1 GNU Autoconf NEWS - User visible changes.
3 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.70.1 (????-??-??) [?]
7 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.70 (2020-12-08) [stable]
9 ** Backward incompatibilities:
11 *** Warnings about obsolete constructs are now on by default.
13 These warnings can be turned off with ‘-Wno-obsolete’.
15 Many of these warnings advise maintainers to run autoupdate.
16 Be aware that autoupdate cannot solve all backward compatibility
17 problems, and cannot completely solve all of the problems it does
18 address. A configure script edited by autoupdate is likely to
19 need further manual fix-ups.
21 *** Many macros have become pickier about argument quotation.
23 If you get a shell syntax error from your generated configure
24 script, or seemingly impossible misbehavior (e.g. entire blocks of
25 the configure script not getting executed), check first that all
26 macro arguments are properly quoted. The “M4 Quotation” section of
27 the manual explains how to quote macro arguments properly.
29 It is unfortunately not possible for autoupdate to correct
32 *** Many macros no longer AC_REQUIRE as many other macros as they used to.
34 This can expose several classes of latent bugs. These are the ones
37 - Make sure to explicitly invoke all of the macros that set result
38 variables used later in the configure script, or in generated
41 - Autoconf macros that use AC_REQUIRE are not safe to use in shell
42 control-flow constructs that appear outside of macros defined by
43 AC_DEFUN. Use AS_IF, AS_CASE, etc. instead. (See the
44 “Prerequisite Macros” section of the manual for details.)
46 The set of macros that use AC_REQUIRE internally may change from
47 release to release. The only macros that are guaranteed *not* to
48 use AC_REQUIRE are the macros for acting on the results of a
49 test: AC_DEFINE, AC_SUBST, AC_MSG_*, AC_CACHE_CHECK, etc.
51 - AC_REQUIRE cannot be applied to macros that need to be used with
52 arguments. Instead, invoke the macro normally, with its arguments.
54 *** More macros use config.sub and config.guess internally.
56 As a consequence of improved support for cross compilation (see below),
57 more macros now use the auxiliary scripts ‘config.sub’ and ‘config.guess’.
58 If you use any of the affected macros, these scripts must be available
59 when your configure script is run, even if you have no intention of
60 ever cross-compiling your program.
62 autoreconf will issue an error if any auxiliary scripts are needed but
63 cannot be found. (It is not currently possible to make autoconf
64 itself issue this error.)
66 ‘autoreconf --install’ will add ‘config.sub’, ‘config.guess’, and
67 ‘install-sh’ to your source tree if they are needed. If you are
68 using Automake, scripts added to your tree by ‘autoreconf --install’
69 will automatically be included in the tarball produced by ‘make dist’;
70 otherwise, you will need to arrange for them to be distributed
73 See the “Input” section of the manual for more detail, including
74 where to get the auxiliary scripts that may be needed by autoconf macros.
76 *** Setting CC to a C++ compiler is no longer supported.
78 The C and C++ languages have diverged enough that we can no longer
79 guarantee that test C programs will be processed as intended by a
80 C++ compiler. In this release, configure will proceed anyway, but
81 many test results will be incorrect. In a future release, we may
82 make AC_PROG_CC error out if it detects that CC is a C++ compiler.
84 See the “Language Choice” section of the manual for instructions on
85 how to write configure scripts for C++ programs, and for programs
86 with code in more than one language.
88 *** Running configure tests with warnings promoted to errors is not supported.
90 For instance, setting ‘CC="gcc -Werror"’ on the configure command
91 line, or adding -Werror to CFLAGS early in the configure script when
92 the compiler recognizes this option, is very likely to cause
93 subsequent tests to fail.
95 This has never been guaranteed to work; the code generated by
96 AC_CHECK_FUNC, for instance, is incorrect by a strict reading of the
97 original 1989 C standard, and has been ever since that macro was
98 introduced. Problems are more likely with newer, pickier compilers.
100 To enable compiler warnings and/or warnings-as-errors mode for your
101 own code, we currently recommend a dedicated Makefile variable
102 (e.g. ‘WARN_CFLAGS’) that is set by AC_SUBST when appropriate.
103 The Gnulib ‘warnings’ and ‘manywarnings’ modules can help with this.
104 We plan to add core support for probing for useful sets of compiler
105 warnings in a future release.
107 *** Including confdefs.h manually may cause test failures.
109 This has never been necessary; confdefs.h is automatically included
110 at the beginning of all test programs (by AC_LANG_SOURCE). Because
111 of the way confdefs.h is generated and used, it is not practical to
112 give it a multiple inclusion guard. Therefore, if you include it
113 yourself, all of its definitions will be scanned twice.
115 Historically this has not been a problem, because confdefs.h only
116 makes macro definitions, and the C standard allows redefinitions
117 of macros as long as they’re exactly the same, but newer, pickier
118 compilers may complain anyway (see for instance GCC bug 97998).
120 *** Older versions of automake and aclocal (< 1.8) are no longer supported.
122 *** AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS no longer directly supports Cygnus configure.
124 If you are still using an Autoconf script to drive configuration of
125 a multi-package build tree where some subdirectories use Cygnus
126 configure, copy or link $ac_aux_dir/configure into each subdirectory
127 where it is needed. Please also contact us; we were under the
128 impression nobody used this very old tool anymore.
130 *** AC_CHECK_HEADER and AC_CHECK_HEADERS only do a compilation test.
132 This completes the transition from preprocessor-based header tests
133 begun in Autoconf 2.56.
135 The double test that was the default since Autoconf 2.64 is no
136 longer available. You can still request a preprocessor-only test
137 by specifying [-] as the fourth argument to either macro, but this
138 is now deprecated. If you really need that behavior use
141 *** AC_INCLUDES_DEFAULT assumes an ISO C90 compliant C implementation.
143 Specifically, it assumes that the ISO C90 header <stddef.h>
144 is available, without checking for it, and it does not include
145 the pre-standard header <memory.h> at all. If the POSIX header
146 <strings.h> exists, it will be included, without first testing
147 whether both <string.h> and <strings.h> can be included in the
150 AC_INCLUDES_DEFAULT still checks for the existence of <stdlib.h>,
151 <string.h>, and <stdio.h>, because these headers may not exist
152 in a “freestanding environment” (a compilation mode intended for OS
153 kernels and similar, where most of the features of the C library are
154 optional). Most programs need not use ‘#ifdef HAVE_STDLIB_H’ etc in
157 For compatibility’s sake, the C preprocessor macro STDC_HEADERS
158 will be defined when both <stdlib.h> and <string.h> are available;
159 however, <stdarg.h> and <float.h> are no longer checked for
160 (these, like <stddef.h>, are required to exist in a freestanding
161 environment). New code should not refer to this macro.
163 Future releases of Autoconf may reduce the set of headers checked
164 for by AC_INCLUDES_DEFAULT.
166 *** AS_ECHO and AS_ECHO_N unconditionally use ‘printf’.
168 This is substantially simpler, more reliable, and, in most cases,
169 faster than attempting to use ‘echo’ at all. However, if ‘printf’
170 is not a shell builtin, configure scripts will run noticeably
171 slower, and if ‘printf’ is not available at all, they will crash.
172 The only systems where this is known to be a problem are extremely
173 old, and unlikely to be able to handle modern C programs for other
174 reasons (e.g. not having a C90-compliant compiler at all).
176 *** Configure scripts require support for $( ... ) command substitution.
178 This POSIX shell feature is approximately the same age as
179 user-defined functions, but there do exist shells that support
180 functions and not $( ... ), such as Solaris 10 /bin/sh.
182 Configure scripts will automatically locate a shell that supports
183 this feature and re-execute themselves with it, if necessary, so
184 the new requirement should be transparent to most users.
186 In this release, most of Autoconf’s code still uses the older `...`
187 notation for command substitution.
189 *** AC_INIT now trims extra white space from its arguments.
191 For instance, AC_INIT([ GNU Hello ], [1.0]) will set PACKAGE_NAME
194 *** Macros that take whitespace-separated lists as arguments
195 now always expand macros within those arguments.
197 Formerly, these macros would *usually* expand those arguments, but
198 the behavior was not reliable nor was it consistent between autoconf
201 Macro expansion within these arguments is deprecated; if expansion
202 changes the list, a warning in the “obsolete” category will be
203 emitted. Note that ‘dnl’ is a macro. Putting ‘dnl’ comments inside
204 any argument to an Autoconf macro is, in general, only supported
205 when that argument takes more Autoconf code (e.g. the ACTION-IF-TRUE
206 argument to AC_COMPILE_IFELSE).
208 The affected macros are AC_CHECK_FILES, AC_CHECK_FUNCS,
209 AC_CHECK_FUNCS_ONCE, AC_CHECK_HEADERS, AC_CHECK_HEADERS_ONCE,
210 AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS, AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS, and AC_REPLACE_FUNCS.
212 *** AC_FUNC_VFORK no longer ignores a signal-handling bug in Solaris 2.4.
214 This bug was being ignored because Emacs wanted to use ‘vfork’ on
215 Solaris 2.4 anyway, but current versions of Emacs have dropped
216 support for Solaris 2.4. Most programs will want to avoid ‘vfork’
217 on this OS because of this bug.
219 *** AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R assumes strerror_r is unavailable if it’s not declared.
221 The fallback technique it used to probe strerror_r’s return type
222 when the function was present in the C library, but not declared by
223 <string.h>, was fragile and did not work at all when cross-compiling.
224 The systems where this fallback was necessary were all obsolete.
226 Programs that use AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R should make sure to test the
227 preprocessor macro HAVE_DECL_STRERROR_R before using strerror_r at all.
229 *** AC_OPENMP can’t be used if you have files named ‘mp’ or ‘penmp’.
231 Autoconf will now issue an error if AC_OPENMP is used in a configure
232 script that’s in the same directory as a file named ‘mp’ or ‘penmp’.
233 Configure scripts that use AC_OPENMP will now error out upon
234 encountering files with these names in their working directory
235 (e.g. when the build directory is separate from the source directory).
237 If you have files with these names at the top level of your source
238 tree, we recommend either renaming them or moving them into a
239 subdirectory. See the documentation of AC_OPENMP for further
244 *** Configure scripts now support a ‘--runstatedir’ option.
246 This defaults to ‘${localstatedir}/run’. It can be used, for
247 instance, to place per-process temporary runtime files (such as pid
248 files) into ‘/run’ instead of ‘/var/run’.
250 *** autoreconf will now run gtkdocize and intltoolize when appropriate.
252 *** autoreconf now recognizes AM_GNU_GETTEXT_REQUIRE_VERSION.
254 This macro can be used with gettext 0.19.6 or later to specify
255 a *minimum* version requirement for gettext, instead of the *fixed*
256 version requirement specified by AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION.
258 *** autoheader handles secondary config headers better.
260 It is no longer necessary to duplicate AC_DEFINE templates in the
261 main configuration header for autoheader to notice them.
263 *** AC_PROG_CC now enables C2011 mode if the compiler supports it.
265 If not, it will fall back to C99 and C89, as before. Similarly,
266 AC_PROG_CXX now enables C++2011 if available, falling back on C++98.
268 *** New macro AC_C__GENERIC tests for C2011 _Generic support.
270 *** AC_C_VARARRAYS has been aligned with C2011.
272 It now defines __STDC_NO_VLA__ if variable-length arrays are not
273 supported but the compiler does not define __STDC_NO_VLA__.
275 For backward compatibility with Autoconf 2.61-2.69 AC_C_VARARRAYS
276 still defines HAVE_C_VARARRAYS, but this result macro is obsolescent.
278 *** New macro AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIRS.
280 This macro can be used more than once and accepts a list of
281 directories to search for local M4 macros. With Automake 1.13 and
282 later, use of this macro eliminates a reason to use ACLOCAL_AMFLAGS
285 The older AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR, which could only be used once, is
286 still supported but considered deprecated.
288 *** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS knows about more extensions to enable.
290 System extensions will now be enabled on HP-UX, macOS, and MINIX.
291 Optional ISO C library components (e.g. decimal floating point) will
294 *** New compatibility macro AC_CHECK_INCLUDES_DEFAULT.
296 This macro runs the checks normally performed as a side-effect by
297 AC_INCLUDES_DEFAULT, if they haven’t already been done. Autoupdate
298 will replace certain obsolete constructs, whose only remaining
299 useful effect is to trigger those checks, with this macro. It is
300 unlikely to be useful otherwise.
302 *** AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE has been improved.
304 Configure scripts now check, on startup, for the availability of all
305 the aux files that were mentioned in an AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE
306 invocation. This should help prevent certain classes of packaging
309 Also, it is no longer necessary for third-party macros that use
310 AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE to mention AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR_DEFAULT. However,
311 if you are using AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR_DEFAULT *without* also using
312 AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE, please start using AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE to
313 specify the aux files you actually need, so that the check can be
316 *** AC_PROG_LEX has an option to not look for yywrap.
318 AC_PROG_LEX now takes one argument, which may be either ‘yywrap’ or
319 ‘noyywrap’. If it is ‘noyywrap’, AC_PROG_LEX will only set LEXLIB
320 to ‘-lfl’ or ‘-ll’ if a scanner that defines both main and yywrap
321 itself still needs something else from that library. On the other
322 hand, if it is ‘yywrap’, AC_PROG_LEX will fail (setting LEX to ‘:’
323 and LEXLIB to nothing) if it can’t find a library that defines yywrap.
325 In the absence of arguments, AC_PROG_LEX’s behavior is bug-compatible
326 with 2.69, which did neither of the above things (see the manual for
327 details). This mode is deprecated.
329 We encourage all programs that use AC_PROG_LEX to use the new
330 ‘noyywrap’ mode, and to define yywrap themselves, or use %noyywrap.
331 The yywrap function in lib(f)l is trivial, and self-contained
332 scanners are easier to work with.
334 ** Obsolete features and new warnings
336 *** Use of the long-deprecated name ‘configure.in’ for the autoconf
337 input file now elicits a warning in the “obsolete” category.
339 *** Use of the undocumented internal shell variables $as_echo and
340 $as_echo_n now elicits a warning in the “obsolete” category.
341 The macros AS_ECHO and AS_ECHO_N should be used instead.
343 *** autoconf will now issue warnings (in the “syntax” category)
344 if the input file is missing a call to AC_INIT and/or AC_OUTPUT.
346 *** autoconf will now issue warnings (in the “syntax” category)
347 for a non-literal URL argument to AC_INIT, and for a TARNAME
348 argument to AC_INIT which is either non-literal or contains
349 characters that should not be used in file names (e.g. ‘*’).
351 *** AC_PROG_CC_STDC, AC_PROG_CC_C89, AC_PROG_CC_C99 are now obsolete.
353 Applications should use AC_PROG_CC.
355 *** AC_HEADER_STDC and AC_HEADER_TIME are now stubs.
357 They still define the C preprocessor macros STDC_HEADERS and
358 TIME_WITH_SYS_TIME, respectively, but they no longer check for the
359 ancient, non-ISO-C90 compliant systems where formerly those macros
360 would not be defined. Autoupdate will remove them.
362 These macros were already labeled obsolete in the manual.
364 *** AC_DIAGNOSE, AC_FATAL, AC_WARNING, and _AC_COMPUTE_INT are now
365 replaced with modern equivalents by autoupdate.
367 These macros were already labeled obsolete in the manual.
369 *** AC_CONFIG_HEADER is now diagnosed as obsolete, and replaced with
370 AC_CONFIG_HEADERS by autoupdate.
372 This macro has been considered obsolete for many years and was not
375 *** The macro AC_OBSOLETE is obsolete.
377 Autoupdate will replace it with m4_warn([obsolete], [explanation]).
378 If possible, macros using AC_OBSOLETE should be converted to use
379 AU_DEFUN or AU_ALIAS instead, which enables autoupdate to replace
380 them, but this has to be done by hand and is not always possible.
382 This macro has been considered obsolete for many years, but was not
383 officially declared as such.
385 *** Man pages for config.guess and config.sub are no longer provided.
387 They were moved to the master source tree for config.guess and
392 *** Compatible with current Automake, Libtool, Perl, Texinfo, and shells.
394 All of autoconf’s tools and generated scripts, and the build process
395 and testsuite for autoconf itself, have been tested to work
396 correctly with current versions of Automake, Libtool, Perl, Texinfo,
397 bash, ksh93, zsh, and FreeBSD and NetBSD /bin/sh.
399 Generated configure scripts are expected to work reliably with an
400 even wider variety of shells, including BusyBox sh and various
401 proprietary Unixes’ /bin/sh, as long as they are minimally compliant
402 with the Unix95 shell specification. Notably, support for
403 shell-script functions and the ‘printf’ builtin are required.
405 *** Checks compatible with current language standards and compilers.
407 Many individual macros have been improved to accommodate changes in
408 recent versions of the C and C++ language standards, and new
409 features and quirks of commonly used compilers (both free and
412 *** Improved support for cross compilation.
414 Many individual macros have been improved to produce more accurate
415 results when cross-compiling.
417 *** Improved robustness against unusual build environments.
419 Many bugs have been fixed where generated configure scripts would
420 fail catastrophically under unusual conditions, such as stdout being
421 closed, or $TMPDIR not being an absolute path, or the root directory
422 being mentioned in $PATH.
424 *** AC_CHECK_FUNCS_ONCE and AC_CHECK_HEADERS_ONCE now support multiple
425 programming languages. They no longer perform all checks in the
426 language active upon the first use of the macro.
428 *** AC_CHECK_DECL and AC_CHECK_DECLS will now detect missing declarations for
429 library functions that are also Clang compiler builtins.
431 *** AC_PATH_X and AC_PATH_XTRA don’t search for X11 when cross-compiling.
433 Libraries and headers found by running xmkmf or searching /usr/X11,
434 /usr/X11R7, etc. are likely to belong to a native X11 installation
435 for the build machine and to be inappropriate for cross compilation.
437 To cross-compile programs that require X11, we recommend putting the
438 headers and libraries for the host system in your cross-compiler’s
439 default search paths. Alternatively, use configure’s --x-includes
440 and --x-libraries command line options to tell it where they are.
442 *** AS_IF’s if-false argument may be empty after macro expansion.
444 This long-standing limitation broke configure scripts that used
445 macros in this position that emitted shell code in 2.69 but no
446 longer do, so we have lifted it.
448 *** AC_HEADER_MAJOR detects the location of the major, minor, and
449 makedev macros correctly under glibc 2.25 and later.
451 *** AC_FC_LINE_LENGTH now documents the maximum portable length of
452 “unlimited” Fortran source code lines to be 250 columns, not 254.
454 *** AC_INIT and AS_INIT no longer embed (part of) the path to the
455 source directory in generated files.
457 We believe this was the only case where generated file contents
458 could change depending on the environment outside the source tree
459 itself. If you find any other cases please report them as bugs.
461 *** config.log properly escapes arguments in the header comment.
463 *** config.status --config output is now quoted in a more readable fashion.
465 ** Autotest enhancements
467 *** Autotest provides a new macro AT_DATA_UNQUOTED, similar to AT_DATA
468 but processing variable substitutions, command substitutions and
469 backslashes in the contents argument.
471 *** AC_CONFIG_TESTDIR will automatically pass EXEEXT to a testsuite (via
474 *** AT_TESTED arguments can use variable or command substitutions, including
475 in particular $EXEEXT
477 *** New macros AT_PREPARE_TESTS, AT_PREPARE_EACH_TEST, and AT_TEST_HELPER_FN.
479 These provide an official way to define testsuite-specific
480 initialization code and shell functions.
482 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.69 (2012-04-24) [stable]
484 ** Autoconf now requires perl 5.6 or better (but generated configure
485 scripts continue to run without perl).
487 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.68b (2012-03-01) [beta]
488 Released by Eric Blake, based on git versions 2.68.*.
490 ** Autoconf-generated configure scripts now unconditionally re-execute
491 themselves with $CONFIG_SHELL, if that's set in the environment.
493 ** The texinfo documentation no longer specifies "front-cover" or
494 "back-cover" texts, so that it may now be included in Debian's
497 ** Support for the Go programming language has been added. The new macro
498 AC_LANG_GO sets variables GOC and GOFLAGS.
500 ** AS_LITERAL_IF again treats '=' as a literal. Regression introduced in
503 ** The macro AS_EXECUTABLE_P, present since 2.50, is now documented.
507 - AC_PROG_LN_S and AS_LN_S now fall back on 'cp -pR' (not 'cp -p') if 'ln -s'
508 does not work. This works better for symlinks to directories.
510 - New macro AC_HEADER_CHECK_STDBOOL.
512 - New and updated macros for Fortran support:
514 AC_FC_CHECK_BOUNDS to enable array bounds checking
515 AC_F77_IMPLICIT_NONE and AC_FC_IMPLICIT_NONE to disable implicit integer
516 AC_FC_MODULE_EXTENSION to compute the Fortran 90 module name extension
517 AC_FC_MODULE_FLAG for the Fortran 90 module search path flag
518 AC_FC_MODULE_OUTPUT_FLAG for the Fortran 90 module output directory flag
519 AC_FC_PP_SRCEXT for preprocessed Fortran source files extensions
520 AC_FC_PP_DEFINE for the Fortran preprocessor define flag
522 * Noteworthy changes in release 2.68 (2010-09-22) [stable]
523 Released by Eric Blake, based on git versions 2.67.*.
525 ** AC_MSG_ERROR (and AS_ERROR) can once again be followed immediately by
526 `dnl'. Regression introduced in 2.66.
528 ** AC_INIT again allows URLs with '?' for its BUG-REPORT argument.
529 Regression introduced in 2.66.
531 ** AC_REPLACE_FUNCS again allows a non-literal argument, such as a shell
532 variable that expands to a list of functions to check. Regression
535 ** AT_BANNER() with empty argument will cause visual separation from previous
538 ** The macros AC_PREPROC_IFELSE, AC_COMPILE_IFELSE, AC_LINK_IFELSE, and
539 AC_RUN_IFELSE now warn if the first argument failed to use
540 AC_LANG_SOURCE or AC_LANG_PROGRAM to generate the conftest file
541 contents. A new macro AC_LANG_DEFINES_PROVIDED exists if you have
542 a compelling reason why you cannot use AC_LANG_SOURCE but must
545 ** The macro m4_define_default is now documented.
547 ** Symlinked config.cache files are supported; configure now tries to
548 update non-symlinked cache files atomically, so that concurrent configure
549 runs do not leave behind broken cache files. It is still unspecified
550 which subset or union of results is cached though.
552 ** Autotest testsuites should not contain long text lines any more, and be
553 portable even when very many test groups are used.
555 ** AT_CHECK semantics with respect to the Autotest variable $at_status and
556 shell execution environment of the arguments are documented now.
558 ** AC_FC_LIBRARY_LDFLAGS now tolerates output from newer gfortran.
560 ** Newly obsolete macros
561 The following macros have been marked obsolete. New programs
562 should use the corresponding Gnulib modules. Gnulib not only
563 detects a larger set of portability problems with these functions,
564 but also provides complete workarounds.
566 AC_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE AC_FUNC_LSTAT_FOLLOWS_SLASHED_SYMLINK
567 AC_FUNC_MKTIME AC_FUNC_STRTOD
570 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.67 (2010-07-21) [stable]
571 Released by Eric Blake, based on git versions 2.66.*.
573 ** AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS with more than one subdirectory at a time works again.
574 Regression introduced in 2.66.
576 ** AC_CHECK_SIZEOF of a pointer type works again. Regression introduced in
579 ** New macro AC_FC_LINE_LENGTH to accept long Fortran source code lines.
581 ** AC_PREPROC_IFELSE now keeps the preprocessed output in the conftest.i
582 file for inspection by the commands in the ACTION-IF-TRUE argument.
584 ** AC_INIT again allows parentheses and other characters that are literal
585 in single- or double-quoted strings, and in quoted and unquoted
586 here-documents, for its PACKAGE and VERSION arguments. Regression
589 ** autoreconf passes warning flags to new enough versions of aclocal.
591 ** Running an Autotest testsuite in parallel mode no longer triggers a
592 race condition that could cause the testsuite run to end early,
593 fixing a sporadic failure in autoconf's own testsuite. Bug present
594 since introduction of parallel tests in 2.63b.
597 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.66 (2010-07-02) [stable]
598 Released by Eric Blake, based on git versions 2.65.*.
600 ** AC_FUNC_MMAP works in C++ mode again. Regression introduced in 2.65.
602 ** Use of m4_divert without a named diversion now issues a syntax warning,
603 since it is seldom right to change diversions behind autoconf's back.
605 ** The macros AC_TYPE_INT8_T, AC_TYPE_INT16_T, AC_TYPE_INT32_T, and
606 AC_TYPE_INT64_T work again. Regression introduced in 2.65.
608 ** AC_PROG_INSTALL correctly uses `shtool' again. Regression introduced
611 ** Autoconf should work on EBCDIC hosts.
613 ** AC_CHECK_DECL and AC_CHECK_DECLS accept optional function argument types
614 for overloaded C++ functions.
616 ** AS_SET_CATFILE accepts nonliterals in its variable name argument now.
618 ** Autotest testsuites accept an option --recheck to rerun tests that
619 failed or passed unexpectedly during the last non-debug testsuite run.
621 ** AC_ARG_ENABLE and AC_ARG_WITH now also accept `+' signs in `--enable-*'
622 and `--with-*' arguments, converting them to underscores for the variable
625 ** In configure scripts, loading CONFIG_SITE no longer searches PATH,
626 and problems in loading the configuration site files are diagnosed.
628 ** Autotest testsuites may optionally provide colored test results.
630 ** The previously undocumented Autotest macros AT_ARG_OPTION and
631 AT_ARG_OPTION_ARG have seen bug fixes and are documented now.
632 AT_ARG_OPTION has been changed in that the negative of a long option
633 --OPTION is now --no-OPTION rather than --noOPTION.
635 ** The macro AS_LITERAL_IF is slightly more conservative; text
636 containing shell quotes are no longer treated as literals.
637 Furthermore, a new macro, AS_LITERAL_WORD_IF, adds an additional
638 level of checking that no whitespace occurs in literals.
640 ** The macros AS_TR_SH and AS_TR_CPP no longer expand their results.
642 ** The following macros are now documented:
645 ** New macro AC_FC_FIXEDFORM to accept fixed-form Fortran.
648 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.65 (2009-11-21) [stable]
649 Released by Eric Blake, based on git versions 2.64.*.
651 ** Autoconf is now licensed under the General Public License version 3
652 or later (GPLv3+). As with earlier versions, the license includes
653 an exception clause so that you may release a configure script
654 generated by autoconf under the license of your own program.
656 ** New macros to support Objective C++.
657 AC_PROG_OBJCXX AC_PROG_OBJCXXCPP
659 ** The following undocumented autoconf macros, removed in Autoconf 2.64,
660 have been reinstated:
663 These macros are present only for backwards compatibility purposes.
665 ** The macro AC_LANG_COMPILER no longer fails on embedded systems that
666 lack fopen in the C library, such as AVR or RTEMS (regression
669 ** The AC_FC_FREEFORM macro no longer suffers from a whitespace bug that
670 made it fail with some Fortran compilers (regression introduced in
673 ** The AC_TYPE_UINT64_T and AC_TYPE_INT64_T macros have been fixed to no
674 longer mistakenly select a 32-bit type on some compilers (bug present
675 since macros were introduced in 2.59c).
677 ** The AC_FUNC_MMAP macro has been fixed to be portable to systems like
678 Cygwin (bug present since macro was introduced in 2.0).
680 ** The following documented autotest macros are new:
683 ** The following m4sugar macros now quote their expansion:
684 m4_toupper m4_tolower
686 ** The following m4sugar macros are new:
689 ** The m4sugar macro m4_text_wrap now copes with embedded quoting without
690 requiring quadrigraphs. For uses like AC_ARG_VAR([a], [[b c]]),
691 this gives the intuitive behavior of "[b c]" in the output (2.63
692 gave the output of "[b], [c]", and 2.64 encountered a failure).
694 ** The `$tmp' temporary directory used in config.status is documented for
697 ** config.status now provides a --config option to produce the configuration.
699 ** Many cache variables used by Autoconf's macros are now documented.
701 ** Configure scripts work better on DJGPP by avoiding a bug present in
702 the DJGPP port of bash 2.04 in handling 'return' in a shell
703 function (regression introduced in 2.64).
705 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.64 (2009-07-26) [stable]
706 Released by Eric Blake, based on git versions 2.63b.*.
708 ** Autoconf now requires GNU M4 1.4.6 or later. Earlier versions of M4
709 have a bug in regular expression handling that interferes with some
710 of the speedups provided since Autoconf 2.63. GNU M4 1.4.13 or
711 later is recommended.
713 ** AS_IF and AS_CASE have been taught to avoid syntax errors even when
714 given arguments that expand to just whitespace.
716 ** The following documented autoconf macros are new:
717 AC_ERLANG_SUBST_ERTS_VER
719 ** The autoheader tool now understands m4 macro arguments passed to
720 AC_DEFINE and AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED.
722 ** Ensure AT_CHECK can support commands that include a # given with
723 proper m4 quoting. For shell comments, this is a new feature; for
724 non-shell comments, this fixes a regression introduced in 2.63b.
725 Additionally, AT_CHECK correctly supplies shell escapes for
726 metacharacters occurring in m4 macro expansions within the expected
727 stdout and stderr parameters.
729 ** The macro AT_CHECK now understands the concept of hard failure. If
730 a test exits with an unexpected status 99, cleanup actions for the
731 test are inhibited and the test is treated as a failure regardless
732 of AT_XFAIL_IF. It also understands the new directives
733 ignore-nolog, stdout-nolog, and stderr-nolog.
735 ** The following documented autotest macros are new:
736 AT_CHECK_UNQUOTED AT_FAIL_IF AT_SKIP_IF
738 ** The following documented m4sugar macros are new:
739 m4_argn m4_copy_force m4_default_nblank m4_default_nblank_quoted
740 m4_ifblank m4_ifnblank m4_rename_force
742 ** The autoconf testsuite now exercises all Erlang macros.
744 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.63b (2009-03-31) [beta]
745 Released by Eric Blake, based on git versions 2.63.*.
747 ** The manual is now shipped under the terms of the GNU FDL 1.3.
749 ** AC_REQUIRE now detects the case of an outer macro which first expands
750 then later indirectly requires the same inner macro. Previously,
751 this case led to silent out-of-order expansion (bug present since
752 2.50); it now issues a syntax warning, and duplicates the expansion
753 of the inner macro to guarantee dependencies have been met. See
754 the manual for advice on how to refactor macros in order to avoid
755 the bug in earlier autoconf versions and avoid increased script
756 size in the current version.
758 ** AC_DEFUN_ONCE has improved semantics. Previously, a macro declared
759 with AC_DEFUN_ONCE warned on a second invocation; and out-of-order
760 expansion was still possible. Now, dependencies are guaranteed,
761 and subsequent invocations are a silent no-op. This makes
762 AC_DEFUN_ONCE an ideal macro for silencing AC_REQUIRE warnings.
764 ** The following macros are now defined with AC_DEFUN_ONCE. This means
765 a subtle change in semantics; previously, an AC_DEFUN macro could
766 expand one of these macros multiple times or surround the macro
767 inside shell conditional text to bypass the effects of these
768 macros, but now the macro will expand exactly once, and prior to
769 the start of any enclosing AC_DEFUN macro:
770 AC_CANONICAL_BUILD AC_CANONICAL_HOST AC_CANONICAL_TARGET
771 AC_HEADER_ASSERT AC_PROG_INSTALL AC_PROG_MKDIR_P
772 AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS
774 ** AC_LANG_ERLANG works once again (regression introduced in 2.61a).
776 ** AC_HEADER_ASSERT is fixed so that './configure --enable-assert' no
777 longer mistakenly disables assertions.
779 ** AC_INIT now takes an optional fifth parameter that can be used to
780 set AC_PACKAGE_URL, a URL for the package's home page; the URL is
781 used in `configure --help' and is also available via AC_DEFINE.
783 ** Autotest testsuites accept an option --jobs[=N] for parallel testing.
784 This feature is still in testing, and may not work on every
785 platform, help in improving it would be appreciated.
787 ** Autotest testsuites do not attempt to write startup error messages
788 to the log file before that is opened (regression introduced in 2.63).
790 ** Configure scripts now use shell functions. This feature leads to
791 smaller configure files and faster execution.
793 ** Present But Cannot Be Compiled: Autoconf will now proceed with
794 the compiler's result if a header is present but cannot be compiled.
795 The warning is still printed, and you should really fix it by
796 providing a fourth parameter to AC_CHECK_HEADER/AC_CHECK_HEADERS.
798 ** Autoreconf added aclocal to the set of programs affected by the
799 `autoreconf -I dir' option.
801 ** The following documented m4sugar macros are new:
802 m4_chomp m4_chomp_all m4_cleardivert m4_curry m4_default_quoted
803 m4_esyscmd_s m4_map_args m4_map_args_pair m4_map_args_sep
804 m4_map_args_w m4_set_map m4_set_map_sep m4_stack_foreach
805 m4_stack_foreach_lifo m4_stack_foreach_sep
806 m4_stack_foreach_sep_lifo
808 ** The following m4sugar macros are documented now, but in some cases
809 with slightly different semantics than what the previous
810 undocumented version had:
811 m4_copy m4_dumpdefs m4_rename m4_version_prereq
813 ** The m4sugar macro m4_expand has been taught to handle unterminated
814 comments and shell case statements. As a result, it is used
815 internally in more places, such as AC_DEFINE and AT_CHECK. Most
816 uses of AC_DEFINE and AT_CHECK should not behave any differently;
817 however, it may be necessary to add double-quoting around
818 unbalanced `(' where single-quoting used to be sufficient.
820 ** The following documented m4sh macros are new:
821 AS_INIT_GENERATED AS_LINENO_PREPARE AS_ME_PREPARE AS_SET_STATUS
822 AS_VAR_APPEND AS_VAR_ARITH AS_VAR_COPY
824 ** The following m4sh macros are documented now, but in some cases
825 with slightly different semantics than what the previous
826 undocumented version had:
827 AS_ECHO AS_ECHO_N AS_ESCAPE AS_EXIT AS_LITERAL_IF AS_UNSET
828 AS_VAR_IF AS_VAR_POPDEF AS_VAR_PUSHDEF AS_VAR_SET AS_VAR_SET_IF
829 AS_VAR_TEST_SET AS_VERSION_COMPARE
831 ** The m4sh macros AS_IF and AS_CASE can now be used in shell lists.
832 The responsibility for supplying a trailing newline now belongs to
833 the call site, but since most users did not add dnl, this generally
834 results in fewer empty lines in configure.
837 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.63 (2008-09-09) [stable]
838 Released by Eric Blake, based on git versions 2.62.*.
840 ** AC_C_BIGENDIAN does not mistakenly report "universal" for some
841 bigendian hosts, a regression introduced with universal binary
844 ** AC_PATH_X now includes /lib64 and /usr/lib64 in its list of default
847 ** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS no longer conflicts with an external
848 AC_DEFINE([__EXTENSIONS__]). This fixes a regression introduced in
849 2.62 when using macros such as AC_AIX that were made obsolete in
850 favor of the more portable AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS.
852 ** AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOLS is usable in the non-cross-compile case.
854 ** Newly obsolete macros
855 The following macro has been marked obsolete, since current porting
856 targets can safely assume C89 semantics that signal handlers return
857 void. We have no current plans to remove the macro.
861 ** The macros m4_map and m4_map_sep now ignore any list elements
862 consisting of just empty quotes, and m4_map_sep now expands its
863 separator. This fixes a regression in 2.62 when these macros were
864 first documented, for the sake of clients expecting the semantics
865 that these macros had prior to that time. The new macros m4_mapall
866 and m4_mapall_sep, along with extra quoting of the separator, can
867 be used to get the semantics that m4_map_sep had in 2.62.
869 ** Clients of m4_expand, such as AS_HELP_STRING and AT_SETUP, can now
870 handle properly quoted but otherwise unbalanced parentheses (for
871 some macros, this fixes a regression in 2.62).
873 ** Two new quadrigraphs have been introduced: @{:@ for (, and @:}@ for ),
874 allowing the output of unbalanced parentheses in more contexts.
876 ** The following m4sugar macros are new:
877 m4_cleardivert m4_joinall m4_mapall m4_mapall_sep m4_reverse
878 m4_set_add m4_set_add_all m4_set_contains m4_set_contents
879 m4_set_delete m4_set_difference m4_set_dump m4_set_empty
880 m4_set_foreach m4_set_intersection m4_set_list m4_set_listc
881 m4_set_remove m4_set_size m4_set_union
883 ** The following m4sugar macros now accept multiple arguments, as is the
884 case with underlying m4:
885 m4_defn m4_popdef m4_undefine
887 ** The following m4sugar macros now guarantee linear scaling; they
888 previously had linear scaling with m4 1.6 but quadratic scaling
889 when using m4 1.4.x. All macros built on top of these also gain
890 the scaling improvements.
891 m4_bmatch m4_bpatsubsts m4_case m4_cond m4_do m4_dquote_elt
892 m4_foreach m4_join m4_list_cmp m4_map m4_map_sep m4_max
895 ** AT_KEYWORDS once again performs expansion on its argument, such that
896 AT_KEYWORDS([m4_if([$1], [], [default])]) no longer complains about
897 the possibly unexpanded m4_if [regression introduced in 2.62].
899 ** Config header templates `#undef UNDEFINED /* comment */' do not lead to
900 nested comments any more; regression introduced in 2.62.
903 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.62 (2008-04-05) [stable]
904 Released by Eric Blake, based on git versions 2.61a.*.
906 ** Many optimizations have been applied to make overall execution faster.
908 ** Autotest now makes use of shell functions.
910 ** config.status now uses awk instead of sed also for config headers.
912 - As a side effect, AC_DEFINE and AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED now handle multi-line
913 values, i.e., backslash-newline combinations are handled correctly.
914 Further, for config headers, the total size of values is not limited by
915 the POSIX length limit of text lines any more, only each single line.
917 ** New config variable `top_build_prefix'.
919 ** New Autoconf macros:
920 AC_AUTOCONF_VERSION AC_OPENMP AC_PATH_PROGS_FEATURE_CHECK
922 ** AC_C_BIGENDIAN now supports universal binaries a la Mac OS X.
924 ** AC_C_RESTRICT now prefers to #define 'restrict' to a variant spelling
925 like '__restrict' if the variant spelling is available, as this is
926 more likely to work when mixing C and C++ code.
928 ** AC_CHECK_ALIGNOF's type argument T is now documented better: it must
929 be a string of tokens such that "T y;" is a valid member declaration
932 ** AC_CHECK_SIZEOF now accepts objects as well as types: the general rule
933 is that sizeof (X) works, then AC_CHECK_SIZEOF (X) should work.
935 ** AC_CHECK_TYPE and AC_CHECK_TYPES now work on any C type-name; formerly,
936 they did not work for function types. In C++, they now work on any
937 type-id that can be the operand of sizeof; this is similar to C,
938 except it excludes anonymous struct and union types. Formerly,
939 some (but not all) C++ types involving anonymous struct and union
940 were accepted, though this was not documented.
942 ** AC_CONFIG_LINKS now prefers to link against files in the build tree
943 if found, and it works to link against a file of the same name in
944 the source tree, even if both trees coincide.
946 ** AC_INIT no longer alters $@; regression introduced in 2.60.
948 ** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS now defines _ALL_SOURCE for Interix platforms.
950 ** AS_HELP_STRING no longer underquotes its first argument; it also handles
951 the case where the first argument contains single-quoted commas.
952 For example, "AS_HELP_STRING([-a, [--arg[=foo]]], [bar])" produces:
953 " -a, --arg[=foo] bar"
954 Additionally, the macro now takes two additional arguments,
955 indent-column and wrap-column; these should not normally be needed,
956 but can be used to fine-tune how the output text is wrapped.
958 ** AC_PROG_INSTALL now requires an install program that can install multiple
959 files into a target directory.
961 ** The command 'autoconf -' now correctly processes a file from stdin.
963 ** 'autoreconf -m' now honors $MAKE.
965 ** For all of the directory arguments for 'configure', such as '--prefix'
966 or '--bindir', trailing slashes are stripped. As an example, if
967 tab completion in the user's shell appends trailing slashes, the
968 command './configure --prefix=/usr/' will still result in an
969 expanded libdir value of /usr/lib, not /usr//lib.
971 ** `configure --help=recursive' now works in read-only trees and from
972 unconfigured build trees.
974 ** If precious variables differ only in whitespace, then the cache consistency
975 check warns instead of fails, and reuses the old value.
977 ** AT_BANNER is now documented.
979 ** AT_SETUP now handles macro expansions properly when calculating line
982 ** Autotest now determines $srcdir correctly.
984 ** Testsuites built by autotest now accept a -C/--directory=DIR option
985 to adjust the working directory prior to creating files.
987 ** Autoconf now requires GNU M4 1.4.5 or later. Earlier versions of M4 have
988 a bug in macro tracing that interferes with the interaction between
989 Autoconf and Automake. GNU M4 1.4.11 or later is recommended. The
990 configure search for a working M4 is improved.
992 ** For portability with the eventual M4 2.0, macros should no longer use
993 anything larger than $9 to refer to arguments.
995 ** Documentation for m4sugar is improved.
997 - The following macros were previously available as undocumented
998 interfaces; the macros are now documented as stable interfaces.
1000 __oline__ m4_assert m4_bmatch m4_bpatsubsts m4_car m4_case
1001 m4_cdr m4_default m4_divert_once m4_divert_pop m4_divert_push
1002 m4_divert_text m4_do m4_errprintn m4_fatal m4_flatten
1003 m4_ifndef m4_ifset m4_ifval m4_ifvaln m4_location
1004 m4_n m4_shiftn m4_strip m4_warn
1006 - The following macros were previously available as undocumented
1007 interfaces, but had bug fixes or semantic changes as part of this
1008 release. Packages that relied on the undocumented behavior
1009 should be analyzed to make sure they will still work with the
1010 new documented behavior.
1012 m4_cmp m4_list_cmp m4_join m4_map m4_map_sep m4_sign
1013 m4_text_box m4_text_wrap m4_version_compare
1015 - The m4_wrap macro used to have unspecified order, but now
1016 guarantees FIFO order. m4_wrap_lifo was added to guarantee LIFO
1019 - Packages using the undocumented m4sugar macro m4_PACKAGE_VERSION
1020 should consider using the new AC_AUTOCONF_VERSION instead.
1022 - m4sugar macros that are not documented in the manual are still
1023 deemed experimental, and should not be used outside of Autoconf.
1025 ** The m4sugar macros m4_append and m4_append_uniq, first documented in
1026 2.60, have been fixed to treat both the string and the separator
1027 arguments consistently with regards to quoting. Prior to this fix,
1028 m4_append_uniq could mistakenly duplicate entries if the expansion
1029 of the separator resulted in a different string (for example, if it
1030 contained quotes, a comma, or a macro name). However, it means
1031 that programs previously using
1032 m4_append([name], [string], [[, ]])
1033 are now using a four-character separator instead of the intended
1034 comma and space. If you need portability to earlier versions of
1035 Autoconf, you can insert the following snippet after AC_INIT but
1036 before any other macro expansions, to enforce the new semantics:
1037 m4_pushdef([m4_append], [m4_define([$1],
1038 m4_ifdef([$1], [m4_defn([$1])[$3]])[$2])])
1039 Additionally, m4_append_uniq now takes optional parameters that can
1040 be used to take action depending on whether anything was appended,
1041 and warns if a non-empty separator occurs within the string being
1042 appended, since that can lead to duplicates.
1044 ** The following m4sugar macros are new:
1045 m4_append_uniq_w m4_apply m4_combine m4_cond m4_count
1046 m4_dquote_elt m4_echo m4_expand m4_ignore m4_make_list m4_max
1047 m4_min m4_newline m4_shift2 m4_shift3 m4_unquote m4_wrap_lifo
1049 ** Warnings are now generated by default when an installer invokes
1050 'configure' with an unknown --enable-* or --with-* option.
1051 These warnings can be disabled with the new AC_DISABLE_OPTION_CHECKING
1052 macro, or by invoking 'configure' with --disable-option-checking.
1054 ** Existing obsolete macros
1055 The documentation for the following macros is adjusted to make it
1056 more clear that they have previously been marked obsolete, as their
1057 functionality can be accomplished by other macros. We have no
1058 current plans to remove them from Autoconf.
1060 AC_ENABLE AC_STRUCT_ST_BLKSIZE AC_STRUCT_ST_RDEV AC_WITH
1062 ** Newly obsolete macros
1063 The following macros have been marked obsolete, as they only
1064 perform a subset of AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS. We have no current
1065 plans to remove them.
1067 AC_AIX AC_GNU_SOURCE AC_ISC_POSIX AC_MINIX
1069 ** AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE is obsolescent.
1070 The documentation now says that AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE is obsolescent: it
1071 tests for problems that are so old that it is no longer of
1072 practical importance on current systems. New programs need not use
1073 AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE. We have no current plans to remove it.
1075 ** AC_DIAGNOSE, AC_WARNING, and AC_FATAL are obsolescent.
1076 The documentation now favors the use of M4sugar macros m4_warn and
1077 m4_fatal, since the naming makes it more obvious that the
1078 diagnostics are associated with M4 expansion (ie. when running
1079 `autoconf'), and offers less confusion with the AC_MSG_ERROR,
1080 AC_MSG_FAILURE, and AC_MSG_WARN macros which manage diagnostics
1081 when running `configure'. We have no current plans to remove these
1085 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.61a (2006-12-11)
1087 ** AC_FUNC_FSEEKO was broken in 2.61; it didn't make fseeko and ftello visible
1088 on many platforms. This has been fixed.
1090 ** AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED is now obsolete. It is still defined for backward
1091 compatibility but it does nothing. The macro was already
1092 obsolescent, as the last systems to have the problem were those
1093 based on SVR2, which became obsolete in 1987. The macro had bugs
1094 on some modern systems and could no longer be maintained reliably
1095 due to lack of ancient systems to test it on.
1097 ** config.status now uses awk instead of sed for most substitutions, for speed.
1099 - As a side effect multi-line values of substituted variables no
1100 longer have a small limit in total size, though for portability
1101 each line should not exceed the POSIX length limit for text lines.
1103 - It is now documented that Makefile.in should not contain
1104 overlapping variable occurrences, e.g., @VAR1@VAR2@.
1105 Autoconf's behavior was always iffy in such cases, and the
1106 awk implementation has changed the behavior.
1108 ** Many uses of 'echo' have been rewritten so that Autoconf-generated
1109 scripts have fewer problems with strings or file names containing
1110 embedded special characters such as backslash or leading "-". This
1111 was implemented by using `printf '%s\n' "$foo"' instead of `echo
1112 "$foo"' when printf works. Due to the implementation technique
1113 used, Autoconf-generated scripts now run considerably more slowly
1114 on ancient implementations lacking printf. However, this should
1115 not be a problem, since Autoconf-generated scripts in practice
1116 invariably find a more-modern shell these days.
1119 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.61 (2006-11-17)
1121 ** New macros AC_C_FLEXIBLE_ARRAY_MEMBER, AC_C_VARARRAYS.
1123 ** AC_ARG_ENABLE and AC_ARG_WITH now allow '.' in feature and package names.
1126 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.60b (2006-10-22)
1129 Autoconf-generated shell scripts no longer export BIN_SH, due to
1130 configuration hassles with this. Installers who need BIN_SH in
1131 their environment should set it before invoking 'configure' and
1132 'make'. As far as we know, this affects only Unixware installations.
1134 ** Obsolescent macros
1135 The documentation now says that the following macros are obsolescent,
1136 as they are superseded by Gnulib:
1138 AC_FUNC_FNMATCH AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU AC_FUNC_GETLOADVG AC_REPLACE_FNMATCH
1140 New programs should use the Gnulib counterparts of these macros.
1141 We have no current plans to remove them from Autoconf.
1143 ** AC_COMPUTE_INT no longer caches or reports results.
1145 ** AC_CHECK_DECL now also works with aggregate objects.
1147 ** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS now defines _TANDEM_SOURCE for NonStop platforms.
1149 ** GNU M4 1.4.7 or later is now recommended.
1152 New M4sugar macro, which is more secure than the POSIX M4 maketemp.
1155 Now an alias for m4_mkstemp.
1157 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.60a (2006-08-25)
1159 ** GNU M4 1.4.6 or later is now recommended.
1161 ** The check for C99 now tests for varargs macros, as documented.
1162 It also tests that the preprocessor supports 64-bit integers.
1164 ** Autoconf now uses constructs like "#ifdef HAVE_STDLIB_H" rather than
1165 "#if HAVE_STDLIB_H", so that it now works with "gcc -Wundef -Werror".
1167 ** The functionality of the undocumented _AC_COMPUTE_INT is now provided
1168 by a public and documented macro, AC_COMPUTE_INT. The parameters to the
1169 two macros are different, so autoupdate will not change the old private name
1170 to the new one. _AC_COMPUTE_INT may be removed in a future release.
1172 ** AC_TYPE_LONG_LONG_INT and AC_TYPE_UNSIGNED_LONG_LONG_INT now require
1173 that long long types be at least 64 bits wide, as C99 and tradition
1174 requires. Formerly, they accepted implementations of any width.
1177 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.60
1179 Released 2006-06-23, by Ralf Wildenhues.
1181 ** Autoconf no longer depends on whether m4wrap is FIFO (as Posix requires)
1182 or LIFO (as in GNU M4 1.4.x). GNU M4 2.0 is expected to conform to Posix
1183 here, so m4wrap/m4_wrap users should no longer depend on LIFO behavior.
1185 ** Provide a way to turn off warnings about the changed directory variables.
1187 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59d
1189 Released 2006-06-05, by Ralf Wildenhues.
1191 ** GNU make now recommended for VPATH builds
1192 INSTALL now suggests VPATH builds (e.g., "sh ../srcdir/configure")
1193 only if you use GNU make. In practice, other 'make' implementations
1194 have too many subtle incompatibilities in their support for VPATH.
1195 Many packages (including Autoconf itself) are portable to other
1196 'make' implementations, but some packages are not, and recommending
1197 GNU make keeps the installation instructions simpler.
1199 ** Even more safety checks for the new Directory variables:
1200 Warn about suspicious `${datarootdir}' found in config files output.
1202 ** AC_TRY_COMMAND, AC_TRY_EVAL, ac_config_guess, ac_config_sub, ac_configure
1203 These never-documented macros and variables have been marked with
1204 comments saying that they may be removed in a future release,
1205 because their use can lead to unintended code being executed.
1206 If you need functionality that only these macros or variables
1207 currently supply, please write bug-autoconf@gnu.org.
1209 ** AC_SUBST, AC_DEFINE
1210 Literal arguments to these are passed to m4_pattern_allow now.
1213 Passing 'ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc=no' to 'configure' now sets ac_cv_prog_cc_c99
1214 and ac_cv_prog_cc_c89 to 'no' as well, for backward compatibility with
1215 obsolete K&R tests in the Automake test suite.
1224 Now more robust with special characters in file names, or when
1225 multiple processes create the same directory at the same time.
1227 ** Obsolescent macros
1228 The documentation now says that the following macros are obsolescent:
1229 they test for problems that are so old that they are no longer of
1230 practical importance on current systems.
1232 AC_C_BACKSLASH_A AC_FUNC_MEMCMP AC_HEADER_DIRENT
1233 AC_C_CONST AC_FUNC_SELECT_ARGTYPES AC_HEADER_STAT
1234 AC_C_PROTOTYPES AC_FUNC_SETPGRP AC_HEADER_STDC
1235 AC_C_STRINGIZE AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED AC_HEADER_SYS_WAIT
1236 AC_C_VOLATILE AC_FUNC_STAT AC_HEADER_TIME
1237 AC_FUNC_CLOSEDIR_VOID AC_FUNC_STRFTIME AC_ISC_POSIX
1238 AC_FUNC_GETPGRP AC_FUNC_UTIME_NULL AC_PROG_GCC_TRADITIONAL
1239 AC_FUNC_LSTAT AC_FUNC_VPRINTF AC_STRUCT_TM
1241 New programs need not use these macros. We have no current plans to
1245 For compatibility with future Libtool 2.0, autoreconf will invoke
1246 libtoolize with the option `--ltdl' now, if LT_CONFIG_LTDL_DIR is
1249 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59c
1251 Released 2006-04-12, by Ralf Wildenhues.
1253 ** The configure command now redirects standard input from /dev/null,
1254 to help avoid problems with subsidiary commands that might mistakenly
1255 read standard input. AS_ORIGINAL_STDIN_FD points to the original
1256 standard input before this redirection, if you really want configure to
1257 read from standard input.
1259 ** Directory variables adjusted to recent changes in the GNU Coding Standards.
1260 The following directory variables are new:
1262 datarootdir read-only architecture-independent data root [PREFIX/share]
1263 localedir locale-specific message catalogs [DATAROOTDIR/locale]
1264 docdir documentation root [DATAROOTDIR/doc/PACKAGE]
1265 htmldir html documentation [DOCDIR]
1266 dvidir dvi documentation [DOCDIR]
1267 pdfdir pdf documentation [DOCDIR]
1268 psdir ps documentation [DOCDIR]
1270 The following variables have new default values:
1272 datadir read-only architecture-independent data [DATAROOTDIR]
1273 infodir info documentation [DATAROOTDIR/info]
1274 mandir man documentation [DATAROOTDIR/man]
1276 This means that if you use any of `@datadir@', `@infodir@', or
1277 `@mandir@' in a file, you will have to ensure `${datarootdir}' is
1278 defined in this file. As a temporary measure, if any of those are
1279 found but no mention of `datarootdir', the substitutions will be
1280 replaced with values that do not contain `${datarootdir}', and a
1281 warning will be issued.
1283 ** @top_builddir@ is now a dir name: it is always nonempty and doesn't have
1284 a trailing slash. Similar change will be made to ac_top_builddir in a
1285 future release; the old style value, which matches (../)*, is (and will
1286 continue to be) available as ac_top_build_prefix.
1289 New macro to check for support of 'typeof' syntax a la GNU C.
1291 ** AC_CHECK_DECLS_ONCE, AC_CHECK_FUNCS_ONCE, AC_CHECK_HEADERS_ONCE
1292 New "once-only" variants of commonly-used macros, to make 'configure'
1293 smaller and faster in common cases.
1296 New macro to check for strtold with C99 semantics.
1299 New macro that lets builder disable assertions at 'configure'-time.
1302 Now checks for X11/Xlib.h and XrmInitialize (X proper) rather than
1303 X11/Intrinsic.h and XtMalloc (Xt).
1305 ** AC_PRESERVE_HELP_ORDER
1306 New macro that causes `configure' to display help strings for AC_ARG_ENABLE
1307 and AC_ARG_WITH arguments in one region, in the order defined. The default
1308 behavior is to group options of each classes separately.
1310 ** AC_PROG_CC, AC_PROG_CXX
1311 No longer automatically arrange to declare the 'exit' function of C,
1312 when a C++ compiler is used. Standard Autoconf macros no longer use
1313 'exit', so this is no longer an issue for them. If you use C++, and
1314 want to call 'exit', you'll have to arrange for its declaration
1315 yourself. But we now suggest you return from 'main' instead.
1317 ** AC_PROG_CC_C89, AC_PROG_CC_C99
1318 New macros for ISO C99 support. AC_PROG_CC_C89 and AC_PROG_CC_C99
1319 check for ANSI C89 and ISO C99 support respectively.
1322 Has been unobsoleted, and will check if the compiler supports ISO
1323 C99, falling back to ANSI C89 if not. ac_cv_prog_cc_stdc is
1324 retained for backwards compatibility, assuming the value of
1325 ac_cv_prog_cc_c99 or ac_cv_prog_cc_c89 (whichever is valid, in
1328 ** AC_STRUCT_DIRENT_D_INO, AC_STRUCT_DIRENT_D_TYPE
1329 New macros for checking commonly-used members of struct dirent.
1332 The substituted value can now contain newlines.
1335 The substitution now occurs only when @variable@ is on a line by itself,
1336 optionally surrounded by spaces and tabs. The whole line is replaced.
1338 ** AC_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE, AC_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE_WIDER
1339 New macros to check for long double, and whether it is wider than double.
1340 The old macro AC_C_TYPE_LONG_DOUBLE has been marked as obsolete;
1341 applications should switch to the new macro.
1343 ** AC_TYPE_INT8_T, AC_TYPE_INT16_T, AC_TYPE_INT32_T, AC_TYPE_INT64_T,
1344 AC_TYPE_INTMAX_T, AC_TYPE_INTPTR_T, AC_TYPE_LONG_LONG_INT, AC_TYPE_SSIZE_T,
1345 AC_TYPE_UINT8_T, AC_TYPE_UINT16_T, AC_TYPE_UINT32_T, AC_TYPE_UINT64_T,
1346 AC_TYPE_UINTMAX_T, AC_TYPE_UINTPTR_T, AC_TYPE_UNSIGNED_LONG_LONG_INT
1347 New macros to check for C99 and POSIX types.
1349 ** AC_USE_SYSTEM_EXTENSIONS
1350 New macro to enable extensions to Posix.
1353 New macro which is defined to the name of the first declared config header
1354 or undefined if no config headers have been declared yet.
1357 The macro correctly handles quadrigraphs now.
1359 ** AS_BOURNE_COMPATIBLE, AS_SHELL_SANITIZE, AS_CASE
1360 These macros are new or published now.
1363 New macro for copyright notices in testsuite files.
1365 ** ALLOCA, LIBOBJS, LTLIBOBJS
1366 Object names added to these variables are now prefixed with `${LIBOBJDIR}',
1367 as in `${LIBOBJDIR}alloca.o'. LIBOBJDIR is meant to be defined from
1368 `Makefile.in' in case the object files lie in a different directory.
1369 The LIBOBJDIR feature is experimental.
1372 Supports --no-recursive now.
1374 ** New macros to support Erlang/OTP.
1375 New macros for configuring paths to Erlang tools and libraries:
1376 AC_ERLANG_PATH_ERLC, AC_ERLANG_NEED_ERLC, AC_ERLANG_PATH_ERL,
1377 AC_ERLANG_NEED_ERL, AC_ERLANG_CHECK_LIB, AC_ERLANG_SUBST_ROOT_DIR,
1378 AC_ERLANG_SUBST_LIB_DIR.
1380 New macros for configuring installation of Erlang libraries:
1381 AC_ERLANG_SUBST_INSTALL_LIB_DIR, AC_ERLANG_SUBST_INSTALL_LIB_SUBDIR.
1383 ** The manual now mentions Gnulib more prominently.
1385 ** New macros to support Objective C.
1386 AC_PROG_OBJC, AC_PROG_OBJCPP.
1388 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59b
1390 Released 2004-08-20, by Paul Eggert.
1393 New macro that computes the default alignment of a type.
1395 ** AC_CHECK_TOOL, AC_PATH_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TOOLS
1396 When cross-compiling, these macros will give a warning if the tool
1397 is not prefixed. In the future, unprefixed cross tools will not
1398 be detected; please consult the info documentation for information
1399 about the reason of this change.
1401 ** AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOL, AC_PATH_TARGET_TOOL, AC_CHECK_TARGET_TOOLS
1402 New macros that detect programs whose name is prefixed with the
1403 target type, if the build type and target type are different.
1405 ** AC_REQUIRE_AUX_FILE
1406 New trace macro that declares expected auxiliary files.
1409 New macro that tests for a grep program that accepts as a long a line
1412 ** AC_PROG_EGREP, AC_PROG_FGREP
1413 These macros now require AC_PROG_GREP, and try EGREP="$GREP -E" and
1414 FGREP="$GREP -F" respectively if possible, or else run a path search for
1415 a program that accepts as long a line as possible.
1418 New macro that tests for a sed program that truncates as few characters
1421 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.59
1423 Released 2003-11-04, by Akim Demaille
1425 ** ac_abs_builddir etc.
1426 Absolute file names were actually relative in 2.58.
1428 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.58
1430 Released 2003-11-04, by Akim Demaille
1433 core.* files are no longer removed, as they may be valid user files.
1435 ** autoreconf and auxiliary directory
1436 Autoreconf creates the auxiliary directory if needed. This is
1437 especially useful for initial "bootstrapping" of fresh CVS checkouts.
1439 ** AC_CONFIG_MACRO_DIR
1440 Use this macro to declare the directory for local M4 macros for aclocal.
1443 No longer includes twice the same file in LIBOBJS if invoked
1446 ** AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS
1447 The directory for its first argument is automatically created. For
1450 AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS([src/modules.hh], [...])
1452 $top_builddir/src/ is created if needed.
1454 ** Autotest and local.at
1455 The optional file local.at is always included in Autotest test suites.
1458 The warnings are always issued, including with cached runs.
1459 This became a significant problem since aclocal and automake can
1460 run autoconf behind the scene.
1462 ** autoheader warnings
1463 The warnings of autoheader can be turned off, using --warning.
1464 For instance, -Wno-obsolete disables the complaints about acconfig.h
1465 and other deprecated constructs.
1468 AC_C_RESTRICT, AC_INCLUDES_DEFAULT, AC_LANG_ASSERT, AC_LANG_WERROR,
1471 ** AC_DECL_SYS_SIGLIST
1475 Now checks that mktime is the inverse of localtime.
1477 ** Improve DJGPP portability
1478 The Autoconf tools and configure behave better under DJGPP.
1480 ** Present But Cannot Be Compiled
1481 New FAQ section dedicated to the mystic
1483 configure: WARNING: pi.h: present but cannot be compiled
1484 configure: WARNING: pi.h: check for missing prerequisite headers?
1485 configure: WARNING: pi.h: proceeding with the preprocessor's result
1488 ** Concurrent executions of autom4te
1489 autom4te now locks its internal files, which enables concurrent
1490 executions of autom4te, likely to happen if automake, autoconf,
1491 autoheader etc. are run simultaneously.
1494 Use of Libtool 1.5 and higher is encouraged. Compatibility with
1495 Libtool pre-1.4 is not checked.
1498 Testsuites no longer rerun failed tests in verbose mode; instead,
1499 failures are logged while the test is run.
1501 In addition, expected failures can be marked as such.
1503 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.57
1505 Released 2002-12-03 by Paul Eggert.
1507 Bug fixes for problems with AIX linker, with freestanding C compilers,
1508 with GNU M4 limitations, and with obsolete copies of GNU documents.
1510 The Free Documentation License has been upgraded from 1.1 to 1.2.
1512 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.56
1514 Released 2002-11-15 by Akim Demaille.
1516 One packaging problem fixed (config/install-sh was not executable).
1518 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.55
1520 Released 2002-11-14 by Akim Demaille.
1524 Have your configure.ac checked by autoscan ("autoscan").
1525 Try the warning options ("autoreconf -fv -Wall").
1529 - AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS
1530 More information on proper use.
1532 - Writing Test Programs
1534 This sections explains how to write good test sources to use with
1535 AC_COMPILE_IFELSE etc. It documents AC_LANG_PROGRAM and so forth.
1537 - AC_FOO_IFELSE vs. AC_TRY_FOO
1539 Explains why Autoconf moves from AC_TRY_COMPILE etc. to
1540 AC_COMPILE_IFELSE and AC_LANG_PROGRAM etc.
1544 - Is more robust to different Gettext installations.
1546 - Produces messages (when --verbose) to be understood by Emacs'
1549 - Supports -W/--warnings.
1552 Once the GNU Build System reinstalled, run `./config.status
1553 --recheck && ./config.status && make' if possible.
1557 - Supports --cache, and --no-cache.
1559 - ~/.autom4te.cfg makes it possible to disable the caching mechanism
1560 (autom4te.cache). See `Customizing autom4te' in the documentation.
1567 Support for the obsoleted options -m, --macrodir, -l, --localdir is
1568 dropped in favor of the safer --include/--prepend-include scheme.
1573 AC_COMPILER_IFELSE, AC_FUNC_MBRTOWC, AC_HEADER_STDBOOL,
1574 AC_LANG_CONFTEST, AC_LANG_SOURCE, AC_LANG_PROGRAM, AC_LANG_CALL,
1575 AC_LANG_FUNC_TRY_LINK, AC_MSG_FAILURE, AC_PREPROC_IFELSE.
1578 Obsoleted macros are kept for Autoconf backward compatibility, but
1579 should be avoided in configure.ac. Running autoupdate is advised.
1580 AC_DECL_SYS_SIGLIST.
1582 - AC_DEFINE/AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED
1584 We have to stop using the old compatibility scheme --that tried to
1585 avoid useless backslashes-- because Libtool 1.4.3 contains a
1587 AC_DEFINE([error_t], [int],
1588 [Define to a type to use for \`error_t' if it is not
1589 otherwise available.])
1591 We have to quote the single quotes and backslashes with \. The old
1592 compatibility scheme saw that ` was backslashed, and therefore did
1593 not quote the single quote... Failure. Hence, Autoconf 2.54 is not
1594 compatible with Libtool. Autoconf 2.55 is, but in some cases might
1595 produce more \ than wanted.
1597 Please, note that in the future the same problem will happen with
1598 AC_MSG_*: use `autoreconf -f -Wall'.
1602 - Portability of the Autoconf package to Solaris.
1604 - Spurious warnings caused by config.status.
1605 This bug is benign, but painful: on some systems (typically
1606 FreeBSD), warnings such as:
1608 config.status: creating Makefile
1609 mv: Makefile: set owner/group (was: 1357/0): Operation not permitted
1611 could be issued. This is fixed.
1614 Simultaneous executions of config.status are possible again.
1616 - Precious variables accumulation
1618 config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
1622 ** Plans for later versions
1624 - ./configure <host>
1626 The compatibility hooks with the old scheme will be completely
1627 removed. Please, advice/use `--build', `--host', and `--target'
1630 - AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS
1632 The tests will be stricter, please make sure your invocations are
1637 Shell functions will gradually be introduced, probably starting with
1638 Autotest. If you know machines which are in use that you suspect
1639 *not* to support shell functions, please run the test suite of
1640 Autoconf 2.55 on it, and report the results to
1641 bug-autoconf@gnu.org.
1645 Special characters in AC_MSG_* need not be quoted. Currently,
1646 Autoconf has heuristics to decide when a string is escaped, or has
1647 to be escaped. This scheme is fragile, and will be removed; the
1648 only risk is uglified messages. Please, run `autoreconf -f -Wall'
1649 to find occurrences that will be affected.
1651 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.54
1653 Released 2002-09-13 by Akim Demaille.
1657 - autoreconf no longer changes the version of the gettext/po/intl
1658 support files. It now adds the files the correspond to the
1659 AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION declared in configure.ac.
1661 Warning: It now relies on the 'autopoint' program, which is part
1662 of GNU gettext 0.11.4 and newer.
1664 Please note that you need to have a GNU gettext version that
1665 corresponds at least to the AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION declared
1666 in configure.ac. You can upgrade to newer GNU gettext versions,
1667 though, without needing to change configure.ac.
1669 - The -I DIR or --include=DIR option now appends DIR to the include path
1670 instead of prepending; this is for consistency with other GNU tools.
1671 The new -B DIR or --prepend-include=DIR option has the old behavior.
1676 Now handles all the gory details about LIBOBJS and LTLIBOBJS.
1677 Please, remove lines such as
1679 # This is necessary so that .o files in LIBOBJS are also
1680 # built via the ANSI2KNR-filtering rules.
1681 LIBOBJS=`echo $LIBOBJS|sed 's/\.o /\$U.o /g;s/\.o$/\$U.o/'`
1683 and read the `AC_LIBOBJ vs LIBOBJS' section. Do not define U in
1684 your Makefiles either.
1686 - AC_CONFIG_LINKS now makes copies if it can't make links.
1688 - AC_FUNC_FNMATCH now tests only for POSIX compatibility, reverting to
1689 Autoconf 2.13 behavior. The new macro AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU also
1690 tests for GNU extensions to fnmatch, and replaces fnmatch if needed.
1692 - AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED no longer fails when cross-compiling.
1694 - AC_PROG_CC_STDC is integrated into AC_PROG_CC.
1696 - AC_PROG_F77 default search no longer includes cf77 and cfg77.
1700 AC_C_BACKSLASH_A, AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR, AC_GNU_SOURCE,
1701 AC_PROG_EGREP, AC_PROG_FGREP, AC_REPLACE_FNMATCH,
1702 AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU, AC_FUNC_REALLOC, AC_TYPE_MBSTATE_T.
1704 - AC_FUNC_GETLOADAVG
1705 looks for getloadavg.c in the CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR.
1708 Now defines HAVE_MALLOC to 0 if `malloc' does not work, and asks
1709 for an AC_LIBOBJ replacement.
1713 - Spurious complaints from `m4_bmatch' about invalid regular
1714 expressions are suppressed.
1716 - Empty top_builddirs are properly handled.
1718 - AC_CHECK_MEMBER works correctly when the member is an aggregate.
1721 Now colon in the optional path arguments are properly handled.
1723 ** Improved portability
1725 - Both Autoconf the package, and the scripts it produces, should run
1726 more reliably with Zsh. Bear in mind it is the default Bourne shell
1729 - Autoconf and the scripts it produces no longer assume the existence of
1730 the obsolescent commands egrep and fgrep.
1734 - Limitations of Make
1738 The GNATS base moved to
1739 https://bugs.gnu.org/cgi-bin/gnatsweb.pl?database=autoconf
1740 (It is no longer available, though.)
1745 Now contains the list of output variables and files (AC_SUBST,
1748 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.53
1750 Released 2002-03-08 by Akim Demaille.
1754 Perl 5.005_03 or later is required: autom4te is written in Perl and is
1755 needed by autoconf. autoheader, autoreconf, ifnames, and autoscan are
1761 Argument requirements, output variables, defined macros.
1762 - M4sugar, M4sh, Autotest
1764 - Double quoting macros
1765 AC_TRY_CPP, AC_TRY_COMPILE, AC_TRY_LINK and AC_TRY_RUN.
1767 The Autoconf manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
1768 - Section `Hosts and Cross-Compilation'
1769 Explains the rationale for the 2.5x changes in the cross-compilation
1770 chain, and in the relationships between build, host, and target
1772 Emphasizes that `cross-compilation' == `--host is given'.
1773 If you are working on compilers etc., be sure to read this section.
1774 - Section `AC_LIBOBJ vs. LIBOBJS'
1775 Explains why assigning LIBOBJS directly is now an error.
1776 Details how to update the code.
1781 Now used instead of hard coded line numbers.
1782 This eases the comparison of `configure's, and diminishes the
1783 pressure over control version archives.
1784 Automatic replacement for shells that don't support this feature.
1785 - New output variables
1786 @builddir@, @top_builddir@, @abs_srcdir@, @abs_top_srcdir@, @abs_builddir@,
1791 Autoconf and Autotest modes are provided.
1796 New, used by the Autoconf suite to cache and speed up most processing.
1798 Supported by autom4te, autoconf and autoheader.
1800 Replaces --autoconf-dir and --localdir in autoconf, autoheader,
1801 autoupdate, and autoreconf.
1803 No longer passes --cygnus, --foreign, --gnits, --gnu, --include-deps:
1804 automake options are to be given via AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
1806 Runs gettextize and libtoolize when appropriate.
1808 --m4dir is no longer supported.
1810 Now runs only in the specified directories, defaulting to `.',
1811 but understands AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS for dependent directories.
1812 Before, it used to run on all the `configure.ac' found in the
1814 Independent packages are properly updated.
1818 - The top level $prefix is propagated to the AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS configures.
1820 Under the user pressure, $? is finally available. Probably a mistake.
1821 - AC_F77_LIBRARY_LDFLAGS now supports the HP/UX f90 compiler.
1822 - Precious variables accumulation
1823 config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
1825 - AC_PATH_PROG and family.
1826 Works properly when given a literal path.
1828 Somewhere since 2.13, the result had been reversed.
1832 - AC_C_BIGENDIAN supports the cross-compiling case.
1833 - AC_C_BIGENDIAN accepts ACTION-IF-TRUE, ACTION-IF-FALSE, and
1834 ACTION-IF-UNKNOWN arguments. All are optional, and the default
1835 for ACTION-IF-TRUE is to define WORDS_BIGENDIAN like AC_C_BIGENDIAN
1837 - AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE now succeeds only if `long double' has more range or
1838 precision than `double'.
1843 It now defines the preprocessor symbols PACKAGE_NAME,
1844 PACKAGE_TARNAME, PACKAGE_VERSION, PACKAGE_STRING, and
1848 Admits a fourth optional parameter: the tar name.
1850 - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS.
1851 Provide the user with srcdir, ac_srcdir, ac_top_srcdir, ac_builddir,
1852 ac_top_builddir, ac_abs_srcdir, ac_abs_top_srcdir, ac_abs_builddir,
1853 ac_abs_top_builddir.
1855 - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS and AC_OUTPUT.
1856 Are much less expensive when using long lists of files.
1859 Works with shell variables, and non alphanumeric names.
1863 - AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R now sets STRERROR_R_CHAR_P, not HAVE_WORKING_STRERROR_R,
1864 because POSIX 1003.1-200x draft 7 says strerror_r returns int, not char *.
1866 - AC_FUNC_STRTOD substitutes POW_LIB.
1871 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.52
1873 Released 2001-07-18 by Akim Demaille.
1878 This feature was present in autoconf 2.50 but was not documented.
1879 For example, `@<:@' is translated to `[' just before output. This
1880 is useful when writing strings that contain unbalanced quotes, or
1881 other hard-to-quote constructs.
1882 - m4_pattern_forbid, m4_pattern_allow
1883 - Tips for upgrading from 2.13.
1884 - Using autoscan to maintain a configure.ac.
1887 - Now include stdint.h.
1888 - sys/types.h and sys/stat.h are guarded.
1889 - strings.h is included if available, and not conflicting with string.h.
1892 - The test suite is more robust and presents less false failures.
1893 - Invocation of GNU M4 now robust to POSIXLY_CORRECT.
1894 - configure accepts --prefix='' again.
1895 - AC_CHECK_LIB works properly when its first argument is not a
1897 - HAVE_INTTYPES_H is defined only if not conflicting with sys/types.h.
1898 - build_, host_, and target_alias are AC_SUBST as in 2.13.
1899 - AC_ARG_VAR properly propagates precious variables inherited from the
1900 environment to ./config.status.
1901 - Using --program-suffix/--program-prefix is portable.
1902 - Failures to detect the default compiler's output extension are less
1904 - `config.status foo' works properly when `foo' depends on variables
1905 set in an AC_CONFIG_THING INIT-CMD.
1906 - autoheader is more robust to broken input.
1907 - Fixed Fortran name-mangling and link tests on a number of systems,
1908 e.g. NetBSD; see AC_F77_DUMMY_MAIN, below.
1911 - AC_CHECK_HEADER and AC_CHECK_HEADERS support a fourth argument to
1912 specify pre-includes. In this case, the headers are compiled with
1913 cc, not merely preprocessed by cpp. Therefore it is the _usability_
1914 of a header which is checked for, not just its availability.
1915 - AC_ARG_VAR refuses to run configure when precious variables have
1917 - Versions of compilers are dumped in the logs.
1918 - AC_CHECK_TYPE recognizes use of `foo_t' as a replacement type.
1921 - AC_PATH_XTRA only adds -ldnet to $LIBS if it's needed to link.
1922 - AC_FUNC_WAIT3 and AC_SYS_RESTARTABLE_SYSCALLS are obsoleted.
1923 - AM_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AM_FUNC_FNMATCH, AM_FUNC_MKTIME,
1924 AM_FUNC_OBSTACK, and AM_FUNC_STRTOD are now activated.
1925 Be sure to read `Upgrading from Version 2.13' to understand why
1926 running `autoupdate' is needed.
1927 - AC_F77_DUMMY_MAIN, AC_F77_MAIN: new macros to detect whether
1928 a main-like routine is required/possible when linking C/C++ with
1929 Fortran. Users of e.g. AC_F77_WRAPPERS should be aware of these.
1930 - AC_FUNC_GETPGRG behaves better when cross-compiling.
1932 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.51
1933 There was no release of Autoconf 2.51 since some packagers had used
1934 this version number without permission to ship intermediary versions
1935 of 2.50. The version was skipped to avoid confusion.
1937 * Major changes in Autoconf 2.50
1939 Released 2001-05-21 by Akim Demaille.
1941 ** Lots of bug fixes
1942 There have been far too many to enumerate them here. Check out
1943 ChangeLog if you really want to know more.
1945 ** Improved documentation
1946 In particular, portability issues are better covered.
1949 All the standard GNU Makefile targets are supported. The layout has
1950 changed: m4/ holds the M4 extensions Autoconf needs for its
1951 configuration, doc/ contains the documentation, and tests/ contains
1954 ** Man pages are provided
1955 For autoconf, autoreconf, autoupdate, autoheader, autoscan, ifnames,
1956 config.guess, config.sub.
1960 Provides a safe and powerful means to trace the macro uses. This
1961 provide the parsing layer for tools which need to `study'
1965 Specify what category of warnings should be enabled.
1967 - When recursing into subdirectories, try for configure.gnu before
1968 configure to adapt for packages not using autoconf on case-insensitive
1972 More errors are now caught (circular AC_REQUIRE dependencies,
1973 AC_DEFINE in the action part of an AC_CACHE_CHECK, too many pops
1974 etc.). In addition, their location and call stack are given.
1977 autoupdate is much more powerful, and is able to provide the glue code
1978 which might be needed to move from an old macro to its newer
1981 You are strongly encouraged to use it to modernize both your
1982 `configure.in' and your .m4 extension files.
1985 The internal machinery of autoheader has completely changed. As a
1986 result, using `acconfig.h' should be considered to be obsoleted, and
1987 you are encouraged to get rid of it using the AH macros.
1992 ** Fortran 77 compilers
1993 Globally, the support for Fortran 77 is considerably improved.
1995 Support for automatically determining a Fortran 77 compiler's
1996 name-mangling scheme. New CPP macros F77_FUNC and F77_FUNC_ are
1997 provided to wrap C/C++ identifiers, thus making it easier and more
1998 transparent for C/C++ to call Fortran 77 routines, and Fortran 77 to
1999 call C/C++ routines. See the Texinfo documentation for details.
2002 The test suite no longer uses DejaGNU. It should be easy to submit
2003 test cases in this new framework.
2006 - --help, --help=long, -hl
2007 no longer dumps useless items.
2009 lists only specific options.
2010 - --help=recursive, -hr
2011 displays the help of all the embedded packages.
2012 - Remembers environment variables when reconfiguring.
2013 The previous scheme to set envvar before running configure was
2015 what prevented configure from remembering the environment in which
2016 it was run, therefore --recheck was run in an inconsistent
2017 environment. Now, one should run
2019 and then --recheck will work properly. Variables declared with
2020 AC_ARG_VAR are also preserved.
2022 $build defaults to `config.guess`, $host to $build, and then $target
2024 Cross-compilation is a global status of the package, it no longer
2025 depends upon the current language.
2026 Cross compilation is enabled iff the user specified `--host'.
2027 `configure' now fails if it can't run the executables it compiles,
2028 unless cross-compilation is enabled.
2030 The cache file is disabled by default. The new options
2031 `--config-cache', `-C' set the cache to `config.cache'.
2035 Much faster on most architectures.
2036 - concurrent executions
2037 It is safe to use `make -j' with config.status.
2038 - human interface improved
2039 It is possible to invoke
2040 ./config.status foobar
2041 instead of the former form (still valid)
2042 CONFIG_COMMANDS= CONFIG_HEADERS= CONFIG_LINKS= \
2043 CONFIG_FILES=foobar:foo.in:bar.in \
2045 The same holds for configuration headers and links.
2046 You can instantiate unknown files and headers:
2047 ./config.status --header foo.h:foo.h.in --file bar:baz
2048 - has a useful --help
2049 - accepts special file name "-" for stdin/stdout
2054 Specify additional copyright information.
2057 Now expects the identity of the package as argument.
2061 Most macros, if not all, now strictly follow the `one quotation
2062 level' rule. This results in a more predictable expansion.
2065 A sly bug in the AC_REQUIRE machinery, which could produce incorrect
2066 configure scripts, was fixed by Axel Thimm.
2070 Document and ask for the registration of an envvar.
2073 Specifies the file which `configure' should look for when trying to
2074 find the source tree (used to be handled by AC_INIT).
2076 - AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS
2077 To add new actions to config.status. Should be used instead of
2081 Replaces AC_LINK_FILES.
2083 - AC_CONFIG_HEADERS, AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS,
2084 AC_CONFIG_LINKS, and AC_CONFIG_FILES
2085 They now obey sh: you should no longer use shell variables as
2086 argument. Instead of
2088 test "$package_foo_enabled" = yes && $my_subdirs="$my_subdirs foo"
2089 AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS($my_subdirs)
2093 if test "$package_foo_enabled" = yes; then
2094 AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS(foo)
2098 To format an Autoconf macro's help string so that it looks pretty
2099 when the user executes `configure --help'.
2102 ** Generic Test Macros
2104 The interface of the AC_CHECK families of macros (decl, header,
2105 type, member, func) is now uniform. They support the same set of
2108 - AC_CHECK_DECL, AC_CHECK_DECLS
2109 To check whether a symbol is declared.
2111 - AC_CHECK_SIZEOF, AC_C_CHAR_UNSIGNED.
2112 No longer need a cross-compilation default.
2115 The test it performs is much more robust than previously, and makes
2116 it possible to test builtin types in addition to typedefs.
2117 It is now schizophrenic:
2118 - AC_CHECK_TYPE(TYPE, REPLACEMENT)
2119 remains for backward compatibility, but its use is discouraged.
2120 - AC_CHECK_TYPE(TYPE, IF-FOUND, IF-NOT-FOUND, INCLUDES)
2121 behaves exactly like the other AC_CHECK macros.
2124 Checks whether given types are supported by the system.
2126 - AC_CHECK_MEMBER, AC_CHECK_MEMBERS
2127 Check for given members in aggregates (e.g., pw_gecos in struct
2131 Checks if the compiler supports ISO C, included when needs special
2135 Checking whether the preprocessor indicates missing includes by the
2136 error code. stderr is checked by AC_TRY_CPP only as a fallback.
2139 Takes a language as argument and replaces AC_LANG_C,
2140 AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS and AC_LANG_FORTRAN77.
2142 - AC_LANG_PUSH, AC_LANG_POP
2143 Are preferred to AC_LANG_SAVE, AC_LANG_RESTORE.
2146 - AC_FUNC_CHOWN, AC_FUNC_MALLOC, AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R,
2147 AC_FUNC_LSTAT_FOLLOWS_SLASHED_SYMLINK, AC_FUNC_STAT, AC_FUNC_LSTAT,
2148 AC_FUNC_ERROR_AT_LINE, AC_FUNC_OBSTACK, AC_FUNC_STRTOD, AC_FUNC_FSEEKO.
2152 Sets GETGROUPS_LIBS.
2154 - AC_FUNC_GETLOADAVG
2155 Defines `HAVE_STRUCT_NLIST_N_UN_N_NAME' instead of `NLIST_NAME_UNION'.
2158 Now integrates `AC_DECL_YYTEXT' which is obsoleted.
2161 Arrange for large-file support.
2163 - AC_EXEEXT, AC_OBJEXT
2164 You are no longer expected to use them: their computation is
2165 performed by default.
2167 ** C++ compatibility
2168 Every macro has been revisited in order to support at best CC=c++.
2170 Major changes in Autoconf 2.14:
2171 There was no release of GNU Autoconf 2.14.
2173 Major changes in Autoconf 2.13:
2175 Released 1999-05-01 by Ben Elliston.
2177 * Support for building on 32-bit Windows systems where the only available C or
2178 C++ compiler is the Microsoft Visual C++ command line compiler
2179 (`cl'). Additional support for building on 32-bit Windows systems which are
2180 using the Cygwin or Mingw32 environments.
2181 * Support for alternative object file and executable file extensions.
2182 On 32-bit Windows, for example, these are .obj and .exe. These are discovered
2183 using AC_OBJEXT and AC_EXEEXT, which substitute @OBJEXT@ and
2184 @EXEEXT@ in the output, respectively.
2185 * New macros: AC_CACHE_LOAD, AC_CACHE_SAVE, AC_FUNC_SELECT_ARGTYPES,
2186 AC_VALIDATE_CACHED_SYSTEM_TUPLE, AC_SEARCH_LIBS, AC_TRY_LINK_FUNC,
2187 AC_C_STRINGIZE, AC_CHECK_FILE(S), AC_PROG_F77 (and friends).
2188 * AC_DEFINE now has an optional third argument for a description to be
2189 placed in the config header input file (e.g. config.h.in).
2190 * The C++ code fragment compiled for the C++ compiler test had to be
2191 improved to include an explicit return type for main(). This was
2192 causing failures on systems using recent versions of the EGCS C++
2194 * Fixed an important bug in AC_CHECK_TYPE that would cause a configure
2195 script to report that `sometype_t' was present when only `type_t'
2197 * Merge of the FSF version of config.guess and config.sub to modernize
2198 these scripts. Add support for a few new hosts in config.guess.
2199 Incorporate latest versions of install-sh, mkinstalldirs and
2200 texinfo.tex from the FSF.
2201 * autoreconf is capable of running automake if necessary (and
2203 * Support for Fortran 77. See the Texinfo documentation for details.
2204 * Bug fixes and workarounds for quirky bugs in vendor utilities.
2206 Major changes in Autoconf 2.12:
2208 Released 1996-11-26 by David J. MacKenzie
2210 * AC_OUTPUT and AC_CONFIG_HEADERS can create output files by
2211 concatenating multiple input files separated by colons, like so:
2212 AC_CONFIG_HEADERS([config.h:conf.pre:config.h.in:conf.post])
2213 AC_OUTPUT([Makefile:Makefile.in:Makefile.rules])
2214 The arguments may be shell variables, to compute the lists on the fly.
2215 * AC_LINK_FILES and AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS may be called multiple times.
2216 * New macro AC_OUTPUT_COMMANDS adds more commands to run in config.status.
2219 Major changes in Autoconf 2.11:
2221 Released November 18th, 1996, by David J. MacKenzie
2223 * AC_PROG_CC and AC_PROG_CXX check whether the compiler works.
2224 They also default CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS to "-g -O2" for gcc, instead of "-g -O".
2225 * AC_REPLACE_FUNCS defines HAVE_foo if the system has the function `foo'.
2226 * AC_CONFIG_HEADERS expands shell variables in its argument.
2227 * New macros: AC_FUNC_FNMATCH, AC_FUNC_SETPGRP.
2228 * The "checking..." messages and the source code for test programs that
2229 fail are saved in config.log.
2230 * Another workaround has been added for seds with small command length limits.
2231 * config.sub and config.guess recognize more system types.
2234 Major changes in Autoconf 2.10:
2236 Released May 7th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
2239 * The cache variable names used by `AC_CHECK_LIB(LIB, FUNC, ...)' has
2240 changed: now $ac_cv_lib_LIB_FUNC, previously $ac_cv_lib_LIB.
2242 Major changes in Autoconf 2.9:
2244 Released March 16th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
2248 Major changes in Autoconf 2.8:
2250 Released March 8th, 1996, by Roland McGrath
2254 Major changes in Autoconf 2.7:
2256 Released November 22nd, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
2260 Major changes in Autoconf 2.6:
2262 Released November 20th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
2266 Major changes in Autoconf 2.5:
2268 Released November 17th, 1995, by Roland McGrath
2270 * New configure options --bindir, --libdir, --datadir, etc., with
2271 corresponding output variables.
2272 * New macro: AC_CACHE_CHECK, to make using the cache easier.
2273 * config.log contains the command being run as well as any output from it.
2274 * AC_CHECK_LIB can check for libraries with "." or "/" or "+" in their name.
2275 * AC_PROG_INSTALL doesn't cache a name for install-sh, for sharing caches.
2276 * AC_CHECK_PROG, AC_PATH_PROG, AC_CHECK_PROGS, AC_PATH_PROGS, and
2277 AC_CHECK_TOOL can search a path other than $PATH.
2278 * AC_CHECK_SIZEOF takes an optional size to use when cross-compiling.
2280 Major changes in Autoconf 2.4:
2282 Released June 14th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
2284 * Fix a few bugs found by Emacs testers.
2286 Major changes in Autoconf 2.3:
2288 Released March 27th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
2290 * Fix the cleanup trap in several ways.
2291 * Handle C compilers that are picky about option placement.
2292 * ifnames gets the version number from the right directory.
2294 Major changes in Autoconf 2.2:
2296 Released March 8th, 1995, by David J. MacKenzie
2298 * The ifnames utility is much faster but requires a "new awk" interpreter.
2299 * AC_CHECK_LIB and AC_HAVE_LIBRARY check and add the new
2300 library before existing libs, not after, in case it uses them.
2301 * New macros: AC_FUNC_GETPGRP, AC_CHECK_TOOL.
2302 * Lots of bug fixes.
2303 * Many additions to the TODO file :-)
2305 Major changes in Autoconf 2.1:
2307 Released November 4th, 1994, by David J. MacKenzie
2310 * More explanations in the manual.
2311 * Fix a spurious failure in the testsuite.
2312 * Clarify some warning messages.
2313 * autoreconf by default only rebuilds configure and config.h.in files
2314 that are older than any of their particular input files; there is a
2315 --force option to use after installing a new version of Autoconf.
2317 Thanks to everybody who's submitted changes and additions to Autoconf!
2318 I've incorporated many of them, and am still considering others for
2319 future releases -- but I didn't want to postpone this release indefinitely.
2321 Caution: don't indiscriminately rebuild configure scripts with
2322 Autoconf version 2. Some configure.in files need minor adjustments to
2323 work with it; the documentation has a chapter on upgrading. A few
2324 configure.in files, including those for GNU Emacs and the GNU C
2325 Library, need major changes because they relied on undocumented
2326 internals of version 1. Future releases of those packages will have
2327 updated configure.in files.
2329 It's best to use GNU M4 1.3 (or later) with Autoconf version 2.
2330 Autoconf now makes heavy use of M4 diversions, which were implemented
2331 inefficiently in GNU M4 releases before 1.3.
2333 Major changes in Autoconf 2.0:
2335 Released October 26th, 1994, by David J. MacKenzie
2337 ** New copyright terms:
2338 * There are no restrictions on distribution or use of configure scripts.
2341 * Autoconf manual is reorganized to make information easier to find
2342 and has several new indexes.
2343 * INSTALL is reorganized and clearer and is now made from Texinfo source.
2346 * autoscan to generate a preliminary configure.in for a package by
2347 scanning its source code for commonly used nonportable functions,
2348 programs, and header files.
2349 * ifnames to list the symbols used in #if and #ifdef directives in a
2351 * autoupdate to update a configure.in to use the version 2 macro names.
2352 * autoreconf to recursively remake configure and configuration header
2353 files in a source tree.
2355 ** Changed utilities:
2356 * autoheader can take pieces of acconfig.h to replace config.h.{top,bot}.
2357 * autoconf and autoheader can look for package-local definition files
2358 in an alternate directory.
2361 * AC_CACHE_VAL to share results of tests between configure runs.
2362 * AC_DEFUN to define macros, automatically AC_PROVIDE them, and ensure
2363 that macros invoked with AC_REQUIRE don't interrupt other macros.
2364 * AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR, AC_CANONICAL_SYSTEM, AC_CANONICAL_HOST, AC_LINK_FILES to
2365 support deciding unguessable features based on the host and target types.
2366 * AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS to recursively configure a source tree.
2367 * AC_ARG_PROGRAM to use the options --program-prefix,
2368 --program-suffix, and --program-transform-name to change the names
2369 of programs being installed.
2370 * AC_PREFIX_DEFAULT to change the default installation prefix.
2371 * AC_TRY_COMPILE to compile a test program without linking it.
2372 * AC_CHECK_TYPE to check whether sys/types.h or stdlib.h defines a given type.
2373 * AC_CHECK_LIB to check for a particular function and library.
2374 * AC_MSG_CHECKING and AC_MSG_RESULT to print test results, on a single line,
2375 whether or not the test succeeds. They obsolete AC_CHECKING and AC_VERBOSE.
2376 * AC_SUBST_FILE to insert one file into another.
2377 * AC_FUNC_MEMCMP to check whether memcmp is 8-bit clean.
2378 * AC_FUNC_STRFTIME to find strftime even if it's in -lintl.
2379 * AC_FUNC_GETMNTENT to find getmntent even if it's in -lsun or -lseq.
2380 * AC_HEADER_SYS_WAIT to check whether sys/wait.h is POSIX.1 compatible.
2383 * Many macros renamed systematically, but old names are accepted for
2384 backward compatibility.
2385 * AC_OUTPUT adds the "automatically generated" comment to
2386 non-Makefiles where it finds @configure_input@ in an input file, to
2387 support files with various comment syntaxes.
2388 * AC_OUTPUT does not replace "prefix" and "exec_prefix" in generated
2389 files when they are not enclosed in @ signs.
2390 * AC_OUTPUT allows the optional environment variable CONFIG_STATUS to
2391 override the file name "config.status".
2392 * AC_OUTPUT takes an optional argument for passing variables from
2393 configure to config.status.
2394 * AC_OUTPUT and AC_CONFIG_HEADERS allow you to override the input-file names.
2395 * AC_OUTPUT automatically substitutes the values of CFLAGS, CXXFLAGS,
2396 CPPFLAGS, and LDFLAGS from the environment.
2397 * AC_PROG_CC and AC_PROG_CXX now set CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS, respectively.
2398 * AC_PROG_INSTALL looks for install-sh or install.sh in the directory
2399 specified by AC_CONFIG_AUXDIR, or srcdir or srcdir/.. or
2400 srcdir/../.. by default.
2401 * AC_DEFINE, AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED, and AC_SUBST are more robust and smaller.
2402 * AC_DEFINE no longer prints anything, because of the new result reporting
2403 mechanism (AC_MSG_CHECKING and AC_MSG_RESULT).
2404 * AC_VERBOSE pays attention to --quiet/--silent, not --verbose.
2405 * AC_ARG_ENABLE and AC_ARG_WITH support whitespace in the arguments to
2406 --enable- and --with- options.
2407 * AC_CHECK_FUNCS and AC_CHECK_HEADERS take optional shell commands to
2408 execute on success or failure.
2409 * Checking for C functions in C++ works.
2412 * AC_REMOTE_TAPE and AC_RSH removed; too specific to tar and cpio, and
2413 better maintained with them.
2414 * AC_ARG_ARRAY removed because no one was likely using it.
2415 * AC_HAVE_POUNDBANG replaced with AC_SYS_INTERPRETER, which doesn't
2416 take arguments, for consistency with all of the other specific checks.
2419 * Comes with config.sub and config.guess, and uses them optionally.
2420 * Uses config.cache to cache test results. An alternate cache file
2421 can be selected with the --cache-file=FILE option.
2422 * Uses optional shell scripts $prefix/share/config.site and
2423 $prefix/etc/config.site to perform site or system specific initializations.
2424 * configure saves compiler output to ./config.log for debugging.
2425 * New files autoconf.m4 and autoheader.m4 load the other Autoconf macros.
2426 * acsite.m4 is the new name for the system-wide aclocal.m4.
2427 * Has a DejaGnu test suite.
2429 Major changes in Autoconf 1.11:
2431 * AC_PROG_INSTALL calls install.sh with the -c option.
2432 * AC_SET_MAKE cleans up after itself.
2433 * AC_OUTPUT sets prefix and exec_prefix if they weren't set already.
2434 * AC_OUTPUT prevents shells from looking in PATH for config.status.
2436 Plus a few other bug fixes.
2438 Major changes in Autoconf 1.10:
2440 * autoheader uses config.h.bot if present, analogous to config.h.top.
2441 * AC_PROG_INSTALL looks for install.sh in srcdir or srcdir/.. and
2443 * AC_PROG_CXX looks for cxx as a C++ compiler.
2445 Plus several bugs fixed.
2447 Major changes in Autoconf 1.9:
2449 * AC_YYTEXT_POINTER replaces AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT.
2450 * AC_SIZEOF_TYPE generates the cpp symbol name automatically,
2451 and autoheader generates entries for those names automatically.
2452 * AC_FIND_X gets the result from xmkmf correctly.
2453 * AC_FIND_X assumes no X if --without-x was given.
2454 * AC_FIND_XTRA adds libraries to the variable X_EXTRA_LIBS.
2455 * AC_PROG_INSTALL finds OSF/1 installbsd.
2457 Major changes in Autoconf 1.8:
2460 * New macros AC_LANG_C, AC_LANG_CPLUSPLUS, AC_LANG_SAVE, AC_LANG_RESTORE,
2461 AC_PROG_CXX, AC_PROG_CXXCPP, AC_REQUIRE_CPP
2462 for checking both C++ and C features in one configure script.
2463 * New macros AC_CHECKING, AC_VERBOSE, AC_WARN, AC_ERROR for printing messages.
2464 * New macros AC_FIND_XTRA, AC_MMAP, AC_SIZEOF_TYPE, AC_PREREQ,
2465 AC_SET_MAKE, AC_ENABLE.
2468 * AC_FIND_X looks for X in more places.
2469 * AC_PROG_INSTALL defaults to install.sh instead of cp, if it's in srcdir.
2470 install.sh is distributed with Autoconf.
2471 * AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT has been removed because it can't work, pending
2472 a rewrite of quoting in AC_DEFINE.
2473 * AC_OUTPUT adds its comments in C format when substituting in C files.
2474 * AC_COMPILE_CHECK protects its ECHO-TEXT argument with double quotes.
2476 ** New or changed command line options:
2477 * configure accepts --enable-FEATURE[=ARG] and --disable-FEATURE options.
2478 * configure accepts --without-PACKAGE, which sets withval=no.
2479 * configure accepts --x-includes=DIR and --x-libraries=DIR.
2480 * Giving --with-PACKAGE no argument sets withval=yes instead of withval=1.
2481 * configure accepts --help, --version, --silent/--quiet, --no-create options.
2482 * configure accepts and ignores most other Cygnus configure options, and
2483 warns about unknown options.
2484 * config.status accepts --help, --version options.
2486 ** File names and other changes:
2487 * Relative srcdir values are not made absolute.
2488 * The values of @prefix@ and @exec_prefix@ and @top_srcdir@ get substituted.
2489 * Autoconf library files are installed in ${datadir}/autoconf, not ${datadir}.
2490 * autoheader optionally copies config.h.top to the beginning of config.h.in.
2491 * The example Makefile dependencies for configure et al. work better.
2492 * Namespace cleanup: all shell variables used internally by Autoconf
2493 have names beginning with `ac_'.
2495 More big improvements are in process for future releases, but have not
2496 yet been (variously) finished, integrated, tested, or documented enough
2499 Major changes in Autoconf 1.7:
2501 * New macro AC_OBSOLETE.
2502 * Bugs in Makefile.in fixed.
2503 * AC_LONG_FILE_NAMES improved.
2505 Major changes in Autoconf 1.6:
2507 * New macro AC_LONG_64_BITS.
2508 * Multiple .h files can be created.
2509 * AC_FIND_X looks for X files directly if it doesn't find xmkmf.
2510 * AC_ALLOCA defines C_ALLOCA if using alloca.c.
2511 * --with-NAME can take a value, e.g., --with-targets=sun4,hp300bsd.
2512 * Unused --no-create option to configure removed.
2513 * autoheader doesn't change the timestamp of its output file if
2514 the file didn't change.
2515 * All macros that look for libraries now use AC_HAVE_LIBRARY.
2516 * config.status checks three optional environment variables to
2517 modify its behavior.
2518 * The usual bug fixes.
2520 Major changes in Autoconf 1.5:
2522 * New macros AC_FIND_X, AC_OFF_T, AC_STAT_MACROS_BROKEN, AC_REVISION.
2523 * autoconf and autoheader scripts have GNU standards conforming
2524 --version and --help options (they print their message and exit).
2527 Major changes in Autoconf 1.4:
2529 * New macros AC_HAVE_POUNDBANG, AC_TIME_WITH_SYS_TIME, AC_LONG_DOUBLE,
2530 AC_GETGROUPS_T, AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED.
2531 * autoconf and autoheader use the M4 environment variable to determine the
2532 name of the M4 program to use.
2533 * The --macrodir option to autoconf and autoheader specifies the directory
2534 in which acspecific.m4, acgeneral.m4, etc. reside if not the default.
2535 * autoconf and autoheader can take `-' as their file names, which means to
2536 read stdin as input.
2537 * Resulting configure scripts can take a --verbose option which causes them
2538 to print the results of their tests.
2539 * AC_DEFINE quotes its second argument in such a way that spaces, magic
2540 shell characters, etc. will be preserved during various stages of
2541 expansion done by the shell. If you don't want this, use
2542 AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED instead.
2543 * Much textual processing done with external calls to tr and sed have been
2544 internalized with builtin M4 `patsubst' and `translit' calls.
2545 * AC_OUTPUT doesn't hardwire the file names it outputs. Instead, you can
2546 set the shell variables `gen_files' and `gen_config' to the list of
2547 file names to output.
2548 * AC_DECLARE_YYTEXT does an AC_SUBST of `LEX_OUTPUT_ROOT', which may be
2549 "lex.yy" or "lexyy", depending on the system.
2550 * AC_PROGRAMS_CHECK takes an optional third arg. If given, it is used as
2552 * If AC_ALLOCA chooses alloca.c, it also defines STACK_DIRECTION.
2553 * AC_CONST works much more reliably on more systems.
2556 Major changes in Autoconf 1.3:
2558 configure no longer requires awk for packages that use a config.h.
2559 Support handling --with-PACKAGE options.
2560 New `autoheader' script to create `config.h.in' from `configure.in'.
2561 Ignore troublesome -lucb and -lPW when searching for alloca.
2562 Rename --exec_prefix to --exec-prefix for GNU standards conformance.
2563 Improve detection of STDC library.
2564 Add AC_HAVE_LIBRARY to check for non-default libraries.
2565 Function checking should work with future GNU libc releases.
2567 Major changes in Autoconf 1.2:
2569 The --srcdir option is now usually unnecessary.
2570 Add a file containing sample comments describing CPP macros.
2571 A comment in config.status tells which host it was configured on.
2572 Substituted variable values can now contain commas.
2573 Fix bugs in various feature checks.
2575 Major changes in Autoconf 1.1:
2577 Added AC_STRCOLL macro.
2578 Made AC_GETLOADAVG check for more things.
2579 AC_OUTPUT argument is now optional.
2584 Copyright (C) 1993-1996, 1998-2017, 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
2586 Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
2587 are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
2588 notice and this notice are preserved. This file is offered as-is,
2589 without warranty of any kind.