1 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59c
3 ** Directory variables adjusted to recent changes in the GNU Coding Standards.
4 The following directory variables are new:
6 datarootdir read-only architecture-independent data root [PREFIX/share]
7 localedir locale-specific message catalogs [DATAROOTDIR/locale]
8 docdir documentation root [DATAROOTDIR/doc/PACKAGE]
9 htmldir html documentation [DOCDIR]
10 dvidir dvi documentation [DOCDIR]
11 pdfdir pdf documentation [DOCDIR]
12 psdir ps documentation [DOCDIR]
14 The following variables have new default values:
16 datadir read-only architecture-independent data [DATAROOTDIR]
17 infodir info documentation [DATAROOTDIR/info]
18 mandir man documentation [DATAROOTDIR/man]
20 ** AC_PROG_CC_C89, AC_PROG_CC_C99
21 New macros for ISO C99 support. AC_PROG_CC_C89 and AC_PROG_CC_C99
22 check for ANSI C89 and ISO C99 support respectively.
25 Has been unobsoleted, and will check if the compiler supports ISO
26 C99, falling back to ANSI C89 if not. ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc is
27 retained for backwards compatibility, assuming the value of
28 ac_cv_prog_cc_c99 or ac_cv_prog_cc_c89 (whichever is valid, in
32 New macro for copyright notices in testsuite files.
34 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59b
36 Released 2004-08-20, by Paul Eggert.
39 New macro that computes the default alignment of a type.
41 ** AC_CHECK_TOOL, AC_PATH_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TOOLS
42 When cross-compiling, these macros will give a warning if the tool
43 is not prefixed. In the future, unprefixed cross tools will not
44 be detected; please consult the info documentation for information
45 about the reason of this change.
47 ** AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOL, AC_PATH_TARGET_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOLS
48 New macros that detect programs whose name is prefixed with the
49 target type, if the build type and target type are different.
51 ** AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE
52 New trace macro that declares expected auxiliary files.
55 New macro that tests for a grep program that accepts as a long a line
58 ** AC_PROG_EGREP, AC_PROG_FGREP
59 These macros now require AC_PROG_GREP, and try EGREP="$GREP -E" and
60 FGREP="$GREP -F" respectively if possible, or else run a path search for
61 a program that accepts as long a line as possible.
64 New macro that tests for a sed program that truncates as few characters
67 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59
69 Released 2003-11-04, by Akim Demaille
71 ** ac_abs_builddir etc.
72 Absolute file names were actually relative in 2.58.
74 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.58
76 Released 2003-11-04, by Akim Demaille
79 core.* files are no longer removed, as they may be valid user files.
81 ** autoreconf and auxiliary directory
82 Autoreconf creates the auxiliary directory if needed. This is
83 especially useful for initial "bootstrapping" of fresh CVS checkouts.
85 ** AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR
86 Use this macro to declare the directory for local m4 macros for aclocal.
89 No longer includes twice the same file in LIBOBJS if invoked
93 The directory for its first argument is automatically created. For
96 AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS([src/modules.hh], [...])
98 $top_builddir/src/ is created if needed.
100 ** Autotest and local.at
101 The optional file local.at is always included in Autotest test suites.
104 The warnings are always issued, including with cached runs.
105 This became a significant problem since aclocal and automake can
106 run autoconf behind the scene.
108 ** autoheader warnings
109 The warnings of autoheader can be turned off, using --warning.
110 For instance, -Wno-obsolete disables the complaints about acconfig.h
111 and other deprecated constructs.
114 AC_C_RESTRICT, AC_INCLUDES_DEFAULT, AC_LANG_ASSERT, AC_LANG_WERROR,
117 ** AC_DECL_SYS_SIGLIST
121 Now checks that mktime is the inverse of localtime.
123 ** Improve DJGPP portability
124 The Autoconf tools and configure behave better under DJGPP.
126 ** Present But Cannot Be Compiled
127 New FAQ section dedicated to the mystic
129 configure: WARNING: pi.h: present but cannot be compiled
130 configure: WARNING: pi.h: check for missing prerequisite headers?
131 configure: WARNING: pi.h: proceeding with the preprocessor's result
134 ** Concurrent executions of autom4te
135 autom4te now locks its internal files, which enables concurrent
136 executions of autom4te, likely to happen if automake, autoconf,
137 autoheader etc. are run simultaneously.
140 Use of Libtool 1.5 and higher is encouraged. Compatibility with
141 Libtool pre-1.4 is not checked.
144 Testsuites no longer rerun failed tests in verbose mode; instead,
145 failures are logged while the test is run.
147 In addition, expected failures can be marked as such.
149 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.57
151 Released 2002-12-03 by Paul Eggert.
153 Bug fixes for problems with AIX linker, with freestanding C compilers,
154 with GNU m4 limitations, and with obsolete copies of GNU documents.
156 The Free Documentation License has been upgraded from 1.1 to 1.2.
158 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.56
160 Released 2002-11-15 by Akim Demaille.
162 One packaging problem fixed (config/install-sh was not executable).
164 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.55
166 Released 2002-11-14 by Akim Demaille.
170 Have your configure.ac checked by autoscan ("autoscan").
171 Try the warning options ("autoreconf -fv -Wall").
175 - AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS
176 More information on proper use.
178 - Writing Test Programs
180 This sections explains how to write good test sources to use with
181 AC_COMPILE_IFELSE etc. It documents AC_LANG_PROGRAMS and so forth.
183 - AC_FOO_IFELSE vs. AC_TRY_FOO
185 Explains why Autoconf moves from AC_TRY_COMPILE etc. to
186 AC_COMPILE_IFELSE and AC_LANG_PROGRAM etc.
190 - Is more robust to different Gettext installations.
192 - Produces messages (when --verbose) to be understood by Emacs'
195 - Supports -W/--warnings.
198 Once the GNU Build System reinstalled, run `./config.status
199 --recheck && ./config.status && make' if possible.
203 - Supports --cache, and --no-cache.
205 - ~/.autom4te.cfg makes it possible to disable the caching mechanism
206 (autom4te.cache). See `Customizing autom4te' in the documentation.
213 Support for the obsoleted options -m, --macrodir, -l, --localdir is
214 dropped in favor of the safer --include/--prepend-include scheme.
219 AC_COMPILER_IFELSE, AC_FUNC_MBRTOWC, AC_HEADER_STDBOOL,
220 AC_LANG_CONFTEST, AC_LANG_SOURCE, AC_LANG_PROGRAM, AC_LANG_CALL,
221 AC_LANG_FUNC_TRY_LINK, AC_MSG_FAILURE, AC_PREPROC_IFELSE.
224 Obsoleted macros are kept for Autoconf backward compatibility, but
225 should be avoided in configure.ac. Running autoupdate is advised.
228 - AC_DEFINE/AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED
230 We have to stop using the old compatibility scheme --that tried to
231 avoid useless backslashes-- because Libtool 1.4.3 contains a
233 AC_DEFINE([error_t], [int],
234 [Define to a type to use for \`error_t' if it is not
235 otherwise available.])
237 We have to quote the single quotes and backslashes with \. The old
238 compatibility scheme saw that ` was backslashed, and therefore did
239 not quote the single quote... Failure. Hence, Autoconf 2.54 is not
240 compatible with Libtool. Autoconf 2.55 is, but in some cases might
241 produce more \ than wanted.
243 Please, note that in the future the same problem will happen with
244 AC_MSG_*: use `autoreconf -f -Wall'.
248 - Portability of the Autoconf package to Solaris.
250 - Spurious warnings caused by config.status.
251 This bug is benign, but painful: on some systems (typically
252 FreeBSD), warnings such as:
254 config.status: creating Makefile
255 mv: Makefile: set owner/group (was: 1357/0): Operation not permitted
257 could be issued. This is fixed.
260 Simultaneous executions of config.status are possible again.
262 - Precious variables accumulation
264 config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
268 ** Plans for later versions
272 The compatibility hooks with the old scheme will be completely
273 removed. Please, advice/use `--build', `--host', and `--target'
276 - AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS
278 The tests will be stricter, please make sure your invocations are
283 Shell functions will gradually be introduced, probably starting with
284 Autotest. If you know machines which are in use that you suspect
285 *not* to support shell functions, please run the test suite of
286 Autoconf 2.55 on it, and report the results to
287 bug-autoconf@gnu.org.
291 Special characters in AC_MSG_* need not be quoted. Currently,
292 Autoconf has heuristics to decide when a string is escaped, or has
293 to be escaped. This scheme is fragile, and will be removed; the
294 only risk is uglified messages. Please, run `autoreconf -f -Wall'
295 to find occurrences that will be affected.
297 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.54
299 Released 2002-09-13 by Akim Demaille.
303 - autoreconf no longer changes the version of the gettext/po/intl
304 support files. It now adds the files the correspond to the
305 AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION declared in configure.ac.
307 Warning: It now relies on the 'autopoint' program, which is part
308 of GNU gettext 0.11.4 and newer.
310 Please note that you need to have a GNU gettext version that
311 corresponds at least to the AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION declared
312 in configure.ac. You can upgrade to newer GNU gettext versions,
313 though, without needing to change configure.ac.
315 - The -I DIR or --include=DIR option now appends DIR to the include path
316 instead of prepending; this is for consistency with other GNU tools.
317 The new -B DIR or --prepend-include=DIR option has the old behavior.
322 Now handles all the gory details about LIBOBJS and LTLIBOBJS.
323 Please, remove lines such as
325 # This is necessary so that .o files in LIBOBJS are also
326 # built via the ANSI2KNR-filtering rules.
327 LIBOBJS=`echo $LIBOBJS|sed 's/\.o /\$U.o /g;s/\.o$/\$U.o/'`
329 and read the `AC_LIBOBJ vs LIBOBJS' section. Do not define U in
330 your Makefiles either.
332 - AC_CONFIG_LINKS now makes copies if it can't make links.
334 - AC_FUNC_FNMATCH now tests only for POSIX compatibility, reverting to
335 Autoconf 2.13 behavior. The new macro AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU also
336 tests for GNU extensions to fnmatch, and replaces fnmatch if needed.
338 - AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED no longer fails when cross-compiling.
340 - AC_PROG_CC_STDC is integrated into AC_PROG_CC.
342 - AC_PROG_F77 default search no longer includes cf77 and cfg77.
346 AC_C_BACKSLASH_A, AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR, AC_GNU_SOURCE,
347 AC_PROG_EGREP, AC_PROG_FGREP, AC_REPLACE_FNMATCH,
348 AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU, AC_FUNC_REALLOC, AC_TYPE_MBSTATE_T.
351 looks for getloadavg.c in the CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR.
354 Now defines HAVE_MALLOC to 0 if `malloc' does not work, and asks
355 for an AC_LIBOBJ replacement.
359 - Spurious complaints from `m4_bmatch' about invalid regular
360 expressions are suppressed.
362 - Empty top_builddirs are properly handled.
364 - AC_CHECK_MEMBER works correctly when the member is an aggregate.
367 Now colon in the optional path arguments are properly handled.
369 ** Improved portability
371 - Both Autoconf the package, and the scripts it produces, should run
372 more reliably with Zsh. Bear in mind it is the default Bourne shell
375 - Autoconf and the scripts it produces no longer assume the existence of
376 the obsolescent commands egrep and fgrep.
380 - Limitations of Make
384 The GNATS base moved to
385 http://bugs.gnu.org/cgi-bin/gnatsweb.pl?database=autoconf
386 (It is no longer available, though.)
391 Now contains the list of ouput variables and files (AC_SUBST,
394 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.53
396 Released 2002-03-08 by Akim Demaille.
400 Perl 5.005_03 or later is required: autom4te is written in Perl and is
401 needed by autoconf. autoheader, autoreconf, ifnames, and autoscan are
407 Argument requirements, output variables, defined macros.
408 - M4sugar, M4sh, Autotest
410 - Double quoting macros
411 AC_TRY_CPP, AC_TRY_COMPILE, AC_TRY_LINK and AC_TRY_RUN.
413 The Autoconf manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
414 - Section `Hosts and Cross-Compilation'
415 Explains the rationale for the 2.5x changes in the cross-compilation
416 chain, and in the relationships between build, host, and target
418 Emphasizes that `cross-compilation' == `--host is given'.
419 If you are working on compilers etc., be sure to read this section.
420 - Section `AC_LIBOBJ vs. LIBOBJS'
421 Explains why assigning LIBOBJS directly is now an error.
422 Details how to update the code.
427 Now used instead of hard coded line numbers.
428 This eases the comparison of `configure's, and diminishes the
429 pressure over control version archives.
430 Automatic replacement for shells that don't support this feature.
431 - New output variables
432 @builddir@, @top_builddir@, @abs_srcdir@, @abs_top_srcdir@, @abs_builddir@,
437 Autoconf and Autotest modes are provided.
442 New, used by the Autoconf suite to cache and speed up most processing.
444 Supported by autom4te, autoconf and autoheader.
446 Replaces --autoconf-dir and --localdir in autoconf, autoheader,
447 autoupdate, and autoreconf.
449 No longer passes --cygnus, --foreign, --gnits, --gnu, --include-deps:
450 automake options are to be given via AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
452 Runs gettextize and libtoolize when appropriate.
454 --m4dir is no longer supported.
456 Now runs only in the specified directories, defaulting to `.',
457 but understands AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS for dependent directories.
458 Before, it used to run on all the `configure.ac' found in the
460 Independent packages are properly updated.
464 - The top level $prefix is propagated to the AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS configures.
466 Under the user pressure, $? is finally available. Probably a mistake.
467 - AC_F77_LIBRARY_LDFLAGS now supports the HP/UX f90 compiler.
468 - Precious variables accumulation
469 config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
471 - AC_PATH_PROG and family.
472 Works properly when given a literal path.
474 Somewhere since 2.13, the result had been reversed.
478 - AC_C_BIGENDIAN supports the cross-compiling case.
479 - AC_C_BIGENDIAN accepts ACTION-IF-TRUE, ACTION-IF-FALSE, and
480 ACTION-IF-UNKNOWN arguments. All are facultative, and the default
481 for ACTION-IF-TRUE is to define WORDS_BIGENDIAN like AC_C_BIGENDIAN
483 - AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE now succeeds only if `long double' has more range or
484 precision than `double'.
489 It now defines the preprocessor symbols PACKAGE_NAME,
490 PACKAGE_TARNAME, PACKAGE_VERSION, PACKAGE_STRING, and
494 Admits a fourth optional parameter: the tar name.
496 - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS.
497 Provide the user with srcdir, ac_srcdir, ac_top_srcdir, ac_builddir,
498 ac_top_builddir, ac_abs_srcdir, ac_abs_top_srcdir, ac_abs_builddir,
501 - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS and AC_OUTPUT.
502 Are much less expensive when using long lists of files.
505 Works with shell variables, and non alphanumeric names.
509 - AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R now sets STRERROR_R_CHAR_P, not HAVE_WORKING_STRERROR_R,
510 because POSIX 1003.1-200x draft 7 says strerror_r returns int, not char *.
512 - AC_FUNC_STRTOD substitutes POW_LIB.
517 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.52
519 Released 2001-07-18 by Akim Demaille.
524 This feature was present in autoconf 2.50 but was not documented.
525 For example, `@<:@' is translated to `[' just before output. This
526 is useful when writing strings that contain unbalanced quotes, or
527 other hard-to-quote constructs.
528 - m4_pattern_forbid, m4_pattern_allow
529 - Tips for upgrading from 2.13.
530 - Using autoscan to maintain a configure.ac.
533 - Now include stdint.h.
534 - sys/types.h and sys/stat.h are guarded.
535 - strings.h is included if available, and not conflicting with string.h.
538 - The test suite is more robust and presents less false failures.
539 - Invocation of GNU M4 now robust to POSIXLY_CORRECT.
540 - configure accepts --prefix='' again.
541 - AC_CHECK_LIB works properly when its first argument is not a
543 - HAVE_INTTYPES_H is defined only if not conflicting with sys/types.h.
544 - build_, host_, and target_alias are AC_SUBST as in 2.13.
545 - AC_ARG_VAR properly propagates precious variables inherited from the
546 environment to ./config.status.
547 - Using --program-suffix/--program-prefix is portable.
548 - Failures to detect the default compiler's output extension are less
550 - `config.status foo' works properly when `foo' depends on variables
551 set in an AC_CONFIG_THING INIT-CMD.
552 - autoheader is more robust to broken input.
553 - Fixed Fortran name-mangling and link tests on a number of systems,
554 e.g. NetBSD; see AC_F77_DUMMY_MAIN, below.
557 - AC_CHECK_HEADER and AC_CHECK_HEADERS support a fourth argument to
558 specify pre-includes. In this case, the headers are compiled with
559 cc, not merely preprocessed by cpp. Therefore it is the _usability_
560 of a header which is checked for, not just its availability.
561 - AC_ARG_VAR refuses to run configure when precious variables have
563 - Versions of compilers are dumped in the logs.
564 - AC_CHECK_TYPE recognizes use of `foo_t' as a replacement type.
567 - AC_PATH_XTRA only adds -ldnet to $LIBS if it's needed to link.
568 - AC_FUNC_WAIT3 and AC_SYS_RESTARTABLE_SYSCALLS are obsoleted.
569 - AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_FNMATCH, AM_FUNC_MKTIME,
570 AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, and AM_FUNC_STRTOD are now activated.
571 Be sure to read `Upgrading from Version 2.13' to understand why
572 running `autoupdate' is needed.
573 - AC_F77_DUMMY_MAIN, AC_F77_MAIN: new macros to detect whether
574 a main-like routine is required/possible when linking C/C++ with
575 Fortran. Users of e.g. AC_F77_WRAPPERS should be aware of these.
576 - AC_FUNC_GETPGRG behaves better when cross-compiling.
578 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.51
579 There was no release of Autoconf 2.51 since some packagers had used
580 this version number without permission to ship intermediary versions
581 of 2.50. The version was skipped to avoid confusion.
583 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.50
585 Released 2001-05-21 by Akim Demaille.
588 There have been far too many to enumerate them here. Check out
589 ChangeLog if you really want to know more.
591 ** Improved documentation
592 In particular, portability issues are better covered.
595 All the standard GNU Makefile targets are supported. The layout has
596 changed: m4/ holds the m4 extensions Autoconf needs for its
597 configuration, doc/ contains the documentation, and tests/ contains
600 ** Man pages are provided
601 For autoconf, autoreconf, autoupdate, autoheader, autoscan, ifnames,
602 config.guess, config.sub.
606 Provides a safe and powerful means to trace the macro uses. This
607 provide the parsing layer for tools which need to `study'
611 Specify what category of warnings should be enabled.
613 - When recursing into subdirectories, try for configure.gnu before
614 configure to adapt for packages not using autoconf on case-insensitive
618 More errors are now caught (circular AC_REQUIRE dependencies,
619 AC_DEFINE in the action part of an AC_CACHE_CHECK, too many pops
620 etc.). In addition, their location and call stack are given.
623 autoupdate is much more powerful, and is able to provide the glue code
624 which might be needed to move from an old macro to its newer
627 You are strongly encouraged to use it to modernize both your
628 `configure.in' and your .m4 extension files.
631 The internal machinery of autoheader has completely changed. As a
632 result, using `acconfig.h' should be considered to be obsoleted, and
633 you are encouraged to get rid of it using the AH macros.
638 ** Fortran 77 compilers
639 Globally, the support for Fortran 77 is considerably improved.
641 Support for automatically determining a Fortran 77 compiler's
642 name-mangling scheme. New CPP macros F77_FUNC and F77_FUNC_ are
643 provided to wrap C/C++ identifiers, thus making it easier and more
644 transparent for C/C++ to call Fortran 77 routines, and Fortran 77 to
645 call C/C++ routines. See the Texinfo documentation for details.
648 The test suite no longer uses DejaGNU. It should be easy to submit
649 test cases in this new framework.
652 - --help, --help=long, -hl
653 no longer dumps useless items.
655 lists only specific options.
656 - --help=recursive, -hr
657 displays the help of all the embedded packages.
658 - Remembers environment variables when reconfiguring.
659 The previous scheme to set envvar before running configure was
661 what prevented configure from remembering the environment in which
662 it was run, therefore --recheck was run in an inconsistent
663 environment. Now, one should run
665 and then --recheck will work properly. Variables declared with
666 AC_ARG_VAR are also preserved.
668 $build defaults to `config.guess`, $host to $build, and then $target
670 Cross-compilation is a global status of the package, it no longer
671 depends upon the current language.
672 Cross compilation is enabled iff the user specified `--host'.
673 `configure' now fails if it can't run the executables it compiles,
674 unless cross-compilation is enabled.
676 The cache file is disabled by default. The new options
677 `--config-cache', `-C' set the cache to `config.cache'.
681 Much faster on most architectures.
682 - concurrent executions
683 It is safe to use `make -j' with config.status.
684 - human interface improved
685 It is possible to invoke
686 ./config.status foobar
687 instead of the former form (still valid)
688 CONFIG_COMMANDS= CONFIG_HEADERS= CONFIG_LINKS= \
689 CONFIG_FILES=foobar:foo.in:bar.in \
691 The same holds for configuration headers and links.
692 You can instantiate unknown files and headers:
693 ./config.status --header foo.h:foo.h.in --file bar:baz
694 - has a useful --help
695 - accepts special file name "-" for stdin/stdout
700 Specify additional copyright information.
703 Now expects the identity of the package as argument.
707 Most macros, if not all, now strictly follow the `one quotation
708 level' rule. This results in a more predictable expansion.
711 A sly bug in the AC_REQUIRE machinery, which could produce incorrect
712 configure scripts, was fixed by Axel Thimm.
716 Document and ask for the registration of an envvar.
719 Specifies the file which `configure' should look for when trying to
720 find the source tree (used to be handled by AC_INIT).
723 To add new actions to config.status. Should be used instead of
727 Replaces AC_LINK_FILES.
729 - AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS,
730 AC_CONFIG_LINKS, and AC_CONFIG_FILES
731 They now obey sh: you should no longer use shell variables as
734 test "$package_foo_enabled" = yes && $my_subdirs="$my_subdirs foo"
735 AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS($my_subdirs)
739 if test "$package_foo_enabled" = yes; then
740 AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS(foo)
744 To format an Autoconf macro's help string so that it looks pretty
745 when the user executes `configure --help'.
748 ** Generic Test Macros
750 The interface of the AC_CHECK families of macros (decl, header,
751 type, member, func) is now uniform. They support the same set of
754 - AC_CHECK_DECL, AC_CHECK_DECLS
755 To check whether a symbol is declared.
757 - AC_CHECK_SIZEOF, AC_C_CHAR_UNSIGNED.
758 No longer need a cross-compilation default.
761 The test it performs is much more robust than previously, and makes
762 it possible to test builtin types in addition to typedefs.
763 It is now schizophrenic:
764 - AC_CHECK_TYPE(TYPE, REPLACEMENT)
765 remains for backward compatibility, but its use is discouraged.
766 - AC_CHECK_TYPE(TYPE, IF-FOUND, IF-NOT-FOUND, INCLUDES)
767 behaves exactly like the other AC_CHECK macros.
770 Checks whether given types are supported by the system.
772 - AC_CHECK_MEMBER, AC_CHECK_MEMBERS
773 Check for given members in aggregates (e.g., pw_gecos in struct
777 Checks if the compiler supports ISO C, included when needs special
781 Checking whether the preprocessor indicates missing includes by the
782 error code. stderr is checked by AC_TRY_CPP only as a fallback.
785 Takes a language as argument and replaces AC_LANG_C,
786 AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS and AC_LANG_FORTRAN77.
788 - AC_LANG_PUSH, AC_LANG_POP
789 Are preferred to AC_LANG_SAVE, AC_LANG_RESTORE.
792 - AC_FUNC_CHOWN, AC_FUNC_MALLOC, AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R,
793 AC_FUNC_LSTAT_FOLLOWS_SLASHED_SYMLINK, AC_FUNC_STAT, AC_FUNC_LSTAT,
794 AC_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AC_FUNC_OBSTACK, AC_FUNC_STRTOD, AC_FUNC_FSEEKO.
801 Defines `HAVE_STRUCT_NLIST_N_UN_N_NAME' instead of `NLIST_NAME_UNION'.
804 Now integrates `AC_DECL_YYTEXT' which is obsoleted.
807 Arrange for large-file support.
809 - AC_EXEEXT, AC_OBJEXT
810 You are no longer expected to use them: their computation is
811 performed by default.
814 Every macro has been revisited in order to support at best CC=c++.
816 Major changes in Autoconf 2.14:
817 There was no release of GNU Autoconf 2.14.
819 Major changes in Autoconf 2.13:
821 Released 1999-05-01 by Ben Elliston.
823 * Support for building on Win32 systems where the only available C or
824 C++ compiler is the Microsoft Visual C++ command line compiler
825 (`cl'). Additional support for building on Win32 systems which are
826 using the Cygwin or Mingw32 environments.
827 * Support for alternative object file and executable file extensions.
828 On Win32, for example, these are .obj and .exe. These are discovered
829 using AC_OBJEXT and AC_EXEEXT, which substitute @OBJEXT@ and
830 @EXEEXT@ in the output, respectively.
831 * New macros: AC_CACHE_LOAD, AC_CACHE_SAVE, AC_FUNC_SELECT_ARGTYPES,
832 AC_VALIDATE_CACHED_SYSTEM_TUPLE, AC_SEARCH_LIBS, AC_TRY_LINK_FUNC,
833 AC_C_STRINGIZE, AC_CHECK_FILE(S), AC_PROG_F77 (and friends).
834 * AC_DEFINE now has an optional third argument for a description to be
835 placed in the config header input file (e.g. config.h.in).
836 * The C++ code fragment compiled for the C++ compiler test had to be
837 improved to include an explicit return type for main(). This was
838 causing failures on systems using recent versions of the EGCS C++
840 * Fixed an important bug in AC_CHECK_TYPE that would cause a configure
841 script to report that `sometype_t' was present when only `type_t'
843 * Merge of the FSF version of config.guess and config.sub to modernize
844 these scripts. Add support for a few new hosts in config.guess.
845 Incorporate latest versions of install-sh, mkinstalldirs and
846 texinfo.tex from the FSF.
847 * autoreconf is capable of running automake if necessary (and
849 * Support for Fortran 77. See the Texinfo documentation for details.
850 * Bug fixes and workarounds for quirky bugs in vendor utilities.
852 Major changes in Autoconf 2.12:
854 Released 1996-11-26 by David J. MacKenzie
856 * AC_OUTPUT and AC_CONFIG_HEADER can create output files by
857 concatenating multiple input files separated by colons, like so:
858 AC_CONFIG_HEADER(config.h:conf.pre:config.h.in:conf.post)
859 AC_OUTPUT(Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.rules)
860 The arguments may be shell variables, to compute the lists on the fly.
861 * AC_LINK_FILES and AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS may be called multiple times.
862 * New macro AC_OUTPUT_COMMANDS adds more commands to run in config.status.
865 Major changes in Autoconf 2.11:
867 Released November 18th, 1996, by David J. MacKenzie
869 * AC_PROG_CC and AC_PROG_CXX check whether the compiler works.
870 They also default CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS to "-g -O2" for gcc, instead of "-g -O".
871 * AC_REPLACE_FUNCS defines HAVE_foo if the system has the function `foo'.
872 * AC_CONFIG_HEADER expands shell variables in its argument.
873 * New macros: AC_FUNC_FNMATCH, AC_FUNC_SETPGRP.
874 * The "checking..." messages and the source code for test programs that
875 fail are saved in config.log.
876 * Another workaround has been added for seds with small command length limits.
877 * config.sub and config.guess recognize more system types.
880 Major changes in Autoconf 2.10:
882 Released May 7th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
885 * The cache variable names used by `AC_CHECK_LIB(LIB, FUNC, ...)' has
886 changed: now $ac_cv_lib_LIB_FUNC, previously $ac_cv_lib_LIB.
888 Major changes in Autoconf 2.9:
890 Released March 16th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
894 Major changes in Autoconf 2.8:
896 Released March 8th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
900 Major changes in Autoconf 2.7:
902 Released November 22nd, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
906 Major changes in Autoconf 2.6:
908 Released November 20th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
912 Major changes in Autoconf 2.5:
914 Released November 17th, 1995, by Roland McGrath
916 * New configure options --bindir, --libdir, --datadir, etc., with
917 corresponding output variables.
918 * New macro: AC_CACHE_CHECK, to make using the cache easier.
919 * config.log contains the command being run as well as any output from it.
920 * AC_CHECK_LIB can check for libraries with "." or "/" or "+" in their name.
921 * AC_PROG_INSTALL doesn't cache a name for install-sh, for sharing caches.
922 * AC_CHECK_PROG, AC_PATH_PROG, AC_CHECK_PROGS, AC_PATH_PROGS, and
923 AC_CHECK_TOOL can search a path other than $PATH.
924 * AC_CHECK_SIZEOF takes an optional size to use when cross-compiling.
926 Major changes in Autoconf 2.4:
928 Released June 14th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
930 * Fix a few bugs found by Emacs testers.
932 Major changes in Autoconf 2.3:
934 Released March 27th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
936 * Fix the cleanup trap in several ways.
937 * Handle C compilers that are picky about option placement.
938 * ifnames gets the version number from the right directory.
940 Major changes in Autoconf 2.2:
942 Released March 8th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
944 * The ifnames utility is much faster but requires a "new awk" interpreter.
945 * AC_CHECK_LIB and AC_HAVE_LIBRARY check and add the new
946 library before existing libs, not after, in case it uses them.
947 * New macros: AC_FUNC_GETPGRP, AC_CHECK_TOOL.
949 * Many additions to the TODO file :-)
951 Major changes in Autoconf 2.1:
953 Released November 4th, 1994, by David J. MacKenzie
956 * More explanations in the manual.
957 * Fix a spurious failure in the testsuite.
958 * Clarify some warning messages.
959 * autoreconf by default only rebuilds configure and config.h.in files
960 that are older than any of their particular input files; there is a
961 --force option to use after installing a new version of Autoconf.
963 Thanks to everybody who's submitted changes and additions to Autoconf!
964 I've incorporated many of them, and am still considering others for
965 future releases -- but I didn't want to postpone this release indefinitely.
967 Caution: don't indiscriminately rebuild configure scripts with
968 Autoconf version 2. Some configure.in files need minor adjustments to
969 work with it; the documentation has a chapter on upgrading. A few
970 configure.in files, including those for GNU Emacs and the GNU C
971 Library, need major changes because they relied on undocumented
972 internals of version 1. Future releases of those packages will have
973 updated configure.in files.
975 It's best to use GNU m4 1.3 (or later) with Autoconf version 2.
976 Autoconf now makes heavy use of m4 diversions, which were implemented
977 inefficiently in GNU m4 releases before 1.3.
979 Major changes in Autoconf 2.0:
981 Released October 26th, 1994, by David J. MacKenzie
983 ** New copyright terms:
984 * There are no restrictions on distribution or use of configure scripts.
987 * Autoconf manual is reorganized to make information easier to find
988 and has several new indexes.
989 * INSTALL is reorganized and clearer and is now made from Texinfo source.
992 * autoscan to generate a preliminary configure.in for a package by
993 scanning its source code for commonly used nonportable functions,
994 programs, and header files.
995 * ifnames to list the symbols used in #if and #ifdef directives in a
997 * autoupdate to update a configure.in to use the version 2 macro names.
998 * autoreconf to recursively remake configure and configuration header
999 files in a source tree.
1001 ** Changed utilities:
1002 * autoheader can take pieces of acconfig.h to replace config.h.{top,bot}.
1003 * autoconf and autoheader can look for package-local definition files
1004 in an alternate directory.
1007 * AC_CACHE_VAL to share results of tests between configure runs.
1008 * AC_DEFUN to define macros, automatically AC_PROVIDE them, and ensure
1009 that macros invoked with AC_REQUIRE don't interrupt other macros.
1010 * AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR, AC_CANONICAL_SYSTEM, AC_CANONICAL_HOST, AC_LINK_FILES to
1011 support deciding unguessable features based on the host and target types.
1012 * AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS to recursively configure a source tree.
1013 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM to use the options --program-prefix,
1014 --program-suffix, and --program-transform-name to change the names
1015 of programs being installed.
1016 * AC_PREFIX_DEFAULT to change the default installation prefix.
1017 * AC_TRY_COMPILE to compile a test program without linking it.
1018 * AC_CHECK_TYPE to check whether sys/types.h or stdlib.h defines a given type.
1019 * AC_CHECK_LIB to check for a particular function and library.
1020 * AC_MSG_CHECKING and AC_MSG_RESULT to print test results, on a single line,
1021 whether or not the test succeeds. They obsolete AC_CHECKING and AC_VERBOSE.
1022 * AC_SUBST_FILE to insert one file into another.
1023 * AC_FUNC_MEMCMP to check whether memcmp is 8-bit clean.
1024 * AC_FUNC_STRFTIME to find strftime even if it's in -lintl.
1025 * AC_FUNC_GETMNTENT to find getmntent even if it's in -lsun or -lseq.
1026 * AC_HEADER_SYS_WAIT to check whether sys/wait.h is POSIX.1 compatible.
1029 * Many macros renamed systematically, but old names are accepted for
1030 backward compatibility.
1031 * AC_OUTPUT adds the "automatically generated" comment to
1032 non-Makefiles where it finds @configure_input@ in an input file, to
1033 support files with various comment syntaxes.
1034 * AC_OUTPUT does not replace "prefix" and "exec_prefix" in generated
1035 files when they are not enclosed in @ signs.
1036 * AC_OUTPUT allows the optional environment variable CONFIG_STATUS to
1037 override the file name "config.status".
1038 * AC_OUTPUT takes an optional argument for passing variables from
1039 configure to config.status.
1040 * AC_OUTPUT and AC_CONFIG_HEADER allow you to override the input-file names.
1041 * AC_OUTPUT automatically substitutes the values of CFLAGS, CXXFLAGS,
1042 CPPFLAGS, and LDFLAGS from the environment.
1043 * AC_PROG_CC and AC_PROG_CXX now set CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS, respectively.
1044 * AC_PROG_INSTALL looks for install-sh or install.sh in the directory
1045 specified by AC_CONFIG_AUXDIR, or srcdir or srcdir/.. or
1046 srcdir/../.. by default.
1047 * AC_DEFINE, AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED, and AC_SUBST are more robust and smaller.
1048 * AC_DEFINE no longer prints anything, because of the new result reporting
1049 mechanism (AC_MSG_CHECKING and AC_MSG_RESULT).
1050 * AC_VERBOSE pays attention to --quiet/--silent, not --verbose.
1051 * AC_ARG_ENABLE and AC_ARG_WITH support whitespace in the arguments to
1052 --enable- and --with- options.
1053 * AC_CHECK_FUNCS and AC_CHECK_HEADERS take optional shell commands to
1054 execute on success or failure.
1055 * Checking for C functions in C++ works.
1058 * AC_REMOTE_TAPE and AC_RSH removed; too specific to tar and cpio, and
1059 better maintained with them.
1060 * AC_ARG_ARRAY removed because no one was likely using it.
1061 * AC_HAVE_POUNDBANG replaced with AC_SYS_INTERPRETER, which doesn't
1062 take arguments, for consistency with all of the other specific checks.
1065 * Comes with config.sub and config.guess, and uses them optionally.
1066 * Uses config.cache to cache test results. An alternate cache file
1067 can be selected with the --cache-file=FILE option.
1068 * Uses optional shell scripts $prefix/share/config.site and
1069 $prefix/etc/config.site to perform site or system specific initializations.
1070 * configure saves compiler output to ./config.log for debugging.
1071 * New files autoconf.m4 and autoheader.m4 load the other Autoconf macros.
1072 * acsite.m4 is the new name for the system-wide aclocal.m4.
1073 * Has a DejaGnu test suite.
1075 Major changes in Autoconf 1.11:
1077 * AC_PROG_INSTALL calls install.sh with the -c option.
1078 * AC_SET_MAKE cleans up after itself.
1079 * AC_OUTPUT sets prefix and exec_prefix if they weren't set already.
1080 * AC_OUTPUT prevents shells from looking in PATH for config.status.
1082 Plus a few other bug fixes.
1084 Major changes in Autoconf 1.10:
1086 * autoheader uses config.h.bot if present, analogous to config.h.top.
1087 * AC_PROG_INSTALL looks for install.sh in srcdir or srcdir/.. and
1089 * AC_PROG_CXX looks for cxx as a C++ compiler.
1091 Plus several bugs fixed.
1093 Major changes in Autoconf 1.9:
1095 * AC_YYTEXT_POINTER replaces AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT.
1096 * AC_SIZEOF_TYPE generates the cpp symbol name automatically,
1097 and autoheader generates entries for those names automatically.
1098 * AC_FIND_X gets the result from xmkmf correctly.
1099 * AC_FIND_X assumes no X if --without-x was given.
1100 * AC_FIND_XTRA adds libraries to the variable X_EXTRA_LIBS.
1101 * AC_PROG_INSTALL finds OSF/1 installbsd.
1103 Major changes in Autoconf 1.8:
1106 * New macros AC_LANG_C, AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS, AC_LANG_SAVE, AC_LANG_RESTORE,
1107 AC_PROG_CXX, AC_PROG_CXXCPP, AC_REQUIRE_CPP
1108 for checking both C++ and C features in one configure script.
1109 * New macros AC_CHECKING, AC_VERBOSE, AC_WARN, AC_ERROR for printing messages.
1110 * New macros AC_FIND_XTRA, AC_MMAP, AC_SIZEOF_TYPE, AC_PREREQ,
1111 AC_SET_MAKE, AC_ENABLE.
1114 * AC_FIND_X looks for X in more places.
1115 * AC_PROG_INSTALL defaults to install.sh instead of cp, if it's in srcdir.
1116 install.sh is distributed with Autoconf.
1117 * AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT has been removed because it can't work, pending
1118 a rewrite of quoting in AC_DEFINE.
1119 * AC_OUTPUT adds its comments in C format when substituting in C files.
1120 * AC_COMPILE_CHECK protects its ECHO-TEXT argument with double quotes.
1122 ** New or changed command line options:
1123 * configure accepts --enable-FEATURE[=ARG] and --disable-FEATURE options.
1124 * configure accepts --without-PACKAGE, which sets withval=no.
1125 * configure accepts --x-includes=DIR and --x-libraries=DIR.
1126 * Giving --with-PACKAGE no argument sets withval=yes instead of withval=1.
1127 * configure accepts --help, --version, --silent/--quiet, --no-create options.
1128 * configure accepts and ignores most other Cygnus configure options, and
1129 warns about unknown options.
1130 * config.status accepts --help, --version options.
1132 ** File names and other changes:
1133 * Relative srcdir values are not made absolute.
1134 * The values of @prefix@ and @exec_prefix@ and @top_srcdir@ get substituted.
1135 * Autoconf library files are installed in ${datadir}/autoconf, not ${datadir}.
1136 * autoheader optionally copies config.h.top to the beginning of config.h.in.
1137 * The example Makefile dependencies for configure et al. work better.
1138 * Namespace cleanup: all shell variables used internally by Autoconf
1139 have names beginning with `ac_'.
1141 More big improvements are in process for future releases, but have not
1142 yet been (variously) finished, integrated, tested, or documented enough
1145 Major changes in Autoconf 1.7:
1147 * New macro AC_OBSOLETE.
1148 * Bugs in Makefile.in fixed.
1149 * AC_LONG_FILE_NAMES improved.
1151 Major changes in Autoconf 1.6:
1153 * New macro AC_LONG_64_BITS.
1154 * Multiple .h files can be created.
1155 * AC_FIND_X looks for X files directly if it doesn't find xmkmf.
1156 * AC_ALLOCA defines C_ALLOCA if using alloca.c.
1157 * --with-NAME can take a value, e.g., --with-targets=sun4,hp300bsd.
1158 * Unused --no-create option to configure removed.
1159 * autoheader doesn't change the timestamp of its output file if
1160 the file didn't change.
1161 * All macros that look for libraries now use AC_HAVE_LIBRARY.
1162 * config.status checks three optional environment variables to
1163 modify its behavior.
1164 * The usual bug fixes.
1166 Major changes in Autoconf 1.5:
1168 * New macros AC_FIND_X, AC_OFF_T, AC_STAT_MACROS_BROKEN, AC_REVISION.
1169 * autoconf and autoheader scripts have GNU standards conforming
1170 --version and --help options (they print their message and exit).
1173 Major changes in Autoconf 1.4:
1175 * New macros AC_HAVE_POUNDBANG, AC_TIME_WITH_SYS_TIME, AC_LONG_DOUBLE,
1176 AC_GETGROUPS_T, AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED.
1177 * autoconf and autoheader use the M4 environment variable to determine the
1178 name of the m4 program to use.
1179 * The --macrodir option to autoconf and autoheader specifies the directory
1180 in which acspecific.m4, acgeneral.m4, etc. reside if not the default.
1181 * autoconf and autoheader can take `-' as their file names, which means to
1182 read stdin as input.
1183 * Resulting configure scripts can take a --verbose option which causes them
1184 to print the results of their tests.
1185 * AC_DEFINE quotes its second argument in such a way that spaces, magic
1186 shell characters, etc. will be preserved during various stages of
1187 expansion done by the shell. If you don't want this, use
1188 AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED instead.
1189 * Much textual processing done with external calls to tr and sed have been
1190 internalized with builtin m4 `patsubst' and `translit' calls.
1191 * AC_OUTPUT doesn't hardwire the file names it outputs. Instead, you can
1192 set the shell variables `gen_files' and `gen_config' to the list of
1193 file names to output.
1194 * AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT does an AC_SUBST of `LEX_OUTPUT_ROOT', which may be
1195 "lex.yy" or "lexyy", depending on the system.
1196 * AC_PROGRAMS_CHECK takes an optional third arg. If given, it is used as
1198 * If AC_ALLOCA chooses alloca.c, it also defines STACK_DIRECTION.
1199 * AC_CONST works much more reliably on more systems.
1202 Major changes in Autoconf 1.3:
1204 configure no longer requires awk for packages that use a config.h.
1205 Support handling --with-PACKAGE options.
1206 New `autoheader' script to create `config.h.in' from `configure.in'.
1207 Ignore troublesome -lucb and -lPW when searching for alloca.
1208 Rename --exec_prefix to --exec-prefix for GNU standards conformance.
1209 Improve detection of STDC library.
1210 Add AC_HAVE_LIBRARY to check for non-default libraries.
1211 Function checking should work with future GNU libc releases.
1213 Major changes in Autoconf 1.2:
1215 The --srcdir option is now usually unnecessary.
1216 Add a file containing sample comments describing CPP macros.
1217 A comment in config.status tells which host it was configured on.
1218 Substituted variable values can now contain commas.
1219 Fix bugs in various feature checks.
1221 Major changes in Autoconf 1.1:
1223 Added AC_STRCOLL macro.
1224 Made AC_GETLOADAVG check for more things.
1225 AC_OUTPUT argument is now optional.
1230 Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,
1231 2003, 2004, 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
1233 This file is part of GNU Autoconf.
1235 GNU Autoconf is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
1236 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
1237 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
1240 GNU Autoconf is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
1241 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
1242 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
1243 GNU General Public License for more details.
1245 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
1246 along with GNU Autoconf; see the file COPYING. If not, write to
1247 the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330,
1248 Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.