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autoconf是一个产生可以自动配置源代码包

  AC_COMPILE_IFELSE etc.  It documents AC_LANG_PROGRAM and so forth.

- AC_FOO_IFELSE vs. AC_TRY_FOO

  Explains why Autoconf moves from AC_TRY_COMPILE etc. to
  AC_COMPILE_IFELSE and AC_LANG_PROGRAM etc.

** autoreconf

- Is more robust to different Gettext installations.

- Produces messages (when --verbose) to be understood by Emacs'
  compile mode.

- Supports -W/--warnings.

- -m/--make
  Once the GNU Build System reinstalled, run `./config.status
  --recheck && ./config.status && make' if possible.

** autom4te

- Supports --cache, and --no-cache.

- ~/.autom4te.cfg makes it possible to disable the caching mechanism
  (autom4te.cache).  See `Customizing autom4te' in the documentation.

** config.status
  Supports --quiet.

** Obsolete options

  Support for the obsoleted options -m, --macrodir, -l, --localdir is
  dropped in favor of the safer --include/--prepend-include scheme.

** Macros

- New macros
  AC_COMPILER_IFELSE, AC_FUNC_MBRTOWC, AC_HEADER_STDBOOL,
  AC_LANG_CONFTEST, AC_LANG_SOURCE, AC_LANG_PROGRAM, AC_LANG_CALL,
  AC_LANG_FUNC_TRY_LINK, AC_MSG_FAILURE, AC_PREPROC_IFELSE.

- Obsoleted
  Obsoleted macros are kept for Autoconf backward compatibility, but
  should be avoided in configure.ac.  Running autoupdate is advised.
  AC_DECL_SYS_SIGLIST.

- AC_DEFINE/AC_DEFINE_UNQUOTED

  We have to stop using the old compatibility scheme --that tried to
  avoid useless backslashes-- because Libtool 1.4.3 contains a

  AC_DEFINE([error_t], [int],
            [Define to a type to use for \`error_t' if it is not
             otherwise available.])

  We have to quote the single quotes and backslashes with \.  The old
  compatibility scheme saw that ` was backslashed, and therefore did
  not quote the single quote...  Failure.  Hence, Autoconf 2.54 is not
  compatible with Libtool.  Autoconf 2.55 is, but in some cases might
  produce more \ than wanted.

  Please, note that in the future the same problem will happen with
  AC_MSG_*: use `autoreconf -f -Wall'.

** Bug Fixes

- Portability of the Autoconf package to Solaris.

- Spurious warnings caused by config.status.
  This bug is benign, but painful: on some systems (typically
  FreeBSD), warnings such as:

     config.status: creating Makefile
     mv: Makefile: set owner/group (was: 1357/0): Operation not permitted

  could be issued.  This is fixed.

- Parallel Builds
  Simultaneous executions of config.status are possible again.

- Precious variables accumulation

  config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
  assignments.


** Plans for later versions

- ./configure <host>

  The compatibility hooks with the old scheme will be completely
  removed.  Please, advice/use `--build', `--host', and `--target'
  only.

- AC_CHECK_HEADER, AC_CHECK_HEADERS

  The tests will be stricter, please make sure your invocations are
  valid.

- shell functions

  Shell functions will gradually be introduced, probably starting with
  Autotest.  If you know machines which are in use that you suspect
  *not* to support shell functions, please run the test suite of
  Autoconf 2.55 on it, and report the results to
  [e-mail].

- AC_MSG_*

  Special characters in AC_MSG_* need not be quoted.  Currently,
  Autoconf has heuristics to decide when a string is escaped, or has
  to be escaped.  This scheme is fragile, and will be removed; the
  only risk is uglified messages.  Please, run `autoreconf -f -Wall'
  to find occurrences that will be affected.

* Major changes in Autoconf 2.54

  Released 2002-09-13 by Akim Demaille.

** Executables

- autoreconf no longer changes the version of the gettext/po/intl
  support files. It now adds the files the correspond to the
  AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION declared in configure.ac.

  Warning: It now relies on the 'autopoint' program, which is part
  of GNU gettext 0.11.4 and newer.

  Please note that you need to have a GNU gettext version that
  corresponds at least to the AM_GNU_GETTEXT_VERSION declared
  in configure.ac. You can upgrade to newer GNU gettext versions,
  though, without needing to change configure.ac.

- The -I DIR or --include=DIR option now appends DIR to the include path
  instead of prepending; this is for consistency with other GNU tools.
  The new -B DIR or --prepend-include=DIR option has the old behavior.

** Macros

- AC_OUTPUT
  Now handles all the gory details about LIBOBJS and LTLIBOBJS.
  Please, remove lines such as

	# This is necessary so that .o files in LIBOBJS are also
	# built via the ANSI2KNR-filtering rules.
	LIBOBJS=`echo $LIBOBJS|sed 's/\.o /\$U.o /g;s/\.o$/\$U.o/'`

  and read the `AC_LIBOBJ vs LIBOBJS' section.  Do not define U in
  your Makefiles either.

- AC_CONFIG_LINKS now makes copies if it can't make links.

- AC_FUNC_FNMATCH now tests only for POSIX compatibility, reverting to
  Autoconf 2.13 behavior.  The new macro AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU also
  tests for GNU extensions to fnmatch, and replaces fnmatch if needed.

- AC_FUNC_SETVBUF_REVERSED no longer fails when cross-compiling.

- AC_PROG_CC_STDC is integrated into AC_PROG_CC.

- AC_PROG_F77 default search no longer includes cf77 and cfg77.

- New macros

  AC_C_BACKSLASH_A, AC_CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR, AC_GNU_SOURCE,
  AC_PROG_EGREP, AC_PROG_FGREP, AC_REPLACE_FNMATCH,
  AC_FUNC_FNMATCH_GNU, AC_FUNC_REALLOC, AC_TYPE_MBSTATE_T.

- AC_FUNC_GETLOADAVG
  looks for getloadavg.c in the CONFIG_LIBOBJ_DIR.

- AC_FUNC_MALLOC
  Now defines HAVE_MALLOC to 0 if `malloc' does not work, and asks
  for an AC_LIBOBJ replacement.

** Bug fixes

- Spurious complaints from `m4_bmatch' about invalid regular
  expressions are suppressed.

- Empty top_builddirs are properly handled.

- AC_CHECK_MEMBER works correctly when the member is an aggregate.

- AC_PATH_PROG
  Now colon in the optional path arguments are properly handled.

** Improved portability

- Both Autoconf the package, and the scripts it produces, should run
  more reliably with Zsh.  Bear in mind it is the default Bourne shell
  on Darwin.

- Autoconf and the scripts it produces no longer assume the existence of
  the obsolescent commands egrep and fgrep.

** Documentation

- Limitations of Make
  More of them.

- GNATS
  The GNATS base moved to
  http://bugs.gnu.org/cgi-bin/gnatsweb.pl?database=autoconf
  (It is no longer available, though.)

** Misc.

- config.log
  Now contains the list of ouput variables and files (AC_SUBST,
  AC_SUBST_FILES).

* Major changes in Autoconf 2.53

  Released 2002-03-08 by Akim Demaille.

** Requirements

  Perl 5.005_03 or later is required: autom4te is written in Perl and is
  needed by autoconf.  autoheader, autoreconf, ifnames, and autoscan are
  rewritten in Perl.

** Documentation

- AC_INIT
  Argument requirements, output variables, defined macros.
- M4sugar, M4sh, Autotest
  First sketch.
- Double quoting macros
  AC_TRY_CPP, AC_TRY_COMPILE, AC_TRY_LINK and AC_TRY_RUN.
- Licensing
  The Autoconf manual is now distributed under the terms of the GNU FDL.
- Section `Hosts and Cross-Compilation'
  Explains the rationale for the 2.5x changes in the cross-compilation
  chain, and in the relationships between build, host, and target
  types.
  Emphasizes that `cross-compilation' == `--host is given'.
  If you are working on compilers etc., be sure to read this section.
- Section `AC_LIBOBJ vs. LIBOBJS'
  Explains why assigning LIBOBJS directly is now an error.
  Details how to update the code.

** configure

- $LINENO
  Now used instead of hard coded line numbers.
  This eases the comparison of `configure's, and diminishes the
  pressure over control version archives.
  Automatic replacement for shells that don't support this feature.
- New output variables
  @builddir@, @top_builddir@, @abs_srcdir@, @abs_top_srcdir@, @abs_builddir@,
  @abs_top_builddir@.

** Emacs

  Autoconf and Autotest modes are provided.

** Executables

- autom4te
  New, used by the Autoconf suite to cache and speed up most processing.
- --force, -f
  Supported by autom4te, autoconf and autoheader.
- --include, -I
  Replaces --autoconf-dir and --localdir in autoconf, autoheader,
  autoupdate, and autoreconf.
- autoreconf
  No longer passes --cygnus, --foreign, --gnits, --gnu, --include-deps:
  automake options are to be given via AUTOMAKE_OPTIONS.
- autoreconf
  Runs gettextize and libtoolize when appropriate.
- autoreconf
  --m4dir is no longer supported.
- autoreconf
  Now runs only in the specified directories, defaulting to `.',
  but understands AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS for dependent directories.
  Before, it used to run on all the `configure.ac' found in the
  current tree.
  Independent packages are properly updated.

** Bug fixes

- The top level $prefix is propagated to the AC_CONFIG_SUBDIRS configures.
- AC_TRY_RUN
  Under the user pressure, $? is finally available.  Probably a mistake.
- AC_F77_LIBRARY_LDFLAGS now supports the HP/UX f90 compiler.
- Precious variables accumulation
  config.status could stack several copies of the precious variables
  assignments.
- AC_PATH_PROG and family.
  Works properly when given a literal path.
- AC_FUNC_SETPGRP
  Somewhere since 2.13, the result had been reversed.

** C Macros

- AC_C_BIGENDIAN supports the cross-compiling case.
- AC_C_BIGENDIAN accepts ACTION-IF-TRUE, ACTION-IF-FALSE, and
  ACTION-IF-UNKNOWN arguments.  All are facultative, and the default
  for ACTION-IF-TRUE is to define WORDS_BIGENDIAN like AC_C_BIGENDIAN
  always did.
- AC_C_LONG_DOUBLE now succeeds only if `long double' has more range or
  precision than `double'.

** Generic macros

- AC_INIT
  It now defines the preprocessor symbols PACKAGE_NAME,
  PACKAGE_TARNAME, PACKAGE_VERSION, PACKAGE_STRING, and
  PACKAGE_BUGREPORT.

- AC_INIT
  Admits a fourth optional parameter: the tar name.

- AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS.
  Provide the user with srcdir, ac_srcdir, ac_top_srcdir, ac_builddir,
  ac_top_builddir, ac_abs_srcdir, ac_abs_top_srcdir, ac_abs_builddir,
  ac_abs_top_builddir.

- AC_CONFIG_COMMANDS, HEADERS, FILES, LINKS and AC_OUTPUT.
  Are much less expensive when using long lists of files.

- AC_PREFIX_PROGRAM
  Works with shell variables, and non alphanumeric names.

** Library macros

- AC_FUNC_STRERROR_R now sets STRERROR_R_CHAR_P, not HAVE_WORKING_STRERROR_R,
  because POSIX 1003.1-200x draft 7 says strerror_r returns int, not char *.

- AC_FUNC_STRTOD substitutes POW_LIB.

- AC_FUNC_STRNLEN
  New.

* Major changes in Autoconf 2.52

  Released 2001-07-18 by Akim Demaille.

** Documentation
- AC_ARG_VAR
- Quadrigraphs
  This feature was present in autoconf 2.50 but was not documented.
  For example, `@<:@' is translated to `[' just before output.  This
  is useful when writing strings that contain unbalanced quotes, or
  other hard-to-quote constructs.
- m4_pattern_forbid, m4_pattern_allow
- Tips for upgrading from 2.13.
- Using autoscan to maintain a configure.ac.

** Default includes
- Now include stdint.h.
- sys/types.h and sys/stat.h are guarded.
- strings.h is included if available, and not conflicting with string.h.

** Bug fixes
- The test suite is more robust and presents less false failures.