-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 27/08/18 15:42, Bob Friesenhahn wrote: > On Sat, 25 Aug 2018, Marko Lindqvist wrote: > >> Indeed. When considering addition of a new macro call to >> configure.ac it often requires a lot of digging (usually from >> NEWS) to find out if using that macro is safe with current >> minimum autoconf version requirement. It would be really good if >> the documentation about macros would say what version of autoconf >> introduced them, or made an API change (such as starting to >> support additional parameters) to them. > > The most recent Autoconf release is quite a long time ago (2012, > and it is 2018 already) so these concerns are a surprise to me. > > Why is it so difficult to support a version which has been stable > for 6 years already? It isn't really autoconf's fault, but rather client projects which misuse the version checking features. For example, when creating a cross-native GCC-6.3.0 build for MinGW.org, I discovered a bogus configuration check, which prevented cross-compiling the gnat libraries; (there was even a comment, IIRC, which suggested that the maintainer knew that the test was bogus). In consultation with said maintainer, we came up with a corrected test. I fixed it in the relevant configure.ac, but when I ran autoreconf, I was advised to "upgrade" my autoconf to version 2.64 ... I already have 2.69! (And yes, I do realize that this is GCC going way beyond the restrictions AC_PREREQ might be expected to impose). If projects as venerable as GCC can get this so badly wrong, what chance for the rest? In my case, I ended up manually hacking configure itself, to achieve the desired correction. - -- Regards, Keith. Public key available from keys.gnupg.net Key fingerprint: C19E C018 1547 DE50 E1D4 8F53 C0AD 36C6 347E 5A3F -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.20 (GNU/Linux) iQIcBAEBAgAGBQJbhBV8AAoJEMCtNsY0flo/hzUP/08eSDiFhl9rahMae0mDAkt7 wlTKYPETWiHp2nmr1YD4X3tgr/1FzAUXAXasb/QtY5QLi4k7maa6VEUvKuyoYxvK gL/Qw4usAV24sfUPD8BwR4Pnm3jZ9XwppJt67VSlvfQyNbHEARGQzQjRJ4c6j2LV PxCAPY8RFTvM7OGFXr1Ivhtf6IFh9Bbedzb99j6yLWczC7B7kW6zMOYrxV7zXEXR hMRO/tGQXmGEO5UbV6CSR85UIW1M6tb8XkHoRk6xZuF8GMAv3PcLu1cabAgQ+xyA io0mDMwj/EknsX8/mW1qe/QU7+p2F6vGOgNs89N88kS9ci9obILqvGG0IWP/lBq5 KTC9CvnqhQ8huifrM2LSOds6ZKHSZrU8h3Fard6+v5cJsWoPE6ooqiRIxhfm4kTY MLmbTX/b6+P1iJmQvwepiv2OlnXA7lsd4UptOukqr+Xczq+OKFDrJDX3PKWB3ch1 RbjyGRtQk6WdjlWCF48Mv43nRrmv64fbO3BlOGUI18GAH6QAM6Mx/MhncESBnxE5 Fby4KJOsvSFbs795TiVbHdXcu/G8V0WugGhNoKa15mY3ynpH/Q6jH7wO+bg3GkSV XU61Eh6IkcBEG/wQsGmHXeVzKabkBN8ep1ipOghdboV8bmegagpzs6si1qp2PG32 /ySTYaXOKGhXu7vP4cNg =gp8P -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Autoconf mailing list Autoconf@xxxxxxx https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/autoconf
