1 GNU M4 NEWS - User visible changes.
2 Copyright (C) 1992, 1993, 1994, 2004, 2005, 2006 Free Software
5 Version 1.4.5 - ?? 2006, by ??? (CVS version 1.4.4c)
7 * Fix sysval on BeOS, OS/2, and other systems that store exit status
8 in the low-order byte. Additionally, on Unix platforms, if syscmd was
9 terminated by a signal, sysval now displays the signal number shifted
10 left by eight bits, to match traditional m4 implementations.
11 * The maketemp macro is no longer subject to platform limitations (such as
12 26 or 32 max files from a given template).
13 * Frozen files now require that the first directive be V (version), to
14 better diagnose version mismatch. Additionally, if the F directive
15 (builtin function) names an unknown builtin that existed in the m4 that
16 froze the file but not in the current m4 (for example, changeword), the
17 warning is deferred until an attempt is made to actually use the
18 builtin. This allows downgrading from beta m4-1.4o to stable m4-1.4.5
19 without breaking autoconf.
20 * The format and indir macros are now recognized only with arguments.
21 * The eval macro no longer crashes on x86 architectures when dividing the
22 minimum integer by -1.
23 * On systems with ecvt and fcvt, format no longer truncates trailing
24 zeroes on integers printed with %.0f. On systems without these
25 functions, format is no longer subject to a buffer overflow that
26 permitted arbitrary code execution.
27 * On native Windows builds, the macro __windows__ is provided instead of
28 __unix__. Likewise, on OS/2 builds, the macro __os2__ is provided. This
29 allows input files to determine when syscmd might behave differently.
30 * Fix bug in 1.4.3 patch to use \n line-endings that did not work for
32 * When given the empty string or 0, undivert is now documented as a no-op
33 rather than closing stdout, warning about a non-existent file, or trying
34 to read a directory as a file.
35 * Many documentation improvements. Also, the manual is now distributed
36 under FDL 1.2, rather than a stricter verbatim-only license.
37 * Raise the -L (--nesting-limit) command line option limit from 250 to
39 * The decr, incr, divert, m4exit, and substr macros treat an empty number
40 as 0, issue a warning, and expand as normal; rather than issuing an error
41 and expanding to the empty string.
42 * The eval macro now treats an empty radix argument as 10, handles radix 1,
43 and treats the width argument as number of digits excluding the sign,
44 for compatibility with other m4 implementations.
45 * The ifdef, divert, m4exit, substr, and translit macros now correctly
46 ignore extra arguments.
47 * The popdef and undefine macros now correctly accept multiple arguments.
49 Version 1.4.4b - 17 June 2006, by Eric Blake (CVS version 1.4.4a)
51 * Fix a recursive push_string crashing bug, which affected changequote of
52 three or more characters on some compilers.
53 * Use automake to fix build portability issues.
54 * Fix a recursive m4wrap crashing bug.
55 * Fix a 1 in 2**32 hash crashing bug.
56 * Tracing a macro by name is now persistent, even if the macro is
57 subsequently undefined or redefined. The traceon and traceoff macros no
58 longer warn about undefined symbols. This solves a crash when using
59 indir on an undefined macro traced with the -t option, as well as an
60 incorrect result of ifdef. Furthermore, tracing is no longer transferred
61 with builtins, solving the bug of "m4 -tm4_eval" failing to give trace
62 output on the input "define(`m4_eval',defn(`eval'))m4_eval(1)".
63 * Fix a crash when a macro is undefined while collecting its arguments, by
64 always using the definition that was in effect before argument
65 collection. This behavior matches the C pre-processor, and means that
66 the sequence "define(`f',`1')f(define(`f',`2'))f" is now documented to
67 result in "12", rather than the previously undocumented "22".
68 * Update the regex engine to fix several bugs.
69 * Fix a potential crash on machines where char is signed.
71 Version 1.4.4 - October 2005, by Gary V. Vaughan
73 * ./configure --infodir=/usr/share/info now works correctly.
74 * When any file named on the command line is missing exit with status 1.
76 Version 1.4.3 - March 2005, by Gary V. Vaughan
78 * DESTDIR installs now work correctly.
79 * Don't segfault with uncompilable regexps to changeword().
80 * Always use \n line-endings for frozen files (fixes a Windows bug).
81 * Portability fix for systems lacking mkstemp(3).
82 * Approximately 20% speed up in the common case of usage with autoconf.
83 * Supported on QNX 6.3.
85 Version 1.4.2 - August 2004, by Paul Eggert
87 * No user visible changes; portability bug fixes only.
89 Version 1.4.1 - June 2004, by Paul Eggert
91 * maketemp now creates an empty file with the given name, instead of merely
92 returning the name of a nonexistent file. This closes a security hole.
94 Version 1.4 - October 1994, by Franc,ois Pinard
96 (No user visible changes)
98 Version 1.3 - September 1994, by Franc,ois Pinard
100 * Diversions are created as needed. Option `-N' is still accepted, but
101 otherwise ignored. Users should use only negative diversion numbers,
102 instead of high positive numbers, for diverting to nowhere.
104 * Diversions should also work faster. No temporary files will be needed
105 at all if all diversions taken altogether do not use more than 512K.
107 * Frozen state files may be produced with the `--freeze-state' (-F)
108 option and later brought back through the `--reload-state' (-R) option.
110 Version 1.2 - July 1994, by Franc,ois Pinard
112 * In patsubst(STRING, REGEXP, REPLACEMENT), \& in REPLACEMENT has been
113 changed to represent this part of STRING matched by the whole REGEXP,
114 instead of the whole STRING as before. \0 does the same, but emits a
115 diagnostic saying it will disappear in some subsequent release.
117 * eval(EXPR) emits a diagnostic if EXPR has suffixed crumb. The same for
118 other numeric conversions in incr(), decr(), divert(), etc.
120 * `--fatal-warnings' (-E) stops execution at first warning.
122 * `--nesting-limit=LEVEL' (-L LEVEL) sets a limit to macro nesting.
123 It is initially fixed at 250.
125 * `--word-regexp=REGEXP' (-W REGEXP) modifies macro name syntax, like
126 does the new `changeword(REGEXP)' macro. This feature is experimental,
127 tell me your opinions about it. You do need --enable-changeword at
128 configure time to get these things. Do *not* depend on them yet.
130 * Trace output format is scannable by GNU Emacs' next-error function.
132 * Stack overflow is detected and diagnosed on some capable systems.
134 * Various bugs have been corrected, m4 should be more portable. See the
135 ChangeLog for details.
137 Version 1.1 - November 1993, by Franc,ois Pinard
139 Changes which might affect existing GNU m4 scripts:
141 * Option `-V' has been removed, use `--version' instead. `--version'
142 writes on standard output instead of standard error, and inhibits any
145 * `--no-gnu-extensions' has been renamed `--traditional'.
147 * In `eval', `^' used to indicate exponentiation, use `**' instead.
149 * The automatic undiversion which takes place at end of all input is
150 forced into the main output stream.
152 Changes which are unlikely to affect existing scripts:
154 * `--help' prints an usage summary on standard output. Script execution
157 * `--prefix-builtins' (-P) prefixes all builtin macros by `m4_'.
159 * Most builtin macros for which arguments are mandatory, called without
160 any arguments, are no more recognized as builtin macros: they are
161 consequently copied verbatim to the output stream.
163 * `define' and `pushdef' are usable with only one argument, they give
164 this argument an empty definition.
166 * `eval' new operators for binary representation handling: `^' for
167 exclusive-or, `~' for the bitwise negation, `<<' and `>>' for shifts.
169 * `eval' recognizes the notation 0bDIGITS for binary numbers and the
170 notation 0rRADIX:DIGITS for numbers in any radix from 1 to 36.
172 Version 1.0.3 - December 1992, by Franc,ois Pinard
174 Changes for the user:
176 * `dnl' outputs a diagnostic if immediately followed by `('. Usually,
177 `dnl' is followed by newline or whitespace.
179 * `ifelse' accepts without complaining the common idiom of having only
180 one argument. This is useful for introducing long comments.
182 * `eval' always expresses values as signed, whatever the radix.
184 * M4OPTS environment variable is no longer obeyed.
186 * `--no-warnings' option is renamed `--silent'.
188 * Debug lines use a new format more compatible with GNU standards.
190 * Various bugs have been corrected. See the ChangeLog for details.
192 Changes for the installer:
194 * GNU m4 now uses an Autoconf-generated configure script, and should be
195 more easily portable in many ways. (Cray is not supported yet).
197 * `make check' has been made more portable, expect no errors.
199 Changes for the programmer:
201 * Sources have been fully reindented to comply with GNU standards, and
202 cleaned up in many ways.
204 * Sources have been protoized. Non-ANSI compilers are automatically
205 detected, then sources are unprotoized on the fly before compilation.
207 * GNU m4 uses newer versions of obstack, regex, getopt, etc.
209 Version 1.0 - October 1991, by Rene' Seindal
211 * Uses GNU configure, taken from the gdb distribution.
213 * Uses GNU getopt(), with long option names.
215 * The -Q/+quiet option is added, which suppresses warnings about missing
216 or superflous arguments to built-in macros.
218 * Added default options via the M4OPTS environment variable.
220 * Several minor bugs have been fixed.
222 Version 0.99 - July 1991, by Rene' Seindal
224 * The builtins `incr' and `decr' are now implemented without use of
227 * The builtin `indir' is added, to allow for indirect macro calls
228 (allows use of "illegal" macro names).
230 * The debugging and tracing facilities has been enhanced considerably.
231 See the manual for details.
233 * The -tMACRO option is added, marks MACRO for tracing as soon as it
236 * Builtins are traced after renaming iff they were before.
238 * Named files can now be undiverted.
240 * The -Nnum option can be used to increase the number of divertions
243 * Calling changecom without arguments now disables all comment handling.
245 * A bug in `dnl' is fixed.
247 * A bug in the multi-character quoting code is fixed.
249 * Several typos in the manual has been corrected. More probably persist.
251 Version 0.75 - November 1990, by Rene' Seindal
253 * Implemented search path for include files (-I option and M4PATH
254 environment variable).
256 * Implemented builtin `format' for printf-like formatting.
258 * Implemented builtin `regexp' for searching for regular expressions.
260 * Implemented builtin `patsubst' for substitution with regular
263 * Implemented builtin `esyscmd', which expands to a shell commands output.
265 * Implemented `__file__' and `__line__' for use in error messages.
267 * Implemented character ranges in `translit'.
269 * Implemented control over debugging output.
271 * Implemented multi-character quotes.
273 * Implemented multi-character comment delimiters.
275 * Changed predefined macro `gnu' to `__gnu__'.
277 * Changed predefined macro `unix' to `__unix__', when the -G option is
278 not used. With -G, `unix' is still defined.
280 * Added program name to error messages.
282 * Fixed two missing null bytes bugs.
284 Version 0.50 - January 1990, by Rene' Seindal
286 * Initial beta release.