures.
957 - concurrent executions
958 It is safe to use `make -j' with config.status.
959 - human interface improved
960 It is possible to invoke
961 ./config.status foobar
962 instead of the former form (still valid)
963 CONFIG_COMMANDS= CONFIG_HEADERS= CONFIG_LINKS= \
964 CONFIG_FILES=foobar:foo.in:bar.in \
966 The same holds for configuration headers and links.
967 You can instantiate unknown files and headers:
968 ./config.status --header foo.h:foo.h.in --file bar:baz
969 - has a useful --help
970 - accepts special file name "-" for stdin/stdout
975 Specify additional copyright information.
978 Now expects the identity of the package as argument.
982 Most macros, if not all, now strictly follow the `one quotation
983 level' rule. This results in a more predictable expansion.
986 A sly bug in the AC_REQUIRE machinery, which could produce incorrect
987 configure scripts, was fixed by Axel Thimm.
991 Document and ask for the registration of an envvar.
994 Specifies the file which `configure' should look for when trying to
995 find the source tree (used to be handled by AC_INIT).
998 To add new actions to config.status. Should be used instead of
1002 Replaces AC_LINK_FILES.
1004 - AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS,
1005 AC_CONFIG_LINKS, and AC_CONFIG_FILES
1006 They now obey sh: you should no longer use shell variables as
1007 argument. Instead of
1009 test "$package_foo_enabled" = yes && $my_subdirs="$my_subdirs foo"
1010 AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS($my_subdirs)
1014 if test "$package_foo_enabled" = yes; then
1015 AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS(foo)
1019 To format an Autoconf macro's help string so that it looks pretty
1020 when the user executes `configure --help'.
1023 ** Generic Test Macros
1025 The interface of the AC_CHECK families of macros (decl, header,
1026 type, member, func) is now uniform. They support the same set of
1029 - AC_CHECK_DECL, AC_CHECK_DECLS
1030 To check whether a symbol is declared.
1032 - AC_CHECK_SIZEOF, AC_C_CHAR_UNSIGNED.
1033 No longer need a cross-compilation default.
1036 The test it performs is much more robust than previously, and makes
1037 it possible to test builtin types in addition to typedefs.
1038 It is now schizophrenic:
1039 - AC_CHECK_TYPE(TYPE, REPLACEMENT)
1040 remains for backward compatibility, but its use is discouraged.
1041 - AC_CHECK_TYPE(TYPE, IF-FOUND, IF-NOT-FOUND, INCLUDES)
1042 behaves exactly like the other AC_CHECK macros.
1045 Checks whether given types are supported by the system.
1047 - AC_CHECK_MEMBER, AC_CHECK_MEMBERS
1048 Check for given members in aggregates (e.g., pw_gecos in struct
1052 Checks if the compiler supports ISO C, included when needs special
1056 Checking whether the preprocessor indicates missing includes by the
1057 error code. stderr is checked by AC_TRY_CPP only as a fallback.
1060 Takes a language as argument and replaces AC_LANG_C,
1061 AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS and AC_LANG_FORTRAN77.
1063 - AC_LANG_PUSH, AC_LANG_POP
1064 Are preferred to AC_LANG_SAVE, AC_LANG_RESTORE.
1067 - AC_FUNC_CHOWN, AC_FUNC_MALLOC, AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R,
1068 AC_FUNC_LSTAT_FOLLOWS_SLASHED_SYMLINK, AC_FUNC_STAT, AC_FUNC_LSTAT,
1069 AC_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AC_FUNC_OBSTACK, AC_FUNC_STRTOD, AC_FUNC_FSEEKO.
1073 Sets GETGROUPS_LIBS.
1075 - AC_FUNC_GETLOADAVG
1076 Defines `HAVE_STRUCT_NLIST_N_UN_N_NAME' instead of `NLIST_NAME_UNION'.
1079 Now integrates `AC_DECL_YYTEXT' which is obsoleted.
1082 Arrange for large-file support.
1084 - AC_EXEEXT, AC_OBJEXT
1085 You are no longer expected to use them: their computation is
1086 performed by default.
1088 ** C++ compatibility
1089 Every macro has been revisited in order to support at best CC=c++.
1091 Major changes in Autoconf 2.14:
1092 There was no release of GNU Autoconf 2.14.
1094 Major changes in Autoconf 2.13:
1096 Released 1999-05-01 by Ben Elliston.
1098 * Support for building on Win32 systems where the only available C or
1099 C++ compiler is the Microsoft Visual C++ command line compiler
1100 (`cl'). Additional support for building on Win32 systems which are
1101 using the Cygwin or Mingw32 environments.
1102 * Support for alternative object file and executable file extensions.
1103 On Win32, for example, these are .obj and .exe. These are discovered
1104 using AC_OBJEXT and AC_EXEEXT, which substitute @OBJEXT@ and
1105 @EXEEXT@ in the output, respectively.
1106 * New macros: AC_CACHE_LOAD, AC_CACHE_SAVE, AC_FUNC_SELECT_ARGTYPES,
1107 AC_VALIDATE_CACHED_SYSTEM_TUPLE, AC_SEARCH_LIBS, AC_TRY_LINK_FUNC,
1108 AC_C_STRINGIZE, AC_CHECK_FILE(S), AC_PROG_F77 (and friends).
1109 * AC_DEFINE now has an optional third argument for a description to be
1110 placed in the config header input file (e.g. config.h.in).
1111 * The C++ code fragment compiled for the C++ compiler test had to be
1112 improved to include an explicit return type for main(). This was
1113 causing failures on systems using recent versions of the EGCS C++
1115 * Fixed an important bug in AC_CHECK_TYPE that would cause a configure
1116 script to report that `sometype_t' was present when only `type_t'
1118 * Merge of the FSF version of config.guess and config.sub to modernize
1119 these scripts. Add support for a few new hosts in config.guess.
1120 Incorporate latest versions of install-sh, mkinstalldirs and
1121 texinfo.tex from the FSF.
1122 * autoreconf is capable of running automake if necessary (and
1124 * Support for Fortran 77. See the Texinfo documentation for details.
1125 * Bug fixes and workarounds for quirky bugs in vendor utilities.
1127 Major changes in Autoconf 2.12:
1129 Released 1996-11-26 by David J. MacKenzie
1131 * AC_OUTPUT and AC_CONFIG_HEADER can create output files by
1132 concatenating multiple input files separated by colons, like so:
1133 AC_CONFIG_HEADER(config.h:conf.pre:config.h.in:conf.post)
1134 AC_OUTPUT(Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.rules)
1135 The arguments may be shell variables, to compute the lists on the fly.
1136 * AC_LINK_FILES and AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS may be called multiple times.
1137 * New macro AC_OUTPUT_COMMANDS adds more commands to run in config.status.
1140 Major changes in Autoconf 2.11:
1142 Released November 18th, 1996, by David J. MacKenzie
1144 * AC_PROG_CC and AC_PROG_CXX check whether the compiler works.
1145 They also default CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS to "-g -O2" for gcc, instead of "-g -O".
1146 * AC_REPLACE_FUNCS defines HAVE_foo if the system has the function `foo'.
1147 * AC_CONFIG_HEADER expands shell variables in its argument.
1148 * New macros: AC_FUNC_FNMATCH, AC_FUNC_SETPGRP.
1149 * The "checking..." messages and the source code for test programs that
1150 fail are saved in config.log.
1151 * Another workaround has been added for seds with small command length limits.
1152 * config.sub and config.guess recognize more system types.
1155 Major changes in Autoconf 2.10:
1157 Released May 7th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
1160 * The cache variable names used by `AC_CHECK_LIB(LIB, FUNC, ...)' has
1161 changed: now $ac_cv_lib_LIB_FUNC, previously $ac_cv_lib_LIB.
1163 Major changes in Autoconf 2.9:
1165 Released March 16th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
1169 Major changes in Autoconf 2.8:
1171 Released March 8th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
1175 Major changes in Autoconf 2.7:
1177 Released November 22nd, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1181 Major changes in Autoconf 2.6:
1183 Released November 20th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1187 Major changes in Autoconf 2.5:
1189 Released November 17th, 1995, by Roland McGrath
1191 * New configure options --bindir, --libdir, --datadir, etc., with
1192 corresponding output variables.
1193 * New macro: AC_CACHE_CHECK, to make using the cache easier.
1194 * config.log contains the command being run as well as any output from it.
1195 * AC_CHECK_LIB can check for libraries with "." or "/" or "+" in their name.
1196 * AC_PROG_INSTALL doesn't cache a name for install-sh, for sharing caches.
1197 * AC_CHECK_PROG, AC_PATH_PROG, AC_CHECK_PROGS, AC_PATH_PROGS, and
1198 AC_CHECK_TOOL can search a path other than $PATH.
1199 * AC_CHECK_SIZEOF takes an optional size to use when cross-compiling.
1201 Major changes in Autoconf 2.4:
1203 Released June 14th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1205 * Fix a few bugs found by Emacs testers.
1207 Major changes in Autoconf 2.3:
1209 Released March 27th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1211 * Fix the cleanup trap in several ways.
1212 * Handle C compilers that are picky about option placement.
1213 * ifnames gets the version number from the right directory.
1215 Major changes in Autoconf 2.2:
1217 Released March 8th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
1219 * The ifnames utility is much faster but requires a "new awk" interpreter.
1220 * AC_CHECK_LIB and AC_HAVE_LIBRARY check and add the new
1221 library before existing libs, not after, in case it uses them.
1222 * New macros: AC_FUNC_GETPGRP, AC_CHECK_TOOL.
1223 * Lots of bug fixes.
1224 * Many additions to the TODO file :-)
1226 Major changes in Autoconf 2.1:
1228 Released November 4th, 1994, by David J. MacKenzie
1231 * More explanations in the manual.
1232 * Fix a spurious failure in the testsuite.
1233 * Clarify some warning messages.
1234 * autoreconf by default only rebuilds configure and config.h.in files
1235 that are older than any of their particular input files; there is a
1236 --force option to use after installing a new version of Autoconf.
1238 Thanks to everybody who's submitted changes and additions to Autoconf!
1239 I've incorporated many of them, and am still considering others for
1240 future releases -- but I didn't want to postpone this release indefinitely.
1242 Caution: don't indiscriminately rebuild configure scripts with
1243 Autoconf version 2. Some configure.in files need minor adjustments to
1244 work with it; the documentation has a chapter on upgrading. A few
1245 configure.in files, including those for GNU Emacs and the GNU C
1246 Library, need major changes because they relied on undocumented
1247 internals of version 1. Future releases of those packages will have
1248 updated configure.in files.
1250 It's best to use GNU M4 1.3 (or later) with Autoconf version 2.
1251 Autoconf now makes heavy use of M4 diversions, which were implemented
1252 inefficiently in GNU M4 releases before 1.3.
1254 Major changes in Autoconf 2.0:
1256 Released October 26th, 1994, by David J. MacKenzie
1258 ** New copyright terms:
1259 * There are no restrictions on distribution or use of configure scripts.
1262 * Autoconf manual is reorganized to make information easier to find
1263 and has several new indexes.
1264 * INSTALL is reorganized and clearer and is now made from Texinfo source.
1267 * autoscan to generate a preliminary configure.in for a package by
1268 scanning its source code for commonly used nonportable functions,
1269 programs, and header files.
1270 * ifnames to list the symbols used in #if and #ifdef directives in a
1272 * autoupdate to update a configure.in to use the version 2 macro names.
1273 * autoreconf to recursively remake configure and configuration header
1274 files in a source tree.
1276 ** Changed utilities:
1277 * autoheader can take pieces of acconfig.h to replace config.h.{top,bot}.
1278 * autoconf and autoheader can look for package-local definition files
1279 in an alternate directory.
1282 * AC_CACHE_VAL to share results of tests between configure runs.
1283 * AC_DEFUN to define macros, automatically AC_PROVIDE them, and ensure
1284 that macros invoked with AC_REQUIRE don't interrupt other macros.
1285 * AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR, AC_CANONICAL_SYSTEM, AC_CANONICAL_HOST, AC_LINK_FILES to
1286 support deciding unguessable features based on the host and target types.
1287 * AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS to recursively configure a source tree.
1288 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM to use the options --program-prefix,
1289 --program-suffix, and --program-transform-name to change the names
1290 of programs being installed.
1291 * AC_PREFIX_DEFAULT to change the default installation prefix.
1292 * AC_TRY_COMPILE to compile a test program without linking it.
1293 * AC_CHECK_TYPE to check whether sys/types.h or stdlib.h defines a given type.
1294 * AC_CHECK_LIB to check for a particular function and library.
1295 * AC_MSG_CHECKING and AC_MSG_RESULT to print test results, on a single line,
1296 whether or not the test succeeds. They obsolete AC_CHECKING and AC_VERBOSE.
1297 * AC_SUBST_FILE to insert one file into another.
1298 * AC_FUNC_MEMCMP to check whether memcmp is 8-bit clean.
1299 * AC_FUNC_STRFTIME to find strftime even if it's in -lintl.
1300 * AC_FUNC_GETMNTENT to find getmntent even if it's in -lsun or -lseq.
1301 * AC_HEADER_SYS_WAIT to check whether sys/wait.h is POSIX.1 compatible.
1304 * Many macros renamed systematically, but old names are accepted for
1305 backward compatibility.
1306 * AC_OUTPUT adds the "automatically generated" comment to
1307 non-Makefiles where it finds @configure_input@ in an input file, to
1308 support files with various comment syntaxes.
1309 * AC_OUTPUT does not replace "prefix" and "exec_prefix" in generated
1310 files when they are not enclosed in @ signs.
1311 * AC_OUTPUT allows the optional environment variable CONFIG_STATUS to
1312 override the file name "config.status".
1313 * AC_OUTPUT takes an optional argument for passing variables from
1314 configure to config.status.
1315 * AC_OUTPUT and AC_CONFIG_HEADER allow you to override the input-file names.
1316 * AC_OUTPUT automatically substitutes the values of CFLAGS, CXXFLAGS,
1317 CPPFLAGS, and LDFLAGS from the environment.
1318 * AC_PROG_CC and AC_PROG_CXX now set CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS, respectively.
1319 * AC_PROG_INSTALL looks for install-sh or install.sh in the directory
1320 specified by AC_CONFIG_AUXDIR, or srcdir or srcdir/.. or
1321 srcdir/../.. by default.
1322 * AC_DEFINE, AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED, and AC_SUBST are more robust and smaller.
1323 * AC_DEFINE no longer prints anything, because of the new result reporting
1324 mechanism (AC_MSG_CHECKING and AC_MSG_RESULT).
1325 * AC_VERBOSE pays attention to --quiet/--silent, not --verbose.
1326 * AC_ARG_ENABLE and AC_ARG_WITH support whitespace in the arguments to
1327 --enable- and --with- options.
1328 * AC_CHECK_FUNCS and AC_CHECK_HEADERS take optional shell commands to
1329 execute on success or failure.
1330 * Checking for C functions in C++ works.
1333 * AC_REMOTE_TAPE and AC_RSH removed; too specific to tar and cpio, and
1334 better maintained with them.
1335 * AC_ARG_ARRAY removed because no one was likely using it.
1336 * AC_HAVE_POUNDBANG replaced with AC_SYS_INTERPRETER, which doesn't
1337 take arguments, for consistency with all of the other specific checks.
1340 * Comes with config.sub and config.guess, and uses them optionally.
1341 * Uses config.cache to cache test results. An alternate cache file
1342 can be selected with the --cache-file=FILE option.
1343 * Uses optional shell scripts $prefix/share/config.site and
1344 $prefix/etc/config.site to perform site or system specific initializations.
1345 * configure saves compiler output to ./config.log for debugging.
1346 * New files autoconf.m4 and autoheader.m4 load the other Autoconf macros.
1347 * acsite.m4 is the new name for the system-wide aclocal.m4.
1348 * Has a DejaGnu test suite.
1350 Major changes in Autoconf 1.11:
1352 * AC_PROG_INSTALL calls install.sh with the -c option.
1353 * AC_SET_MAKE cleans up after itself.
1354 * AC_OUTPUT sets prefix and exec_prefix if they weren't set already.
1355 * AC_OUTPUT prevents shells from looking in PATH for config.status.
1357 Plus a few other bug fixes.
1359 Major changes in Autoconf 1.10:
1361 * autoheader uses config.h.bot if present, analogous to config.h.top.
1362 * AC_PROG_INSTALL looks for install.sh in srcdir or srcdir/.. and
1364 * AC_PROG_CXX looks for cxx as a C++ compiler.
1366 Plus several bugs fixed.
1368 Major changes in Autoconf 1.9:
1370 * AC_YYTEXT_POINTER replaces AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT.
1371 * AC_SIZEOF_TYPE generates the cpp symbol name automatically,
1372 and autoheader generates entries for those names automatically.
1373 * AC_FIND_X gets the result from xmkmf correctly.
1374 * AC_FIND_X assumes no X if --without-x was given.
1375 * AC_FIND_XTRA adds libraries to the variable X_EXTRA_LIBS.
1376 * AC_PROG_INSTALL finds OSF/1 installbsd.
1378 Major changes in Autoconf 1.8:
1381 * New macros AC_LANG_C, AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS, AC_LANG_SAVE, AC_LANG_RESTORE,
1382 AC_PROG_CXX, AC_PROG_CXXCPP, AC_REQUIRE_CPP
1383 for checking both C++ and C features in one configure script.
1384 * New macros AC_CHECKING, AC_VERBOSE, AC_WARN, AC_ERROR for printing messages.
1385 * New macros AC_FIND_XTRA, AC_MMAP, AC_SIZEOF_TYPE, AC_PREREQ,
1386 AC_SET_MAKE, AC_ENABLE.
1389 * AC_FIND_X looks for X in more places.
1390 * AC_PROG_INSTALL defaults to install.sh instead of cp, if it's in srcdir.
1391 install.sh is distributed with Autoconf.
1392 * AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT has been removed because it can't work, pending
1393 a rewrite of quoting in AC_DEFINE.
1394 * AC_OUTPUT adds its comments in C format when substituting in C files.
1395 * AC_COMPILE_CHECK protects its ECHO-TEXT argument with double quotes.
1397 ** New or changed command line options:
1398 * configure accepts --enable-FEATURE[=ARG] and --disable-FEATURE options.
1399 * configure accepts --without-PACKAGE, which sets withval=no.
1400 * configure accepts --x-includes=DIR and --x-libraries=DIR.
1401 * Giving --with-PACKAGE no argument sets withval=yes instead of withval=1.
1402 * configure accepts --help, --version, --silent/--quiet, --no-create options.
1403 * configure accepts and ignores most other Cygnus configure options, and
1404 warns about unknown options.
1405 * config.status accepts --help, --version options.
1407 ** File names and other changes:
1408 * Relative srcdir values are not made absolute.
1409 * The values of @prefix@ and @exec_prefix@ and @top_srcdir@ get substituted.
1410 * Autoconf library files are installed in ${datadir}/autoconf, not ${datadir}.
1411 * autoheader optionally copies config.h.top to the beginning of config.h.in.
1412 * The example Makefile dependencies for configure et al. work better.
1413 * Namespace cleanup: all shell variables used internally by Autoconf
1414 have names beginning with `ac_'.
1416 More big improvements are in process for future releases, but have not
1417 yet been (variously) finished, integrated, tested, or documented enough
1420 Major changes in Autoconf 1.7:
1422 * New macro AC_OBSOLETE.
1423 * Bugs in Makefile.in fixed.
1424 * AC_LONG_FILE_NAMES improved.
1426 Major changes in Autoconf 1.6:
1428 * New macro AC_LONG_64_BITS.
1429 * Multiple .h files can be created.
1430 * AC_FIND_X looks for X files directly if it doesn't find xmkmf.
1431 * AC_ALLOCA defines C_ALLOCA if using alloca.c.
1432 * --with-NAME can take a value, e.g., --with-targets=sun4,hp300bsd.
1433 * Unused --no-create option to configure removed.
1434 * autoheader doesn't change the timestamp of its output file if
1435 the file didn't change.
1436 * All macros that look for libraries now use AC_HAVE_LIBRARY.
1437 * config.status checks three optional environment variables to
1438 modify its behavior.
1439 * The usual bug fixes.
1441 Major changes in Autoconf 1.5:
1443 * New macros AC_FIND_X, AC_OFF_T, AC_STAT_MACROS_BROKEN, AC_REVISION.
1444 * autoconf and autoheader scripts have GNU standards conforming
1445 --version and --help options (they print their message and exit).
1448 Major changes in Autoconf 1.4:
1450 * New macros AC_HAVE_POUNDBANG, AC_TIME_WITH_SYS_TIME, AC_LONG_DOUBLE,
1451 AC_GETGROUPS_T, AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED.
1452 * autoconf and autoheader use the M4 environment variable to determine the
1453 name of the M4 program to use.
1454 * The --macrodir option to autoconf and autoheader specifies the directory
1455 in which acspecific.m4, acgeneral.m4, etc. reside if not the default.
1456 * autoconf and autoheader can take `-' as their file names, which means to
1457 read stdin as input.
1458 * Resulting configure scripts can take a --verbose option which causes them
1459 to print the results of their tests.
1460 * AC_DEFINE quotes its second argument in such a way that spaces, magic
1461 shell characters, etc. will be preserved during various stages of
1462 expansion done by the shell. If you don't want this, use
1463 AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED instead.
1464 * Much textual processing done with external calls to tr and sed have been
1465 internalized with builtin M4 `patsubst' and `translit' calls.
1466 * AC_OUTPUT doesn't hardwire the file names it outputs. Instead, you can
1467 set the shell variables `gen_files' and `gen_config' to the list of
1468 file names to output.
1469 * AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT does an AC_SUBST of `LEX_OUTPUT_ROOT', which may be
1470 "lex.yy" or "lexyy", depending on the system.
1471 * AC_PROGRAMS_CHECK takes an optional third arg. If given, it is used as
1473 * If AC_ALLOCA chooses alloca.c, it also defines STACK_DIRECTION.
1474 * AC_CONST works much more reliably on more systems.
1477 Major changes in Autoconf 1.3:
1479 configure no longer requires awk for packages that use a config.h.
1480 Support handling --with-PACKAGE options.
1481 New `autoheader' script to create `config.h.in' from `configure.in'.
1482 Ignore troublesome -lucb and -lPW when searching for alloca.
1483 Rename --exec_prefix to --exec-prefix for GNU standards conformance.
1484 Improve detection of STDC library.
1485 Add AC_HAVE_LIBRARY to check for non-default libraries.
1486 Function checking should work with future GNU libc releases.
1488 Major changes in Autoconf 1.2:
1490 The --srcdir option is now usually unnecessary.
1491 Add a file containing sample comments describing CPP macros.
1492 A comment in config.status tells which host it was configured on.
1493 Substituted variable values can now contain commas.
1494 Fix bugs in various feature checks.
1496 Major changes in Autoconf 1.1:
1498 Added AC_STRCOLL macro.
1499 Made AC_GETLOADAVG check for more things.
1500 AC_OUTPUT argument is now optional.
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