1 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59c
3 ** The configure command now warns you if you attempt to use a directory
4 whose name contains a special character like space, newline, or "\".
5 Such names are not supported, and can cause "configure" to crash.
7 ** The configure command now redirects standard input from /dev/null,
8 to help avoid problems with subsidiary commands that might mistakenly
9 read standard input. AS_ORIGINAL_STDIN_FD points to the original
10 standard input before this redirection, if you really want configure to
11 read from standard input.
13 ** Directory variables adjusted to recent changes in the GNU Coding Standards.
14 The following directory variables are new:
16 datarootdir read-only architecture-independent data root [PREFIX/share]
17 localedir locale-specific message catalogs [DATAROOTDIR/locale]
18 docdir documentation root [DATAROOTDIR/doc/PACKAGE]
19 htmldir html documentation [DOCDIR]
20 dvidir dvi documentation [DOCDIR]
21 pdfdir pdf documentation [DOCDIR]
22 psdir ps documentation [DOCDIR]
24 The following variables have new default values:
26 datadir read-only architecture-independent data [DATAROOTDIR]
27 infodir info documentation [DATAROOTDIR/info]
28 mandir man documentation [DATAROOTDIR/man]
30 This means that if you use any of `@datadir@', `@infodir@', or
31 `@mandir@' in a file, you will have to ensure `${datarootdir}' is
34 ** @top_builddir@ is now a dir name: it is always nonempty and doesn't have
35 a trailing slash. Similar change will be made to ac_top_builddir in a
36 future release; the old style value, which matches (../)*, is (and will
37 continue to be) available as ac_top_build_prefix.
39 ** AC_PROG_CC_C89, AC_PROG_CC_C99
40 New macros for ISO C99 support. AC_PROG_CC_C89 and AC_PROG_CC_C99
41 check for ANSI C89 and ISO C99 support respectively.
44 Has been unobsoleted, and will check if the compiler supports ISO
45 C99, falling back to ANSI C89 if not. ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc is
46 retained for backwards compatibility, assuming the value of
47 ac_cv_prog_cc_c99 or ac_cv_prog_cc_c89 (whichever is valid, in
51 The subtituted value can now contain newlines.
54 The substitution now occurs only when @variable@ is on a line by itself,
55 optionally surrounded by spaces and tabs. The whole line is replaced.
58 New macro for copyright notices in testsuite files.
60 ** ALLOCA, LIBOBJS, LTLIBOBJS
61 Object names added to these variables are now prefixed with `${LIBOBJDIR}',
62 as in `${LIBOBJDIR}alloca.o'. LIBOBJDIR is meant to be defined from
63 `Makefile.in' in case the object files lie in a different directory.
65 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59b
67 Released 2004-08-20, by Paul Eggert.
70 New macro that computes the default alignment of a type.
72 ** AC_CHECK_TOOL, AC_PATH_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TOOLS
73 When cross-compiling, these macros will give a warning if the tool
74 is not prefixed. In the future, unprefixed cross tools will not
75 be detected; please consult the info documentation for information
76 about the reason of this change.
78 ** AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOL, AC_PATH_TARGET_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOLS
79 New macros that detect programs whose name is prefixed with the
80 target type, if the build type and target type are different.
82 ** AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE
83 New trace macro that declares expected auxiliary files.
86 New macro that tests for a grep program that accepts as a long a line
89 ** AC_PROG_EGREP, AC_PROG_FGREP
90 These macros now require AC_PROG_GREP, and try EGREP="$GREP -E" and
91 FGREP="$GREP -F" respectively if possible, or else run a path search for
92 a program that accepts as long a line as possible.
95 New macro that tests for a sed program that truncates as few characters
98 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59
100 Released 2003-11-04, by Akim Demaille
102 ** ac_abs_builddir etc.
103 Absolute file names were actually relative in 2.58.
105 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.58
107 Released 2003-11-04, by Akim Demaille
110 core.* files are no longer removed, as they may be valid user files.
112 ** autoreconf and auxiliary directory
113 Autoreconf creates the auxiliary directory if needed. This is
114 especially useful for initial "bootstrapping" of fresh CVS checkouts.
116 ** AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR
117 Use this macro to declare the directory for local m4 macros for aclocal.
120 No longer includes twice the same file in LIBOBJS if invoked
123 ** AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS
124 The directory for its first argument is automatically created. For
127 AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS([src/modules.hh], [...])
129 $top_builddir/src/ is created if needed.
131 ** Autotest and local.at
132 The optional file local.at is always included in Autotest test suites.
135 The warnings are always issued, including with cached runs.
136 This became a significant problem since aclocal and automake can
137 run autoconf behind the scene.
139 ** autoheader warnings
140 The warnings of autoheader can be turned off, using --warning.
141 For instance, -Wno-obsolete disables the complaints about acconfig.h
142 and other deprecated constructs.
145 AC_C_RESTRICT, AC_INCLUDES_DEFAULT, AC_LANG_ASSERT, AC_LANG_WERROR,
148 ** AC_DECL_SYS_SIGLIST
152 Now checks that mktime is the inverse of localtime.
154 ** Improve DJGPP portability
155 The Autoconf tools and configure behave better under DJGPP.
157 ** Present But Cannot Be Compiled
158 New FAQ section dedicated to the mystic
160 configure: WARNING: pi.h: present but cannot be compiled
161 configure: WARNING: pi.h: check for missing prerequisite headers?
162 configure: WARNING: pi.h: proceeding with the preprocessor's result
165 ** Concurrent executions of autom4te
166 autom4te now locks its internal files, which enables concurrent
167 executions of autom4te, likely to happen if automake, autoconf,
168 autoheader etc. are run simultaneously.
171 Use of Libtool 1.5 and higher is encouraged. Compatibility with
172 Libtool pre-1.4 is not checked.
175 Testsuites no longer rerun failed tests in verbose mode; instead,
176 failures are logged while the test is run.
178 In addition, expected failures can be marked as such.
180 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.57
182 Released 2002-12-03 by Paul Eggert.
184 Bug fixes for problems with AIX linker, with freestanding C compilers,
185 with GNU m4 limitations, and with obsolete copies of GNU documents.
187 The Free Documentation License has been upgraded from 1.1 to 1.2.
189 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.56
191 Released 2002-11-15 by Akim Demaille.
193 One packaging problem fixed (config/install-sh was not executable).
195 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.55
197 Released 2002-11-14 by Akim Demaille.
201 Have your configure.ac checked by autoscan ("autoscan").
202 Try the warning options ("autoreconf -fv -Wall").
206 - AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS
207 More information on proper use.
209 - Writing Test Programs
211 This sections explains how to write good test sources to use with
212 AC_COMPILE_IFELSE etc. It documents AC_LANG_PROGRAMS and so forth.
214 - AC_FOO_IFELSE vs. AC_TRY_FOO
216 Explains why Autoconf moves from AC_TRY_COMPILE etc. to
217 AC_COMPILE_IFELSE and AC_LANG_PROGRAM etc.
221 - Is more robust to different Gettext installations.
223 - Produces messages (when --verbose) to be understood by Emacs'
226 - Supports -W/--warnings.
229 Once the GNU Build System reinstalled, run `./config.status
230 --recheck && ./config.status && make' if possible.
234 - Supports --cache, and --no-cache.
236 - ~/.autom4te.cfg makes it possible to disable the caching mechanism
237 (autom4te.cache). See `Customizing autom4te' in the documentation.
244 Support for the obsoleted options -m, --macrodir, -l, --localdir is
245 dropped in favor of the safer --include/--prepend-include scheme.
250 AC_COMPILER_IFELSE, AC_FUNC_MBRTOWC, AC_HEADER_STDBOOL,
251 AC_LANG_CONFTEST, AC_LANG_SOURCE, AC_LANG_PROGRAM, AC_LANG_CALL,
252 AC_LANG_FUNC_TRY_LINK, AC_MSG_FAILURE, AC_PREPROC_IFELSE.
255 Obsoleted macros are kept for Autoconf backward compatibility, but
256 should be avoided in configure.ac. Running autoupdate is advised.
259 - AC_DEFINE/AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED
261 We have to stop using the old compatibility scheme --that tried to
262 avoid useless backslashes-- because Libtool 1.4.3 contains a
264 AC_DEFINE([error_t], [int],
265 [Define to a type to use for \`error_t' if it is not
266 otherwise available.])
268 We have to quote the single quotes and backslashes with \. The old
269 compatibility scheme saw that ` was backslashed, and therefore did
270 not quote the single quote... Failure. Hence, Autoconf 2.54 is not
271 compatible with Libtool. Autoconf 2.55 is, but in some cases might
272 produce more \ than wanted.
274 Please, note that in the future the same problem will happen with
275 AC_MSG_*: use `autoreconf -f -Wall'.
279 - Portability of the Autoconf package to Solaris.
281 - Spurious warnings caused by config.status.
282 This bug is benign, but painful: on some systems (typically
283 FreeBSD), warnings such as:
285 config.status: creating Makefile
286 mv: Makefile: set owner/group (was: 1357/0): Operation not permitted
288 could be issued. This is fixed.
291 Simultaneous executions of config.status are possible again.
293 - Precious variables accumulation
295 config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
299 ** Plans for later versions
303 The compatibility hooks with the old scheme will be completely
304 removed. Please, advice/use `--build', `--host', and `--target'
307 - AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS
309 The tests will be stricter, please make sure your invocations are
314 Shell functions will gradually be introduced, probably starting with
315 Autotest. If you know machines which are in use that you suspect
316 *not* to support shell functions, please run the test suite of
317 Autoconf 2.55 on it, and report the results to
318 bug-autoconf@gnu.org.
322 Special characters in AC_MSG_* need not be quoted. Currently,
323 Autoconf has heuristics to decide when a string is escaped, or has
324 to be escaped. This scheme is fragile, and will be removed; the
325 only risk is uglified messages. Please, run `autoreconf -f -Wall'
326 to find occurrences that will be affected.
328 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.54
330 Released 2002-09-13 by Akim Demaille.
334 - autoreconf no longer changes the version of the gettext/po/intl
335 support files. It now adds the files the correspond to the
336 AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION declared in configure.ac.
338 Warning: It now relies on the 'autopoint' program, which is part
339 of GNU gettext 0.11.4 and newer.
341 Please note that you need to have a GNU gettext version that
342 corresponds at least to the AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION declared
343 in configure.ac. You can upgrade to newer GNU gettext versions,
344 though, without needing to change configure.ac.
346 - The -I DIR or --include=DIR option now appends DIR to the include path
347 instead of prepending; this is for consistency with other GNU tools.
348 The new -B DIR or --prepend-include=DIR option has the old behavior.
353 Now handles all the gory details about LIBOBJS and LTLIBOBJS.
354 Please, remove lines such as
356 # This is necessary so that .o files in LIBOBJS are also
357 # built via the ANSI2KNR-filtering rules.
358 LIBOBJS=`echo $LIBOBJS|sed 's/\.o /\$U.o /g;s/\.o$/\$U.o/'`
360 and read the `AC_LIBOBJ vs LIBOBJS' section. Do not define U in
361 your Makefiles either.
363 - AC_CONFIG_LINKS now makes copies if it can't make links.
365 - AC_FUNC_FNMATCH now tests only for POSIX compatibility, reverting to
366 Autoconf 2.13 behavior. The new macro AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU also
367 tests for GNU extensions to fnmatch, and replaces fnmatch if needed.
369 - AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED no longer fails when cross-compiling.
371 - AC_PROG_CC_STDC is integrated into AC_PROG_CC.
373 - AC_PROG_F77 default search no longer includes cf77 and cfg77.
377 AC_C_BACKSLASH_A, AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR, AC_GNU_SOURCE,
378 AC_PROG_EGREP, AC_PROG_FGREP, AC_REPLACE_FNMATCH,
379 AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU, AC_FUNC_REALLOC, AC_TYPE_MBSTATE_T.
382 looks for getloadavg.c in the CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR.
385 Now defines HAVE_MALLOC to 0 if `malloc' does not work, and asks
386 for an AC_LIBOBJ replacement.
390 - Spurious complaints from `m4_bmatch' about invalid regular
391 expressions are suppressed.
393 - Empty top_builddirs are properly handled.
395 - AC_CHECK_MEMBER works correctly when the member is an aggregate.
398 Now colon in the optional path arguments are properly handled.
400 ** Improved portability
402 - Both Autoconf the package, and the scripts it produces, should run
403 more reliably with Zsh. Bear in mind it is the default Bourne shell
406 - Autoconf and the scripts it produces no longer assume the existence of
407 the obsolescent commands egrep and fgrep.
411 - Limitations of Make
415 The GNATS base moved to
416 http://bugs.gnu.org/cgi-bin/gnatsweb.pl?database=autoconf
417 (It is no longer available, though.)
422 Now contains the list of ouput variables and files (AC_SUBST,
425 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.53
427 Released 2002-03-08 by Akim Demaille.
431 Perl 5.005_03 or later is required: autom4te is written in Perl and is
432 needed by autoconf. autoheader, autoreconf, ifnames, and autoscan are
438 Argument requirements, output variables, defined macros.
439 - M4sugar, M4sh, Autotest
441 - Double quoting macros
442 AC_TRY_CPP, AC_TRY_COMPILE, AC_TRY_LINK and AC_TRY_RUN.
444 The Autoconf manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
445 - Section `Hosts and Cross-Compilation'
446 Explains the rationale for the 2.5x changes in the cross-compilation
447 chain, and in the relationships between build, host, and target
449 Emphasizes that `cross-compilation' == `--host is given'.
450 If you are working on compilers etc., be sure to read this section.
451 - Section `AC_LIBOBJ vs. LIBOBJS'
452 Explains why assigning LIBOBJS directly is now an error.
453 Details how to update the code.
458 Now used instead of hard coded line numbers.
459 This eases the comparison of `configure's, and diminishes the
460 pressure over control version archives.
461 Automatic replacement for shells that don't support this feature.
462 - New output variables
463 @builddir@, @top_builddir@, @abs_srcdir@, @abs_top_srcdir@, @abs_builddir@,
468 Autoconf and Autotest modes are provided.
473 New, used by the Autoconf suite to cache and speed up most processing.
475 Supported by autom4te, autoconf and autoheader.
477 Replaces --autoconf-dir and --localdir in autoconf, autoheader,
478 autoupdate, and autoreconf.
480 No longer passes --cygnus, --foreign, --gnits, --gnu, --include-deps:
481 automake options are to be given via AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
483 Runs gettextize and libtoolize when appropriate.
485 --m4dir is no longer supported.
487 Now runs only in the specified directories, defaulting to `.',
488 but understands AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS for dependent directories.
489 Before, it used to run on all the `configure.ac' found in the
491 Independent packages are properly updated.
495 - The top level $prefix is propagated to the AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS configures.
497 Under the user pressure, $? is finally available. Probably a mistake.
498 - AC_F77_LIBRARY_LDFLAGS now supports the HP/UX f90 compiler.
499 - Precious variables accumulation
500 config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
502 - AC_PATH_PROG and family.
503 Works properly when given a literal path.
505 Somewhere since 2.13, the result had been reversed.
509 - AC_C_BIGENDIAN supports the cross-compiling case.
510 - AC_C_BIGENDIAN accepts ACTION-IF-TRUE, ACTION-IF-FALSE, and
511 ACTION-IF-UNKNOWN arguments. All are facultative, and the default
512 for ACTION-IF-TRUE is to define WORDS_BIGENDIAN like AC_C_BIGENDIAN
514 - AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE now succeeds only if `long double' has more range or
515 precision than `double'.
520 It now defines the preprocessor symbols PACKAGE_NAME,
521 PACKAGE_TARNAME, PACKAGE_VERSION, PACKAGE_STRING, and
525 Admits a fourth optional parameter: the tar name.
527 - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS.
528 Provide the user with srcdir, ac_srcdir, ac_top_srcdir, ac_builddir,
529 ac_top_builddir, ac_abs_srcdir, ac_abs_top_srcdir, ac_abs_builddir,
532 - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS and AC_OUTPUT.
533 Are much less expensive when using long lists of files.
536 Works with shell variables, and non alphanumeric names.
540 - AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R now sets STRERROR_R_CHAR_P, not HAVE_WORKING_STRERROR_R,
541 because POSIX 1003.1-200x draft 7 says strerror_r returns int, not char *.
543 - AC_FUNC_STRTOD substitutes POW_LIB.
548 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.52
550 Released 2001-07-18 by Akim Demaille.
555 This feature was present in autoconf 2.50 but was not documented.
556 For example, `@<:@' is translated to `[' just before output. This
557 is useful when writing strings that contain unbalanced quotes, or
558 other hard-to-quote constructs.
559 - m4_pattern_forbid, m4_pattern_allow
560 - Tips for upgrading from 2.13.
561 - Using autoscan to maintain a configure.ac.
564 - Now include stdint.h.
565 - sys/types.h and sys/stat.h are guarded.
566 - strings.h is included if available, and not conflicting with string.h.
569 - The test suite is more robust and presents less false failures.
570 - Invocation of GNU M4 now robust to POSIXLY_CORRECT.
571 - configure accepts --prefix='' again.
572 - AC_CHECK_LIB works properly when its first argument is not a
574 - HAVE_INTTYPES_H is defined only if not conflicting with sys/types.h.
575 - build_, host_, and target_alias are AC_SUBST as in 2.13.
576 - AC_ARG_VAR properly propagates precious variables inherited from the
577 environment to ./config.status.
578 - Using --program-suffix/--program-prefix is portable.
579 - Failures to detect the default compiler's output extension are less
581 - `config.status foo' works properly when `foo' depends on variables
582 set in an AC_CONFIG_THING INIT-CMD.
583 - autoheader is more robust to broken input.
584 - Fixed Fortran name-mangling and link tests on a number of systems,
585 e.g. NetBSD; see AC_F77_DUMMY_MAIN, below.
588 - AC_CHECK_HEADER and AC_CHECK_HEADERS support a fourth argument to
589 specify pre-includes. In this case, the headers are compiled with
590 cc, not merely preprocessed by cpp. Therefore it is the _usability_
591 of a header which is checked for, not just its availability.
592 - AC_ARG_VAR refuses to run configure when precious variables have
594 - Versions of compilers are dumped in the logs.
595 - AC_CHECK_TYPE recognizes use of `foo_t' as a replacement type.
598 - AC_PATH_XTRA only adds -ldnet to $LIBS if it's needed to link.
599 - AC_FUNC_WAIT3 and AC_SYS_RESTARTABLE_SYSCALLS are obsoleted.
600 - AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_FNMATCH, AM_FUNC_MKTIME,
601 AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, and AM_FUNC_STRTOD are now activated.
602 Be sure to read `Upgrading from Version 2.13' to understand why
603 running `autoupdate' is needed.
604 - AC_F77_DUMMY_MAIN, AC_F77_MAIN: new macros to detect whether
605 a main-like routine is required/possible when linking C/C++ with
606 Fortran. Users of e.g. AC_F77_WRAPPERS should be aware of these.
607 - AC_FUNC_GETPGRG behaves better when cross-compiling.
609 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.51
610 There was no release of Autoconf 2.51 since some packagers had used
611 this version number without permission to ship intermediary versions
612 of 2.50. The version was skipped to avoid confusion.
614 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.50
616 Released 2001-05-21 by Akim Demaille.
619 There have been far too many to enumerate them here. Check out
620 ChangeLog if you really want to know more.
622 ** Improved documentation
623 In particular, portability issues are better covered.
626 All the standard GNU Makefile targets are supported. The layout has
627 changed: m4/ holds the m4 extensions Autoconf needs for its
628 configuration, doc/ contains the documentation, and tests/ contains
631 ** Man pages are provided
632 For autoconf, autoreconf, autoupdate, autoheader, autoscan, ifnames,
633 config.guess, config.sub.
637 Provides a safe and powerful means to trace the macro uses. This
638 provide the parsing layer for tools which need to `study'
642 Specify what category of warnings should be enabled.
644 - When recursing into subdirectories, try for configure.gnu before
645 configure to adapt for packages not using autoconf on case-insensitive
649 More errors are now caught (circular AC_REQUIRE dependencies,
650 AC_DEFINE in the action part of an AC_CACHE_CHECK, too many pops
651 etc.). In addition, their location and call stack are given.
654 autoupdate is much more powerful, and is able to provide the glue code
655 which might be needed to move from an old macro to its newer
658 You are strongly encouraged to use it to modernize both your
659 `configure.in' and your .m4 extension files.
662 The internal machinery of autoheader has completely changed. As a
663 result, using `acconfig.h' should be considered to be obsoleted, and
664 you are encouraged to get rid of it using the AH macros.
669 ** Fortran 77 compilers
670 Globally, the support for Fortran 77 is considerably improved.
672 Support for automatically determining a Fortran 77 compiler's
673 name-mangling scheme. New CPP macros F77_FUNC and F77_FUNC_ are
674 provided to wrap C/C++ identifiers, thus making it easier and more
675 transparent for C/C++ to call Fortran 77 routines, and Fortran 77 to
676 call C/C++ routines. See the Texinfo documentation for details.
679 The test suite no longer uses DejaGNU. It should be easy to submit
680 test cases in this new framework.
683 - --help, --help=long, -hl
684 no longer dumps useless items.
686 lists only specific options.
687 - --help=recursive, -hr
688 displays the help of all the embedded packages.
689 - Remembers environment variables when reconfiguring.
690 The previous scheme to set envvar before running configure was
692 what prevented configure from remembering the environment in which
693 it was run, therefore --recheck was run in an inconsistent
694 environment. Now, one should run
696 and then --recheck will work properly. Variables declared with
697 AC_ARG_VAR are also preserved.
699 $build defaults to `config.guess`, $host to $build, and then $target
701 Cross-compilation is a global status of the package, it no longer
702 depends upon the current language.
703 Cross compilation is enabled iff the user specified `--host'.
704 `configure' now fails if it can't run the executables it compiles,
705 unless cross-compilation is enabled.
707 The cache file is disabled by default. The new options
708 `--config-cache', `-C' set the cache to `config.cache'.
712 Much faster on most architectures.
713 - concurrent executions
714 It is safe to use `make -j' with config.status.
715 - human interface improved
716 It is possible to invoke
717 ./config.status foobar
718 instead of the former form (still valid)
719 CONFIG_COMMANDS= CONFIG_HEADERS= CONFIG_LINKS= \
720 CONFIG_FILES=foobar:foo.in:bar.in \
722 The same holds for configuration headers and links.
723 You can instantiate unknown files and headers:
724 ./config.status --header foo.h:foo.h.in --file bar:baz
725 - has a useful --help
726 - accepts special file name "-" for stdin/stdout
731 Specify additional copyright information.
734 Now expects the identity of the package as argument.
738 Most macros, if not all, now strictly follow the `one quotation
739 level' rule. This results in a more predictable expansion.
742 A sly bug in the AC_REQUIRE machinery, which could produce incorrect
743 configure scripts, was fixed by Axel Thimm.
747 Document and ask for the registration of an envvar.
750 Specifies the file which `configure' should look for when trying to
751 find the source tree (used to be handled by AC_INIT).
754 To add new actions to config.status. Should be used instead of
758 Replaces AC_LINK_FILES.
760 - AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS,
761 AC_CONFIG_LINKS, and AC_CONFIG_FILES
762 They now obey sh: you should no longer use shell variables as
765 test "$package_foo_enabled" = yes && $my_subdirs="$my_subdirs foo"
766 AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS($my_subdirs)
770 if test "$package_foo_enabled" = yes; then
771 AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS(foo)
775 To format an Autoconf macro's help string so that it looks pretty
776 when the user executes `configure --help'.
779 ** Generic Test Macros
781 The interface of the AC_CHECK families of macros (decl, header,
782 type, member, func) is now uniform. They support the same set of
785 - AC_CHECK_DECL, AC_CHECK_DECLS
786 To check whether a symbol is declared.
788 - AC_CHECK_SIZEOF, AC_C_CHAR_UNSIGNED.
789 No longer need a cross-compilation default.
792 The test it performs is much more robust than previously, and makes
793 it possible to test builtin types in addition to typedefs.
794 It is now schizophrenic:
795 - AC_CHECK_TYPE(TYPE, REPLACEMENT)
796 remains for backward compatibility, but its use is discouraged.
797 - AC_CHECK_TYPE(TYPE, IF-FOUND, IF-NOT-FOUND, INCLUDES)
798 behaves exactly like the other AC_CHECK macros.
801 Checks whether given types are supported by the system.
803 - AC_CHECK_MEMBER, AC_CHECK_MEMBERS
804 Check for given members in aggregates (e.g., pw_gecos in struct
808 Checks if the compiler supports ISO C, included when needs special
812 Checking whether the preprocessor indicates missing includes by the
813 error code. stderr is checked by AC_TRY_CPP only as a fallback.
816 Takes a language as argument and replaces AC_LANG_C,
817 AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS and AC_LANG_FORTRAN77.
819 - AC_LANG_PUSH, AC_LANG_POP
820 Are preferred to AC_LANG_SAVE, AC_LANG_RESTORE.
823 - AC_FUNC_CHOWN, AC_FUNC_MALLOC, AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R,
824 AC_FUNC_LSTAT_FOLLOWS_SLASHED_SYMLINK, AC_FUNC_STAT, AC_FUNC_LSTAT,
825 AC_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AC_FUNC_OBSTACK, AC_FUNC_STRTOD, AC_FUNC_FSEEKO.
832 Defines `HAVE_STRUCT_NLIST_N_UN_N_NAME' instead of `NLIST_NAME_UNION'.
835 Now integrates `AC_DECL_YYTEXT' which is obsoleted.
838 Arrange for large-file support.
840 - AC_EXEEXT, AC_OBJEXT
841 You are no longer expected to use them: their computation is
842 performed by default.
845 Every macro has been revisited in order to support at best CC=c++.
847 Major changes in Autoconf 2.14:
848 There was no release of GNU Autoconf 2.14.
850 Major changes in Autoconf 2.13:
852 Released 1999-05-01 by Ben Elliston.
854 * Support for building on Win32 systems where the only available C or
855 C++ compiler is the Microsoft Visual C++ command line compiler
856 (`cl'). Additional support for building on Win32 systems which are
857 using the Cygwin or Mingw32 environments.
858 * Support for alternative object file and executable file extensions.
859 On Win32, for example, these are .obj and .exe. These are discovered
860 using AC_OBJEXT and AC_EXEEXT, which substitute @OBJEXT@ and
861 @EXEEXT@ in the output, respectively.
862 * New macros: AC_CACHE_LOAD, AC_CACHE_SAVE, AC_FUNC_SELECT_ARGTYPES,
863 AC_VALIDATE_CACHED_SYSTEM_TUPLE, AC_SEARCH_LIBS, AC_TRY_LINK_FUNC,
864 AC_C_STRINGIZE, AC_CHECK_FILE(S), AC_PROG_F77 (and friends).
865 * AC_DEFINE now has an optional third argument for a description to be
866 placed in the config header input file (e.g. config.h.in).
867 * The C++ code fragment compiled for the C++ compiler test had to be
868 improved to include an explicit return type for main(). This was
869 causing failures on systems using recent versions of the EGCS C++
871 * Fixed an important bug in AC_CHECK_TYPE that would cause a configure
872 script to report that `sometype_t' was present when only `type_t'
874 * Merge of the FSF version of config.guess and config.sub to modernize
875 these scripts. Add support for a few new hosts in config.guess.
876 Incorporate latest versions of install-sh, mkinstalldirs and
877 texinfo.tex from the FSF.
878 * autoreconf is capable of running automake if necessary (and
880 * Support for Fortran 77. See the Texinfo documentation for details.
881 * Bug fixes and workarounds for quirky bugs in vendor utilities.
883 Major changes in Autoconf 2.12:
885 Released 1996-11-26 by David J. MacKenzie
887 * AC_OUTPUT and AC_CONFIG_HEADER can create output files by
888 concatenating multiple input files separated by colons, like so:
889 AC_CONFIG_HEADER(config.h:conf.pre:config.h.in:conf.post)
890 AC_OUTPUT(Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.rules)
891 The arguments may be shell variables, to compute the lists on the fly.
892 * AC_LINK_FILES and AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS may be called multiple times.
893 * New macro AC_OUTPUT_COMMANDS adds more commands to run in config.status.
896 Major changes in Autoconf 2.11:
898 Released November 18th, 1996, by David J. MacKenzie
900 * AC_PROG_CC and AC_PROG_CXX check whether the compiler works.
901 They also default CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS to "-g -O2" for gcc, instead of "-g -O".
902 * AC_REPLACE_FUNCS defines HAVE_foo if the system has the function `foo'.
903 * AC_CONFIG_HEADER expands shell variables in its argument.
904 * New macros: AC_FUNC_FNMATCH, AC_FUNC_SETPGRP.
905 * The "checking..." messages and the source code for test programs that
906 fail are saved in config.log.
907 * Another workaround has been added for seds with small command length limits.
908 * config.sub and config.guess recognize more system types.
911 Major changes in Autoconf 2.10:
913 Released May 7th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
916 * The cache variable names used by `AC_CHECK_LIB(LIB, FUNC, ...)' has
917 changed: now $ac_cv_lib_LIB_FUNC, previously $ac_cv_lib_LIB.
919 Major changes in Autoconf 2.9:
921 Released March 16th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
925 Major changes in Autoconf 2.8:
927 Released March 8th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
931 Major changes in Autoconf 2.7:
933 Released November 22nd, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
937 Major changes in Autoconf 2.6:
939 Released November 20th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
943 Major changes in Autoconf 2.5:
945 Released November 17th, 1995, by Roland McGrath
947 * New configure options --bindir, --libdir, --datadir, etc., with
948 corresponding output variables.
949 * New macro: AC_CACHE_CHECK, to make using the cache easier.
950 * config.log contains the command being run as well as any output from it.
951 * AC_CHECK_LIB can check for libraries with "." or "/" or "+" in their name.
952 * AC_PROG_INSTALL doesn't cache a name for install-sh, for sharing caches.
953 * AC_CHECK_PROG, AC_PATH_PROG, AC_CHECK_PROGS, AC_PATH_PROGS, and
954 AC_CHECK_TOOL can search a path other than $PATH.
955 * AC_CHECK_SIZEOF takes an optional size to use when cross-compiling.
957 Major changes in Autoconf 2.4:
959 Released June 14th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
961 * Fix a few bugs found by Emacs testers.
963 Major changes in Autoconf 2.3:
965 Released March 27th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
967 * Fix the cleanup trap in several ways.
968 * Handle C compilers that are picky about option placement.
969 * ifnames gets the version number from the right directory.
971 Major changes in Autoconf 2.2:
973 Released March 8th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
975 * The ifnames utility is much faster but requires a "new awk" interpreter.
976 * AC_CHECK_LIB and AC_HAVE_LIBRARY check and add the new
977 library before existing libs, not after, in case it uses them.
978 * New macros: AC_FUNC_GETPGRP, AC_CHECK_TOOL.
980 * Many additions to the TODO file :-)
982 Major changes in Autoconf 2.1:
984 Released November 4th, 1994, by David J. MacKenzie
987 * More explanations in the manual.
988 * Fix a spurious failure in the testsuite.
989 * Clarify some warning messages.
990 * autoreconf by default only rebuilds configure and config.h.in files
991 that are older than any of their particular input files; there is a
992 --force option to use after installing a new version of Autoconf.
994 Thanks to everybody who's submitted changes and additions to Autoconf!
995 I've incorporated many of them, and am still considering others for
996 future releases -- but I didn't want to postpone this release indefinitely.
998 Caution: don't indiscriminately rebuild configure scripts with
999 Autoconf version 2. Some configure.in files need minor adjustments to
1000 work with it; the documentation has a chapter on upgrading. A few
1001 configure.in files, including those for GNU Emacs and the GNU C
1002 Library, need major changes because they relied on undocumented
1003 internals of version 1. Future releases of those packages will have
1004 updated configure.in files.
1006 It's best to use GNU m4 1.3 (or later) with Autoconf version 2.
1007 Autoconf now makes heavy use of m4 diversions, which were implemented
1008 inefficiently in GNU m4 releases before 1.3.
1010 Major changes in Autoconf 2.0:
1012 Released October 26th, 1994, by David J. MacKenzie
1014 ** New copyright terms:
1015 * There are no restrictions on distribution or use of configure scripts.
1018 * Autoconf manual is reorganized to make information easier to find
1019 and has several new indexes.
1020 * INSTALL is reorganized and clearer and is now made from Texinfo source.
1023 * autoscan to generate a preliminary configure.in for a package by
1024 scanning its source code for commonly used nonportable functions,
1025 programs, and header files.
1026 * ifnames to list the symbols used in #if and #ifdef directives in a
1028 * autoupdate to update a configure.in to use the version 2 macro names.
1029 * autoreconf to recursively remake configure and configuration header
1030 files in a source tree.
1032 ** Changed utilities:
1033 * autoheader can take pieces of acconfig.h to replace config.h.{top,bot}.
1034 * autoconf and autoheader can look for package-local definition files
1035 in an alternate directory.
1038 * AC_CACHE_VAL to share results of tests between configure runs.
1039 * AC_DEFUN to define macros, automatically AC_PROVIDE them, and ensure
1040 that macros invoked with AC_REQUIRE don't interrupt other macros.
1041 * AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR, AC_CANONICAL_SYSTEM, AC_CANONICAL_HOST, AC_LINK_FILES to
1042 support deciding unguessable features based on the host and target types.
1043 * AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS to recursively configure a source tree.
1044 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM to use the options --program-prefix,
1045 --program-suffix, and --program-transform-name to change the names
1046 of programs being installed.
1047 * AC_PREFIX_DEFAULT to change the default installation prefix.
1048 * AC_TRY_COMPILE to compile a test program without linking it.
1049 * AC_CHECK_TYPE to check whether sys/types.h or stdlib.h defines a given type.
1050 * AC_CHECK_LIB to check for a particular function and library.
1051 * AC_MSG_CHECKING and AC_MSG_RESULT to print test results, on a single line,
1052 whether or not the test succeeds. They obsolete AC_CHECKING and AC_VERBOSE.
1053 * AC_SUBST_FILE to insert one file into another.
1054 * AC_FUNC_MEMCMP to check whether memcmp is 8-bit clean.
1055 * AC_FUNC_STRFTIME to find strftime even if it's in -lintl.
1056 * AC_FUNC_GETMNTENT to find getmntent even if it's in -lsun or -lseq.
1057 * AC_HEADER_SYS_WAIT to check whether sys/wait.h is POSIX.1 compatible.
1060 * Many macros renamed systematically, but old names are accepted for
1061 backward compatibility.
1062 * AC_OUTPUT adds the "automatically generated" comment to
1063 non-Makefiles where it finds @configure_input@ in an input file, to
1064 support files with various comment syntaxes.
1065 * AC_OUTPUT does not replace "prefix" and "exec_prefix" in generated
1066 files when they are not enclosed in @ signs.
1067 * AC_OUTPUT allows the optional environment variable CONFIG_STATUS to
1068 override the file name "config.status".
1069 * AC_OUTPUT takes an optional argument for passing variables from
1070 configure to config.status.
1071 * AC_OUTPUT and AC_CONFIG_HEADER allow you to override the input-file names.
1072 * AC_OUTPUT automatically substitutes the values of CFLAGS, CXXFLAGS,
1073 CPPFLAGS, and LDFLAGS from the environment.
1074 * AC_PROG_CC and AC_PROG_CXX now set CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS, respectively.
1075 * AC_PROG_INSTALL looks for install-sh or install.sh in the directory
1076 specified by AC_CONFIG_AUXDIR, or srcdir or srcdir/.. or
1077 srcdir/../.. by default.
1078 * AC_DEFINE, AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED, and AC_SUBST are more robust and smaller.
1079 * AC_DEFINE no longer prints anything, because of the new result reporting
1080 mechanism (AC_MSG_CHECKING and AC_MSG_RESULT).
1081 * AC_VERBOSE pays attention to --quiet/--silent, not --verbose.
1082 * AC_ARG_ENABLE and AC_ARG_WITH support whitespace in the arguments to
1083 --enable- and --with- options.
1084 * AC_CHECK_FUNCS and AC_CHECK_HEADERS take optional shell commands to
1085 execute on success or failure.
1086 * Checking for C functions in C++ works.
1089 * AC_REMOTE_TAPE and AC_RSH removed; too specific to tar and cpio, and
1090 better maintained with them.
1091 * AC_ARG_ARRAY removed because no one was likely using it.
1092 * AC_HAVE_POUNDBANG replaced with AC_SYS_INTERPRETER, which doesn't
1093 take arguments, for consistency with all of the other specific checks.
1096 * Comes with config.sub and config.guess, and uses them optionally.
1097 * Uses config.cache to cache test results. An alternate cache file
1098 can be selected with the --cache-file=FILE option.
1099 * Uses optional shell scripts $prefix/share/config.site and
1100 $prefix/etc/config.site to perform site or system specific initializations.
1101 * configure saves compiler output to ./config.log for debugging.
1102 * New files autoconf.m4 and autoheader.m4 load the other Autoconf macros.
1103 * acsite.m4 is the new name for the system-wide aclocal.m4.
1104 * Has a DejaGnu test suite.
1106 Major changes in Autoconf 1.11:
1108 * AC_PROG_INSTALL calls install.sh with the -c option.
1109 * AC_SET_MAKE cleans up after itself.
1110 * AC_OUTPUT sets prefix and exec_prefix if they weren't set already.
1111 * AC_OUTPUT prevents shells from looking in PATH for config.status.
1113 Plus a few other bug fixes.
1115 Major changes in Autoconf 1.10:
1117 * autoheader uses config.h.bot if present, analogous to config.h.top.
1118 * AC_PROG_INSTALL looks for install.sh in srcdir or srcdir/.. and
1120 * AC_PROG_CXX looks for cxx as a C++ compiler.
1122 Plus several bugs fixed.
1124 Major changes in Autoconf 1.9:
1126 * AC_YYTEXT_POINTER replaces AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT.
1127 * AC_SIZEOF_TYPE generates the cpp symbol name automatically,
1128 and autoheader generates entries for those names automatically.
1129 * AC_FIND_X gets the result from xmkmf correctly.
1130 * AC_FIND_X assumes no X if --without-x was given.
1131 * AC_FIND_XTRA adds libraries to the variable X_EXTRA_LIBS.
1132 * AC_PROG_INSTALL finds OSF/1 installbsd.
1134 Major changes in Autoconf 1.8:
1137 * New macros AC_LANG_C, AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS, AC_LANG_SAVE, AC_LANG_RESTORE,
1138 AC_PROG_CXX, AC_PROG_CXXCPP, AC_REQUIRE_CPP
1139 for checking both C++ and C features in one configure script.
1140 * New macros AC_CHECKING, AC_VERBOSE, AC_WARN, AC_ERROR for printing messages.
1141 * New macros AC_FIND_XTRA, AC_MMAP, AC_SIZEOF_TYPE, AC_PREREQ,
1142 AC_SET_MAKE, AC_ENABLE.
1145 * AC_FIND_X looks for X in more places.
1146 * AC_PROG_INSTALL defaults to install.sh instead of cp, if it's in srcdir.
1147 install.sh is distributed with Autoconf.
1148 * AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT has been removed because it can't work, pending
1149 a rewrite of quoting in AC_DEFINE.
1150 * AC_OUTPUT adds its comments in C format when substituting in C files.
1151 * AC_COMPILE_CHECK protects its ECHO-TEXT argument with double quotes.
1153 ** New or changed command line options:
1154 * configure accepts --enable-FEATURE[=ARG] and --disable-FEATURE options.
1155 * configure accepts --without-PACKAGE, which sets withval=no.
1156 * configure accepts --x-includes=DIR and --x-libraries=DIR.
1157 * Giving --with-PACKAGE no argument sets withval=yes instead of withval=1.
1158 * configure accepts --help, --version, --silent/--quiet, --no-create options.
1159 * configure accepts and ignores most other Cygnus configure options, and
1160 warns about unknown options.
1161 * config.status accepts --help, --version options.
1163 ** File names and other changes:
1164 * Relative srcdir values are not made absolute.
1165 * The values of @prefix@ and @exec_prefix@ and @top_srcdir@ get substituted.
1166 * Autoconf library files are installed in ${datadir}/autoconf, not ${datadir}.
1167 * autoheader optionally copies config.h.top to the beginning of config.h.in.
1168 * The example Makefile dependencies for configure et al. work better.
1169 * Namespace cleanup: all shell variables used internally by Autoconf
1170 have names beginning with `ac_'.
1172 More big improvements are in process for future releases, but have not
1173 yet been (variously) finished, integrated, tested, or documented enough
1176 Major changes in Autoconf 1.7:
1178 * New macro AC_OBSOLETE.
1179 * Bugs in Makefile.in fixed.
1180 * AC_LONG_FILE_NAMES improved.
1182 Major changes in Autoconf 1.6:
1184 * New macro AC_LONG_64_BITS.
1185 * Multiple .h files can be created.
1186 * AC_FIND_X looks for X files directly if it doesn't find xmkmf.
1187 * AC_ALLOCA defines C_ALLOCA if using alloca.c.
1188 * --with-NAME can take a value, e.g., --with-targets=sun4,hp300bsd.
1189 * Unused --no-create option to configure removed.
1190 * autoheader doesn't change the timestamp of its output file if
1191 the file didn't change.
1192 * All macros that look for libraries now use AC_HAVE_LIBRARY.
1193 * config.status checks three optional environment variables to
1194 modify its behavior.
1195 * The usual bug fixes.
1197 Major changes in Autoconf 1.5:
1199 * New macros AC_FIND_X, AC_OFF_T, AC_STAT_MACROS_BROKEN, AC_REVISION.
1200 * autoconf and autoheader scripts have GNU standards conforming
1201 --version and --help options (they print their message and exit).
1204 Major changes in Autoconf 1.4:
1206 * New macros AC_HAVE_POUNDBANG, AC_TIME_WITH_SYS_TIME, AC_LONG_DOUBLE,
1207 AC_GETGROUPS_T, AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED.
1208 * autoconf and autoheader use the M4 environment variable to determine the
1209 name of the m4 program to use.
1210 * The --macrodir option to autoconf and autoheader specifies the directory
1211 in which acspecific.m4, acgeneral.m4, etc. reside if not the default.
1212 * autoconf and autoheader can take `-' as their file names, which means to
1213 read stdin as input.
1214 * Resulting configure scripts can take a --verbose option which causes them
1215 to print the results of their tests.
1216 * AC_DEFINE quotes its second argument in such a way that spaces, magic
1217 shell characters, etc. will be preserved during various stages of
1218 expansion done by the shell. If you don't want this, use
1219 AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED instead.
1220 * Much textual processing done with external calls to tr and sed have been
1221 internalized with builtin m4 `patsubst' and `translit' calls.
1222 * AC_OUTPUT doesn't hardwire the file names it outputs. Instead, you can
1223 set the shell variables `gen_files' and `gen_config' to the list of
1224 file names to output.
1225 * AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT does an AC_SUBST of `LEX_OUTPUT_ROOT', which may be
1226 "lex.yy" or "lexyy", depending on the system.
1227 * AC_PROGRAMS_CHECK takes an optional third arg. If given, it is used as
1229 * If AC_ALLOCA chooses alloca.c, it also defines STACK_DIRECTION.
1230 * AC_CONST works much more reliably on more systems.
1233 Major changes in Autoconf 1.3:
1235 configure no longer requires awk for packages that use a config.h.
1236 Support handling --with-PACKAGE options.
1237 New `autoheader' script to create `config.h.in' from `configure.in'.
1238 Ignore troublesome -lucb and -lPW when searching for alloca.
1239 Rename --exec_prefix to --exec-prefix for GNU standards conformance.
1240 Improve detection of STDC library.
1241 Add AC_HAVE_LIBRARY to check for non-default libraries.
1242 Function checking should work with future GNU libc releases.
1244 Major changes in Autoconf 1.2:
1246 The --srcdir option is now usually unnecessary.
1247 Add a file containing sample comments describing CPP macros.
1248 A comment in config.status tells which host it was configured on.
1249 Substituted variable values can now contain commas.
1250 Fix bugs in various feature checks.
1252 Major changes in Autoconf 1.1:
1254 Added AC_STRCOLL macro.
1255 Made AC_GETLOADAVG check for more things.
1256 AC_OUTPUT argument is now optional.
1261 Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,
1262 2003, 2004, 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1264 This file is part of GNU Autoconf.
1266 GNU Autoconf is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
1267 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1268 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
1271 GNU Autoconf is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1272 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1273 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1274 GNU General Public License for more details.
1276 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1277 along with GNU Autoconf; see the file COPYING. If not, write to
1278 the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
1279 Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.