autoconf-2.69c released [beta]

Zack Weinberg <zackw@xxxxxxxxx> · Thu, 24 Sep 2020 13:29:30 -0400

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We are pleased to announce beta release 2.69c of GNU Autoconf.

This release includes two months of bug fixes since the previous beta,
2.68b, and eight years of development work since the previous full
release, 2.69.  See below for the list of significant changes since
the previous beta.  See the NEWS file for a complete list of
significant changes since 2.69.

We tentatively plan to make the final release of Autoconf 2.70 at the
end of October 2020.  Please test this beta with your autoconf
scripts, and report any problems you find to the Savannah bug tracker:

   https://savannah.gnu.org/support/?func=additem&group=autoconf

Please also send general comments and feedback to <autoconf@xxxxxxx>.

Please also spread this announcement widely, so that as many Autoconf
users as possible hear about it.

Here are the compressed sources:
  https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/autoconf-2.69c.tar.gz   (2.0MB)
  https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/autoconf-2.69c.tar.xz   (1.3MB)

Here are the GPG detached signatures[*]:
  https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/autoconf-2.69c.tar.gz.sig
  https://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/autoconf/autoconf-2.69c.tar.xz.sig

Use a mirror for higher download bandwidth:
  https://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html

[*] Use a .sig file to verify that the corresponding file (without the
.sig suffix) is intact.  First, be sure to download both the .sig file
and the corresponding tarball.  Then, run a command like this:

  gpg --verify autoconf-2.69c.tar.gz.sig

If that command fails because you don't have the required public key,
then run this command to import it:

  gpg --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys 384F8E68AC65B0D5

and rerun the 'gpg --verify' command.

This release was bootstrapped with the following tools:
  Automake 1.16.2

Noteworthy changes and bug fixes since the previous beta (2.69b):

* A performance regression in AC_PROG_CXX has been corrected.
  See https://savannah.gnu.org/support/index.php?110285 for details.

* AC_PROG_YACC has been reverted to using ‘bison -y’.  After 2.70,
  we will instead add an AC_PROG_BISON macro for programs that
  require Bison extensions.
  See https://savannah.gnu.org/support/index.php?110266 for details.

* AC_PROG_LEX no longer looks for a library providing the function
  ‘yywrap’.  LEXLIB will only be set to ‘-lfl’ or ‘-ll’ if a
  scanner that defines both ‘main’ and ‘yywrap’ itself still needs
  something else from that library.

  Packages should define yywrap themselves, or use %noyywrap.

* When ‘$CC -E’ doesn’t run the C preprocessor, AC_PROG_CPP now looks
  in $PATH for ‘cpp’ before falling back to ‘/lib/cpp’.

* AC_TYPE_PID_T now gives pid_t the correct definition on 64-bit
  native Microsoft Windows.

* AC_INIT now trims extra white space from its arguments.  For instance,

    AC_INIT([  GNU  Hello  ], [1.0])

  will set PACKAGE_NAME to “GNU Hello”.

* autoreconf will now run gtkdocize and intltoolize when appropriate.

* autoreconf now avoids complaints from subsidiary tools about
  unknown warning categories.  For example, ‘autoreconf -Wcross’
  will no longer cause complaints from (current released versions of)
  aclocal and automake.

* Generated configure scripts no longer fail catastrophically when
  stdin, stdout, or stderr is closed on startup.

* Many bugs related to building Autoconf itself have been corrected.
  These mostly affected non-GNU operating systems and situations where
  optional tools are not available.

* The obsolete macros AC_DIAGNOSE, AC_FATAL, AC_WARNING, and
  _AC_COMPUTE_INT are now replaced with modern equivalents by
  autoupdate.

* The macro AC_OBSOLETE is obsolete.  Autoupdate will replace it with
  m4_warn([obsolete], [explanation]).  If possible, macros using
  AC_OBSOLETE should be converted to use AU_DEFUN or AU_ALIAS instead,
  which enables autoupdate to replace them, but this has to be done by
  hand and is not always possible.

* AC_FC_LINE_LENGTH now documents the maximum portable length of
  "unlimited" Fortran source code lines to be 250 columns, not 254.

* Warnings about obsolete constructs are now on by default.
  They can be turned off with '-Wno-obsolete'.

* autoconf will now issue warnings (in the ‘syntax’ category) if the
  input file is missing a call to AC_INIT and/or AC_OUTPUT.

* AC_INIT will now issue warnings (in the “syntax” category) for a
  non-literal URL argument, and for a TARNAME argument which is either
  non-literal or contains characters that should not be used in file
  names (e.g. ‘*’).