On 04/07/2011 10:52 AM, Adam Mercer wrote:
> Hi
>
> In one of my macros I need to do one thing on linux platforms and
> another on others, in the macro I have the followings:
>
> if test "x$build_os" = "xlinux"; then
> # case for linux
> else
> # other platforms
> fi
>
> I recently received a bug report that this wasn't working as the users
> system had $build_os defined as 'linux-gnu', whereas on others it was
> just 'linux'. I then tried to change the if statement to:
>
> if test "x$build_os" = "xlinux" -o test "x$build_os" = "xlinux-gnu"; then
'test -o' is completely non-portable. But even if you use it, you had a
syntax error (notice your extra 'test' operand); you meant:
if test "x$build_os" = "xlinux" -o "x$build_os" = "xlinux-gnu"; then
But, seeing how -o is non-portable, this is the correct portable
alternative:
if test "x$build_os" = xlinux || test "x$build_os" = xlinux-gnu; then
However, that gets tedious. When doing host comparisons, it's often
faster to use case statements (the glob lets you match multiple
platforms in one pattern, and you can match multiple patterns). For
example:
case $build_os in
linux* | cygwin*) # case for linux, linux-gnu, and cygwin
;;
*) # other platforms
;;
esac
Be careful with globs that do ranges; you need to double quote to
preserve those ranges into the output. Bad:
case $build_os in
solaris[89]) ...;;
esac
Good, option 1 (useful if ... has no macros, allowing copy and paste to
and from the shell):
[
case $build_os in
solaris[89]) var=value;;
esac
]
Good, option 2 (useful if ... has macros that must not be double-quoted,
and where shell copy and paste is already a non-issue):
case $build_os in
solaris[[89]]) AC_MSG_ERROR([unsupported]);;
esac
Finally, remember that while there are cases, like making sane guesses
while cross-compiling, where probing $host_os is the only way, it goes
against autoconf philosophy of testing features rather than platforms.
And make sure that if you are making platform-specific variables that:
1) your code will still work even if your platform-specific guess was
wrong (ie. guess pessimistically), and 2) you provide a cache variable
to allow the user to override things if you guess wrong.
--
Eric Blake eblake@xxxxxxxxxx +1-801-349-2682
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org
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